Here it is...

-VIVKELLER23
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Rain

Stupid, stupid, stupid...

Rain jerked the steering wheel sharply, the tires squealing on the recently rain-slicked road. She'd rushed out of the shelter in a blur. Hadn't even stopped to think where she was headed before she'd pulled out into the street.

Stupid, handsome jerk face! He'd ruined an already lonely Thanksgiving by showing up to try to serenade her.

Well, he could use the stupid cash her father had paid him to get himself singing lessons and a first class ticket out of Granite Woods!

Ouch, Rainy.

She swerved into the right lane to avoid having to slow down to match the speed of the Volkswagen in front of her. It wasn't until the right lane forced her to turn right at the last streetlight that Rain realized where she was going.

Back to her old gilded cage.

Well, perhaps it would help to keep Teagan Miller away.

Rain slowed the car down as she got onto the familiar paved road. She used the windshield wipers to clear the raindrops from the windows until she noticed the grand white estate, standing proud on its rolling hill.

She hit the brakes halfway up the driveway and shut off the car. Then she glared.

It was so picture perfect. So regal. She hated the sight of it, knowing how empty and cold it truly was.

The only times she'd felt any joy had been when Mama was alive. After that, she'd only survived inside the huge walls because Isa had been there to offer support. She'd remade herself to match the stony exterior because it was the only way to cope with the past.

But now her walls had come down, and with it, she hoped to see the fall of the Sullivan Estate.

Rain hadn't gone to the town newspaper to share her ghosts. She wasn't so desperate that she would go to the very people who'd helped cover up the truth over two years ago either.

No, Rain had gone a more historical route. She'd nailed her own version of Luther's 95 Theses on the front doors of every family, business, and agency that had failed her.

She called it: Sullivan's 12 Treasons. It was pretty creative considering she was seen as the frosty Ice Queen and the names listed had wronged her. In a way, she was finally waging a war for all the times she'd been silenced "for her own good."

And, dang, it felt good!

On the papers now posted around town, she'd called Timothy Jeffers out by name for forcing himself on her that long ago night. She'd named her father as the main conspirator in the scheme to keep her rape a secret. She'd listed those who'd played a part in hiding her experience, and how much their silence had been worth. And as if that wasn't enough, she'd run extra copies of her grievances and mailed them to a news station in Reignville, California.

Her error had been depending on any man to save her. She'd had the power to destroy them all along.

She was fixing her mistake now.

Rain hurried out of her car, hoping to have enough time to make a copy for her father. It was Thanksgiving after all, and she was on a mission to thank every fool who'd ever had the audacity to underestimate her.

That's when she heard the gravel crunch behind her.

Rain spun around, her hands balled into fists, as if that would protect her.

Mentally, Rain took a few precious seconds to send up a prayer of thanks to the heavens for making it rain today.

Jaysus, he looked gorgeous. The white T-shirt he wore under his faded denim jacket was soaked through and did nothing for his modesty. In fact, the see through material enhanced the muscled chest that had tormented her dreams for days since she'd told him to leave her alone.

Seeing him now hurt her bruised heart.

Rain ran her eyes over him, forcing herself not to linger on his exposed chest, before she stopped at his face. She arched a brow. "Aren't you a little far from your end of the woods?" she asked him.

"I'm a wolf, Rainy. I sense you and can't stay away."

His words were low, but his unwavering gaze made her feel tingly all over. Just a look from him, and she was his. But her heart couldn't take another chance on him when he'd lied to her. "Lucky for you, I didn't think to bring out Randolf's hunting rifle."

Teagan's mouth curved into a slight smile, amused rather than afraid. "There's that razor sharp tongue I missed so much," he murmured with a deep chuckle.

She couldn't take this. He broke her heart, even though she'd told herself time and time again that she wouldn't give him the power to do so. She raised her chin. "Well, it's too bad I didn't miss you," she replied.

"If you're going to try to cut me down, Rainy, you should look me in the eye. Because I won't believe a word you say unless you're looking right at me." He got off the silver motorcycle and shoved his hands into the pockets of his ripped jeans. His eyes stayed riveted to her. "So if you're going to tear my heart to shreds, do it honestly."

"Your heart?" Rain scoffed. "Honesty, Tee?" The nerve he had to demand such things from her! "You don't know the meaning of those words!" Rain spun on her stupid heels, nearly falling on her face, and began her angry trek back to her father's estate.

She wasn't welcome here anymore, but Randolf Sullivan hadn't returned from his latest business trip. All she needed was to put some space between them. A locked door might be the only way to show Teagan that she wasn't going to be played with again.

"I stole a bike, Rain!" he hollered from somewhere behind her.

"I'm sure you'll make lots of friends in prison."

"Wait! Dang it all to Hell and back again, Rain, will you stop being so hardheaded and hear me out?" he asked, sounding closer.

"Nope." She started walking faster, her heels sending loose stones every which way.

"Come on. I thought you were the practical one?" Then he let out a loud curse.

She heard a thud followed by his deep groan. Rain froze in place, literally shaking, as she tried to make up her mind. She wouldn't check on him. He was a grown man, a bastard, who could look after himself. But dang it, she loved that bastard.

"I hate you, you idiot!" she raged as she marched back to where he lay in a heap on top of the stone gravel. "Why don't you take a hint and leave me alone?" Her hands ran over his shoulders and back as she spoke, checking him for scrapes.

He caught her wandering hands in his. "Rain, I stole a bike."

She frowned at him. Had he hit his head? "Yes, I know. Do you want me to call it in?"

"Rain, I didn't take the money," he whispered. "If I had, I sure as hell wouldn't have needed to steal a bike to get over here. And I wouldn't have lost my shoes in the struggle."

He wasn't making a whole lot of sense. But when she glanced down at his feet, she realized he was shoeless. The minion and banana socks he wore were kind of cute though. "You lost your shoes?"

"Didn't you hear what I said?" Teagan glared at her through green eyes. "I said I didn't take the money your father offered me, and all you listen to is the fact that I lost my shoes to a grandfather!"

"Some wolf you are," Rain murmured, biting her lip to keep from laughing. Laughing wasn't going to solve her problem. She needed to remember that Teagan wasn't someone she could trust so readily again. But her heart wanted desperately to believe him. "And what do you mean you didn't take his money? I saw the receipt for the check he gave you. Twenty five thousand dollars to help the little Ice Queen loosen up."

"I tried to give it back a few nights after I drove you home from that party. I knew I didn't need the money to convince me to touch you; I ached to do it all on my own that night. But your father refused to take it back. After the first two weeks I spent getting to know you, I decided I didn't care whether he took the money back or not. I tore it in front of him and told him he needed to accept the fact that he had an amazing daughter any man would be happy to have."

Well, that was something.

She couldn't believe what she was hearing. She knew the kind of man her father was, knew he'd stop just shy of murder to get what he wanted. So she knew that his decision to enlist Teagan's, uh, skills had been nothing more than one facet of a bigger plan. That plan had been to help his daughter overcome her fear of intimacy so she would be free to marry the brother of her abuser.

And if Teagan had truly told her father the words he claimed to have said, her father would have seen him as a threat. A threat to his carefully set plan. "What did he say to you after that?"

Teagan shrugged, but his eyes hardened with the memory. "He laughed in my face. I swear, I thought he was going to fall over and die. Called me a few, not-so-friendly names and said I was wasting my time if I thought his daughter was going to be wasted on a nobody like me." His hands tightened on her own as he lowered his head imperceptibly closer to hers. "I may have knocked him flat on his arse for that, Rainy, but I think it was warranted."

Rain bit her lip to keep from grinning like a fool. The fierce look on his face made her feel tingly all over, just like she did whenever he put his hands on her. It was the look of a man who would do anything to keep her from harm's way. It was a look that didn't belong on his face after the way he'd lied to her. And yet she loved seeing that possessiveness on his face, knowing he'd never cared enough for another woman before her to ask for a second chance.

But he obviously cared enough for her to be lying at her feet not only asking for a second chance, but pleading with her for forgiveness. She was defenseless against his unpracticed attempt to win her back. Her romantic heart's fragile shield shattered.

"Why lie to me, Tee? Why not just tell me what my father had offered you?" she asked him in a small voice. She sounded defeated even to her own ears, but she was too tired to put up a fight now. She'd fallen for his blunt charm way before she'd had a chance to make the choice. "If you knew how you felt about me, why did you keep it from me?"

His bright eyes ran over her face like gentle fingers. The spark of hope she saw there tugged at her heart. "I was afraid you didn't feel the same," he whispered. His hand trembled slightly when he raised it slowly to cup her cheek. "I wouldn't have blamed you for not wanting me. But just because I could understand it didn't mean it would hurt any less, Rain."

Warmth flooded her cheeks at the sound of her name, her given name, on his lips. She was glad the sun had set behind the light clouds of rain so her blush wasn't visible to his prying eyes.

She was too weak for her own good. She'd started to give in the instant he started singing to her back at the shelter. But something still didn't add up.

Rain frowned, her lips pursed as she looked down at the man who'd turned her life upside down. "Then the money-"

"My worthless father got wind of the opportunity your father had given me and took the cash." He clenched his jaw, looking furious. "I wouldn't have noticed because he tried to distract me with some story about getting a job and he even bought me my bike back."

How horrible. That the two of them had both been hurt by the very men who should have protected them from pain. "Teagan," she whispered, at a loss for words.

He shook his head. "That's over though. I've left the house for my own sanity." He glanced at the small smile on her face and smirked. "I'm going to prove to you once and for all, My Lady, that even scum like me can become worthy of your love. I messed up, should've told you what I felt sooner, but I'm going to work hard to make it up to you."

She knew she was probably pressing her luck, playing with fire, but she wanted to hear it once more.

"And what do you feel, Tee?"

He moved quickly, turning them until he lay against the gravel on his back with Rain braced above him. Teagan gripped her chin and pulled her in for a long, spine-tingling kiss. The embrace forced her to lean into him until she felt the thundering in his chest against her own racing heart.

He quirked a brow, his green gaze drowning her. "With you, I feel alive and free to dream," he told her. "Without you, I'm lost."

It wasn't a lengthy, flowery speech. It was short, very much his style. But it was perfect.

Teagan's special form of poetry.

"I read the analysis you gave to Tilden," Rain informed him. He'd used two modes of communication to tell her how he felt. How he loved. "You're very good with words."

Teagan sat up slightly. "I tend to feel inspired by royalty." While she laughed at his words, he planted a sweet kiss on her forehead. "But it's all true."

Rain wrapped her arms around his neck, feeling a fluttering in her stomach that was all thanks to him. "Yeah?"

His lips kissed her nose. "I-" he paused to run his lips down her cheek until his teeth found her ear lobe. He nipped. "Love," he breathed against her neck, sending shivers down her spine. "You."

Her heart sighed as Teagan finally took her mouth in another breathtaking kiss.

It was impossible to retain her cold exterior when this was exactly where she belonged. In his arms, together rather than as strangers.

Pulling away to catch her breath, Rain bit her bottom lip, smiling when his eyes followed the movement.

It's getting hot in here, so take off-

Now wasn't the time for steamy song lyrics.

"Do you think I'm going to forgive you just because you sang to me and finally decided to tell me you love me?" she asked him, knowing she'd forgiven him even before he'd told her what happened to the money.

Teagan winced, snapping his eyes back up to look at her face. "You don't have to forgive me just yet. I can work to earn your trust back. I will." He said it so fiercely that Rain wanted to kiss him again. But he buried his hand in the loose golden waves of her hair and made sure she saw the promise in his green-grey gaze. "All I want is for you to give me the chance to make it up to you. A chance to be with you with no more lies or secrets between us."

Oh, daddy.

Rain had to agree with the voice in her head for once. Teagan Miller was irresistible when he spoke of a future with her. It was all she'd ever wanted. All she'd been afraid to dream of.

That someone like him, someone so utterly male and attuned to the practiced seduction in other women, could look at her and want her.

"Yes," Rain whispered.

A grin split across his handsome face. "You sure?" he asked, and she knew that if she were to take her answer back it would crush him.

But he was giving her the choice.

"Yes!" She didn't give him a chance to question her again. Rain used her hands to clutch at the damp shirt covering his chest and crushed her mouth to his.

The heat that had marked her from the first moment they'd touched coursed through her veins. It was the same fiery magic that had burned through the ice. It made her feel alive and like she could do anything.

Even win the one man she'd thought invincible.

As the clouds released a gentle sprinkle to water the ground beneath, Teagan shrugged out of his denim jacket to wrap it around her. He never stopped touching her as he did so, almost as if he were afraid that if he did, she'd bolt.

Her stomach growled. Rain closed her eyes in humiliation that her hunger should be the one thing to put a stop to their embrace.

Teagan laughed. "You ran before you had a chance to feast on the food you prepared," he reminded her. "I'm sorry. How about we head on over to Grandma Santos' place instead? There's an irritating young boy who really wants to see you."

Gavin. Rain found herself agreeing instantly. As they struggled to get up to their feet once more, Rain glanced at the motorcycle Teagan had abandoned. "Perhaps we should take my car," she offered.

His answer was to scoop her up into his arms and carry her the few feet to the passenger side. "I'll have Dimitri smooth things over with the old man I stole it from," he told her with a wink as he deposited her into the leather seat. "He's got more practice handling people than I do."

That sounded like a perfect plan to her

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