Earthbound Angels Part 1: The Heartthrob Fallen Celestial Stories Collection Read Online Free PDF Page B

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 himself. There wasn't even a name
plate on the gatepost bearing some pretentious title, no indication
whatever of what lay beyond. There must be dozens of rooms in the
place. It appeared to be the kind of house where each bedroom was a
self-contained apartment, and where 60 people could live full time
without it seeming in any way crowded.
    She pulled up in front of the house and simply
stared, drinking in the phenomenal beauty of this structure. As she
sat there, the