Sparks Fly

Chapter Thirteen: A Lukewarm Bath and Questions

I'm back! It's been a long week, but I forced myself to get this chapter down.

A few things first. Teagan and Rain are not typical characters (in case you missed it) so it should come as no surprise that the way they react to what happened in Chapter Twelve (**hint, hint... read it if you haven't already) is not exactly the reaction you would think a hero (Teagan) would give after coming in to help our Ice Queen out. 

So, with that warning out of the way.... please continue on with reading the chapter. And comment/ vote if you feel so inclined.

Thank you!

--VIVKELLER23

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Rain

No matter how many times you relived a terrible experience in your life, no matter how often you thought you were prepared in the case it happened again, you realized how much power that event still held over you. The moment you faced down the demons you thought you'd conquered, you simply froze.

That's what Rain found out anyway.

She'd told herself she wouldn't put herself in a situation that could potentially result in a repeat experience, but then again she wasn't God. How was she to completely avoid the older Jeffers son if he was set on seeing her? She'd already gone through all the motions to try to get some sort of restraining order put on him, but her own father had testified against her so that the entire incident went down as nothing more than a misunderstanding on her part.

It was the sort of story you read about in books or saw in the movies, yet you never expected it to happen in real life. The victim was made out to look like nothing more than the boy who cried wolf.

Thankfully, her father had made sure to pay off the necessary people to guarantee the incident was kept under wraps. Meaning that although the process of reporting and requesting a restraining order against Timothy Jeffers was a long and trying one for her, no one outside of her father and the Jeffers were able to witness her public humiliation.

But Jeffers couldn't leave it at just that, could he?

It happened so fast she didn't have time to react. Planning to have Tim Jeffers over for lunch was fine at the start when her father had been home to offer some protection. That all went south when her businessman of a father took a phone call and stepped out to close a property deal, leaving her alone to face her attacker of two years ago.

And just like clockwork, her mind blanked.

She vaguely remembered excusing herself to head to her father's Den, giving up on trying to maintain the mask of civility her father had helped her carve into perfection over the years. That had been her first mistake. At least at the meal table, Jeffers had been willing to play his part of the old family friend while he savored Isa's home cooking.

Now, there had been a surprise he was not expecting. As far as Jeffers' faulty memory was concerned, Isa had always been the best cook money could buy. But Isa was also a feisty, loyal friend with a few tricks up her sleeve. She hadn't poisoned his food, mainly because that would have been too obvious. No with the utmost care, Isa had poured a mountain of sugar and small river of vinegar into Timmy's vegetable soup to ensure his throat convulsed with every swallow. His obvious difficulty downing the first spoonful of soup combined with his struggle to keep an impassive look on his aristocratic face was enough to convince Rain that Isa more than deserved a raise.

Yet after about twenty minutes of charged silence, with Jeffers sneaking sly smiles that only she caught, Rain retreated. The temptation proved to be too much for her tormentor because as soon as she turned to shut the door and secure it, his evil black eyes appeared with that all too familiar gleam.