by Raina Wilde
At noon, Drew arrived back at his house, where Neelia had been working diligently on her final draft. His face was ashen and a look of utter disbelief had shadowed his features.
Neelia rushed over to him immediately.
“What’s wrong?” She asked, running her hands down his arms. She was not sure what to do or how to help but she had never before seen Drew in this state.
He turned his head toward her, his eyebrows drawn together. Without saying a word he held up a rolled newspaper and handed it to Neelia.
Preparing herself for another interview from the theatrical ex-girlfriend, Neelia shrugged. She knew that her own article would counteract any malicious intent from Melina’s front, though she and Drew had not discussed her work, having agreed to keep a distance between their professional and personal relationships.
She read the heading.
Award Winning Journalist Neelia Jones Writes Exposé: The Terror Behind Matherson Developments.
“What’s this?” she asked, thoroughly confused.
“I’d like to ask you the same question.” Drew stepped away from her.
“Well, this isn’t our publication so I’m not sure what to tell you.” she did not understand why he was so upset. This was clearly a fabricated article.
“How do they even know that you are writing an article? You told me it was being kept quiet until it went to print.” That was a good question, Neelia conceded.
“I’m honestly not sure. But,” she had been about to say that it didn’t matter because her article was nothing of the sort when Drew cut her off.
“Is this a joke?” his whisper was so soft that he might as well have shouted.
“Drew, I don’t know what you are talking about.”
“I knew you hated me in the beginning, but I honestly thought we had gotten past all of that.” He accused. “Is this some ploy to punish me because we didn’t get along at first? Were you just pretending the entire time that you were sleeping with me?”
Neelia’s jaw dropped. She could not believe what she was hearing. She was so stunned that she could not even formulate a response before he plunged onward.
“Here I was thinking that I was in love with you, and you are writing some cock-and-bull story just like the rest of them.” He threw up his hands when Neelia made a grab for his arm. “I wouldn’t even care if it was true, but its not and you know it, Neelia!” Now he was shouting. Neelia stammered to try to explain but she couldn’t get a word in edgewise. The small part of her heart that had soared when he had said that he loved her was instantly crushed by the realization that he thought her capable of utter betrayal, and lies.
“How dare you!” she yelled back him. “How dare you insult my writing. As if I would ever concoct some sensationalist story out of spite. If that is really what you think of me then you don’t know me at all.”
Neelia threw the paper down at his feet, grabbed her purse and stormed out the door. She made a quick call to Hillary apologizing about her sudden departure and requesting that her things be sent on to Neelia’s New York apartment. It was not until she hung up the phone, and was on her way to the airport, that Neelia let the tears fall.
***
Two days later her article was published. Her editor had discovered that his secretary was selling information to a competitor, explaining how they had been aware of an article but not its contents. Assuming that Neelia was conforming to the other journalist’s techniques they had assumed that she was attempting to take down the real estate giant once and for all.
Neelia could not bring herself to answer her phone on the day of publication. Part of her feared that the caller might be Drew and she knew that she did not have the strength to speak with him. For the entire day she allowed her phone to ring, the list of messages from her secretary piling up at an astronomical rate. Neelia did not read those either. She did not want to know. When Friday rolled around, Neelia was still avoiding her telephone. She promised herself that she would deal with the growing pile of messages on Monday and headed home for the weekend.
When she arrived at her apartment Neelia was surprised to see Drew waiting on the steps outside of the main door.
“Your doorman wouldn’t let me in.” He sighed. The doorman would have left for the night almost an hour ago.
“Smart man. I’ll have to remember to thank him.” she jabbed.
“Neelia, I’ve left you at least fifty messages. Please, just give me a chance to talk to you.” Drew stood up and followed her to the door that she was currently unlocking.
“Like you gave me a chance to explain?”
“I’m so sorry about that.” He ran a hand over his face. “Please let me apologize.”
She knew that she was being purposely argumentative, but his rumpled hair and frazzled demeanor were simply too cute of a combination. Her heart went out to the man that she loved, despite Neelia’s best efforts to hang on to her anger.
Neelia held the door open for him to pass.
They rode the elevator to her apartment in silence. Neelia berated herself for being excited that he was here. She very badly wanted to stay mad at him. The fact that he was here could only mean that he was ready to acknowledge that he had been wrong. Was she ready to forgive him? Neelia’s heart had already decided but her mind was putting up a good fight.
She stomped into her home and turned on him like an angry viper, ready to strike.
“Well?” she demanded.
Drew took a step toward her, stopping only when she held her hand out to halt his progress. She could tell that he wanted to touch her. The truth was, she wanted to touch him too, but she knew that even the slightest contact would destroy the last of her weakening defenses.
“I have absolutely no explanation for my behavior.” He sighed. “I was so certain that there was no possible way that you could feel as strongly as I do in such a short time and…” He began to pace across the small rug at the entrance. “I guess that I was worried that it must all be too good to be true.”
Neelia stared at him. She bit the inside of her cheeks to keep from telling him the words that had been trying to escape her from the moment that she saw him sitting on the stone steps.
“I never should have doubted your intentions. I do know you better than that, despite what you may think. I knew from the beginning that no matter what your feelings were you would only write what you had determined to be the truth.” Drew pulled a newspaper from the pocket of his jacket. “It’s a beautiful article and it tells more truth than I think I even realized that there was to tell.” He hung his head. “I don’t know what to say that can make this better except that I have been miserable without you in my home. I want you there with me, every day. I know that you have a career and I am not asking you to change that. I don’t care if it means that I need to move to this tin can of a city as long as I can wake up next to you every day. Neelia, I’m so sorry.”
She realized that her eyes were welling up. Drew stepped forward and tentatively placed his arms around her shoulders. When she did not pull away, but leaned against him, he tightened his embrace and pressed his face against her hair.
“I love you.” he whispered into her tresses.
Neelia lifted her head to look into Drew’s magnificent blue eyes.
“I love you too.” She whispered in response.
His mouth descended upon hers and they shared in a kiss that had the power to communicate all of the emotions that their words were unable to describe.
THE END
Flip the page for Bonus 5, Claimed by the Alpha Bear!
Evita's got her life on track. She’s a recent graduate of one of the most prestigious veterinary clinics in the country and she's just secured a new job and a beautiful home in rural Maine. But her picture-perfect life is about to get a little bit interesting once Evita meets a dark and mysterious man who wants to help her renovate her house—and her love life.
Shane LaFevre is a deviously sexy alpha who likes to keep to hi
mself. But the voluptuous new woman in town has sparked something in him, and he has to have her—whatever the cost.
After a night of unbridled passion Evita becomes torn between her job and her growing feelings for Shane. But she has no idea what she’s gotten herself into. Shane is persistent, and once he gets his claws into a girl it’s hard for him to let go. But now that he's ruffled some feathers in town, and after a night of bloody drama, Evita wonders if she's made a mistake letting him into her life.
Claimed by the Alpha Bear
Evita took her diploma from the Dean and smiled for the photographer poised at the edge of the stage. He snapped a few pictures and then the Dean of Cummings School of Veterinary Medicine at Tufts released her hand and she walked off the stage. By the time she got to the curtain which shielded her from the audience the tears were streaming down her face. She knew her father would have been proud, and if she believed in any kind of afterlife she would have thought he was smiling down on her right now. But she was far too practical for that. Her brother was here though, and as she came around the corner to take her seat again she saw him waving from the bleachers. His new wife, Emily, sat beside him.
Her brother Justin had inherited the farm in Kansas after their father had died last year. Evita had been left with almost half a million dollars. Their father knew them so well, it wouldn't have been right any other way. Evita had written off her college debt and Justin had settled in nicely to the farm life, managing over two-hundred thousand acres of corn. It was once much more land, but over the years the acres at the edge had been sold off piece by piece, the largest portions at the end of their father's life in order to pay off the substantial medical bills he had accumulated. But it hadn't been enough to save his life.
Evita sat back down and dabbed at her face. She waved at Justin again. He was her twin, and they were alike in ways both physical and emotional. Although she had always been the more studious one, they both shared a love of animals and the outdoors. She looked at Justin, so much different to his petite wife. He was 6'2", Evita herself was only slightly shorter, and his bright blonde hair was shorn close to his head. Evita wore hers in a neat bob that was just long enough to pull back in a ponytail while she was working. People always said she looked like Reese Witherspoon, though Evita always heard the implied "if Reese Witherspoon was bigger" even though no one ever said it outright. She didn't mind though; her mother and father had both been tall, broad and strong. Her paternal great-grandparents came to the midwest from Germany and her maternal grandparents from Iceland. They farmed the land and passed on a strong work ethic to their children. Where she was from in Kansas it wasn't uncommon to be tall, blonde and solidly built. It wasn't until she moved from her isolated farming community to Boston that she began to feel so much bigger than everyone else. Still, she did her best to keep in shape; she swam regularly, and her legs had the muscles to show it.
Evita unrolled her diploma and looked at the words "Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine" printed at the top. She felt a thrill of nervous excitement. She hadn't yet started applying for jobs, but now that she had her degree there was nothing keeping her here in Boston. She would start applying as soon as she got back to her apartment.
Eight weeks later she packed the last of the boxes from her apartment into her car and locked the door. She slipped the keys under the Super's door as she left the building. It was time to leave Boston behind. She had received a job offer from a rural veterinary clinic in Maine. A quick internet search showed the town of Appleby, Maine to have a population of 300 people surrounded by farmland and orchards. The veterinarian that ran a clinic 3 days a week there had recently retired, and was looking for someone to replace him. Evita would spend two days in the office and three days visiting farms up to a hundred miles away. The man on the phone said she would get a truck so she didn't have to put miles on her own car.
The drive up to Maine was long, and it was dark by the time she got there. She pulled up in front of a small two story cottage. She had only seen it in pictures; it was one of the only houses for sale within a 10 minute drive of the veterinary clinic that wasn't too big. It was just her, and she didn't anticipate getting a partner anytime soon. Even though the house needed work, the selling point for her were the unusually high 13 foot ceilings.
Her phone began to ring and she pulled it out of her purse and looked at the screen. It was Justin.
"Hey big brother," she said. He was 2 minutes older than she was, and it had always been the running joke.
"Hello beautiful, are you there yet?"
"Just pulled up," Evita said. She shut the car off and stepped out into the dark. It was late May, and the nights were starting to grow warm. However, this far north she could still see her breath and a frosty dew had settled over the grass.
"Watch out for bears," Justin joked.
"Ha, ha. Don't even joke," she replied.
"How's the house look?"
"Dark. I hope the electric company turned the power on like I asked."
"Just get a hotel if they didn't." Evita could hear Justin sneak his wife a kiss over the line.
"None of that while you're on the phone with me," she joked, then said, "I have a hotel booked already, I don't have any furniture." Justin made exaggerated kissing sounds down the line. Evita laughed and wondered if they'd ever grow up.
"Okay BB, I have to go. I'm going to unlock this place and see if we have light," she said.
"Okay sis, talk to you later."
"Love ya," she said and hung up. The key to the door slipped in easily and the door opened wide. She stepped halfway inside and used the small LED light on her keychain to see. The switch was on the wall to her left and when she flicked it the bulb above the door switched on and flooded the front yard with light. She flicked the next switch over and the lights inside came on. The house was a little run down, with wallpaper peeling from the walls of some of the rooms, and the kitchen was outdated, but she was excited to start renovating it room by room. She shut the interior lights off and locked the door again. The quiet and dark put her on edge, and she decided exploring her house was best left until the morning. She couldn't shake the feeling that something, or someone, was watching her from the dark. She jogged back to her car, closing the door quickly after sliding inside.
#
The next morning she left the hotel room and drove to a small general store she had passed the night before. Inside the shelves were packed with a bit of everything. She grabbed some breakfast and took it to the register. A man in his 50's or 60's was watching a small TV mounted on the wall above the door.
"New in town?" he asked as Evita put her orange juice and blueberry muffin on the counter.
"Yeah," she replied. "How did you know?"
"You have Massachusetts license plates on your car. It's not yet tourist season," he said, pointing out the window.
Evita smiled, "I suppose you're right."
She took her bag off the counter and headed toward the door. Just as she was about to push it open, a man stepped inside.
"Sorry," she said, stepping out of the way. She looked up at the man, not something she did very often, and was taken aback. He was at least six inches taller than she was. His shoulders were broad and square, and his hair was jet black. It was a little long, long enough to cover his ears, and curled at the ends. His eyes were just as dark. Evita's heart sped up a little as she made eye contact with him, but she wasn't sure why. Perhaps it was his sheer size—he was undoubtedly an intimidating man. His shirt was covered in sawdust and she saw he had a pair of work gloves tucked into the pocket of his jeans.
"Hi Shane," the man at the counter said.
Shane nodded in response. "Excuse me," he said to Evita. She smiled at him and then slipped through the door and outside. When she got into the fresh air she took a deep breath trying to calm herself. She wasn't sure why he had disarmed her so much, but it was unusual. A large black pick-up truck was parked in the driveway and Evita assumed it must be
his. The truck had been lifted and modified to have large tires and was covered in mud. The back had an electric winch and steel cables mounted on a frame and a few toolboxes screwed down to the truck bed. Evita wondered what they were for before getting into her car and driving to her new house.
After a few hours of walking through the inside and then around the outside of the house, she decided the kitchen and dining room need to be tackled first. If she was going to move in, she needed somewhere to cook and eat. There was another small room off the dining room that was in good shape. It was lined with windows and she thought it was probably a summer porch of some kind. A large set of french doors separated it from the rest of the house. It had a big closet, and she decided it was a good place to put a bed until the rest of the house could be renovated.
She put on a pair of work gloves, turned the radio on and started ripping the cabinets out of the kitchen. Within a few hours she had the walls stripped down to the studs and started pulling up layers of old linoleum. By the end of the day the kitchen was a shell, ready for new sheetrock to be nailed up. She was most impressed with the wooden floor that was covered with so much linoleum. It would have to be sanded, but she thought it will be beautiful once it was. She stood in the kitchen, hands on her hips, surveying the work.
"Need any help?" a voice came from behind her. She turned, startled. It was the man from the store, Shane. He was standing in the open doorway and he had a six pack of beer in one hand while the other was inspecting the frame.
"What are you doing in my house?" Evita asked.
Shane smiled, "I saw the pile of wood in the driveway, thought you might need some help. I'm a carpenter."
Evita, despite the reservations she felt about this strange man walking into her house without asking, was relieved. At least she wouldn't have to search around for a carpenter.
"Well," she said after a minute, "that's useful."
