Earthbound Angels Part 1: The Heartthrob Fallen Celestial Stories Collection (15 page)

As he turned around, Ronan's character swiftly
defeated Graeme's.

But Graeme didn't even notice.

"Graeme, you need to meet the real Kiara,"
Hollianne said in a hushed, but very excited voice.

THE LOOK ON Graeme's face was priceless.

His mouth gaped open a bit as he took in the
bathed and dressed Kiara Shannon. He looked completely stunned.

Hollianne and Dreama furtively exchanged amused
looks with each other. Holli was more excited, because she had
never seen Graeme react to anything and anyone, especially a
woman.

Ronan paused the game and looked up at his
sister. The look on his face was quite quizzical as he stood up
from his chair and walked over to her. Smiling slightly, he touched
her hair and simply stared at her face. Then he nodded as if
putting his seal of approval on his sister's new look.

"Now, Graeme, I think you need to get Ronan
spruced up a bit. I took the liberty of buying him a few things
that most guys need," Dreama said. "Don't worry about Kiara. We'll
keep her company."

But Graeme seemed rooted to the floor. Never
would he have dreamed that she was so lovely underneath all of the
dirt and oversized men's clothes.

Now that she had been cleaned up and was dressed
in clothing suited to her size and gender, she looked more
beautiful to him than all the beautiful women he had ever seen.

Something low in his body throbbed. And he was
shocked to know the reason why.

All he wanted to do at that moment was to take
her in his arms and kiss those full, sexy lips.

Rarely did anything or anyone ever captivate
Graeme the way that this woman did. He needed to talk to her, to
find out more about her and, God help him, he needed to touch
her.

He gulped, knowing that if anyone even knew what
he was thinking, he would look absurd. He took a deep breath to
recover himself.

Think!

And he did. First of all, there was a young
teenage boy with, apparently, some very serious problems who needed
to be looked after. And the boy was nothing but adorable, even if
his smell was not. He should get him cleaned and into new clothes.
He should get him to eat more food. He should take care of him,
because apparently the one person who has been trying also needed
taking care of.

Suddenly, it became vital to Graeme that both
Kiara and Ronan come to trust him and let him help them in whatever
way they needed.

Turning to Ronan, he motioned for him to
follow.

"Come on, Ronan," he said. "Let's go get you
cleaned up. My friends Dreama and Hollianne have bought you some
new clothes. We need to get you dressed so that they can see how
cool you look in them."

Ronan nodded and walked over to Graeme.

Kiara had a look of disbelief on her face, but
she remained silent and watched. She seemed ready to jump in at any
time if it became necessary. But Ronan only grinned at Graeme, took
his hand, and went with him.

"Wow," Kiara said after they had left the room.
Her eyes looked suspiciously bright. "Ronan never takes to anyone,
especially strangers."

"Well, Graeme's a pretty amazing guy," Hollianne
said. "He sort of has a way with people. Don't worry. He'll take
good care of Ronan."

"Why don't we go make some tea or something?"
Dreama said. "We can talk and get acquainted while Graeme takes
care of your little brother."

The three women went into the kitchen and
settled down at the dinette table by the bay window. Sipping their
tea, they talked about nothing important for a while.

Hollianne explained more about who she and
Dreama were. She told Kiara how she had only recently married the
love of her life, Erick Angell. They had put off their honeymoon
until the first of March. Then they would be gone for the entire
month at which time they would come back in plenty of time for
Dreama's wedding in May.

Dreama picked up the thread here and explained
that she was engaged to a very close friend of Erick's and
Hollianne's, Simon Draco. He was a very well-known defense attorney
in Florida.

"A lot of people think that we jumped the gun on
getting married," Dreama went on to say. "But when you know you've
met the right person, what's the point in waiting?"

Kiara studied them both so solemnly that they
thought, at first, they had upset her in some way. Finally, she sat
her cup down and smiled in rather bittersweet fashion.

"You're both so lucky," she said in that soft
but husky voice of hers. "I always dreamed that I would find love
like that. But life just hasn't worked out that way for me."

Dreama and Hollianne exchanged a meaningful look
before either of them ventured to speak.

"Kiara, we don't mean to pry," Hollianne said.
"But if you feel up to telling us your story, we'd be happy to
listen. You seem like someone who's had some trouble in your life
and we're both familiar with that. I have had my boyfriend die on
me in an accident, only to find out later that he's alive and it
was his twin that died. He lived in Europe now with his real
family. He's only been using me the whole time to hide from loan
sharks who were after him."

Kiara's eyes went wide. "Oh, but that's
shocking! How did you handle it?"

"I was with Erick by that time and very much in
love with him, that's why it wasn't that painful and hard anymore.
He supported me all the way, as best as he could. And now, we're
married." Holli was smiling as she showed Kiara her wedding ring.
"Dreama here has her own sib story," she said, looking at
Dreama.

"Yes," Dreama agreed. "My own sister tried to
hurt me because she was so jealous of Simon and me. She wanted
Simon for herself. She's sitting in jail right now for attempted
murder. My attempted murder."

"Oh, my god," Kiara whispered. "That's
horrible!"

"Well, yeah, it is," Dreama replied. "But don't
feel bad for me. I feel bad that she could do something so horrible
it could only lead to her own folly. I've accepted and adjusted. I
just wanted you to know that Holli and I are no strangers to
trouble. We're certainly not here to judge you in any way. We just
want to help you if we can."

Both Hollianne and Dreama were a little taken
aback when Kiara suddenly started to cry.

They certainly hadn't meant to upset her and
immediately set about comforting her.

"No, no," Kiara sniffed. "You didn't upset me.
It's just that your kindness to me has been a bit overwhelming. No
one has been kind to me in a very long time. I just don't know how
to deal with it."

"Well, you can be assured that you've got two
friends in us," Hollianne declared. "We want to help you anyway
that we can. But if you're not ready to talk to us and tell us
what's going on with you; that's perfectly okay. You'll tell us
when you're ready."

"It's not that I don't trust you," Kiara said as
she wiped her tears with tissues Holli had taken from somewhere. "I
just know that Graeme is going to have questions and I would prefer
not to tell this sordid story more than once. I'm still not sure
why he came looking for me so I've also got some questions of my
own."

"We completely understand, Kiara," Dreama said.
"We'll wait until Graeme gets Ronan settled and comes back down.
Then you can tell us everything."

"I would really rather do things that way,"
Kiara said, looking at the door to the kitchen. "I wonder how
Graeme is doing with Ronan."

"Oh, don't worry," Hollianne said. "Graeme seems
to have this gift of making anyone feel comfortable and at ease.
He'll be down soon."

Those words had barely left her mouth when they
heard Graeme's voice coming down the hallway. He seemed to be
talking to Ronan. As the two of them appeared in the kitchen, Kiara
emitted a soft, tremulous sigh when she saw her little brother
cleaned and spruced up, and with a huge grin on his face.

He was freshly showered with clean clothes on as
well as his hair brushed out of his face. Now it was easy to see
that he and Kiara were related as Ronan had the same violet eyes
and dark hair. He was tall and lanky, obviously having not filled
out yet. But Graeme had done wonders with the boy and he looked
quite handsome.

"What do you think of this handsome young man
now?" Graeme said enthusiastically as he put a hand on Ronan's
shoulder.

"Wow," Hollianne and Dreama said in unison.

Kiara looked as if she were going to start
crying all over again as she stared at her younger brother.

Indeed, her beautiful eyes were filled with
tears that threatened to spill over at any second.

"Ronan, you're perfect," she whispered as she
smiled at him.

THEN KIARA FINALLY looked at Graeme, and it was
a look so full of gratefulness.

"Thank you, Graeme. He hasn't had a chance to
really see how handsome he is. It seems that I just keep thanking
you for things and I still have no clue why you came looking for me
in the first place."

"Yes, well, we do have a lot of things to
discuss," Graeme replied. "I just thought it would be easier if
everyone was well-fed and looking their best. You've got to admit
that you feel a lot more comfortable than when we got here."

"Yes, I do admit that," Kiara said, blushing a
little as she remembered how she talked to him before. "And you've
got such amazing friends. Hollianne and Dreama have made me feel
human again."

"Oh please, call me Holli," Hollianne said. "All
of my friends do, and I can just tell that you are going to become
a good friend."

"I don't even know why I'm not freaking out
anymore!" Kiara said with a laugh as she looked down at her cup of
tea. "I was so sure that you were going to hurt us in some way. But
then you brought us here to your beautiful home and have treated us
like we're honored guests or something."

"Well, in a very big way, that's what you are,"
Graeme smiled. "Now let me get this young man settled back in the
game room so that you and I can talk. Do you think he'll be okay
playing video games alone for a bit?"

"Yeah, he'll be fine. Ronan's been through some
bad things and he doesn't speak because of that," Kiara said softly
as she again gazed protectively at her brother. "But otherwise,
he's pretty much a normal teenage boy."

"Okay, then. Come with me, Ronan and let's get
you started on that Xbox again. Do you want to keep playing the
same game as before or do you want to play something different?
I've got a pretty impressive collection of games for you to choose
from if you get bored."

Ronan's face lit up as he followed Graeme back
to the game room. He went straight back to the game chair he had
been sitting in before and picked up the controller. It seemed that
he caught onto things really quickly.

Looking up at Graeme with a question on his
face, he waited until Graeme nodded. Then he simply went back to
playing his game.

"Well, I guess that takes care of that," Graeme
said. The rest of them laughed with him as they watched Ronan
having such a great time.

"Come with me," Graeme said. "We're just going
to be right next door in my office. We'll leave the door open in
case he needs anything or gets nervous or whatever. We can talk in
there. Kiara, do you want us to speak alone first?"

"No," Kiara replied quickly. "I want Holli and
Dreama to hear my story and whatever you've got to tell me, they
can hear, too."

"As you wish.This way, Ladies."

Once they were settled in Graeme's sumptuous
office, he waited until the women had each taken a seat before he
settled into his office chair.

Folding his hands on top of his massive antique
desk, he looked at Kiara. This was going to be a bit of a delicate
matter and he wanted to be sure that he handled it correctly.

So far, he had yet to contact Jefferson Graves.
After he had seen the condition of Kiara and Ronan, he felt that it
would be better if he had them presentable as well as find out why
and how they had ended up living in such atrocious conditions on
the street.

Now, he thought he should let Kiara speak first
so that he would know how to proceed.

"Kiara, if you don't mind, I'd like to hear your
story first," he finally said. "I promise you that I'll answer any
questions you have after that because what I've got to tell you is
going to change your life in a very profound way. But for now,
please tell us what happened to put you and Ronan in this very
scary position."

Kiara nodded slowly. This was it. She was
finally going to tell someone what had happened to her and
Ronan.

It had been frightening to even think about in
the past because she was quite sure that it would have put Ronan
and her in danger.

But now, with Graeme here to look after them,
she no longer felt afraid. She would tell him everything.

Kiara took a deep breath and looked down at the
folded hands in her lap. Everyone else waited for her to speak.
They didn't rush her or press her to start talking. All of them
seemed perfectly content to wait until she was ready; a fact for
which she was most grateful.

When she did start talking, her voice was rather
faint and quiet, but the longer she spoke, the stronger her voice
became. By the end of her story, she had become very confident and
she was talking in a strong and unwavering voice.

The rest of them were feeling sick at heart for
what she and Ronan had gone through.

For a long time, it had just been Kiara and her
mother. She never knew who her father was. Renee had taken care of
the two of them through working as a bartender. She was pretty and
the customers liked her so she made pretty good money.

Kiara wasn't sure who it was, but at some point
Renee had started to see someone. Since Renee never brought him
home, Kiara never saw him and she never heard his name mentioned.
All she knew is that when she was 12, her mother had become
pregnant. Nine months later, she gave birth to Ronan.