A Summer in Paradise

Two men, one woman and one
isolated lake add up to one
hot
summer in Paradise.

Pearl didn’t expect to run into anyone
on the mountain over Paradise when she went home for a visit. She
planned to spend a few weeks in the wilds at a line cabin between
Sabbats to try and recover from her last encounter with her
ex-boyfriend. She didn’t expect to find two males on the lake
sunning themselves, naked, while the fish took off with their
fishing poles.

Duncan and Jarrod loved the mountains.
It was why they decided to go to the lake. Between Sabbats there
was nothing more to do than swim, fish and get a tan. Planning to
live off the land, while they contemplate ways to find their mate,
the two men are surprised to discover that the mountain over
Paradise can provide everything they need—even a beautiful female
to help pass the time.

Three souls, one cabin and
one isolated lake add up to one
hot
summer in Paradise.

The unauthorized reproduction or
distribution of this copyrighted work is illegal. Criminal
copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary
gain, is investigated by the FBI and is punishable by up to 5 years
in federal prison and a fine of $250,000.

Please purchase only authorized
electronic editions, and do not participate in or encourage the
electronic piracy of copyrighted materials. Your support of the
author’s rights is appreciated.

This book is a work of fiction. Names,
characters, places, and incidents either are products of the
author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to
actual events or locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely
coincidental.

A Summer in Paradise

Copyright © 2012 Tianna
Xander

ISBN: 978-1-77111-259-8

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.

Published by eXtasy Books

Look for us online at:

www.eXtasybooks.com

Smashwords Edition

A Summer in Paradise

Paradise 12

By

Tianna Xander

To my family: Thank you for
understanding that there are times when I would rather write than
watch TV.

To my editors: Thank you for
always being there and laughing at the parts I hope are
funny.

Chapter One

Pearl made her way from the highway and
hiked along the road to Paradise. She knew what to expect. She’d
gone through the barrier two times before, but it didn’t keep her
from dreading it. She’d experienced it once when she and her
sisters walked along this same road in the cold when her parents
died and once again when she left here with her youngest sister,
Crystal.

She hated leaving Gemma here, but Gem
had refused to leave their adoptive parents in Paradise when she
knew the council would punish them for allowing all of their
daughters to escape. Pearl knew she had to get their baby sister
out of here. After the first time a man had attempted to assault
her, she realized it was time to go. Her only regret was that she
hadn’t forced Gemma to go with them.

Now that Crystal was safe in college,
it was left to Pearl to do exactly what she’d always wanted to do.
She wanted to raise a family. That was why she’d finally started to
date. It was just too bad that she didn’t have a basis of
comparison to tell a good guy from a bad one. Her adoptive father
didn’t count. He hadn’t been around much because of the strictures
of the council and she’d never been sexually attracted to him,
thank the gods.

She left the road and started up the
side of the mountain. If she remembered correctly, Shadow Lake was
just over the soft peak and there was a cabin there where she could
stay for a few days to gather her courage to tell Gemma she was
leaving the country, probably for good.

Her options were clear. Stay and let
Glenn find her or take the teaching job offered to her in Scotland.
It was a no brainer in her opinion. The last thing she wanted was
for her ex to find her and force her back to Chicago. He was a
thug—an abusive thug and she didn’t want a damn thing to do with
him anymore.

The woods should have seemed welcoming,
but she could still feel the magic warning her away. Her chest
tightened painfully as the sensation of hopelessness and fear
surrounded her.

The scent of the moist dirt
and rotting undergrowth smelled familiar and welcoming even as the
magic of the barrier made her want to turn around and leave. Though
nothing was there, she couldn’t shake the feeling that something
evil watched her. Pearl pressed her lips together in a grim smile.
That feeling was what kept most everyone, but the bravest of souls,
or the most desperate, out of Paradise.
She
was desperate.

What Pearl felt was the protective
barrier that guarded the magical town from outsiders. She frowned.
According to her sister, outsiders were again welcome in Paradise.
If that were so, shouldn’t the barrier be down? There wasn’t a
Sabbat soon…or was there?

Shaking her head, she continued on.
Whatever it was, it didn’t matter. If there was someone in the line
cabin, the worst thing they would do was take her to town. At least
she hoped it was the worst thing. Gemma told her things were
different now. Pearl was optimistic that her sister was
right.

After another two hours, Pearl neared
the peak where, if she remembered correctly, she would finally see
Shadow Lake. She wanted to see it almost as much as she wanted to
see her sister.

She had a few fond memories here.
Several times when she was younger, she followed a pair of men up
here to watch them swim. Watching the men skinny dip was a favorite
past time when she was a teenager. Young and curious, she often
wandered up here when the two came home on leave.

Standing atop the rise, Pearl looked
down at the lake. As usual, it was shadowed by the mountains on the
west side. The entire valley appeared almost dark though it was
only five o’clock.

When her stomach grumbled, she reached
back for her water. She’d take a drink for now and fix something to
eat when she got to the cabin. It couldn’t be more than a three
mile hike.

“
Just a good stretch of the
legs, Pearl.” She unscrewed the cap of her canteen, took a long
drink then recapped it and adjusted the strap so it rested against
the back side of her hip once again.

Humming, Pearl made her way
down the mountainside. She couldn’t wait to get to the cabin and
kick her boots off. Her tennis shoes would have been infinitely
more comfortable, but they wouldn’t have withstood the hike.
She
didn’t even have
regular shoes with her. She’d left everything she planned to ship
to Scotland, including the small motorcycle she’d just purchased,
in a small storage unit on the outskirts of Jackson.

The thought of sitting in front of a
cheerful fire and making something to eat sounded good, as well.
Besides, the backpack was getting heavy and she just wanted to sit
down and rest.

Tomorrow she would go have a bath in
the lake while she remembered what it was like to hide in the
bushes and spy on the two men she’d half-fallen in love with while
watching them skinny dip.

Smiling, she practically skipped her
way down the mountainside. Just remembering the objects of her
puppy love, gave her the energy to complete her hike faster than
she thought she would. Maybe, if she was lucky, she would see them
just once while she was here.

Once in the cabin, Pearl opted for a
protein bar instead of a real meal and made her bed instead. It was
almost dark and she didn’t want to waste the battery in her lamp by
falling asleep with it on and she was beat.

Climbing into bed, she was so exhausted
she barely remembered to take her boots off. Tomorrow was soon
enough to worry about changing her clothes.

Chapter Two

“
What do you mean you don’t
want to go to the lake?” Duncan frowned at Jarrod. “I thought you
liked going up there.” He glanced over his shoulder at his best
friend. With the rising sun behind him, Jarrod’s face was in
shadow. Still, Duncan could almost see his green eyes filled with
distaste.

“
Yeah, I did. Once upon a
time. That was when we were home on leave and had that sweet little
girl ogling us,” Jarrod said with a grin. “You remember her? She
was a tempting little morsel. It was just too damned bad she was
only a teenager. Two or three years more and she would have been
ripe for the picking.”

“
Of course I remember her. I
loved the way she smelled.” Duncan grabbed their fishing gear and
headed for the truck.

“
Me too.” Jarrod sighed, and
then followed with their bedrolls. “I’ve never smelled another
woman like her.”

“
That’s just it.” Duncan
slid the poles and the tackle box into the bed and turned to take
the bedrolls from Jarrod. “No woman has stirred our senses like
that one. Hell, I have a hard time getting it up because of her.”
He turned to look toward the mountain. “Sometimes I wonder…” He
shook his head, dismissing the idea as ridiculous.

“
What?” Jarrod threw his
duffle bag in after the rest of their gear and eyed the box of
food. “Do you think we’re taking enough to eat?”

Duncan shook his head. “Will you get
your damned head off of your stomach for once? Don’t you realize
the implications of our reaction to that little girl?” He had a
difficult time thinking of her as a grown woman. His cat snarled at
the idea that she had been with another man. That alone was enough
to convince him that she was more than just a little girl that
liked to see them naked. Perhaps, even she, even as young as she
was, realized that they belonged together. Was that why she spied
on them every time they came home?

Do you ever think of what would have
happened if we could have stayed here?” What if they had staked
their claim and took her with them to someplace safe? Gods knew
that, back then, nowhere in Paradise was out of harm’s way with
Camulus and his men in charge.

Jarrod stopped and turned around. “Of
course I do. I think about it all of the time. I also know what it
means.” He glanced back toward the middle of town as though he
could see the lodge from where he stood. “It means that she was
most likely our mate and now she’s gone.” He shook his head. “I
don’t even think Gemma knows where she is.”

Duncan knew his own
expression mirrored Jarrod’s the bleak look. Without their mate,
they would never love, never reproduce, and never feel whole. “We
could ask.” He sighed as he closed the tailgate. “But not before we
have our weekend at the lake. I’ve been looking forward to getting
some sun and pretending our little girl is up there staring at us
through the bushes like old times and that she
is
our mate.”

“
We could never get that
lucky.”

“
I know, old friend.” He
shook his head as he made his way to the driver’s side of the truck
and jerked the door open. “But we can dream, can’t we?”

Jarrod strode up the passenger side,
pulled the door open and joined the man who would, hopefully one
day, be his triad mate. “I would rather live it than dream it.” He
strapped himself in and looked at Duncan. “We should be out
searching for her.”

“
And we will. I’m through
waiting for her to come back home. I wanted to go to the cabin this
weekend to pick up the pair of shorts she lost the last time she
went to the lake. I’ve hidden them in the cabin. We’ll need it to
remember every nuance of her scent.”

Jarrod settled back in the seat and
closed his eyes. “I don’t need to get a sniff at her shorts to
remember that sweet scent.”