Lucy's Liberation [Elk Creek 2] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (24 page)

“Oh, this is so romantic!”

Oh for Christ’s sake!

Prentice hadn’t had any intention of taking the girl on a dreamy, tender and secret rendezvous, but he could see where the starry-eyed chit would get the wrong impression upon seeing the gazebo. Beneath the light of the moon, the colorful floral arrangement scattered around the trellis, not to mention the flowered path leading to the structure, could seem like a romantic setting to someone as love starved as Ginger seemed to be.

Prentice almost felt sorry for her, but couldn’t afford that luxury, not here, not now.

Was he being too harsh? He thought he was being practical rather than callous, but since he’d come back from the dead and had had a chance to consider in retrospect all the things he had done to people in his previous incarnation, maybe he was just a coldhearted bastard.

Follow your heart, Prentice.

He smiled at Brielle’s words.

Prentice used to think he was like the Grinch, that his heart was two sizes too small, or encased in ice or—as a few of his past lovers had maintained—that he didn’t have a heart at all.

“Ginger, I didn’t bring you out here to fulfill any romantic fantasies of yours. This is just a convenient spot to talk some sense into your head before I take you home.”

“Is it that Lucy woman?”

“What?”

“You’re in love with her now?”

“Of course not. Lucy’s a married woman.”

Ginger sniffed. “That never stopped her from flaunting and selling her wares all over town when she was married to Rance.”

Prentice gritted his teeth, took a deep breath, and counted to ten before he spoke. “I’m surprised at you for giving credence to gossip, especially such mean-spirited gossip. I thought you were a good churchgoing girl.”

“I am! It’s just that I heard some things and, well…she doesn’t have the best reputation.”

“And what will people think of your reputation if they were to find you out here in the middle of the night with me?”

Ginger opened her mouth to speak when some rustling from the bushes behind the gazebo caught Prentice’s attention. He automatically pushed her back behind him and peered into the darkness.

“Whoever you are, come out now and show yourself,” Prentice demanded, not thinking the stalker might have a gun and he himself didn’t even carry one. He’d never had to before, because he’d had his powers.

A moment later, the bushes parted and a young man stepped from behind them, hands jammed into his jeans pockets as he kicked the dirt with his boot and averted his eyes.

Prentice amended his first thought, since this guy was barely a man, certainly not much more than a boy. Gangly and towheaded, he couldn’t have been much older than Ginger if he was a day. “Who the hell are you and who invited you to the party?”

The kid raised his head, drew back his shoulders, and defiantly jutted his chin. “Don’t pretend you don’t know me, Ethan Crawford, when you stole my girl.”

“Tanner, I am
not
your girl,” Ginger said. “How many times do I have to tell you that?”

“You know how your parents feel about—”

“I don’t care how my parents feel about me seeing Ethan. I’m not going to be
your
girl just to please my parents.”

“Your father ain’t going to take too kindly to finding out you snuck out of your house to come a-calling on Ethan in the middle of the night.”

“You’re not going to tell him.”

It wasn’t a question and Prentice was impressed with the girl for her stern tone. She seemed to know exactly where she stood with Tanner. In fact, she all but had him wrapped around her little finger from what Prentice could see.

Could this awkward man-child have had anything to do with Ethan’s death?

There was no denying Tanner’s jealousy. Prentice felt it in every fiber of his being when the boy glared at him as if he wished him harm. He certainly didn’t look like he had the balls to shoot a peer, but then how much balls did it really take to shoot someone in the back?

“I came to take you home, Gin-Gin,” Tanner said.

“Don’t call me that.”

“You used to like when I called you that.”

“I was a kid then.”

And she wasn’t now?

Prentice had to keep reminding himself that in Ethan’s reality, he wasn’t much older than Ginger and Tanner, but in his reality, he was ages older with a lot more experience and he could have told both these kids that love was transient if it existed at all. He could have told them that this crush just wasn’t that serious and they both needed to get a grip.

It was time to put a stop to the Ginger and Tanner,
As Elk Creek Turns
soap opera.

Before Prentice could speak, though, Tanner reached around him to grab Ginger’s arm.

“You’re coming back with me.”

Ginger tried to jerk her arm away, but Tanner held firm. “You’re hurting me, Tanner.”

That was all it took for Prentice to see red. Instinctively, he flung out his psychic feelers and when nothing happened he reached out a hand to remove Tanner’s hand from Ginger’s arm.

The whelp drew back a fist and punched him in the jaw.

Completely unprepared for the attack, or the speed and power of its delivery, Prentice went down on his butt, hard. Served him right for underestimating what he considered a scrawny geek. He wouldn’t do it again.

He had never really been in a fistfight before. As physically fit as he had been in his former incarnation, he had never needed to physically defend himself. It had probably been the only disadvantage to having had his powers. He had tended to rely too heavily on them, using them like a crutch as he had just now.

“Tanner, what have you done?” Ginger knelt beside Prentice and put her hand on his shoulder. “Ethan, are you okay?”

He shook his head to clear it, working his jaw back and forth as he glared up at Tanner.

The hatred that rained down upon him from the kid’s clear blue eyes was so palpable he had no problem believing that Tanner could have shot Ethan.

“I’m taking you home, Ginger,” Tanner said, and Prentice had a moment to think maybe the chit didn’t have Tanner wrapped around her finger after all. Either that or the kid had finally reached the end of his rope with what he probably saw as her playing hard-to-get games.

Ginger must have noticed the hardness in Tanner’s tone, too, because she put her hand to her throat and gaped up at him. “What is wrong with you?”

“Nothing’s wrong with me. You just ought to not be here with him, is all.”

“That’s not your call to make. It’s Ginger’s.” Prentice got to his feet and faced off with Tanner, no mean feat since the kid had a slight height advantage of a few inches. It didn’t matter though. Prentice figured his own anger more than made up the difference.

Prentice almost laughed at the situation. A minute ago he had been eager to get rid of Ginger as soon as he could and would have been glad to let Tanner take her home and off his hands. Tanner’s forcing the issue, however, getting physical with his caveman tactics, just rubbed Prentice the wrong way. God knew, he had his own issues with restraint, but he had a genuine problem when it came to a man putting his hands on or threatening a woman.

“I’m taking her with me. If I have to kill you to do it, then so be it.”

Well, that just escalated.

Prentice knew then, the situation was about to get real ugly.

* * * *

For several moments after his mother left the room, Ki didn’t say a word, just sat on the bed beside Lucy, staring straight ahead, trying to think of something more eloquent to say than I’m sorry. “She’s not as bad as she seems,” he finally murmured, not sure Lucy would believe this after the little scene in the dining room, so it totally surprised him when she said, “I know.”

He turned to her then. “You do?”

“She’s your mother. She’s just looking out for your welfare.”

Ki arched a brow. “What exactly did you two talk about?”

“Fairy tales.”

He grinned, warming up to the subject. “Was it the one where the princess kisses the frog and changes him into a handsome prince?”

“You certainly don’t look like any old frog I know, so if you’re bucking for a kiss, that dog don’t hunt here.”

He had expected the usual aloofness she demonstrated at his romantic overtures, but the smile she gave him was teasing and warm. Ki decided to push his luck and bent his head to kiss her neck. She shivered but not out of displeasure as he trailed light kisses across her skin.

Ki nibbled her earlobe then gently sucked it into his mouth. Lucy’s responding moan was music to his ears.

“Before we do this, there’s something I need to tell you, Ki,” she whispered.

“I’m listening.”

She pulled away from him and cupped his face with both hands.

Ki languidly opened his eyes to the sight of Lucy’s intense, greenish-gray gaze. His heart dropped to his stomach. “What is it?”

“I’ve…I’ve been with men.”

He had heard about her life with Rance from Maia and Sabrina. He had an idea what she was going to say but sensed that she needed to get it off her chest. “It’s okay.”

“No, it’s not okay.” She released his face, took a deep breath and closed her eyes. After a beat, she opened them again and they were glistening with unshed tears.

“Oh, Lucy…” He reached for her face, but she sprang to her feet and folded her arms across her breasts as if to shield herself from his anticipated censure.

“I was sixteen when my daddy sold me to Rance to pay off a gambling debt.”

Now
that
was news to him, very unpleasant and unbelievable news that made him wish his uncle was still alive just so he could beat him to a bloody pulp and kill him.

“I’m not telling you this to make you feel sorry for me. I just want you to know what you’re getting yourself into.”

“I already know what I’m getting myself into.” Ki stood and pushed a stray strand of Lucy’s hair away from her face as he looked down into her questioning eyes. “Do you know what I see when I look at you, Lucy Benjamin?”

She shook her head.

“I see a young woman who drew the short straw in life and made the best of things, the best way she knew how. I see a woman whose husband tried to browbeat and humiliate her into believing that she was a worthless piece of nothing.”

“That’s about the size of it,” Lucy mumbled.

“
But
I also see a survivor.
You
are a survivor, Lucy. You’re stronger and more intrepid than you believe you can be, and you’re not a worthless piece of nothing, not by far.”

“You don’t have to say those things. You don’t have to lie.”

“I’m not lying. It’s true. You are everything that is kind and strong and good in the world, and I know you can accomplish anything you put your mind to. You know how I know this?”

“How?”

“There’s this woman, another Lucy I know of, Lucy Walker. When I was a teenager, she was one of my heroes.”

“What did she do?”

“I was sixteen when I heard about her feat and I remember how excited I was because I wanted to do what she had done, but the only thing was I would never be the first like she was.”

“What did she
do
?”

“Anyone ever tell you patience is a virtue?” He chuckled and Lucy brandished her fist.

“You’re about to get a knuckle sandwich.”

“She was the first female to climb the peak of the Wetterhorn in the Swiss Alps.”

“Really?”

“Really.” He nodded. “Though she had climbed other mountains before the Wetterhorn, the Wetterhorn climb was just the beginning of her firsts. All total, she completed ninety-eight expeditions. What I love about Lucy’s story is that she started off modestly. On the advice of her doctor she took up walking as a cure for rheumatism. From unpretentious beginnings and just taking little steps, she went down in the annals of mountain climbing and became a pioneer. Just goes to show you, it’s never too late to be who or what you’re going to be.”

“Seems to me you know a lot about this Lucy Walker woman. Should I be worried?”

“Not at all.” He smiled, hugging her with one arm. “Besides, she’s an older woman and I’m into younger women, especially one in particular. You see, there’s this new Lucy in my life and she’s the only woman who’s important to me.” He’d caught himself preparing to say “the only woman I love,” but he didn’t want to be overzealous or premature in an attempt to encourage Lucy, especially when he wasn’t a hundred percent sure of his feelings for her. He cared for her deeply, but he felt like he’d be misleading her if he gave her more than that. Besides, his wife was a sharp woman and she would see insincerity from a mile away.

“That’s a wonderful story about your heroic mountaineer,” Lucy said and Ki could still see she was morose. “But I’m no Lucy Walker.”

“No. You’re Lucy Benjamin and you have your own special talents to master and goals to reach. You just have to find your passion, believe in yourself and that anything is possible.”