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"Daddy will of course discuss all this in great detail after the party" Moriah’s sht and hard "Mother is upset at Annalee’s deht Or perhaps I just wanted to see it I’ll let you knohat they say Daddy won’t stand for such behavior in his home"

"Moriah, have they bothered you further?" Jaci asked She worried about that They had terrified Moriah years before, left her with scars that Jaci feared ht never heal

"They know better," Moriah snarled, her lips tightening as the rage inside her flared to the surface "The only thing that keeps me silent is the fact that it would destroy my parents They would blame themselves for it, and I can’t bear that" She shook her head as she sat the brandy glass carefully on the bar

When she turned back to Jaci, there was a glitter of tears in her eyes "Do you still have nightmares, Jaci?"

Jaci nodded slowly "Yes"

"I see thehly "Soet it," Jaci said, "but you’re surviving, Moriah That’s all any of us can do"

Moriah breathed in roughly and nodded again "Very well, we’d better get back I’ll call you tonight and let you knohat Father said Perhaps soether, we can find a way to neutralize those monsters"

Monsters were exactly what they were As Moriah moved ahead of her to allow them to reenter the party separately, Jaci felt her chest clench at the other girl’s pain

It was one thing to atteames the Robertses played But they also had attempted to force a child into them Moriah had only been fifteen when her parents sent her to spend the summer with the Robertses while they traveled overseas to attend to business Harold Brockhei that suirl--terrified her to the point that, once her parents returned, she never spoke of it And she had never forgotten it

They hadn’t raped her; and to this day, Jaci didn’t knohat had stopped them But they had torhtest infraction They humiliated her, broke her confidence down Threatened her and her parents, allowed her to see things she should never have seen and hear things that marked her, where her own sexuality was concerned

The weeks she and Jaci had spent in her parent’s Colorado cabin had been enlightening for her, as well as for Jaci She was the only person Jaci had ever revealed the truth to, and Jaci knew Moriah would never reveal those secrets

Now they were both deterer woman was the only true ally Jaci had She would be the only person who could help her when that particular shon came

As she moved back into the ballroom, she came to a slow stop just within the wide double doors that had been thrown back to open the buffet rooaze sliding over her, touching her

She earing the dress he had bought her, the shoes, the panties, and the stockings, and she could feel hiaze was drawn across the room; it locked with his, and she could have sworn the ballroom receded as she stared back at hi She had heard of the phenomena, had heard others speak of it How the world and their vision narrowed down to one person, one event, one moment in time And that was how it happened

The scar at the side of his face icked white, indicating his anger His expression was brooding, his thick black hair was pulled back to his nape, and the evening clothes did nothing to hide the powerful frame beneath

He was a man in his pried to hie of it was rushing through her veins, heating her, sensitizing her,her aware of all the ways she was a woman And he was the man that would own her

She had hoped to face this moment later--after she had dealt with the Robertses, after she had proven to herself that she wasn’t weak, that she could fight thee that she had run froer, had haunted her for five years She had been weak, too weak to knohat they were before they had struck, too weak to strike back She wasn’t weak anymore, she told herself She had learned how to face the world

But she hadn’t learned how to handle Cam or the desires he caused to burn inside her She hadn’t learned how to handle the knowledge that, with very little effort on his part, she was going to love him with an intensity that had the power to destroy her From the mo teen, so within her had known he was ied

The Robertses had been an excuse, when it ca o to Cam, so she had needed an excuse, a reason not to allow another et hiet him out of her mind or her heart, and every man she had met she compared to him, and they had fallen far short of the an to move across the roo to hihtened Because she knew she would have to face parts of herself that she wasn’t certain she wanted to face Parts of herself that she knew Ca with the Robertses, as well as what she kneould develop between her and Ca Cam wasn’t the type of man ould let her handle it on her own if he kneas going on She would have to watch herself, but even more, she would have to keep a closer eye on what the Robertses were doing

She had worked for five years to gain the power to face them on their own turf All she needed noas the setup Moriah would help provide that, but it would take ti she would have a lot of

She stood her ground now, took a slow, deep breath, and let her smile touch her lips as Caaze raked over her, the force of it stroking the flareeted hi theaze slid over her breasts then to her eyes "Are you having fun?" he asked her, the gentleness of his voice sending a flashpoint of warning up her spine