Running from the mountains of Virginia and a compound of shifter men, Sabrina Hart finds herself on a northern Montana mountain where she discovers newly orphaned twins. When the cold of a Montana winter sets in, the three find themselves in dire straits until two unlikely saviors arrive.
When Luke Wallace and Daniel Mahoney arrive at the gate cabin, they volunteer to guard during Yule, they didn’t expect to find their mate huddled in the cold and starving with two small boys. With no way to get the children safely down the mountain, they stay to protect and provide for the unlikely trio.
When trouble arrives and the children are stolen from their adoptive mother’s loving arms, can the men learn patience and Sabrina learn to trust or will their relationship disappear with the ice and snow during the spring thaw before it even begins?
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Seduction in Paradise
Copyright © 2010 Tianna Xander
ISBN: 978-1-55487-566-5
Cover art by Martine Jardin
All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work in whole or in part in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means, now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
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Seduction in Paradise
By
Tianna Xander
Dedication
To my readers for always asking for more. To my husband for always being there for me, designing my trim cases, Lightscribe CDs and most of all, helping me with everything a girl could ask for. To my children for understanding why I can’t always just stop and watch a movie and to my editors for finding my mistakes and keeping my books on the continuity track. This one is for you all.
Chapter One
Sabrina Hart glared at the two men who attempted to take over her life. If they thought she would have a damned thing to do with them after they got out of this godforsaken cabin, they were as crazy as they were bossy.
“You can’t stay here. The food is almost gone and the well is frozen over.” Luke didn’t mention a thing about the fact that the last of the split wood sat stacked next to the woodstove and most likely wouldn’t last the night.
Glancing over at the two boys she found huddled in a car not twenty feet from the bodies of their mutilated parents. Neither of them had said a word since she found them. Who could blame the poor babies? They had seen both of their parents torn apart by some wild animal — if it really was a wild animal and not a shifter. From what she had seen of shifter males, she wouldn’t put murdering innocent humans past them.
“A rogue shapeshifter would have changed and opened the car door,” Daniel said as he poured himself another cup of the turpentine the two men called coffee then glanced at the two boys. “Their parents were attacked by cougars. Wildcats. Not by shifters.” Sighing, he cupped his hands around his coffee. “We’ll have to report our find to the authorities when we get back to town.” He looked down at his hands, obviously uncomfortable. “They will, no doubt, put the boys into the system, find their next of kin. And if they have none, I’m sure someone will take them in.”
“No!” Sabrina barely stopped from throwing herself on the two little boys in an effort to shelter them. Instead, she glanced over at the two children tucked into the small cot, top to tail, her fingers itching to caress their silky blond hair. “I-I want to keep them.” She didn’t know how she would manage it, but she would. She had to. Those two boys had become her life over the last few months. “If they have no kin, I want them.”
Again, Sabrina glared at the two men, who for the last several months, tried to convince her that she was their long-awaited mate. “If I am what you say I am, you two will find their relatives or you will find a way for me to keep them.” She refused to even think of her two beautiful boys thrown into an imperfect system that would do them more harm than good.
“If we help you, will you give us a chance to prove what you are to us?” Daniel stared at her, practically daring her to say no when he knew she wanted the boys with her more than she had ever wanted anything before.
“I will try.” Sabrina swallowed and looked away. “It’s the best I can do. I can’t promise you more than that.”
“That’s all we can ask, baby,” Luke said as he moved to pour the last of the coffee in his cup. Instead of setting the empty pot back on the stove, he set it on the counter next to the washbasin, then returned to pick up the pot of cocoa and dumped its remains in her mug. “Drink it. The boys are sleeping and it will be frozen or near it by morning.” He waved toward the small stack of wood. “That will be gone in a few hours. We’ll have to hurry down the mountain at first light and hope the trail is finally passable.”
Sabrina shivered at the thought of hiking down the mountain alone with the animals who attacked Timmy and Tommy’s parents still on the prowl.
“You forget, baby,” Luke said as he moved to sit back down. “We can defend you from anything on this mountain.”
Glaring at them both again, Sabrina narrowed her eyes. “I hate it when you stick your nose in my business. I’ll thank you to stop reading my mind.” Lifting her cup, she downed the luke-warm cocoa and stood to rinse it out in the washbasin along with the two dirty pots. When she finished, she turned to the two men who sat watching her like some sort of holiday treat and shook her head. “I’m going to try to get some rest. I would suggest you two do the same.”
Stalking across the room, she put her boots and coat on before lying down on the only other cot in the cabin. It probably wasn’t fair that she had appropriated the only other bed in the place, but she’d had enough of sleeping on floors in the camp where rogue shifters held countless women captive last summer.
Rolling over, she put her back to the two men and faced the wall, hoping they could see her attitude in her actions. She may have to bargain with them to keep the boys, and she would keep them because she already knew they had no living relatives. Something told her she may have to allow the two to mate her if she stayed, and it was a big if, it didn’t mean she had to like it. Though some sixth-sense—most likely the same one that told her Timmy and Tommy were alone in this world—told her she would like it. A lot.
Closing her eyes, she tried to blot out such thoughts with no luck. She tried to sleep, but all she could think of were Luke and Daniel loving her. She shook her head and sighed. Good grief, girl. You are crazy for even thinking you could let them touch you. Nothing made her ill like the thought of a man touching her, yet she couldn’t seem to get the thoughts of them out of her head. She did feel ill, at least that’s what she assumed the strange feeling was in the pit of her stomach. Even so, when Sabrina shuddered at the thought of their hands on her flesh, she was shocked to find that it wasn’t with revulsion. Sabrina Hart, you are one sick, masochistic bitch.
* * * *
Daniel Mahoney stared at Sabrina’s back, the way her perfectly rounded heart-shaped ass filled out her jeans made his cock rock-
hard and ready. He took a long swig of his ice-cold coffee as he dreamed of one day sinking his hard length into her waiting channel. It was just too damned bad she had been so sorely abused before they found her here, holed up in this gate cabin, practically freezing and starving to death. If it hadn’t been for their interference, their mate and her adopted boys may have died here on this mountain. Instead, he and Luke had carted wood uphill like a couple of pack mules until they gained her trust.
She may not realize it, but she trusted them at least a little. No woman would ever put her back to two men she didn’t trust not to hurt her. Not willingly anyway. He had known what she was to them the moment he scented her. She stood in the open doorway staring at them, the cold mountain breeze blowing her hair about her head in an ebony halo. She both looked and smelled like an angel. Their angel. After sharing blood with Luke and entering fully into the shifter world, they were mates. It didn’t always happen, but more often than not, shifters who shared a blood tie, shared a mate tie. At least that’s what the elders and the ancient records told them.
For the last fifty or more years, the old council tried to make their people believe that a truebond was an aberration, something to be ashamed of. But not so. The ancient records found by the true heir spoke of the truebond, of two—sometimes even three—men mating one female.
Sighing, he returned his attention back to his mate’s perfect ass and tucked in waist and thanked the Gods that he had found her. It was just too damned bad they hadn’t found her sooner—before the men of the Tudra had so sorely abused her—before they had found her here, holed up in one of the gate cabins with two orphan boys who either couldn’t, or wouldn’t, speak.
Not only had he known what she was to him, but he’d known who she was the moment he laid eyes on her. Her sister, Samantha, mated his friends. Luke and Quinn Sadler went way back. He had heard a lot about Sabrina from her sister as they searched all over the United States for her. Daniel wondered how she had managed to make it to Paradise without realizing she was headed toward the very place she wanted to avoid most.
She is getting used to us, don’t you think? Perhaps she is coming to trust us even though she doesn’t want to. He glanced over at Luke who also sat staring at their mate.
We can hope. I would like to read her more, but every time I try, my damned mouth gives me away. As does yours, Luke added with a wry grin.
Which is precisely why we try to give her privacy, is it not? Damn, he was even beginning to sound like Luke with his old-world speech. Standing, Daniel picked up the last of the wood and shoved it into the stove before the fire went out entirely. They had held onto it as long as possible, trying to eke out as much time with a warm hearth as they could. “This is it,” he whispered, knowing if Sabrina didn’t hear them speak she would think they plotted something. “Now that the last of the wood is in, we may as well get some sleep.”
At least they no longer felt compelled to sleep in six-hour shifts now that Camulus was finally dead. There may still be many of the idiot’s followers out there, but he hoped it would be a long time before they managed to agree on a new leader. Until then, they all reaped the benefits of a short and probably unreliable peace. “The light of day and the cold will come soon enough.”
Morning would come quickly and Daniel knew he would have no choice but to tell Sabrina what he was. He also knew she distrusted men, with good reason, but he had hoped to show her that she could rely on them, trust them as men before they broke the news of their shifter heritage. She knew they said they could protect her from things on this mountain, but she thought it was because they had rifles, not because they were predators themselves. They had a difficult task ahead of them. Sabrina hated shifter men with a passion.
Hell, perhaps this was for the best. How could she trust two men who had lied to her for so long? Maybe, once they finally came clean, they could all put the past behind them and start anew. Somehow he doubted that she would feel that way, but he could hope, couldn’t he? Sighing, he lowered himself to the cold, hard floor and rested his head on his crossed arms. If he was lucky, the Gods and the fates would be on their side.
He and Luke were already up by the time the sun peeked over the horizon. Taking a deep breath, he bent to wiggle the toe of Sabrina’s boots. It was the only way they found to awaken her that didn’t send her into a screaming fit that scared the boys.
Before he touched his mate’s toe, he glanced over at the two cubs, barely four years old, and decided to let them wake her instead. If she intended to be their mother, she would need to get used to them disturbing her sleep.
Moving to the boys’ bed, he gazed down at them for a moment, wondering what it would be like to be their father—one of their fathers—and decided he liked the idea. They were good boys. The two of them were cubs he would be proud to call his own and one day bring them fully over into their world.
Get a move on in there, will you? I’m fucking starving and home isn’t getting any closer, dammit!
Daniel mentally shot Luke the finger, then reached down to wake the boys. The moment they woke, he entered their minds and took charge. He didn’t want to mess with their memories, but was painfully obvious that giving them time wasn’t helping much.
He found the memories of the pair of cougars mutilating, then devouring the boys’ parents and dulled them to the point that it would seem a distant memory—more like a bad dream than the frightening reality they had lived through. Neither of the boys said a word since Sabrina found them. Like it or not, today Sabrina would see some good come of his being a shifter.
* * * *
“Wake up, sleepy head.”
Sabrina cracked a bleary eye open to see who spoke and saw Timmy—or was it Tommy—standing in front of her, a huge grin on his face. She blinked and took a guess. “Timmy?”
“Uh-uh.” He shook his head then turned and pointed at his brother. “That’s Timmy.” Turning back, he held his thumb to his chest. “I’m Tommy.”
“Oh. I’m so glad you’re talking!” Sabrina hugged them close in turn, before smiling at their identical grins. She could see why their mother labeled their clothes. The boys probably loved to play practical jokes on people. Sabrina couldn’t say that she wouldn’t have done the same if she had an identical twin.
“Can we go down the mountain now, please?” he asked, tugging her hand.
His expression was so hopeful, Sabrina almost caved. Then she caught herself and shook her head. “You’re more than welcome to go with them if that’s what you want, but I think I’ll just stay here.” Luke banged into the cabin, wind and debris swirling around him, just in time for her to send both men a glare she hoped told them just what she thought of their underhanded tactic of enlisting children to convince her to go with them.
“The wood and supplies are gone, baby.”
She bristled at the endearment she hated so much. “Will you please quit calling me that?” She threw Daniel another glare just for good measure. She ignored his raised eyebrow and concentrated on the lock of dark hair that fell over his eye instead. “I am no one’s baby.”
He inclined his head. “As you say.” Daniel turned to look at his friend before continuing. “But, as I said, the supplies and the wood are gone. You wouldn’t last more than a day or two up here by yourself. Don’t make us leave you here to freeze to death.”
“A gentleman would make sure I had wood.” Like she knew what a gentleman would do. Hell, she’d never met one. She stuck her chin in the air, determined to beat the two men at their own game. She couldn’t, wouldn’t go with them. How could she? How could she choose to willingly go with two men she barely knew? It was bad enough that she had to share this cabin with them. She’d only done it because of the freak late April blizzard. Now that the trail was clear enough, they could leave her here and go about their business.
It hurt to realize she couldn’t force herself to go with them, even for the boys. What had she thought last night, planning to go down the moun
tain with the two men and barter her body for a home for them all?
Even now, her skin crawled at the thought of a man getting too close to her, touching her. For a moment, she had thought, perhaps even hoped, she could live a normal life. But she couldn’t. The light of day made it all too clear. A good night’s sleep never failed to clear her head and this morning, her clear head told her that a normal life was nothing more than an impossible dream. Luke stalked toward her, the expression on his face hard. It took every ounce of self-control to keep from flinching away.
He towered over her, a muscle ticking in his jaw, his dark eyes stormy. “No…baby.” He drew the hated endearment out, purposely trying to goad her. “A gentleman would do his best to see to your comfort and your needs, which is what we are doing.” He cocked a sable brow at her, his expression daring. “A lesser man would simply toss you over his shoulder and take you anyway.” He glanced at his friend. “Daniel…now he’s a gentleman. Me?” He shook his head. “Not so much.” He leaned closer.
So close his minty breath brushed her cheek and made her shiver.
“Choose your actions wisely, sweetheart.”
Sabrina swallowed thickly at his threat. She may not know them well, but she’d gotten to know them well enough over the last few months in the close quarters of this cabin to realize that of the two of them, Luke was the most likely to make good on his threat. Her choices were simple, walk down with them willingly, or he would carry her down, thrown over his shoulder like a sack of rotten potatoes. It wasn’t really much of a choice.
“You don’t leave me any other option.” She started to snatch up her meager belongings to cram them into her small backpack. “But remember this,” she said, turning to face them again, her arms behind her, gripping the bag tightly. “Nothing will change the fact that I do not want you, nor will I ever submit to your nauseating, lustful advances.” The last thing she wanted, or needed, was to succumb to their desires, Sex was painful and repulsive. Nothing would ever change her opinion on that. Nothing.
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