Seducing Their Wayfaring Souls [3xtasy Lake 7] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) (2 page)

“I could carry you all day.” He smiled at her and she felt her stomach flip-flop. His eyes were as blue as the summer sky framed with long dark lashes. With his blond hair, she could’ve plunked a horned hat on him and he’d look like a Viking off a romance novel. Somewhere in the back of her mind a warning bell sounded. She fell for a beautiful smile and soft words once before.
Never again.

True to his words, he navigated the stone incline like a mountain goat and had her on the surface a moment later. Her son sat sideways on a large bike a few feet away. “Hey, Mom, how cool ith thith! I’m on a big motorthycle!”

Lars put her down and she rushed over to her son.

“Wait, Mom. Watch out for the muffler. Ith hot.” He pointed at the chrome muffler. Lars must have warned Zack when he brought him up here. She avoided the dangerous metal as she hugged Zack tightly and kissed his forehead. “Sweetie, are you okay?”

“Yeah, I’m okay. That was thcary, Mom.” He wrapped his thin arms around her neck and hugged her. She could feel the tremors starting in her arms again and tears burned her eyes.

“Mom, are you going to let go?”

“One more second.” Tara tried to take deep breaths and control her emotions, but it seemed like a momentous effort beyond her abilities at the moment.

“Ith okay, Mom.” Zack patted her back. “You can cry if you want to. I’ll pretend I didn’t thee. Larth thaid momth need to cry thometime and there ithn’t anything to be afraid of.”

Tara couldn’t help but laugh, feeling tears slip down her cheeks at her son’s reaction. Sometimes Zack sounded very old for his six years on this earth, and then other times she feared the world may forever be too scary a place for him. “Lars?”

“Yes,” the big blond man answered and Tara looked up. He towered over her and Zack, and she’d never considered herself a short woman. She kissed Zack’s cheek one more time before standing and quickly wiping the moisture off her cheeks with her sleeve.

“Thank you for your help.” She reached out to shake and he accepted. “My name is Tara Brewer and this is my son, Zack.” She watched her hand disappear in his.

“Lars Vandargard,” he replied.

He felt so very warm and she was freezing. She wanted to wrap herself around this big man and let him take care of all her problems.
Yeah, like that would ever happen.

“No problem.” He bent over and flipped open one of the saddlebags on this bike. Tara peeked and was certain her mouth dropped open at the sight of his perfect ass. She quickly turned her attention to Zack before Lars noticed. Zack sat astride the bike with his hands on the handlebars, pretending to ride it.

Lars pulled out a blanket and flicked it open before wrapping it around her shoulders. It smelled clean and fresh and a bit like the leather bag it’d been sitting in. She liked the smell and it helped her to feel a bit warmer.

“Let’s keep you warm, too.” He ruffled Zack’s hair a bit. “You still feel okay? Has anything started to hurt?” Lars asked Zack a number of questions as he pulled out another blanket. He flicked it open and wrapped it around Zack, tucking it around her son’s legs.
He must have children of his own…

Tara watched Lars take care of her son, thankful for the extreme kindness of strangers. She felt so lost and unsure at the moment. Lars turned and gently rubbed her upper arms. “I called the police as soon as I got here. They should be here any second.” Part of her relaxed in his support, while another part of her panicked. She had to stand on her own two feet.

“I can’t seem to get my thoughts in order.” She wandered to the edge of the road where she could make out her front grill peeking over the embankment. “I hope it can be pulled out and we can get going. Do you know the number of a tow truck?”

“Don’t worry about that right now,” Lars answered.

“I have to.” She rubbed her temple with her fingers. “I should take Zack to a hospital to make sure he’s okay.”

“We’ll help you, Tara.” Lars gently rubbed the back of her shoulders. “There’s a nurse practitioner in town. The nearest hospital’s kilometers away.”

An unmarked cruiser pulled up next to them with the window down. The police officer inside scanned the area and Tara was sure he took notice of every detail. “Lars, do we need an ambulance?”

“No, I called Jelani Bennett and he’ll meet us at the clinic,” Lars replied. The officer nodded and then pulled forward in front of them and parked.

“That’s Craig Walker. He’s a friend of mine and I promise we’ll take care of you.”

Tara felt like a whirlwind had descended around her. In a matter of a couple minutes another cruiser arrived and she was being questioned about the accident. Another officer spoke to Zack to see if he saw anything she didn’t. She felt less than useless because she hadn’t been paying attention to the road. She and Zack had been discussing what animals would live in the forests around them when she’d been hit. She couldn’t even remember what colour the other vehicle had been other than it was a truck of some sort.

After, she and Zack had been placed in the back of a cruiser and driven into town. Lars followed behind them on his bike. Ecstasy Lake looked like a beautiful place. She hadn’t quite understood why she’d been taken to a veterinary clinic until they’d explained the front half housed the vet clinic, and the back half, a medical clinic. She’d thought it was strange to have it in the same building but hadn’t been about to argue.

The nurse practitioner was a man named Jelani Bennett, who’d insisted on her calling him Jelani. She’d explained what she could about the accident and had answered a lot of the same questions the police has asked her. No, her air bag didn’t go off, no, she didn’t see the impact coming, yes, her head hurt. No, she wasn’t pregnant, nor did she have any history of illness and allergies.

Jelani checked her eyes and her reflexes and had patiently answered all her questions. Even when every other one was “how is my son.” Jelani’s wife, Jessica, had taken Zack to the other side of the building to the veterinary clinic so he could play with some of the animals there. At least she’d thought Jessica and Jelani were married. Jessica had arrived holding the hand of a man named Marcario and had kissed him good-bye.
I must’ve hit my head harder than I thought.

“Tara, where were you and Zack headed?” Jelani asked as he made some notes on the laptop next to him.

“I was going to Manitoba.”

He gave her a curious look. “What’s in Manitoba? Do you have some family I can call to help you out?”

Her chest tightened for a moment at the thought of her family. They didn’t want her. She’d been an embarrassment to them and their community. She’d disappointed her parents when she hadn’t followed the path they’d chosen for her. No one would make decisions for her ever again. She would live her life according to her choices. “The cost of living in the greater Toronto area is too high. I wanted to find a nice place I could raise Zack and not have to work three jobs to afford it. I have a cousin who lives in a small town outside of Winnipeg. He has a job waiting for me when we get there.”

Jelani typed out another sentence on his laptop before speaking. “To be honest, Tara, I would feel more comfortable if you and Zack stayed here for a couple days so I can keep an eye on you. Injuries from accidents like this can sometimes take up to three days to surface.”

“What do you mean?”

“What I mean is, you have a slight concussion right now and I don’t think you’ve suffered whiplash, but I can’t say for certain yet. If you’re planning a long drive to a new place, you need to know these things before you get too far.” He rolled over to the table and patted her hand where it rested on her leg. “You haven’t said anything about having anyone to watch out for you right now. I would feel much more comfortable if you stayed in town for a day or two. The hotel down the street has very reasonable rates this time of year. It’ll take at least a day to pull your car out of the ravine and make sure it’s still roadworthy.”

Tara ran her fingers through her short hair as she debated her choices. “I don’t know…I guess I can stay. I don’t have a specific timetable to meet.” She thought about her second cousin, who offered her a secretarial job at his used-car lot. He’d phoned her a few weeks before and offered her the position because he thought it was the right thing to do. She’d debated refusing the offer. She didn’t want to leave Ontario and get out in the middle of nowhere and be unable to find the extra help that Zack would need as he got older.

“Good. I’ll have my wife call Albert. He’s a sweet old man who runs the hotel. I want to follow up with you tomorrow.” He lifted a business card from the holder and quickly wrote out a number on the back. “This is my home number. If at any time you notice something’s really hurting or you’re frightened, I want you call me immediately.”

Tara held the card in her fingertips and stared down at the bold script. If this was what small towns were like, she should’ve moved years before. The card blurred and she blinked quickly trying to clear the tears from her vision. “I can’t thank you enough.”

“There isn’t anything to thank me for.” She felt him gently pat her shoulder. “I’m glad you and Zack seem to be unscathed.”

She nodded and quickly wiped a tear that managed to escape. Taking a deep breath, she pulled herself together and slid off the examination table. “Okay, I’ll come back tomorrow. Any particular time?”

“No, pop by tomorrow afternoon and we’ll see how you’re both doing. I don’t have any appointments I know of. But, don’t be afraid to call me if you need to.”

“Thank you, Mr. Bennett.” Everyone acted very casual around here, but she couldn’t bring herself to use his first name. It didn’t seem respectful enough, considering.

“Please call me Jelani.” He opened the exam room door and waited for her to exit before following behind her. A framed picture hung in the hallway. As she passed, she noticed that it looked like it had been taken somewhere exotic. Jelani was in it with his wife and the man named Marcario. Each of the men were pressing a kiss to her temple as she laughed between the two of them. The strong resemblance between the two men made her think they must be brothers. She brushed away the possibility that first crowded her thoughts. She must’ve knocked her head hard if she was envisioning this man sharing a woman with his brother.

“Come through here.” Jelani opened another door and waved her through. “Jess said she took Zack to see the animals.”

She heard Zack’s giggles the moment the door opened. Following the sound, she walked down the hall and stopped at an oversized viewing window. A large room tailored to every cat’s needs lay on the other side of the window. A little girl sat in the middle of the room next to Zack. Both of them had kittens pouncing over their legs and batting at their fingers.

Zack looked up and waved at her. “Hi, Mom!”

The little girl turned and waved as well. “Hi, Zack’s mom! Hi, Jelani!”

Jelani waved, too, and then smiled down at Tara. “I’ll go and find Jess. She can take you down to the hotel and get you settled in.”

“She really doesn’t have to go to the trouble.”

“It’s no trouble, Tara.”

Tara waved at them both and smiled as they erupted into giggles. Zack acted so much older than his years at times that she sometimes forgot he really was a little boy. He perked up again and waved at her. “Mom, thith ith Lulu. She’th my new friend.”

The little girl beamed up at her and then placed another kitten in Zack’s lap. Tara watched as Zack carefully stroked the kittens. He never tried to pick one up, and it broke her heart. She knew he was afraid of dropping them if they started to wriggle. Zack had delayed development with his fine motor skills, something he could overcome, but it would take a lot of time, money, and both physio and occupational therapy. Time and money were the two most important factors and what she had the least of. She’d read everything she could on the Internet and all the books at the library she could find, making note of things she could do to help him along. Moving to a slower lifestyle she hoped would help. Her ultimate goal would be to homeschool Zack and continuously help him with his therapy, a pipe dream that drifted farther and farther away with each year he got older. She stepped away from the window and leaned back against the wall. Reality had a way of sneaking up on her sometimes.
What am I going to do?
She had a small amount of money saved up, but she couldn’t afford to be out of work long. A week, maybe two, tops. She couldn’t afford for her car insurance to go up.
Oh god, I forgot to call the insurance.
What if her car couldn’t be fixed? She didn’t have anywhere to go or anyone to ask for help. She wracked her brain trying to come up with a solution. Short of standing on the one corner she noticed in this town, she couldn’t figure out a solution. She didn’t have anything of value.

Lars paced the floor in the waiting room of the clinic watching for Jelani to come out. He and Cris had been out for a ride when they’d come around the corner and had seen Tara’s car slide off the road. Cris had raced ahead after they saw the accident and managed to catch up to the truck that hit Tara’s car. He’d called the police, who had arrested the driver for DUI.

Lars remembered the way her body had curled against his when he carried her out of the ravine. Her breath on his neck and the soft scent of strawberries on her skin. Until now, no woman had managed to snag his attention as much as she had. It wasn’t just her sleek curves or creamy, soft skin. There was something else to her, a fragility he normally would’ve run in the opposite direction from. Femme fatales weren’t his type. Neither were overdramatic cling ons. He enjoyed free spirits who happily shared his bed and then moved on. But from the moment he’d scooped Tara up into his arms, he’d felt possessive about her. Allowing her to go back into a room alone with Jelani tore at his instincts. He wanted to be in there guarding over her. If it wasn’t for the fact Jelani and Marcario Bennett were happily Mated to Jessica, he would’ve insisted on going back there with her.