Free His Bahamas Affair (The Albury Affairs) by Christina OW

trembling smile. “Aren’t you so sure of yourself. I might be
going crazy but I know when a guy is pulling a move on me.”
    Reno chuckled shaking
his head. “Yeah, you caught me. Can’t blame a guy for taking every opportunity
available, can you?”
    She shook her head, a
few tears dislodging. “Well, just know I have no intentions of leaving that bed
once I’m in it.”
    Her voice broke as she
spoke but Reno kept his tone light and joking. He waggled his brows. “Now who
is trying to take advantage of who?”
    She nodded, and then
quickly wrapped her arms around his neck to hide her face in his shoulder as
she finally began to sob. Reno held her tight, wishing there was a way to take
her pain away. She looked like she couldn’t take anymore, and he knew soon the
Crazy Lori he used to spur with was going to disappear under all this fear and
grief.
    He dug one arm under
her thighs while the other held her pressed to his chest. “Come on. First we
are going to take a shower to help you calm down, and then I’m going to hold
you while you sleep. I promise everything is going to get better. We just have
to take one step at a time.”
    He carried her to his
en suite room and deposited her at the door of his bathroom. She didn’t even
look at him when he placed her on her feet. She walked into the bathroom
wearily, stripping her sleeping shorts and shirt without even caring that he
was watching. She didn’t even close the bathroom door when she turned on the
shower jets and stepped into the stall naked. She just stood there, water
pounding into her from all directions, her face in her hands and her shoulders
shaking as she sobbed.
    Reno felt complete rage
for the man who did this to her and complete despair because he had no idea how
he could help her. If he only knew what exactly happened to her. He thought of
calling Riana but decided against it. Whatever had happened to Loraine would
have occurred recently and if he knew Loraine as well as he thought he did, she
wouldn’t have said a word to Riana. Why would she share her own horrors when
Riana had been living in her own nightmare at the time?
    Reno sat on the toilet
seat watching her for a few more minutes then he stepped into the shower stall
behind her and turned off the jets. He didn’t even care that he was getting his
pants wet, all he thought about was taking care of her. When the water was shut
off, he grabbed his towel and dried her off, wrapped it around her and carried
her to his bed.
    She was silent the
entire time, her head lowered like she was ashamed. That angered him most. She
had nothing to be sorry or ashamed about. Whatever happened was not her fault.
    He pulled out one of
his t-shirts from his drawers and laid it on the bed next to her then stepped
out of her view and changed his wet pants for dry ones. She didn’t even make a
move to touch the t-shirt. She just sat there, staring at her hands on her lap.
    Dejected and defeated
wasn’t the Crazy Lori he knew and he wasn’t going to allow her to become that.
    He crouched down before
her and took the shirt in his hand. “I know you are going through a lot of shit
right now, and I know you’d like nothing better than to crawl under a rock and
hide from all of it, but you can’t. You need to fight this or you are never
going to be the same again, and he would emerge the winner again.”
    Her head shot up and
she stared at him wide eyed. He felt the pit of his stomach churn. He felt
nauseous. Her surprise had confirmed his worst fears and for once, he wished he
was wrong.
    “Now, we are going to
put this shirt on and then get into bed. I’m going to hold you until you fall
asleep and I hope my presence will keep him away. But Lori, don’t get
comfortable. I’m not going to let you become a shadow of yourself without a
fight. Tonight you can feel miserable and angry and weak and scared all you
want.” She sobbed, tears running down her eyes in a flood as she lowered her
face. Reno grabbed