A Glimpse of the Dark Side: Adult Paranormal Erotic Romance Collection (15 page)

Sitting back in his chair, he gazed out the
window of his high rise office. The view of the city of Moon Bay
never failed to amaze him. Even as old as it was, the city still
rose to meet the challenges of modern technology while meshing it
with the older and more historical sections.

His view of all of it calmed him.

As Simon thought back on his journey thus far,
he couldn't say that he regretted any part of it. Well, there were
some regrettable areas -- those events when he'd been incredibly
ignorant.

He and Erick had both been angels. However, they
had been cast out of Heaven to live among the humans that they had
so criticized. At first, they had both been quite angry at the
situation, but the longer they remained on Earth, the more adjusted
they had become.

Simon had adjusted faster than Erick, but it had
taken meeting Hollianne for Erick to realize that he could live a
very happy life here as a human.

He had to smile when he thought of the changes
that had taken place in Erick since he had met and fallen in love
with Hollianne Talbot. These changes were so intense that Simon had
heard it in Erick's voice the first time he had spoken to him after
meeting Holli -- even when they were talking on the phone. It was a
truly beautiful experience for them both, and it warmed Simon's
heart each time he thought of it.

Even though they were disgraced and fallen
angels, their Father had not totally abandoned them. They wanted
for nothing. Their only condition was that they had to use special
powers that they had been granted to help unfortunate humans. He
had long since stopped questioning how certain humans were chosen
for his help. Rather, he had started to just accept it and help
those that were sent to him.

It was this very situation that had brought him
together with some of the most special people that he had ever met.
Of course, there was Erick who was his brother. Then there was
Karl, his house manager. Simon had long ago started to think of
Karl in that capacity. But he was much more than that. He was
Simon's friend, and that meant more than any of Karl's other
numerous talents, which weren't simple necessities -- he often
wondered how he could live as comfortably and accomplish many
things without Karl. As a friend and a house manager who took care
of most of his needs, Karl was irreplaceable.

In truth, there wasn't anything that Simon had
found that Karl could not do. He was a registered nurse, a world
class chef, a licensed masseuse, and his chauffeur. Not only that,
but Karl did do windows when cleaning the Simon's home as well as
the laundry.

The first thing he had learned when he started
living as a human was how activities that used to be mundane were
pushed in the forefront of his struggle. Angels don't eat, do
laundry, and clean after themselves. But suddenly, he needed to
learn how to cook, wash clothes, and take a bath every few hours.
It would sometimes made him feel foolish, remembering his early
struggles were about which to use in order to clean an undershirt
-- a bar of soap or the powder? Although the bath soap had smelled
much better, and yes, he did use that for quite a while.

But of course, when Karl came to his life he
gratefully, and finally, had had time to face the more serious
challenges in being a human that used to be an angel.

And that had been quite a ride. It was curious
that the first unfortunate incident in his interaction with humans
that had pushed him to the direction that he needed to take and the
mission that he had to take upon as a mantle -- defender of the
innocent. Simon used the Law to defend humans who had been falsely
accused of wrong doing.

His first mission was a man whose name was
Dennis Harmon. The first time he met him was the time Dennis had
saved him from a muggers. But he had been beaten so much that he
lost consciousness, only to learn upon waking up in the hospital
that Dennis himself had been accused of the one that had beaten and
tried to steal from him. Oh, and did he need to be reminded how
painful it was to be mugged?

It was ironic, that the beings he'd been
accusing for a long time of being worthless of the Father Time's
love, proved themselves to be worthy just by being themselves --
reckless, ignorant, and weak. Oh, how much they had thought him
about humility. Angels and humans had the capacity to believe they
were "better" than certain other people. It's the attitude, and not
the person, and someone with a superior attitude would always find
something -- even the most ridiculous reasons -- to insult another
and then feel superior.

Did that mean that angels were just incredibly
insecure? That would have been Dreama's answer, had she known about
angels.
Had she known about me,
he thought.

As he reflected on the past, he gradually moved
forward and landed in the present.

THIS BROUGHT THE beautiful image of Dreama
Addison to his mind. With her perfect light blonde, shoulder length
hair and sexy aquamarine eyes, she drew him in more and more all
the time. Even though he had known her for a while, he had never
been able to get as close to her as he wanted because of some
inescapable complications.

The first one was that she was the younger
daughter of the senior partner in the Law Firm where he worked. The
second was that Raven, the older and favorite daughter, had made it
quite obvious as soon as she could manage that she wanted him for
herself. And Raven could be very ruthless when she wanted
something. Just a whiff that Simon was actually interested in
Dreama could set manipulated events that would make life
uncomfortable for the younger woman. That was the reason why, on
social gatherings when both of them were there, he avoided being
near Dreama for too long, in case Raven noticed that he was
interested in being more than a friend to her younger sister.

Yes, truly. Raven could be such a pain in the
ass.

Simon was still very much lost in thought,
figuring out how he was going to find time being with Dreama
without Raven there, when the phone on his desk buzzed.

Hitting a button on it, he said, "Yes,
Rosalyn?"

"Simon, Ms. Addison is here to see you," Rosalyn
said over the message system.

"Wonderful, Rosalyn! Send her in!"

Simon jumped up from behind his desk with a
decided spring in his step as he hurried to the door. Whipping it
open to greet her, he had to adjust the disappointed look on his
face when he saw who it was.

"Ah, Raven," he said.

"Well, yes, Simon," the woman said to him. "Who
did you think it was?"

"I knew it was you," he lied as he allowed her
to hug him.

"Oh, did you think my lovely sister just dropped
by?" Raven said archly.

"No, I knew it wasn't Dreama."

Even as Simon lied to Raven, he did his best to
hide that fact. But he had a feeling that he wasn't fooling her in
the least.

So Raven had heard that Dreama had been dropping
by recently. There was no doubt that she was here today to find out
how he liked being visited by her sister.

He did think Dreama would be here today, had
actually thought this was true when Rosalyn said a Miss Addison was
outside his office door. Since Dreama started assisting Holli in
her wedding preparations, the younger woman would sometimes be near
enough the office that she would drop by to visit her father,
peeking into his office a few times, too, before she would leave
for a restaurant or for the castle to meet Holli.

Raven tilted her beautiful head to the side a
bit, her long black hair swinging. Her dark eyes flashed at him in
disbelief, but she kept her thoughts to herself. Instead, she laid
a well-manicured hand on his arm. "I thought we could have lunch
together, if you don't have any plans," she said.

"Um, sure, I'd like that," he said. "Let me just
tell Rosalyn that I'm leaving."

Turning his back to grab his suit jacket gave
him a chance to regain his composure. He didn't want to be so
transparent, especially to Raven, but it was becoming harder all
the time to deny how he felt about her sister Dreama.

Dammit, he had to get a grip. If he didn't,
everyone would know how he felt and that just wasn't something that
could happen.

At least not yet.

So for now, he turned around and smiled at Raven
as they strolled out of the office.

OVER LUNCH, RAVEN kept up a running stream of
chatting.

She was really quite good at that, which came in
handy when Simon wasn't in the mood to talk. He had a lot on his
mind that he barely tasted his steak sandwich and cheese fries.
There were times that he simply didn't want to eat healthy and this
was one of them.

Raven had lifted a carefully arched eyebrow at
him when he ordered his food but wisely remained silent and ordered
her own shrimp salad and mineral water.

Finally, she stopped talking and sipped her
water.

"Simon, you haven't been listening to a word
I've said," she said icily.

"Sure I have, Raven," Simon protested. "I've
just got a new case that's kind of preying on my mind right now.
I'm sorry if I've made you feel that I'm not paying enough
attention to you. Please, go ahead with what you were saying."

"Oh, never mind," Raven said, waving her hand
dismissively. "It's not important, anyway. What I wanted to ask you
about is Erick's wedding. You're his Best Man, aren't you?"

"Yes, I sure am," Simon answered, smiling, even
as he began to feel like he needed to take care about what he would
say next. If Holli and Dreama had hit it off from the first, Holli
and Raven did not. Upon knowing about Dreama's humble background,
Raven had acted snobbish, and had petulantly declared that she
wasn't someone worthy of a billionaire like Erick to a select few.
Noone had to tell Holli about this, because she already was
sensitive enough to know. But when Erick noticed, the look on his
face was enough to tell that Raven would never be in any if his
lists. Not even of his least favorites.

"Well, I thought I would help you out and go as
your date, since I know you don't want to be hounded by all of
those single women that are sure to be there. Just let me know when
you have all the details on the date and time so I can have a new
outfit to wear."

SIMON STARED AT Raven for a few moments more
before he was sure she actually said what she had said.

And then he would have wanted to laugh, but he
instead put what remained of his tasty sandwich down on his
plate.

There was no way Raven was going to be his date
to the wedding.

How long was this nasty business going to last?
If he only knew what Dreama actually felt about him, things would
have been different.

Raven had always felt herself to be in
competition with her younger sister. There had been some issues in
the beginning when Simon and Dreama had first met. Raven had been
jealous that he and Dreama had hit it off and it had been a bit of
a problem.

In fact, Simon hadn't seen Dreama very often at
first because of the way Raven reacted -- and because something
always "happened" that would eliminate either one of them in any
event when they could have been together. When he learned that
Raven had been manipulating arrangements so that schedules would
not permit he and her sister would not be in one place at the same
time, especially when the event had something to do with the firm,
he knew he only had opportunities to act freely with Dreama
anywhere wherein Raven would definitely not be there, like events
arranged by other people and other friends.

He definitely didn't understand what was going
on in Raven's head. Of course, there hadn't actually been anyone in
his life for her to be jealous of until he had met Dreama. On the
other hand, he had never given her cause to think anything else
between them could be more than... well, friends. Although, come to
think of it, they weren't really friends. Raven was a lawyer, too,
and she was actually intelligent and smart. They had discussed
cases many times. But they hadn't really been personally close. She
might talk about personal happenings in her life, but he never did
unless it had something to do with the firm.

He had dated his share of women, but no one had
hit him like Dreama and he had never even taken her out on a date.
He definitely had never dated Raven. But... there were those
instances when they were together in one place and she would call
it a date when she talked to other people. He only had heard about
this recently, when colleagues had begun kidding him about dating
the senior partner's daughter.

But he already had plans for pursuing Dreama by
that time that he took care not to aggravate Raven until he was
sure about how he stood with her younger sister.

He had been hoping to make his move on Erick and
Hollianne's wedding. Dreama would be there, and he could ask her
out. It would be the perfect way to spend some time with her so
that she might consider actually going out on a date with him.

Dreama was going to be Holli's maid of honor, a
fact that did not escape Raven's notice. Raven wasn't even included
in anything that would put her remotely in the "in circle" that
included Erick and his would be wife. Not even her father's
association with Simon, who was known to be one of Erick's close
friends, had earned her invitations to parties in the castle. She
was surely hoping she would be invited in the wedding, at least,
and was making sure she would be there with Simon for people to
see, giving her an edge over Dreama. Simon already knew her enough
to know how she would think about things like this.

Hollianne hadn't hit it off so well with Raven
due to Raven's inherent competitive nature. Not to mention that
Raven had been a bit snarky to Hollianne, which was a serious
mistake because
that
was the only reason why she had never
been invited to the castle
ever
. Hollianne
Talbot-soon-to-be-Angell took nothing from people. It may have been
due to the things that she had gone through in her life that made
her intolerant. Whatever it was, Holli had refused to be faced with
Raven's insulting nature, so she would avoid her as much as she
could. She certainly would not be insulted in her own
territory.