Lost Paradise (37 page)

“You were so cute, Sar. Dressing up your
tricycle with jewelry, and your girl dolls with their horses,
swords, and shields, and the strange costumes you dressed up
in.”

I got more even red, if that was
possible.

“I think you were trying to be a belly
dancer, maybe?”

“I was trying to be an Amazon. And you were
not supposed to ever find out about that,” I said, biting my lip.
“No one was supposed to see those pictures, ever.”

“You are embarrassed?” he said curiously.
“Why?”

Duh
. “I’d had pants on my head. It’s
kind of self-explanatory.”

“You should not be embarrassed,” he said
lovingly, coming closer. “I loved seeing the woman you are taking
shape in the little girl you once were—”

He was making his move. “I’m going to head
out,” I said, backing toward the door. “But thank you for letting
me visit with her—”

“Sar, wait, I—”

Go now.
“Have a good day, Dev,” I said
quickly. “Please take care of her. I’ll be back in a few days.” I
got out and shut the door quickly, then hurried downstairs.

To my relief, Devlin didn’t follow. But
Serena wasn’t there and neither was Titus. Deciding the safest
place to wait was down in Titus’s lab, I went to the basement and
got into one of the big leather chairs, pulling a heavy blanket
over me.

It was quiet down there. For a while I
thought about Devlin, and then about Danial. Just as I was dozing
off, I felt a hand on my arm.

“Sar?”

I opened my eyes. Lash was beside my chair,
his hand on my arm.

“It’s good to see you,” he hissed.

It was hard for me to meet his eyes. Seeing
him brought back all the embarrassing things that he and I had gone
through during The Lust, plus the bad experiences with Dev’s men. I
wanted to forget who I’d been with him, like I had when I had
fallen out of love with my first boyfriend in high school. Months
after we’d broken up, I’d seen him one day in the hallway and I’d
wondered what the hell I’d been thinking. That I’d been the one to
pursue him so desperately just made it worse. I felt the same way
now about Lash; uncomfortable and ill at ease.

“Venus is beautiful,” Lash hissed gently. If
his voice could have affection in it, it had it now. “She looks
like both you and Dev. She has his eyes.”

While I thought she looked more like me, I
was happy to hear that Venus had gotten her father’s golden eyes.
“I hoped she’d get his eyes,” I said, trying to smile.

Lash squeezed my arm a little. “Would you be
interested in some sushi?”

I shifted in my seat. “Um…no, not just—”

“Sorry,” Lash hissed immediately, withdrawing
his hand. “I won’t touch you again.”

Guilt flooded me. Lash hadn’t been in the
grip of anything; his desire for me had been powerful and real. It
hadn’t ebbed, as mine had. “I’m sorry, Lash,” I said, biting my
lip. “I used you—”

“Stop,” Lash hissed sternly, some of his old
nastiness back in his tone. “We both got what we wanted out of the
time we spent together. It’s over now, and that’s that.” He stood
up abruptly, and turned to go.

“Lash,” I said hesitantly. “Do you want me to
talk to Titus, see if he can’t take my blood—”

“No,” Lash hissed in a low, low voice that
somehow was worse than if he had shouted the word. “Keep your
blood. I shouldn’t have taken what I did from you.”

“I don’t want you to be in pain—”

Lash turned in a split second, and leaned
over me menacingly, his hands on the arms of the chair, his face
inches from mine. I shrank back into the seat. “Shut your mouth,
Sar,” he hissed in that same scary low voice, his words venomous.
“You don’t talk about that, not to anyone, remember?”

“I remember,” I squeaked.

“Good,” he hissed. Then he turned and left,
without a backward look.

I sat there for a moment, trembling, and then
Titus came in. “Everything okay?” he rumbled in his bass voice.

Everything was not okay. But there was no way
to fix it. It was just as well Dev and I were done; now that he had
what he wanted from me, he would forget me. There was no going back
for a do-over to make Lash into a different man than he was,
someone I could have called friend. There was only going forward,
away from Hayden and the paradise I’d hoped to find here. I’d make
a new life with Danial and Theo. With time, remembering the dreams
I’d had would sting less. That would have to be enough of a plan.
The rest I’d figure out on the way.

“I just had a bad dream,” I whispered. “But
it’s over now. Take me home, please.”

About the Author

Tara Fox Hall’s
writing credits include nonfiction, horror, suspense,
action-adventure, erotica, and contemporary and historical
paranormal romance. She is the author of the paranormal
action-adventure
Lash
series and the vampire romantic
suspense
Promise Me
series. Tara divides her free time
unequally between writing novels and short stories, chainsawing
firewood, caring for stray animals, sewing cat and dog beds for
donation to animal shelters, and target practice.

Other works by the author with Melange Books,
LLC

Return To Me

Surrender to Me

The
Origin
of Fear in
Spellbound 2011 Anthology

Night Music
in Midnight Thirsts II Anthology

Partners
in Midnight Thirsts II Anthology

Kink
in
Wicked Christmas Wishes Anthology

The Oath
in Wicked Christmas Wishes Anthology

Bedtime Shadows Anthology

Make Me Behave Anthology

Latham’s Landing, An Anthology

The Promise Me Series

1. Promise Me

2. Broken Promise

3. Taken in the Night

4. Taken for his Own

4.5. Promise Me Anthology

5. Immortal Confessions

6. Her Secret

7. Point of No Return

8. Lost Paradise

Coming Soon

Dark Solace, Book 9 of the Promise Me Series

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