Shana Mine (14 page)

Prologue

“Trey! Trey, help me! Please!”

Her screams for him shattered the still of the night and sent Trey Brandauer bolting up in bed from a deep sleep. He tossed the bed covers aside, nearly tripping in his haste to get out of bed and rush to the window.

His room overlooked the back road leading to the slave quarters. Looking out the window, he saw his father’s overseer, Joshua Wilton astride his big stallion. A small slender figure sat in front of him on the horse with her face turned up towards the house.

Trey’s heart thumped with fear as he recognized the female’s beautiful dark skin. The sweet smile he’d never been able to resist was missing. Her brown eyes held a look of fear.

“Carlee!”

When she saw him, she reached out with a trembling hand. “Trey! Please help me!”

Trey tossed the window open and leaned out. “Wilton! What are you doing with her on your horse?”

The overseer cast a brief glance in Trey’s direction before he brought his riding crop down hard on the horse’s flank, sending the animal into a fast trot.

Trey whirled away from the window and quickly pulled on his trousers. Running from his room and down the hall, he leapt down the stairs. Surprised to find it unbolted, Trey yanked open the side door. He rushed onto the side veranda. The stable was behind the house. He prayed that he could get his horse, Danton, saddled and on the road in time to rescue Carlee.

He could still hear her calling out to him. “Trey! Please help me, Trey!”

“I’m coming, Carlee. I’m coming!”

He jumped off the veranda and ran towards the stables, ignoring the pain as his bare feet encountered various bits of stones. The big doors were open. He rushed inside and collided with a tall, well-built man exiting the stables.

The collision with his father sent him sprawling onto his back. “Father!” He scrambled to his knees and grabbed his father’s legs. “Wilton has Carlee! He’s taking her away! You must stop him!”

His father didn’t respond.

Bounding to his feet, Trey ran for his horse. He had his saddle in his hands when his father turned him around.

One look in his father’s eyes and he knew why the side door had been unbolted in the middle of the night.

“He’s taking her with your permission, Father?”

“Yes.”

Trey swallowed a wave of rage at the terse word from his father. “Well not with mine!” He jerked away and tossed his saddle aside, deciding to ride bareback. Before he could mount his horse, his father grabbed him and pushed him against the side of the stall. He could no longer hear Carlee’s cries. His heart thundered and fear tightened his throat. “Get out of my way, Father!”

“I sold her, Trey.”

“Sold her? But you gave her to me! You can’t sell her. She’s mine!”

His father’s hands tightened on his upper arms, holding him still. “That happened when you were seven and I never expected you to fall for her. In this family, we do not bed our slaves, boy!”

His heart sank. His mother had not kept her word. She had told his father about seeing him kissing Carlee the previous week. “I know that, Father, and I have not bedded her! I give you my word!”

“And I believe you, Trey. We Brandauers are not known for being liars.”

He tried to pull away. “Then let me go and get her. She’s mine. I will not have her sold away from me and her family.”

“She is already sold. I believe that you haven’t touched her, but I have seen the way you two look at each other. You are no longer children, Trey. I can’t allow you to father children with her.”

He sucked in a shuddering breath. At seventeen, he longed to discover sex with the fifteen-year-old Carlee. Still, he'd never gone beyond an occasional hug or a rare, brief peck at her sweet lips. He hadn’t even dared touch her breasts. The temptation had been difficult to resist since he had inadvertently seen her sleek, nude body as she had bathed in the pond deep in the woods early one morning.

He had longed to strip and join her. The thought of seeing the hurt and confusion in her brown eyes if he betrayed her trust had been enough to cool his passions. He had forced himself to steal quietly away instead.

“Please, Father. I promise…I give you my word. I will not touch her! Just please don’t sell her!”

“It wasn’t an easy decision, Trey, but it was a necessary one. I’ve made sure she’s going to a good home where she’ll be treated properly.” His father reached in his pocket and produced a large sack filled with bills. “This is yours…for her sale.”

The wall of rage consumed him. He jerked away from his father, slapped the sack out of his hand, placed his hands against his father’s chest, and pushed as hard as he could.

Taken by surprise, his father stumbled backwards and fell.

Trey turned and jumped onto Danton’s back, wheeled him around, sent him jumping over his father’s body, and galloping out into the night.

He rode Danton hard and fast, ignoring his father’s outraged shouts for him to return. He knew he was in more trouble than he’d ever been before for having shoved his father. Nevertheless, he had to save Carlee. After what seemed like an eternity, he heard soft wails that he knew belonged to her.

“Carlee! I’m coming!” he called.

“Trey! Oh, Trey!” He heard the relief in her voice. “I knew you would save me, Trey.”

He rode low over Danton’s back, taking a curve in the road quickly. He spotted Wilton, at least thirty or forty yards in front of him.

He dug his heels into Danton’s flanks and urged him on. Danton was a better horse than the one ridden by Wilton. Elation filled Trey. He wasn’t sure what he was going to do after he rescued her, but he was only moments away from getting her back.

He would worry about the consequences later.

Danton steadily closed the distance between him and Wilton. Soon, he would be close enough to reach out and snatch Carlee off Wilton’s horse. He heard the sound of a galloping horse behind him.

“Trey! Come back here now or there will be hell to pay!”

He cast a quick glance over his shoulder.

His father charged after him, astride the only stallion in the county capable of outrunning Danton.

He leaned low over Danton’s back. “You can do it,” he whispered to Danton. “You can outrun Lightning. Just this once, Danton. You can do it for Carlee. Run like the wind, Danton. You can do it.”

Within a few horse lengths of Wilton, Lightning drew even with Danton. His father snatched him off Danton’s back and onto Lightning’s. Danton continued running as his father pulled on Lightning’s reins, urging him to an abrupt stop.

Trey struggled to be free. “Let me go! Please!” Although he was strong, his father was bigger and far stronger. His father’s arms tightened around him, immobilizing him.

Trey watched Wilton’s horse disappear around a bend in the road. “No! Carlee! Carlee, I’ll find you. I promise. I swear. No matter how long it takes, I’ll find and rescue you! And when I do I will never leave you again!”

“Trey! I’ll wait…I’ll wait for you to come, Trey!”

His father wheeled Lightning around and sent him galloping back towards the house Trey would never think of as home again. He slumped back against his father, bitter tears streaming down his cheeks. “Let me go rescue her, Father, or I swear I will never forgive you.”

“I know this hurts now, Trey, but this is for the best. I need you to understand why I had to do this.”

“You didn’t. I would have kept my word.”

“I know you have good intentions, boy, but you would be sneaking into her bed eventually. Do you understand? “

“I won’t ever forgive you for this, Father.”

His father pulled up his horse and turned his face up to his. He saw something he’d never seen before—tears in his father’s eyes. “I didn’t do this easily, Trey. I know this hurts you and it hurts me, but I had to do it. I had to. You’ll forgive me because it was done out of love.”

He shook his head. “No. I won’t ever forgive you for this. You don’t know what you’ve done. I’ll never be happy again if I don’t find her. You have to tell me where she’s going.”

“I know it hurts boy, but in time you’ll forget her and move on. You’ll marry and have children and be happy.”

“I’ll never be happy without her. Never. And I will never forgive you for this.”

“Time has a way of healing all wounds, Trey.”

“Time will never heal this wound. Nor will I ever forgive you or Mother.”

Soul Mates is available from Marilyn Lee Unleashed

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Marilyn’s booklist:

Marilyn Lee Unleashed

Shana Mine

Dream Lover

A Cheating Situation

Any Time Any Place

Beauty Is Alisha Hoover?

Blue Desert Heat 1

Blue Desert Heat 2

Blue Desert Tales: Courtesan Seduction

Daughters of Takira: One Night In Vegas

Daughters of Takira 2: Kyla's Awakening

Daughters of Takira 3: Revelations

Falling Hard

Fantasy Knights

Fantasy Knights 2: Endless Love

In Blood 2-Lost Without

Large, Shy & Beautiful

Loving Large—Yours, Only And Always

Loving Large 2—Yours, Now And Forever

Marilyn Lee Omnibus I

Marilyn Lee Sampler

Marilyn Lee Sampler 2

My Mother's Man

No
Commitment
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Primal Lusts

Secondhand Lover

Secret Lover

Some Like It Male

Soul Mates

Taking Chances: Falling For Sharde

Taking Chances 2: Nice Girls Do

The Dare

The Quest 1: Hunter's Passion

Torn By Love

Where You Find It

Yesterday's Secret Sins

Red Rose Publishing

Sweet Surrender

Sister’s Keeper

Finding Love Again

Betrayed By Love

Song of Desire

It Had To Be You

One Sweet Night

Tempting Neal

In Blood And Worth Loving

Eye of the Beholder

Night Heat

A Thing Called Love

Summer Storm

Skin Deep

Ellora's Cave

Night of Sin

Bloodlust series:

Conquering Mikhel Dumont

The Talisman

The Taming Serge Dumont

Forbidden Desires

Nocturnal Heat

Midnight Shadows

All In The Family

Moonlight series:

Moonlight Desire

Moonlight Whispers

Long Line of Love series:

Night of Desires

Love Out Loud

Only One Love

Teacher's Pet

Trina's Afternoon Delight

Branded

Road To Rapture

The Fall of Troy

Full Bodied Charmer

Breathless In Black

Playing With Fire

White Christmas

Quest II—Divided Loyalties

Quest III—Return to Volter

Changeling Press

Moonlight Madness

Bloodlust—Nighttime Magic

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Marilyn Lee lives, works, and writes on the East Coast. In addition to thoroughly enjoying writing erotic romances, she enjoys roller-skating, spending time with her large, extended family, and rooting for all her hometown sports teams. Her other interests include collecting Doc Savage pulp novels from the thirties and forties and collecting Marvel comics from the seventies and eighties (particularly Thor and The Avengers). Her favorite TV shows are forensic shows, westerns (Gunsmoke and Have Gun, Will Travel are particular favorites), mysteries (loves the old Charlie Chan mysteries. Her all time favorite mystery movie is probably Dead, Again), and nearly every vampire movie or television show ever made (Forever Knight and Count Yorga, Vampire are favorites).

Marilyn has won numerous writing accolades, including a CAPA award for Bloodlust: Conquering Mikhel Dumont and the following Lub-Dubs Awards for 2009: Lifetime Achievement Award, In Blood And Worth Loving (Best erotic novel and best sci-fi/fantasy/paranormal Award.

She loves to hear from readers who can email her at [email protected] or who can visit her website,
http://www.marilynlee.org