"Dinner has been canceled."
Shane stared at the young woman as they stood outside the dining room. "Are you sure?"
"Yes. It has been rescheduled until tomorrow evening but you are allowed to order whatever you like from the regular dining room or the room service menu at your host's expense."
"Wow! That's nice!" Jaime exclaimed but Shane wasn't so happy. He wondered where the others in his party were and why he felt left out. James and Beverly were the first to arrive, their faces grim and drawn.
"All right. What's going on?"
Beverly's face crumbled into a mass of tears and she turned into James' body, her soft sobs wrenching her body with pain. Since she couldn't find the words to speak, James opted to talk with the young man. "Matthew kidnapped Ashley."
"
What?
Where are they?"
"She's safe now, Shane."
"Why didn't anyone come and get me?"
"Because you were on the beach and we had to act fast." James saw the anger in Shane's face and gave him a pat on the back. "We're just waiting for the cops to arrive, then we'll all have dinner."
"We just went to the dining room and the hostess told us that the dinner's been canceled until tomorrow."
"Oh." James looked from Jaime to the hostess who was arranging her charts. "Well, I guess we're on our own."
"She also said that our 'host' said that we could have dinner in the regular dining room or that we could order whatever we wanted from room service at his expense."
"Really?" James turned to Beverly, who was wiping her tears away. "Did you hear that, honey? Would you like to go to dinner?"
Beverly nodded. "Yes, James."
James smiled at her and caught her face, so that she could see his eyes. "Are you sure, honey?"
"Yes. I don't want to go to bed just yet."
"Okay." He turned to Shane with a gentlemanly smile. "You guys want to join us?"
Shane looked at Jaime and felt the tiny squeeze on their intertwined hands. "Naw. I think we're going to order room service. No offense."
"No problem." James said. "Have a nice night."
Beverly moved towards Shane and gave him a long hug. "I hope your dream comes true."
Shane gave her another hard hug and parted from her, cupping her cheek in her hand. "I love you, Beverly."
Her brown face lit up and she returned his gesture, stroking his downy cheek. "I love you, too, Shane." Shane leaned forward and pressed a kiss to her rubescent lips. "Good night."
"'Night."
Jaime watched the hefty black woman and the trim older man walk away, amazed at the connection that he saw between his New England-raised quarterback and an obviously Southern black woman. "Do you really love her?"
"Yes." Shane said the word without shame, knowing that Beverly would be a part of his life for as long as he lived.
"That's nice, Shane. It's so different for you."
"Is that a problem?"
"No." Jaime looked at his best friend, seeing him in a new light. "Not at all."
"So... " Shane looked down into Jaime's dark eyes. "How about some room service?"
Kevin held Kelly Jo close as they sat in the room, listening to the sounds of Ashley bathing. She had returned from her room and told them what had happened. Matthew was pronounced dead at the hospital. Megan had been reported missing and was taken into custody immediately. Before the deputies took her away, the girl had given Ashley a hug and whispered, "Thank you." The detectives questioned her for a half-hour and she calmly answered all of their questions, posed for all the pictures they needed to take of her wounds and escorted her to her room.
She phoned Kelly Jo's room as soon as they'd left and she and Kevin had come racing over, only to find her undressed and preparing a bath. Kelly Jo let out a wail and Kevin shouted a curse when they saw the marks all over her body. She had accepted their embraces with tears of her own, assuring them that she was all right, that she just wanted to have a nice hot bath, relax and have dinner in the room with them. Shane, Jaime, Beverly and James had each either come by or called to express their concern for her and her heart was overflowing with love for her teammates.
Kelly Jo heard a noise and turned toward her brother, both amazed and disturbed to hear him sobbing. "Kevin."
Kevin couldn't help it. He had tried not to let Ashley's outer appearance bother him, but his soft heart cried out with her pain. And to see the look in her eyes... detached and distant... the sight made him ache inside. He would never have thought that in such a short period of time that he would come to care about Ashley as much as he had. He had already resigned himself to the fact that he would have to share his precious Kelly Jo but to see Ashley, walking out of that hellhole, so proud... so confident... he knew that he was in love with her, just as deeply as Kelly Jo was.
"What's wrong, bro?"
"Ashley." The pain cut through his tender soul. In his mind's eye, he saw the bite marks on her breasts and legs and he imagined what it must have been like for her, to be at the hands of an insane person, formerly known as your husband. But she was so calm... almost as if it had never happened.
Kelly Jo carefully watched her brother's reaction, wondering what was going on in the depths of his soul. "She's safe, Kevin."
"I know." He whimpered, wiping his eyes and desperately trying to stop his tears. "But...
oh, Kel!
"
He crumbled into a bawling heap, his shoulders across her lap. Kelly Jo just stroked his hair, gently talking to him. She had always known that her brother had a soft heart but this... "She's a strong girl, Kevin."
"But it's so unfair, Kelly Jo! We've always had a wonderful life and Ashley's had nothing but shit."
"We can change that, Kevin." Her voice was so soft that Kevin nearly didn't hear her over his weeping. "We can change her future forever."
The bathroom door opened and Ashley came out, swathed in a fluffy robe, her dark hair wet on her shoulders. She grabbed a brush off the side table and began to comb her hair, sitting on the bed across from Kevin and Kelly Jo. She paused in mid-stroke when she noticed that Kevin was crying.
"Kevin? What's wrong?"
Words seemed to escape him at that moment and he buried his face into Kelly Jo's lap again, sobbing anew. Kelly Jo stroked his back again, scrubbing the back of her hand against her own eyes. "He's upset about what happened to you."
"Oh." Ashley was stunned for a moment. She set the brush down and knelt at Kevin's side. "Kevin. Kevin, I'm all right."
"How can you be?" He raised his head, his reddened eyes piercing hers. "I saw what he did to you."
"I'm okay because I knew, no matter what he did, that I'd tasted love and I would have died happy." Ashley touched his face, wiping his tears away. "I couldn't have asked for more than that."
"Yes, you could." Kevin said breathlessly, noticing the golden flakes swimming in the irises of her eyes. He raised a hand to gently stroke the line of her jaw and noticed the blush that spread across the soft skin. "You can ask for more than that."
The breath caught in Ashley's throat as she realized what he was saying. She looked up into Kelly Jo's eyes and saw tears of joy falling across her tremulous lips. "How about I start with dinner?"
"Whatever you want, Ashley." Kevin released her chin and arose, heading for the phone and the room service menu.
Kelly Jo bent and pressed her mouth to Ashley's, nearly swooning when she felt her soft tongue sliding along her bottom lip and across her teeth and tongue. "I'm dreaming, right?"
"Not at all, pretty girl." Kelly Jo answered Ashley's whisper. "And if you are, it's the dream of a lifetime."
It wasn't fair.
Shane Kingsley's body just wasn't fair.
No one could be that perfectly sculpted unless he was fashioned of cold, veinless marble but Shane was. His build was on the slight side but daily workouts had filled out his frame and made him the envy of most of the girls on campus. But now... within the reach of his fingertips, every inch of Shane Kingsley was soon to belong to him.
"What's wrong?"
"Nothing."
Shane watched Jaime's olive skin flush and smiled, shoving several cocktail-sauced shrimp into his mouth. They had ordered dinner from the room service menu and spread it out on the king-sized bed. Cold jumbo shrimp, roast beef sandwiches, German potato salad and apple crumb pie for dessert. Shane had taken off his shirt to be more comfortable and noticed that Jaime's attention was on his six-pack and that his friend was having problems eating without choking every few bites.