by Nicole Casey
I exhaled slowly.
At least one thing had not exploded in my face.
Maya studied my expression and suddenly I got the sense that she wanted to say something else.
“What?” I demanded. “Why are you looking at me like that?”
She shook her head and rose from her spot on the couch to saunter into the kitchen.
“Nothing,” she replied. “I’m going to make you something to eat. You look pale and I bet you haven’t touched anything since he left, have you?”
I swallowed and shook my head, following her into the galley where she stuck her head in the fridge, busying herself with the contents.
As she pulled out condiments and bread to make a sandwich, I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise.
“Mai, what is it?” I asked, approaching. “You came here to tell me something.”
Maya refused to look at me and I knew that the news was going to be devastating.
“Oh my God!” I gasped. “Did something happen to them? Is Alex okay?”
Maya threw up her hands in surrender.
“No! Nothing bad happened…to them,” she murmured, and bile rose into my throat.
“Just tell me,” I ordered, my jaw locking. “I deserve to know what’s going on.”
Maya pursed her lips together and leaned back against the counter, shaking her head.
“I think I know why he left so suddenly,” she whispered, and my eyes grew like saucers.
“Why?”
Maya gritted her teeth as if steeling herself for the backlash of what she was going to say.
“I was at mom’s for dinner on Sunday,” she explained, and I groaned inwardly, realizing I had completely flaked on the weekly gathering for what was probably the first time in my adult life.
“And?” I demanded. “What happened? Was he there?”
My heart began to hammer with excitement.
“No,” Maya replied slowly. “But mom said something which makes me think she knew about you two.”
I stared at her dubiously.
“No way,” I said. “She would have confronted me.”
“I think she confronted him, Vy and that’s why he left.”
I gaped at her, uncomprehendingly.
“Wh – what did she say exactly?” I demanded, a sudden spark of hope lighting my gut. If he had only left because of my parents, there was still a chance we could salvage our relationship.
Maya looked at me, biting on her lower lip.
“What I’m going to say is going to hurt, Vy so I want you to brace yourself,” she told me but I only half-heard what she was saying.
In my mind’s eye, I was already reaching for the phone, begging Evan to come back to Oriental and be with me.
“Vy, are you listening?” Maya asked, and I nodded, my palms sweating in anticipation.
“Yes,” I replied. “What did she say?”
“She said that it was a blessing that Evan did the right thing leaving before a scandal ensued,” she started, and I felt myself bristle at my mother’s old-fashioned mentality.
“Mom is such a prude,” I groaned but to my surprise Maya shook her head.
“No,” she replied softly. “Not in this case.”
I gazed at her, cocking my head to the side.
“What does that mean?”
“Mom told us that Evan has a fiancée in Seattle. That’s why he was biding his time here. He didn’t want to rush back with a kid and scare her.”
Shock wracked my body and I gasped.
“What?” I croaked. “He’s engaged?”
Maya nodded, averting her eyes.
“According to mom.”
Bile choked me, and the world began to spin around me.
Mom’s comment to me roared in my head when I had begun to show interest in Evan.
“He’s got a condo there, honey and a career and a life,” mom reminded me. “He probably has a girlfriend too whom he is eager to see.”
I realized she had been trying to warn me before I had even gotten started.
All the signs had been there, and I had ignored them all in my blind desire to be with a man I had no right to have.
I felt my legs buckle and Maya reached out to steady me.
“It’s okay,” she murmured, pulling me into a hug. “You had no way of knowing. It’s not your fault.”
I thought I would melt into a puddle of tears right then and there but suddenly I had none left to cry.
There was nothing left in me but an empty abyss of betrayal.
I had to accept that I had made a mistake allowing myself to love the wrong man.
But he’s gone now, and the damage could have been so much worse, I thought, gulping down the lump in my throat. There is nothing to do now but accept my stupidity and move on.
“Are you all right?” Maya asked, squeezing me into her and I could barely manage a nod.
“Yes,” I whispered but I was lying.
I wasn’t okay but I would be.
Eventually.
Epilogue
EVAN
“Uncle Evan, we don’t even have a Christmas tree,” Alex said, sighing as she looked around the condo and I cringed at the reminder.
I had promised to pick her up one twice in the past week, but work had been demanding so much of my time, I had forgotten.
“I will go tomorrow after work,” I told her, and she turned her head away.
“Okay,” she muttered but I could hear little conviction in her voice. “Christmas is next week.”
I looked down at her big brown eyes and suddenly I was seized with a deep loathing for myself.
What had I done bringing her back to Washington? What was I thinking uprooting her from her home?
I couldn’t even get Christmas right, the first one she would spend without her parents.
I was ashamed of myself and I wanted to scream.
The house in Minnesott Beach remained on the market despite me having lowered the price twice but I had not gone back to North Carolina.
I couldn’t shake the deep depression which had gripped me since leaving Vyolet.
You should call her and explain everything, I told myself daily, but I knew that would only cause friction between Vyolet and her family.
Enough families have been ruined this year. She had probably moved on anyway. She hasn’t tried to contact me either.
Alex had finally stopped asking about Vyolet regularly but occasionally, I would see her get a faraway nostalgic look on her pixie-like face and my heart would break all over again.
She was learning to hide her emotions and that filled me with more guilt.
“Alex?” I called to her abruptly. “Go change out of your pajamas.”
She stared at me in surprise.
“Do you have to go back to work?” she asked, disappointment coloring her voice. “Can’t you call a babysitter here instead of taking me somewhere?”
I smiled through my anguish and shook my head.
“No,” I informed her. “I’m not going back to work. We’re going back home.”
Her brow furrowed in surprise.
“Home?” she echoed. “We are home.”
I shook my head.
“No,” I said quietly. “This is not home. North Carolina is home.”
Her eyes lit up with happiness and she squealed.
“Really?” she gasped. “Or are you just joking?”
I reached over to embrace her tightly.
“No,” I told her. “We’re going home. Tonight.”
Never had I seen the child move so fast as she bolted toward her bedroom at the back of the condo and I reached for my phone to find tickets out of Seattle-Tacoma International Airport that night.
I was interrupted by my phone buzzing.
“Evan Collier,” I snapped without checking the display.
“Mr. Collier, this is the concierge. You have a visitor.”
I frowned. I hadn’t been expecting anyone and I w
ondered if it was Children’s Services doing a welfare check on Alex.
“Who is it?”
“Vyolet Viera.”
I stared at the phone in disbelief.
“Is this a joke?” I snapped but I recognized the number at the front desk.
“Uh…no sir,” Marv replied uncertainly. “Should I send her away?”
“No!” I choked. “No! Send her up.”
I dropped the phone, staring uncomprehendingly at the door with my heart pounding.
What was I going to say to her? What could I say that would make her hate me less?
As I tried to get my bearings, I heard the elevator ding and seconds later there was a tentative knock on the door.
I bounced from my spot on the sofa and threw open the door, my breath catching in my throat.
She looked more beautiful than I remembered, her soft blonde mane swirling around her face.
Her skin seemed to glow against the light rain which had fallen on her face.
“Hi,” she said. “Can I come in?”
I swallowed nervously and stepped back.
Slowly, she began to remove her gloves, droplets of water scattering against the marble entranceway.
“Nice place,” she commented, and I nodded, still not trusting my voice.
I could hardly believe she was standing before me on the very night I had decided to go to her.
We were connected beyond anything we could see, that much was clear, and her presence just confirmed that for me.
“You don’t look happy to see me,” she sighed, standing uncomfortably in the foyer but I shook my head.
“Just the opposite,” I croaked. “Your timing is…unbelievable.”
She cocked her head to the side and peered at me with bright blue eyes.
“Is Alex here?”
I nodded.
“She’s in her room getting ready…” Again I was confounded with the surrealism of what was happening.
“My mother ran you off,” she announced. “And she told me you were getting married.”
The words hit me like a brick and I realized just how much Amelia wanted to keep us apart.
“Your mother was wrong,” I whispered, reaching for her. I half expected her to resist but she seemed to melt against me and I felt her quiver slightly as if fighting off her sobs.
“If I had known,” she breathed. “I would have tried to contact you sooner.”
I embraced her tightly, stroking her hair and kissing the top of her head.
“It’s all right,” I told her gruffly. “Your mom is worried about your reputation.”
“My mom is stuck in the eighties,” she replied curtly. “My reputation is not going to suffer because I am in love with you.”
I wondered if she genuinely believed that or if she was trying to convince herself, but I knew it didn’t matter anymore.
I was not going to let her go again, no matter what Amelia and Oscar felt about us.
The past months had been horrific, each day worse than the last and Alex had suffered the most.
Whatever challenges we faced, we would overcome them together.
She drew back and looked at me.
“I’m pregnant,” Vyolet informed me and a feeling of elation flooded me.
“What?” I gasped, my jaw dropping in shock.
“I know you never wanted to get married or have kids – ”
“Woah!” I stopped her. “Who told you that?”
She gazed at me in mild surprise.
“Well you never did either, so I assumed…”
“Did it ever occur to you that I never found anyone who I wanted to do those things with?” I asked her. “Until now.”
Her eyes grew bright with tears and she pursed her lips together.
“Do you mean that?” she whispered. “Sincerely?”
“I have never meant anything more in my life.”
I kissed her lips and suddenly all the heaviness which had squeezed my heart seemed to evaporate.
“Vyolet!”
We parted as Alex hurled herself into our arms.
“Did you come to see us home?” my niece asked, hugging Vyolet with ferociousness she reserved exclusively for her beloved teacher.
“See you home?” Vyolet repeated. “Are you coming home?”
She looked at me as she asked the question and I nodded, my eyes shining with warmth.
“Yes,” Alex screeched. “Uncle Evan just told me.”
“For the holidays then?” Vyolet asked quietly but I shook my head.
“No,” I replied. “We’re coming home for good.”
The look on my girls’ faces was something I would hold onto for the rest of my life and for the first time since Jocelyn died, I knew I was doing the right thing for everyone.
We were going back to Minnesott Beach to take the house off the market and be a family like we should have done from the start.
I had never been so certain of anything as I pulled my two loves into another warm hold, kissing them both on top of their heads.
Not two loves, I reminded myself, my heart full of affection. Three. I am going to be a father. My life is finally complete.
- THE END -
Protecting Maya
A Different Reverse Harem Romance
The Viera Triplets Series Book 2
Book Description
Someone’s after Maya, and I will do whatever it takes to keep her safe.
I don’t know how my life got so twisted. I should have it figured out by now, but all I have is a stressful job and a lonely apartment. Until I meet Maya Viera.
Her soft lips, beautiful red hair, and luscious curves call my name. Her sweet smile and beautiful green eyes distract me. There’s something about her that makes her irresistible. The only problem? Maya is not a one-man woman. She is much too free a spirit to be tied down to any man.
While I know nothing is going to happen between us, she’s slowly becoming my reason for living. So when Maya is threatened by a mysterious stalker, I volunteer to keep her safe and sound. I will protect her, and destroy whoever dares to threaten her. Even if it means protecting her from myself.
Prologue
MAYA
Three cakes sat before us, ablaze with candles as my parents began their off-key renditions of the time-honored song.
“Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday to you! Happy birthday dear Vyolet, Maya and Yve! Happy birthday to you!”
I stifled a snort of amusement as my mom clapped her hands together and waited for us to blow out the flames on our respective cakes.
She went through the same painstaking trouble every year, making us each our own sweet as if we were still thirteen and fighting for our independence.
We would not have cared if we shared one big cake now, after all, there would be no mistaking one triplet for another, not anymore.
But tradition was tradition and mom was nothing if not a conservative traditionalist.
As usual, Vy was the first to jump in, huffing and puffing to take out the rows of candles as if her wish just couldn’t wait a second longer.
At least she maintained the childlike innocence which seemed to have melted off Yve and I like baby fat.
There were so many candles, I had no idea how mom had managed to do it without sinking the perfectly formed pancake.
I always assumed that Betty Crocker was a descendant down the line somewhere.
“Come on, girls!” my dad, Oscar urged. “The wax is dripping everywhere!”
I glanced at Yvette who instinctively gazed at me and we exchanged a private smile.
In unison, we bowed our heads and made a wish.
It seemed unfair that I was granted a wish.
After all, I had everything I could ever want, and I knew it.
The problem was, I had too much.
Far too much.
“What did you wish for?” Vyolet teased, knowing full well that we would never tell. But it was tradition.
&
nbsp; Every year Vyolet would ask and every year Yve and I would give her the same response.
“Not telling or it won’t come true!” Yvette and I chorused simultaneously, and everyone laughed.
God, we’re like an episode of Full House, I thought, resisting the desire to roll my emerald eyes heavenward.
Of course, nothing is ever how it appears on the surface.
Behind the scenes, we all had our secrets.
As if reading the dark thought which had inadvertently crept in, my cell phone chimed on the table.
“No!” my mother, Amelia cried, shaking her head vehemently. “No cells today! You promised.”
My sisters nodded in agreement, but I didn’t have to look and see who was texting; I already knew who it was.
He hadn’t stopped since I had arrived two hours earlier.
“No cells,” I agreed, pushing the device aside. It was facedown for a reason.
“Your boyfriends can take a day off,” Amelia continued sourly, and I shot her a warning look.
I didn’t need a lecture on the way I lived my life, not that day.
“I just said I wasn’t answering it,” I replied evenly. “Are we going to cut these with a knife or should I just dig in with my hands?”
“We are not animals, Maya,” Yvette said sternly but I could hear she was mimicking my mom’s tone and I couldn’t resist laughing despite the knot which had formed in my stomach.
I could feel her watching me with her perceptive blue eyes, but I carefully avoided her stare, maintaining the smile on my face.
I didn’t want to ruin our birthday celebration. It was one of the few times we could ensure that everyone was together with Yvette’s demanding work schedule.
“I’ll get knives,” mom said, rising from her patio chair and I stepped away from the table.
“I’ll help you,” I volunteered, following her back into the house.
As I closed the sliding door behind me, mom opened her mouth immediately.
“Maya, I’m worried about you,” she said without preamble and I felt myself tense.
“Mom,” I groaned. “Come on. Can’t you give it a rest for one day?”
