Earthbound Angels Part 1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

unreality.
    It surely wasn't as bad as that. It was just a momentary crush, enhanced on by the plush surroundings and amazing food. She would get used to his attractiveness when she started staying with him, would start to notice those annoying quirks and faults that always started to emerge from behind the façade that men presented to women in order to impress them.
    She just had to try to not think about him all the time. It was imperative that she be able to distract herself whenever she thought of him that way.
    Mentally, she went through her plans for the coming days and went back to packing.
Chapter Nine
    By ten AM, Hollianne was ready to take a quick shower and be on her way. As it turned out, she really didn't have all that much to pack.
    Following her shower, she put her blonde hair up into a ponytail and donned some jeans and a t-shirt. She felt this was a much safer outfit to wear so that she didn’t perpetuate any misconceptions that she may have left with Erick last night. He needed to see that she wasn’t pursuing him in a manner unseemly to their employer-employee relationship. She looked decent enough, but certainly not overdone. Just as she had finished dressing, the doorbell rang.
    The truck was here.
    For the next half hour, Hollianne supervised the men loading her stuff into the truck and gave them the address for the storage facility. She had reserved the unit and the manager had instructions to lock it after her things had been delivered.
    When they had left, Hollianne stood in the middle of the bare living room.
    Looking around one last time at the home she had shared with Adam, she brushed away tears. They had not had a long time together, but for a while they had been happy in their own quiet way. For the first time ever, she had looked forward to returning home, knowing that she would find him there and that they would spend the evening doing nothing in particular, just glad to be close. Then it all ended suddenly, the shock like a slap to the face that her ears seemed to have stopped ringing from only now. It was over, and she felt able to say goodbye.
    Taking a deep breath, feeling that she was taking a crucial and final step into the next phase of her life, she placed the key to the townhouse on the kitchen bar and walked out the door, closing it firmly behind her – forever.
    She gave an involuntary gasp when she saw the rental car waiting for her at the curb. It was no penny-pinching hire – it was a BMW coupe in sky blue with red leather upholstery. The driver got out and handed her an odd-looking device that reminded her of a mini remote, explaining to her that it was a keyless car. What he handed her was a device that allowed her to open the doors and the trunk. She only needed to push a button inside the car to start it. Then he showed her how the security and entertainment systems worked, and told her that the GPS had been set to take her where she was meant to go.
    Thanking him, she got into the car, started the engine wearing a huge smile of anticipation on her face, and drove away. Hollianne drove for nearly an hour in a direction that brought her outside of Moon Bay. Before long, she was in a rural area where she had rarely ventured in the past. It was good that Erick had the GPS set for her. She would have gotten lost without it.
    She came to a gravel road, long and flanked on either side by low-hanging willow trees. It might have been a little spooky at night but right now, it was just a beautiful place to be.
    About a mile later, she reached a paved driveway that encircled one of the largest homes she had ever seen. By all appearances, it was a 19th century mansion that had been extended at some point in a way that did not damage the overall proportions, but rather served to increase the sense of imposing grandeur. It recalled the residence of an ambassador, except that it did not wear the same sense of self-importance. The owner needed no pomp and circumstance to advertise