Lost in Paradise Read Free Page A

you took my clothes off?”
    “Oh. I understand now.” He gave her another one of those devastating smiles of his. “I did. But it was dark and I kept the lights off so I wouldn’t see much.” He winked. “I promise.”
    Sure he had. Holding the covers tight, Stacia flopped back on the bed and threw her arm over her face. Could things get any worse?
    At that moment, a loud pounding came from just outside the wall next to the bed. “What’s that?”
    “That’s most likely Ronan. He went to go call for help. With luck, we’ll have you down the mountain and at Doc Martin’s in no time.”
    “You said that we were on the outskirts of Paradise. Where exactly is Paradise?”
    “We’re about fifty miles south of Mason, as the crow flies.” He had just finished slicing the ham when the door burst open, and another god on Earth walked through the door. Taller than Noah, his head almost brushed the ceiling as he walked through the door.
    Dark brown hair hung to his broad shoulders. He wore a tattoo of a snarling cat on his left bicep. Like Noah, he was shirtless. Button fly jeans rode low on his hips. His large, bare feet were dirty, as though he’d hiked down the mountain barefoot. Perhaps he had. They both seemed the mountain man type.
    “I finally got in touch with the sheriff. He’s sending up a rescue unit to take the girl down the mountain. Did you find anything to eat?”
     

Chapter Four
     
     
    She’s awake. For God’s sake, don’t scare the shit out of her. Remember, she’s human and she knows nothing about us, Noah said to Ronan as soon as he burst through the door. You’ve already scared her half to death, bursting in like that.
    “Our guest has awoken, Ronan.” Noah moved forward and indicated the bed against the front wall. “This is Stacia Naylor,” he added with a smile.
    Stop scowling. She’s liable to think that you mean to harm her. She’s rather skittish. I haven’t had the time to ask her how she made it to the river.
    That wasn’t entirely true. He’d had the time. Noah knew he’d had plenty of time to find out why she was in the river, banged up and bleeding. He just hadn’t wanted to take the time. Mostly, he’d wanted to get to know the woman, though he had no idea why.
    For some reason, finding out about the woman had seemed more important than finding out what happened to her. He still liked the way she smelled, but there was nothing remarkable about her scent.
    The woman couldn’t possibly be their mate. Everyone he’d ever talked to about it had said that they had known their mate almost immediately after scenting them.
    While Stacia Naylor smelled almost good enough to eat, it didn’t make his blood boil with the need to be with her, to make love to her, the way he’d heard should happen with a real triad mate.
    He stared at the woman. Her dark hair was a mess. She would probably cry when she saw herself in the mirror. Dark circles under her eyes told him that she needed rest. Lots of rest.
    When he first reentered the cabin, she’d looked up at him with those strange amber eyes filled with distrust.
    He couldn’t blame her. A lot of things could happen to a lone woman in the mountains, which brought him back to wondering what she’d been doing in the water in the first place.
    “How did you end up in the river?” Noah finally managed to voice the question they had both wondered about ever since they saw her on her knees in the river, throwing up a river of water.
    You haven’t asked her that yet? Ronan gave a disgusted sigh. Maybe you should have made the call.
    Any other time, Noah would have replied to that remark, but Stacia looked up at him, tears in her unusual eyes.
    “Grizzlies. They attacked our camp.” Sniffling, she wiped the back of her arm across her face. “I’d finished setting up my gear first. I remember I was kind of upset at Buffy.” She stared at the floor. “Buffy was Brian, the tax attorney’s girlfriend. She was a greenie. She