A Summer in Paradise (10 page)

Pearl smiled. “How could I forget you
two? The three of you were the talk of the town. I remember how the
elders had a fit over the two of you dating Gemma. Now I hear it’s
not wrong, but something you’re born to do.”

“
Yeah. Apparently it’s in
their genes to have more than one mate. Camulus’s council was
wrong.” Gemma looked up at her her husband a small smile. He held
her back against his front his hands resting on her stomach as
though he couldn’t keep from touching her.

Gemma had told her all of that in her
e-mails. Pearl wondered if her sister needed to reiterate it to
justify her choice in men. “It doesn’t matter to me, Gem.” Pearl
finally closed the distance and gave her sister a hug. “I don’t
care if you have six husbands, just so long as you’re
happy.”

Pearl was happy for her sister—really,
she was. She only wished that she could have the same. To see Gemma
so happy, and with a baby on the way, it almost made Pearl jealous.
She would have given her right arm to have what Gemma had before
she met Glenn.

Now that she’d made the colossal
mistake of dating Glenn, she had no recourse other than to leave
the country and hope he didn’t have the resources to find her in
another country.

“
I’m so glad you feel that
way, Pearl. I was afraid…” Gemma reached up to swipe the tears from
her eyes. “I was afraid you wouldn’t approve.”

“
Don’t mind Gem, Pearl.
She’s been crying at the drop of a hat since she found out she was
pregnant.” The tall man at her side, grinned down at Gemma then
kissed her temple.

Her sister had done well for herself.
If Pearl wasn’t mistaken, this husband was Merrick. She was pretty
sure that he was the boy Gemma had dated that had had the strange,
gray-green eyes, though she wasn’t sure.

“
You remember Merrick, don’t
you?” Gemma asked wrapping her arm around Pearl’s waist and leading
her deeper into the lodge. “Come on, we’ll get you a room then
we’ll talk.”

“
I—I can’t stay, Gem.” Damn.
Saying that had hurt more than she expected.

“
What do you mean, you can’t
stay?” Gemma asked, her chestnut brows drawing together in a frown.
“You can’t just drop in, say hi, and then leave! I haven’t seen you
in fifteen years!”

What could she say? How could she tell
her sister that she had to leave because of the two men who were
certainly on their way down the mountain as they spoke? She knew
they would come after her. There was no doubt in her
mind.

She could understand Gemma’s
confusion. In her sister’s mind, Pearl had just gotten here and she
had planned to stay a while. Pearl bit her lip. Could she tell Gem
that something had come up?
Should
she tell her that?

Pearls eyes burned and she
blinked back tears that threatened.
She
knew better than her sister that
this could very well be the last time they saw each other—ever.
Pearl knew her teaching position wouldn’t give her enough money to
visit the states regularly and she wasn’t sure how much money Gemma
and her mates had. Frankly, she didn’t want to know. Pearl wanted
to believe that Gem would have all the money she would ever need to
bring up her children and live a happy life. How could she spend
only fifteen minutes with her then leave? Fifteen minutes after
fifteen years, just didn’t seem fair.

“
I know you don’t want me to
go, Gem, but I don’t have a choice. I’ve signed a contract to teach
in Scotland for the next three years.”
At
least. “
I have a plane to
catch.”

She didn’t tell her that she could
still change her mind. Even her plane ticket was open-ended, but
she didn’t tell Gem that either. Pearl couldn’t afford to have her
sister try to talk her into staying. She had to leave before Duncan
and Jarrod managed to find her.

“
Then let me take you to the
airport.” She threw a glance over her shoulder. “You wouldn’t mind
following in our car so I can ride with Pearl, would you,
Merrick?”

“
Of course not, my Gem,” he
replied as he stepped up behind Gemma, wrapped his arms around her
middle to cradle her belly with his big hands.

Pearl looked away. She
couldn’t bear to watch. Her sister was so lucky and didn’t even
know it. Pearl wanted that kind of relationship for herself and
didn’t want to see the kind of love and understanding she would
miss. Even if she had Jarrod’s baby, she would never
experience
that
kind of love.

Suck it up, Pearl. You’ll be
lucky enough to get a baby out of this.

“
Well, actually, I left my
things in storage. Well, my things are in Jackson. I need to
arrange for shipping.” Pearl rested her hand over her stomach as
the strange heat she experienced the night before
returned.

It wasn’t as bad as it had been, but it
was still there. I hitched a ride here to see you. I had planned to
stay for a little while, but…something came up.”

That
was an understatement.

Gemma clapped her hands, obviously
pleased. “That’s even better. Jackson is so much further than the
airport. We can ask Davie to watch the lodge while we’re gone. The
lawn can wait another day or so. We’ll be able to do a lot of
catching up and we won’t have to do it in two cars.” She grinned.
“We can catch up in the backseat while the guys drive.”

Pearl opened and closed her mouth a few
times then smiled when she realized she didn’t have anything to
say, other than, “That sounds great, Gem.” What else could she
say?

She couldn’t refuse without
hurting Gem’s feelings and
that
was the last thing she wanted to do.

Forty-five minutes, a shower and the
promise of a hot breakfast later, the four of them were on their
way.

After about twenty minutes,
Merrick steered their SUV into the restaurant parking lot. It
looked rather new. The sign out front read
Almost Paradise
, which made a lot of
sense, considering it was situated on the outskirts of
town.

“
Would you mind sharing a
meal with me, Pearl?” Gemma asked as they studied the
menu.

“
Are you kidding? I’m
starved. I’ll probably be able to eat all of mine and then some!”
The words had barely left her mouth when Pearl realized why Gemma
was offering and she felt bad.

“
Hey, look,” she added as
she reached over and covered Gemma’s hand with her own, “If it’s
the money, I can pay.”

Gem actually laughed at that
and shook her head. “It’s not that, believe me.” She glanced at her
husbands who nodded and said, “They’re loaded. As a matter of fact,
we could
buy
this
place. It’s just that,” she paused and leaned over to whisper,
“It’s geared for shifters and the portion sizes are huge. I don’t
think you’re going to be able to eat it all. I can’t and…” she
paused as though thinking over her next words. “They brought me
over into the shifter world at our mating ceremony.”

Pearl’s mouth dropped open. “You’re a
shifter?” They could do that? She thought about the night before
when Jarrod and Duncan bit her. Was she a shifter now? If that were
the case, Glenn had better watch his ass if he ever found her
again. She’d go all feral on him and give him something to think
about.

“
How is it done?”

Gemma leaned closer. “They bit me
during the mating ceremony then had me bite them in return. It tied
me to them.” She shrugged. “You’d think it would hurt, but…” Gemma
blushed and left it at that.

Disappointment rushed through her.
She’d hoped she would be a shifter now that they’d bitten her. If
they had, she wouldn’t have to worry about Glenn ever
again.

Chapter Seventeen

Duncan and Jarrod followed their noses
straight to the Paradise Lodge. Fury lived within the two large
cats as they prowled the outside of the building. Pearl’s scent was
there, along with the motorcycle that had carried her down the
mountain.

There are humans here. We
can’t just barge into the hotel naked and we certainly can’t do it
in this form. I’m sure the humans would take issue with two large
jaguars sniffing through the common rooms while they drink their
coffee.

Though Jarrod was right, it still
didn’t help the fact that Duncan wanted to go in there, find the
man who took their Pearl away and beat the living shit out of him.
Yet he knew he couldn’t.

It wasn’t a man who had taken her. As a
shifter, at twenty-three years old, Dave Gibson was still a fucking
boy. Hell, he was barely the equivalent of a teenager when looking
at maturity level.

Hell, the kid had probably only been
changing for the last five years or so. Ten, if he was lucky. That
was barely enough time to learn to shift without having to
concentrate on every little aspect of it.

Yeah, you’re right. We’ll
have to run home, get dressed and bring the car around.
It wasn’t as though she wasn’t safe. She was here,
in Paradise, and staying in the same hotel that housed the sheriff
and his mates.

They had plenty of time to go home and
shower before they came to claim Pearl as their own. When they did,
the little hellion was going to pay for worrying the shit out or
them the way she did. He would see to it himself. He wasn’t going
to spank her ass. No way. That would be too much like a reward. She
liked that too much. What he would do is deny her an orgasm or two
and see if she would see the error of her ways.

After they ran home, showered and
dressed, the two men drove back to the lodge, to retrieve their
mate. Duncan was certain they had all the time in the world, this
day. After they announced their intentions to her sister, Matt and
Merrick, they knew they others wouldn’t stand in their
way.

Dave Gibson grinned at them as they
walked through the door. “The dining room is open if you’d care to
have lunch.”

Lunch sounded good, because they never
had breakfast, but Duncan wanted to see his mate first. His beast
wanted to know she was fine and it wanted to truly mate her, once
and for all.

They’d meant to mate her last night,
but refrained for some reason. Perhaps it was because they knew it
was too much for her, too soon, or maybe they had just lost their
heads. Pearl was as intoxicating as any alcohol or drug.

He inhaled deeply in an effort to pick
up her scent in the hotel. The smell of other shifters, humans and
whatever was on the menu for lunch made it difficult and he
frowned. Shouldn’t he be able to pick up her scent no matter
what?

“
No, Dave. We’re here to
pick up our mate.”

“
Awesome! You two have a
mate?” He turned, went into the dining room and looked at everyone
in the small crowd. Five lone females sat at various tables.
However, their mate and her sister were nowhere in
sight.

“
She must be in her room, or
with Gemma.” Jarrod said after they did a visual sweep of the
room.

“
Oh! Gemma isn’t here. She
and her mates took her sister to catch a plane.” Dave said, the
color draining from his face when Jarrod slammed his fist into the
wall.

“
Where was she going?”
Duncan did his best to keep himself under control. His beast wanted
to tear the young shifter apart, but his human side, knew that
giving Pearl a ride down the mountain was the chivalrous thing to
do. Either he or Jarrod could have been sucked into the very same
mistake under different circumstances.

“
I—I don’t know.” Dave
looked at each of them in turn as though waiting to see which one
of them would rip into him first. “Look, I didn’t know she was your
mate when I gave her a ride down the mountain. I thought I smelled
someone on her, but she was wearing perfume and I thought it was my
imagination. I was just glad to see she was okay and back in
Paradise.”

Jarrod growled at the young man. “Why
do you care about our mate? What designs do you have on
her.”

“
Nothing! I mean…” He paused
to swallow, his Adam’s apple bobbing in his throat. “She used to
babysit me when I was younger and, well, I liked her.”

Did everyone have a thing for his mate?
He knew he and Jarrod had a fucking crush from hell on
her.

“
Jesus! How many other
people want our mate?” Jarrod practically growled.

“
I don’t know, but she’s
ours.” Duncan moved to the door. “We need to go get her before she
makes it to her damned plane. Let’s go.”

“
I thought you two were
going to eat?”

Turning, Duncan almost laughed at the
confounded expression on David Gibson’s face. “There’ll be time
enough for that later. Right now, we have to stop our mate from
running.”

They both rushed to their car, Duncan
sliding into the driver’s seat. “What do you think we did that made
her run?”

Jarrod stared out the windshield for a
minute. “I’m not sure. I don’t think it was anything we did. She
seemed to like being with us last night.” He continued to stare out
at the passing scenery for a moment then shook his head. “I got
nothing.”