Visions Of Paradise (2 page)

He followed her into her room, his eyes going wide when he saw her things. “Have you been on a shopping spree?”

“What?” She glanced around then gave him a lopsided smile that he wanted nothing more than to kiss from her face. “Oh, no. I’ve been gathering this stuff for some time. I’m saving up for when I finally get a place of my own.”

She moved to the counter next to a door he assumed led to the bathroom. A hot plate sat on the counter, a clean pan sitting next to it. A small refrigerator sat on the floor beneath the sink and her laundry hung everywhere. He smiled when she yanked down her lacy underwear and held it behind her.

“Leave it there if it’s still wet.” It was the only reason he could think of that would explain why the clothes weren’t packed in the bags he’d just settled in her vehicle.

“It’s okay. I’ll just go put these in the truck,” she said before she pushed past him and hurried from the room.

Resting his hands on his hips, he grinned after her. She’d been embarrassed. He could see the telltale darkening of her cheeks and smell her discomfort. He glanced around the small room. She was a trusting woman. He could be going through her things instead of standing here wondering where to start.

“I guess we should leave the fridge for last. I have a few things that need to stay cold and my power port won’t work if the truck isn’t running.”

Okay. So now he knew what
not
to take out first. “What if I start carrying boxes out to the truck? When we get there, you can tell me whether to put it in the truck or to set it on the ground to go in later.”

She grabbed two bags, one a purse, the other a laptop bag and hiked them up on her shoulders. She pointed at two boxes near the door. “The ones closest to the door should go out first. I left them staged just in case…” She let her words trail off.

Jonas mentally finished her sentence.
Just in case she had to leave in a hurry.
What’s going on, beautiful, and who frightens you?

He wanted nothing more than to find out what or who had this intriguing woman on the run. Where he came from, no one treated a woman poorly. Where he came from, he could protect her from whatever it was she feared. No one would succeed in harming her in his town. Not anymore.

The men in Paradise respected and treasured their women. Mate or not, attached or not. Every male committed himself to the protection and wellbeing of every female under their protection.

He still didn’t know what it was, but there was something about Milla that struck a protective chord in him. Something about her made him want to drag her back to Paradise where he could keep her until her fears were no more.

After that, he might keep her longer. He wanted her, lusted for her and nothing, no one, had stirred his senses so thoroughly in over thirty years.

Picking up the first few boxes by the door, he tried to ignore her wide eyes and the way her lips glistened a dark mauve when her tongue darted along the seam of her mouth.

His cock pulsed, grew hard, as he loaded the boxes into her vehicle. Every inhalation drove him higher, making his cock throb with every beat of his heart until he felt ready to explode.

Jonas wanted nothing more than to pull her into this room, close the door and rip the clothes from her tempting body. What stopped him was the way she kept treating him like a child.

“I’m not a boy,” he said with a growl when she gave him another of her smiles and a pat when he passed. “I am a
man
.” He flashed her a glare as he passed. “Stop treating me like a child.”

“You’re just a kid compared to me. It’s difficult to think of you as anything else,” she said and turned to walk away.

“To hell with this.” Jonas dropped the box labeled
blankets and towels
onto the ground behind the SUV, grabbed Milla’s arm and yanked her around. “I’ll show you how much of a child I am,” he said before he thrust his hand into her hair, pulled her head back and covered her mouth with his.

The result was an explosion of sensation that he hadn’t expected. His head spun, his ears rang and every cell in his body stood at attention. This was a woman who could mean so much more to him than a helpless female. This woman stirred things in him that no one had ever awoken before.

Blood rushed to his groin, making him harder than he already was, if that was even possible. A fire started in his lower abdomen, spreading out through his blood, encompassing his entire body until he couldn’t think. He could only back her against the SUV, pinning her between him and the taillight as he continued to ravage her mouth with his.

The feel of her lips drove him mad with a need to make her his own. It was at that moment that Jonas realized that Milla, recently of the Mason hotel, could be his mate.

Milla’s heart raced as the man held and kissed her. No. He wasn’t a man. He was a boy and she was old enough to be his mother—or almost old enough. She couldn’t allow the kiss to continue. It was wrong.

Placing her hands against his chest, she pushed away from him. Looking up, she swung her arm, her palm striking his face. She glared at him, and tried not to feel bad when the welt in the shape of her hand appeared on his jaw.

She tried to catch her breath. She couldn’t let him know that kiss had stirred her blood. Her cheeks burned with mortification when she realized just how much she had enjoyed that kiss.

“Don’t touch me again.” She picked up the box he dropped and shoved it into her truck. “In fact, I think you should go. I can pack the rest up by myself.”

The refrigerator would be heavy, but she’d manage. She had to. Milla hadn’t planned for his help. She could certainly wrestle one small refrigerator into the SUV by herself. She opened the passenger side back door and headed for her room. There was no better time to find out. Surely she could manage to make it out the door of the room and the twenty feet to the vehicle without pulling a muscle.

“Don’t be ridiculous. Some of the heaviest stuff is still in there.” He followed her into the room. Just inside the door, Milla spun around and held her hand up. “Don’t come any further. I don’t need your help.”

“Of course you do.” He pointed toward the back of the room. “You need me to carry that out to your truck, unless it’s empty.

Milla bit her lip. The mini fridge wasn’t empty. Even if it was, she would have a hell of a time getting it into the truck without tipping it. She knew if she tipped it more than thirty to forty degrees she would ruin the compressor. She didn’t know why, but she’d seen it happen before.

Getting it out of her truck had been easy. She had no idea what even possessed her to buy the thing, other than eating things she made in her room were less expensive than anything she could purchase at the cheapest fast food place.

Milla glared at him. “I don’t trust you.” How could she trust the man? He could force himself on her at any time. Just that kiss was enough to make her realize that he could do whatever he wanted and she would be powerless to stop him. He might be younger than her, but he was also a lot bigger.

“Look,” he said as he frowned down at her and ran his fingers through his hair. “I’m sorry. I don’t know what came over me. I took advantage and I realize that. Let me make it up to you.”

She wanted his help. Milla wrung her hands. In fact, she
needed
his help, more than she wanted to admit. Her skin crawled with the familiar sensation that told her Perry and the rest of the group was hot on her trail.

Her skin itched as though a thousand bugs crawled on her. It was her internal warning system. Perry was close. He was very close.

Mason was no longer a safe haven for her. She had to leave before they showed up. Milla didn’t know how Perry kept finding her. She’d even ditched her truck and fifth-wheel camper, thinking that he’d somehow put some sort of GPS tracker on them. She’d replaced them with the SUV. It was still technically a truck, and she could sleep in it if she had to.

Leaving her trailer had been a difficult decision and one of the hardest things she’d ever done. It had been her home for ten years. Dumping the trailer made it easier to run but it left her homeless. She spent more of her nest egg on hotel rooms than she cared to think about.

If she didn’t manage to lose Perry and his minions soon, he would get his way. Milla would have nowhere else to go. She would have to go crawling back to the carnival. She’d rather do anything but that. It had taken her years to save up enough of her tips to leave. If forced to go back, she could be stuck for the rest of her life.

“Okay.” She sighed and waved her arm for him to enter. “But only because I need to leave here as soon as possible.” She cast a wistful gaze at the mountain. She would miss that the most. She had fallen in love with that mountain over the last few weeks. “I liked it here, too.” Dropping her gaze to the floor, her shoulders slumped. How could she keep Perry from catching her?

“What are you running from?”

Milla spun around at the sound of the strange, male voice. Her eyes went wide and her mouth fell open as she stared at the man who stood in the door to her room.

“Y-you’re…y-you’re…” Milla couldn’t wrap her mind or her tongue around the fact that she was looking at one of her favorite movie stars. Only it couldn’t possibly be him. This man was too young—in his early to mid thirties at the most. It couldn’t possibly be the actor he resembled so much unless the man really was forever young.

“Hi!” He held his hand out with a grin. He knew what she thought and he liked the fact that he had her speechless. That was plain to see. “I’m Mel.”

“Oh, god!” She brought her hand to her throat. Her face burned as she stared at the poor man. It was all she could do to stand staring at him when her legs wanted to give out and her body threatened to melt into a puddle at his feet.

“Don’t faint. I’m not
that
Mel.” He flashed a smile. “I just look a lot like him. That’s all.” He flicked a not-so-friendly glance at Jonas. “
His
last name is Gibson, not mine.”

“What are you doing here so early?” Jonas glowered at the other man. It was easy to see that there was no love lost between the two men.

“Merrick sent me out to get parts for the new squad cars. Penny’s garage didn’t have them in stock.” He made a face. “I don’t know why they didn’t buy new units. It’s not as though the town is destitute.” He shook his head. “The man is going to pay more fixing up those pieces of junk than if he’d just shelled out the cash for new cars.” Mel crossed his arms, showing off his impressively toned arms and chest.

Milla tried not to look. They were both too young for her. It was difficult, though. She was nearing middle age, not dead!

Mel glanced around her to the interior of her room. “Going somewhere?”

Why didn’t she take the man’s hand while she’d had the chance? She needed to know if he worked for Perry. Generally, she could read everyone, but those who worked at the carnival. Carnies had some sort of built-in barrier—at least those who worked at Perry’s carnival had one. Those, she had to touch. Somehow, contact overrode the barrier and opened their minds to her.

These two were different from normal folk. They were like carnies. They both had some sort of invisible guard that blocked her. However, she’d read Jonas. She knew that Jonas was no carnie—unless he’d managed to hide his true self from her. Was that even possible?

Whatever it was, that made them different. It also made them suspect. She couldn’t trust Mel until she read his true intentions. Even then, she couldn’t trust him to keep his hands to himself. After all, she hadn’t seen that toe-curling kiss that Jonas gave her coming.

God, she hated this life. She hated secrets and all of the reasons for keeping them. Why couldn’t she just find a nice, normal town and settle down? Even then she would still have secrets, but at least they would be
her
secrets, not everyone else’s.

“Yes. I’m leaving town.” She had almost told the man it was none of his business, but her mother always said she would catch more flies with honey than she would with vinegar. That much, at least, was true. She glanced down at her feet before offering him her hand. “I’m sorry I didn’t accept your hand before. I didn’t mean to be rude. You just surprised me.”

It wasn’t every day she saw a dead ringer for a major movie star. It was a miracle she hadn’t fainted dead at their feet.

Mel took her hand in his much larger one and squeezed her fingers before lifting it to his lips.

What was it with these two? Were they throwbacks to another time or did they have a healthy respect for women that she had thought long dead? It was too bad she had to leave here. If this town bred their type of man, it could be just the town she’d been looking for to settle down in—a veritable paradise for someone like her.

“I’m happy to meet you, Milla. It isn’t often that we are blessed with the presence of such a beautiful woman.”

Milla’s face grew warmer. “You two really know how to lay it on thick.” She stared at the two for a minute, wondering what their parents would think about them flirting with a woman of color.

The two men gave each other a narrow-eyed glare. There was no mistaking the animosity between them. If she read Mel right, the two barely tolerated each other. Both of them were in some sort of law enforcement, but it wasn’t the police and it wasn’t the military. Milla frowned. Was it the FBI or CIA? She doubted it, but she didn’t read that deep when he’d taken her hand. She’d only wanted to know if they knew Perry, or knew of him. They didn’t. Thank god for that. The rest was none of her business.

That was why Perry wanted to keep her close. He was constantly trying to get her to read deeper. Even if she had, she wouldn’t consciously try to remember anything and she definitely wouldn’t tell Perry what she’d learned. He’d wanted the information to steal from people or to blackmail them. It was wrong and Milla had refused to be a part of his scheme.

“I don’t know about him,” Jonas said with a growl as he jerked his thumb toward Mel. “But I’m being sincere. I hate to see a woman in need. I help them whenever I can.”