A Summer in Paradise Read Online Free PDF Page A

never
approached them before. She knew they would never make a move on
her until she turned eighteen.
    She’d also known she couldn’t stick
around long enough to reach an appropriate age. Crystal had been
safe as long as she hadn’t started her menses, but at fourteen, her
time was running out and they knew they had to get her out of
Paradise before her scent changed.
    The two of them knew they had to get
their fourteen year-old sister out of Paradise before some sick
bastard took a liking to her and forced himself on her. It was bad
enough that she and Gemma had to endure their sick pawing. They had
both refused to allow their little sister to be subjected to it as
well.
    It had taken Pearl years to heal. She
suspected it took Gemma at least as long. The road back to mental
health had been a long one, filled with pitfalls and many, many
winding side roads. It had felt like forever before she could look
at a man without wondering if he was trying to figure out a way to
get her alone so he could violate her. It had been even more years
before she overcame her fear of the dark, elevators and just plain
being alone.
    After thousands of dollars spent on
counseling sessions, Pearl was her own woman once again. Fear no
longer ruled her actions or her life. The sick bastards who took
away her right to choose, who stole her control over her life for
that space in time, lost the hold they had over her.
    Now she had the control. She lived her
life for herself. Pearl was through hiding from solitude and the
darkness. She had come home this one last time to prove it—to
herself as much as to any man left who was party to her
violation.
    Pearl drifted on the current, the cool
water washing around her, but not fully cooling her blood. She
relaxed, listening to the silence and enjoying her time alone. She
smiled, knowing that just two short years ago, doing this very
thing would have terrified her.
    A sound in the bushes drew her
attention and she smiled. It was most likely one of the men coming
to see what was taking her so long. She sat up and looked toward
the shore, her smile still in place.
    She turned warily when she heard the
sound again. It couldn’t be one of the men. The noise came from the
wrong side of the river.
    As quietly as she could, Pearl made her
way to the bank. It was most likely nothing and she could laugh at
herself later for freaking out over a rabbit scaring the crap out
of her. However, life had taught her to be cautious. Just as she
bent to retrieve her towel, a feral boar charged from the brush and
headed for the river.
    With a scream, Pearl took off running,
glad that she had decided to wear her river shoes into the water.
At least she wasn’t running through the woods with bare
feet.
    Damn! Wasn’t this just her luck? Sure, she’d had the thought that
she just might get eaten tonight, but this wasn’t quite what she
had in mind.
    Pearl ran as fast as she could toward
the cabin, looking back occasionally as she heard the boar getting
closer and closer. It crashed through the woods behind her, making
the most fearsome noises she had ever heard in her life.
    With one last yelp, Pearl dove toward
the nearest tree with a branch low enough to climb onto. Once
higher in the tree, she sat and waited. Sooner or later, Duncan and
Jarrod would wonder where she was and come looking. She only had to
hold on until then.
    It was a good thing she wasn’t up here
on this mountain alone like she’d originally planned. One thing was
for sure, once the wild boar got a good look at what the two men
could shift their shape into, it would take off. Either that, or it
would stand and fight and the three of them could make use of the
small smokehouse situated behind the cabin.
    She had only been in the tree for a
minute or two when two large Jaguars burst into the clearing. The
largest of the two hit the boar hard. They went tumbling into the
brush as the jaguar growled, its large paws swatting at the animal.
The boar