Echoes in the Mist (Kingsleys in Love 1)

Could Baxter feel that same blind adoration for his baby sister too?

Trenton’s thought materialized from nowhere, descending like the heavy blanket of mist that cloaked the maze where he’d found her. Did Baxter revere … her name eluded him for a moment, then rustled through his senses like a warm, gentle breeze.

Ariana.

Such gentleness and faith had shone in her extraordinary eyes before she’d learned who her rescuer was. And such fire had replaced them when she discovered the truth.

Did Baxter dote on Ariana the way he had on Vanessa? He’d certainly exhibited a fine show of brotherly protectiveness at the Covingtons’ ball: all righteous indignation, clutching Ariana to his side as if she were his most priceless possession. And indeed, could she be?

She wasn’t cold and cruel like Vanessa, nor weak and shallow like Baxter. Her naïveté was too genuine, her responses too natural.

But respond she had.

The sensual pull between them had been immediate and undeniable. He hadn’t imagined the insistent ache in his loins, nor the bewildered yet unmistakable awakening in her eyes as he’d carried her from the maze.

Still she was a Caldwell.

A sudden possibility struck Trenton, and a slow, sardonic smile curled his lips.

He could use their attraction to his advantage.

Mulling over that pleasurable prospect, he shifted his weight, stretching his legs in front of him, oblivious to the cresting waves now drenching him to the waist.

Ariana. A breathtaking angel, ready to be guided into the heavenly realm of passion. True, she would resist him at first, entrenched as she was in her brother’s enmity. Still, Trenton had every confidence that she would eventually succumb to his calculated seduction. Quite simply, she wasn’t sophisticated enough to combat his expertise or to fight the attraction that drove her to him.

Then there was the matter of her virginity.

As a rule, Trenton didn’t prefer virgins. However, he found this one strangely alluring in her innocence. Yes, he would certainly savor every moment of his combined victory: sexually initiating Ariana and, in the process, bringing Baxter to his knees, ruining his baby sister and thereby fulfilling one contemptuous accusation that, until now, had been false.

At the memory, Trenton’s jaw clenched. Ruin Vanessa? Hardly.

And yet she’d made that claim—repeatedly, as he recalled—on that final night … the last night of her life.

Trenton could envision it as if it were yesterday, rather than six years before: the secluded shadows beneath the cliffs, the dark waters of the River Arunn mingling with the rough waves of the Channel, the foam slapping at their feet

The rage that loomed in his heart as he’d faced her.

Her eyes were strangely lit, not only by the lantern’s haunting glow but with a depth of despair that might have been pitiful enough to move him, had it been anyone but Vanessa.

His fists knotted at his sides in an attempt to restrain himself.

But to no avail.

And when she began to taunt him, his fury was uncontainable, condemnation and hatred blazing in his eyes.

He could still remember her plaintive cries as she begged him not to do this to her.

Please … don’t … Trenton … don’t …

Her pleas fell on deaf ears.

He was out of control and he knew it. What was more, Vanessa knew it too.

No … no … don’t … no …

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He didn’t flinch nor look back. He simply walked away, leaving behind him only a sudden silence and an extinguished lantern.