Chapter One
Rebecca Lake stomped around her room, alternately mumbling to herself and shooting death glares at her computer. She was supposed to be writing right now–scratch that, she had been supposed to be writing all day. Instead, she binge-watched shark documentaries, baked a chocolate cake and did five levels of the online RPG game she liked. Now when the day was done, she had to admit that she wasn't just procrastinating.
Writer's block had sunk in.
"Four multi-million dollar best sellers and I still can't write a stupid fight scene. Maybe I've lost my edge. No, I'm just tired and all wound up."
She sighed as she grabbed a jacket and peered outside. It was the middle of the night but the full moon paired with the street lamps lining the road made it bright enough to go for a walk. In her agitated state it was the only thing that might be able to calm her down.
The cold night air made her shiver but helped to cool the flush in her cheeks. Spending the day indoors had left her feeling restless, and it wasn't until she passed the gate off of her property that she started to relax. The problem was that she was putting too much pressure on herself. Four multi-million dollar books was a tough act to follow. She wanted to keep those positive reviews rolling in…
And she had made the mistake of reading a 'critical' review that was basically the reviewer hating on the fantasy genre and whining because her work wasn't 'serious' enough. Who cared what they thought? She wrote to make people happy, not great works of literature.
Of course, as soon as she got upset over the review she had gotten mad at herself for not having thicker skin. People had a right to their opinions, after all.
Putting the thoughts of writing from her mind, she instead turned to the scenery. She had bought a small farm with the money from her first book, although she didn't do much with it at the moment besides grow vegetables. On two sides of her property was forest, across the road was a large field where corn grew taller than she was, and on the fourth side was Isaias Durant's house.
Well, it was more of a mansion than a house. Not that she could see much of it, there were such high walls surrounding it. She would have loved an unobstructed view… he had a pool and from the sounds of splashing in it, he was often in it.
She could just imagine what the big, beautiful man looked like in swim trucks. Or better, skinny dipping.
A flush rose into her pale skin and Becky turned around. Isaias Durant was very attractive and he was quite friendly to her, but she had an annoying habit of imagining romance with people who fit those criteria. Isaias had never once given any inclination he might like her like that. And really, who could blame him?
It was late, she needed to sleep. No more thinking about writing–or handsome billionaires–tonight. Tomorrow she'd get up fresh and early and go for a nice walk in the forest before she sat down to write. If only the story wasn't giving her such a hard time.
Something moved in the tree line and she hurried her steps, keeping an eye on the shadows. Images of cougars stalking her flashed through her mind and she was so engulfed in it that she was almost to the house before she realized that the front porch light was turned off and the door was slightly ajar.
Becky stopped dead in her tracks, her heart jumping to her throat. The porch light could have been a dead bulb but the door? No way. She always made sure to close it tight to stop mice from sneaking into her home. She backed away slowly, her gaze searching the darkened windows. Something moved inside–whether a person or a curtain blowing in the breeze, she didn't care.
She turned on her heel and dashed away. Her lungs seemed to freeze up and her tongue felt thick as she tried to shout. She slammed into the gate of Isaias' house and finally managed to scream. Loud footsteps sounded behind her and she turned–and screamed again.
A bear. Charging. She beat against the gate, fumbling with the latch.
It opened suddenly and an arm wrapped around her waist. She fell in as the bear closed in behind her. The scent of oil and pepper burst in the air. A stream of liquid shot over her head, landing right in the bear's face. It made a choking sound and turned away at once, slapping at its face. It turned once more and the person who had opened the gate dodged out, releasing more bear spray at it.
Finally, it loped off towards the forest.
Her savior rushed back into the gate and slammed it shut before turning to Becky. "Are you okay?"
Adela Choi. Isaias' housekeeper. Becky began to shake from head to toe, adrenaline still surging in her blood. Adela dropped to her knees and put an arm around her waist. Her dark hair was mussed from sleep, her amber eyes pinched with worry. She was even curvier then Becky was, with a sweet smile and gentle demeanor.
"Hey, it's okay. Were you hurt? Let's get into the house. Come on, the bear's gone and it won't come back."
Becky nodded, shakily getting to her feet. Half-leaning on Adela, she stumbled inside, grateful to put walls between her and the bear. It wasn't until the door was shut behind them that Becky let herself puddle on the floor. Her heart was racing, mouth dry. Her head spun. Adela crouched beside her, making soft, reassuring noises. Tears burned in Becky's eyes, even though she fought against them.
"What's going on here?"
Her head jerked up to see Isaias standing shirtless in the hallway. Normally Becky would have admired his physique, but after what had just happened, ogling was the farthest thing from her mind. She did manage to get to her feet, though. "I went for a walk. A bear chased me."
Isaias' eyes widened. He strode towards them quickly and glanced out the window. "Adela?"
"I drove it off with some bear spray."
"Why would it chase you, though?" Isaias muttered.
Becky answered in a hysterical shout. "I don't know!"
"You're okay." Adela put an arm around her. "The bear is gone. You're safe here. And you can stay with us tonight. Isaias has plenty of rooms or you could stay in my suite with me and my daughter. Tomorrow—"
"My house!" Becky suddenly remembered what had her running in the first place. She jumped to her feet and patted her pockets. Of course she had to be wearing a nightgown and hadn't bothered to bring her cellphone with her. Nightgown. Heat infused her face as she glanced down at herself. The jacket didn't hide the fact that she wasn’t wearing a bra or the deep v-cut of her nightgown. Why had she gone out like this again? She tried to push that aside. "Somebody broke into my house."
Isaias's face grew grim. "Adela."
"On it." She pulled a cellphone from her pocket and turned away.
"Why are they breaking into my house?" Becky dug her hands into her hair. "My computer! I haven't backed up any of my work in, like, two months. If they steal that, they're stealing…" Her heart pounded anew and she stepped towards the door. "That computer is my life. I have to go get it!"
Isaias grasped her wrist. "Whoa! Your house was broken into. You don't go purposefully interrupting robbers. Whatever is on your computer might be lost, but it's not worth your life."
He was right, of course and her face flared with heat. "No. I'm sorry, it's just… the people and then the bear…"
"You don't have to apologize." He smiled at her and two dimples in his cheeks popped out.
Becky loved those dimples.
"They're sending some cops over to check it out," Adela said, turning back to the two of them. "They suggested that we make sure that all the doors and windows are locked."
Isaias nodded. "I'll do that. You take Becky and Luci and go upstairs to the panic room just in case."
Becky shivered, thinking of the robbers coming over here as well. What if they had giant guns? Even the small ones were scary enough. What if they were sadists who liked to torture people?
"This way."
Adela hurried off, Becky following closely. They turned on all the lights as they moved through the house. By the time they collected Adela's baby daughter, the floodlights out over the pool had been turned on as well. They holed up in the panic room and Adela pulled up images from security cameras around the house.
Moments later, Isaias joined them and locked the door.
Becky twisted her hands. "We're safe in here, right?"
"I don't think they'll come over here, but you can never be too careful." Isaias checked the screens. "Once the cops arrive we'll go over to see what they took but you can still stay here tonight if you want… what sort of security systems do you have?"
"Er…" Becky ducked her head. "A deadbolt. And since I went for a walk, it wasn't even locked."
"That's it?" Adela sounded shocked.
Becky shrugged. "We're not in the city. I just sort of figured it was safe to be out here. I didn't think I needed any extra security."
"We might be away from the city, but everybody knows that rich people live here." Isaias frowned at her. "Come morning you should look into security. Even the wildlife around here is dangerous."
"Bears don't open doors." Becky shuddered again as she thought of the one that had chased her. What a night! "I think I should get one of these things installed in my house though. A panic room, I mean. I can turn it into my bedroom and have it all sealed up every night. I'd need air conditioning though… that's bad for the environment… maybe I'll have solar panels replace my roof. That'll make up for the air conditioning, right?"
Isaias laughed. If he was handsome when she saw him from a distance, close-up and smiling made him look like an Egyptian god with his chiseled abs and bronzed tones. Becky turned away, certain she'd start drooling if she looked any longer. Adela rocked her little girl, who was making whimpering noises.
"Becky, I've been meaning to tell you that I really like your writing," Adela whispered. "I read it to Luci sometimes when she can't sleep and we always enjoy it."
"Oh. Thank you. I'm glad. I know a lot of people had a problem with the ending of the last book."
Adela smiled wryly. "Well, I would have liked to see Samantha and Jack officially become a couple but I think you wrapped it up quite nicely. I mean, considering everything they went through it was still a happy ending."
"I don't like romance," Becky blurted. "All the gooey stuff and getting all sexy… I don't like that. It gets in the way of the story. I like the story and how the characters interact. I don't like romance… Well, I don't like writing romance at least. It always ends up feeling forced."
Adela rocked Luci a bit more and the baby settled into her arms. "Well, I still think they should have gotten together."
"Fanfiction. It's great. I can recommend a few…"
Becky chewed on her lip at that, regretting bringing it up. How conceited did someone (she) have to be in order to read fanfiction of their own work? Truthfully she just liked to see how fans interpreted the characters. They were her babies but sometimes she ended up too close to them to see how they would really react in a situation.
"Adela writes fanfiction," Isaias said, jabbing her in the ribs with his elbow. "I think she's got some smutty Jack/Sam stuff on her computer—"
"Stop it!" Adela's face went red. "I do not."
Becky smiled at the two of them, not relaxed but not as scared as she had been. She turned her attention back to the security cameras around the room. There was nothing unusual on there and she slumped back. When the police did come, what would she find had been done to her house?