Claiming Charity Read online

  A Total-E-Bound Publication

  www.total-e-bound.com

  Claiming Charity

  ISBN #978-1-906811-80-8

  ©Copyright Lacey Thorn 2009

  Cover Art by Natalie Winters ©Copyright January 2009

  Edited by Claire Siemaszkiewicz

  Total-E-Bound Publishing

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places and events are from the author’s imagination and should not be confused with fact. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, events or places is purely coincidental.

  All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced in any material form, whether by printing, photocopying, scanning or otherwise without the written permission of the publisher, Total-E-Bound Publishing.

  Applications should be addressed in the first instance, in writing, to Total-E-Bound Publishing. Unauthorised or restricted acts in relation to this publication may result in civil proceedings and/or criminal prosecution.

  The author and illustrator have asserted their respective rights under the Copyright Designs and Patents Acts 1988 (as amended) to be identified as the author of this book and illustrator of the artwork.

  Published in 2008 by Total-E-Bound Publishing 1 The Corner, Faldingworth Road

  , Spridlington, Market Rasen, Lincolnshire, LN8 2DE, UK.

  Warning: This book contains sexually explicit content which is only suitable for mature readers. This story has been rated Total-e-burning.

  The Debtor’s Daughters

  CLAIMING CHARITY

  Lacey Thorn

  Dedication

  To the girls Shel and Mel, may we always laugh, always smile and always dream

  And to my mom who never let me lose faith in myself, I love you and miss you with every breath I take

  Trademarks Acknowledgement

  The author acknowledges the trademarked status and trademark owners of the following wordmark mentioned in this work of fiction:

  Jeep: Daimler Chrysler Corp.

  Prologue

  He’d watched the body of the only woman he would ever love as it was placed into the cold hard ground. He’d watched and died himself as his five daughters, the oldest holding the youngest, had looked on. He’d watched and cursed every single one of them for every moment that they had pulled her from him when she’d still breathed. He’d watched the flowers follow the coffin down, watched the first handful of dry earth tossed on top. He’d watched with dry eyes, empty inside, dead and void of all emotion.

  She was gone. She who had completed him in ways that even he would never truly understand. Now she no longer existed, not in this world anyway. And as far as he was concerned he no longer existed either, didn’t want to exist in a world without her. He’d never forget the first time that he had met her, the beauty that radiated around her. And when she had turned and smiled at him in the pure honest way that was uniquely her own, he’d fallen in love with her right then.

  Now… Now he couldn’t breathe. He could feel his lungs burning, demanding air that he just couldn’t seem to inhale.

  People walked by, patting or touching him in some way. Words floated on the air all around him but he made no sense of what they were. Hell, he had no desire to see anyone, to be with anyone, not even the daughters they’d made together. He wanted to sink down into the grave with her, to lie beside her in the gilded coffin, to hold her in death as he had every day of their lives together.

  Finally he stood alone by her grave site, her final resting place. It killed him to think of her there in the cold ground, alone. She’d never been one for the dark and he would not leave her alone this first night. He couldn’t if he wanted to. He noticed their oldest daughter, Faith out of the corner of his eye and reluctantly turned to face her. She held baby Destiny in her arms, the one so recently born to them. God how he hated the sight of her at the moment, of all of them.

  “Go home Faith, and take your sisters with you,” he demanded though his voice wasn’t as strong and firm as he thought.

  “But what about you Daddy?” Her voice was filled with concern and other emotions that he was incapable of dealing with right now.

  “Just go!” His voice was loud now and harsh. He knew she would see the anger in his eyes, the pain on his face, but he cared little.

  Vaguely he took note of the way she corralled her sisters and tugged them towards the path that would lead to home. The graveyard was a private, family-owned one that lay within a few miles of the house they had called home. It would never be a home again, not without her in it. Her laughter would no longer fill the emptiness. Her smile would no longer light the way home.

  He fell to his knees beside her final resting place and screamed his fury to the heavens, the God he’d once loved.

  “Why? Why would you take her from me? What have I done to deserve so great a punishment?” He wanted to rip his hair out as her death had ripped his heart out. “And why couldn’t you have taken me instead? Why not me? I can’t do this without her. I can’t live without her. She was everything, everything to me and you tore her away. And now I can’t breathe. I can’t feel. I can’t live.”

  He curled onto his side and cried like a young boy, one hand stretched out to her. “So you did take us both. For as surely as she is dead so am I. Only a shell is left, an empty shell with no more purpose.”

  He laid there for a while, his mind playing a constant stream of memories like a video recording of the life they had shared, the love they had made. Gone. Now all he had were the memories and they weren’t enough, not nearly enough. He wanted more, deserved more.

  “Please let me die. Please take me with her. Please, if you’ve any love for your greatest creation then let me go with her. Let me go with her!”

  He cried again and must have fallen asleep for when he awoke he was cold. He must have turned towards her in his sleep for both hands were in the loose soil atop her grave. Gone. She was still gone. And surely God was cruel after all. For he was still alive.

  It would be many months before he would be sober enough to feel anything again. And by that point he was in so deep that he wished for the oblivion the bottle of whisky brought. At that point he was a little relieved that she wasn’t there to see the mess he had made of his life, their daughters lives. Heaven knew that she would not be happy with him. There would be no understanding in her eyes when she looked at him, no love. No. She would kill him. And the good Lord knew that he deserved it. He had definitely made a mess of things. Now he just had to figure out how to save the five gifts he had been given, the beautiful reminders of the one he loved so much. One at a time he would see that they all escaped the fate he had given them.

  Chapter One

  Charity glanced out the cabin window at the growing darkness and prayed for a miracle. Her older sisters Faith and Hope had both received one so surely God wouldn’t forget her. But then they had been granted a better chance at escape then she was. No he wasn’t taking any chances this time around. She had been moved to the cabin and would soon meet her new roommate, a man that her father had actually helped to hire. This man was being paid to make sure that she stuck around until the wedding date. She hoped with all her heart that she would escape despite the ends they had gone to.

  Charity was the middle of the five sisters with Faith and Hope the oldest and Prudence and Destiny the youngest. Being the middle daughter had been both a blessing and a curse. She’d been given more free time but she’d often been overlooked as well. Of course now she would give anything for some actual free time. And heaven knew that she would love it if her fiancé would overlook her, if everyone would just forget that she even existed.

  Charity walked away from the window back towards the dining table and sat with an exaggerated
sigh on one of the four chairs. Faith had managed to disappear the night before her wedding. They had heard from her when she was far enough away to ensure that no one would be coming after her. Faith was happy now with Jake Daniels. He had fallen for her on one of his many visits to town and then came back for her when he heard she was to be married. It was so romantic that it made Charity long for someone like that in her life. It would be fantastic to have someone just come in and sweep her off her feet. But she had no lost love, no suitor she had exchanged shy glances with while strolling through town. So there would be no rescue for her.

  Hope had used the festival as a means to escape. She was happy now too though Charity had no idea where her older sister was. She knew only that she was travelling with two men who she had met onboard a boat. They were detectives of some sort and Hope was having the time of her life with them. But Charity saw no means such as those on her horizon. For one, there was no festival for months to come. For another, her newly hired roommate was employed to make sure that such a thing didn’t occur.

  Both of her older sisters were happy. Both had escaped the trap that had been laid for them and found a different life for themselves out in the world. Charity wanted that for herself as well. She wanted to just be able to go, to leave this small Texas town behind and not look back. But could she do it? Could she leave her two younger sisters to experience a similar fate when she couldn’t do it herself? What could have possibly happened in their lives to bring them all to this place, this event, this horrible twist of fate? What had she done in her life to deserve this?

  She threw her hands out and pounded on the table top. She hated her father for the situation he had placed her in. It was his doing that had her about to marry a man way too old for her, a man that repulsed her in every way possible. He was fat and bald, which wasn’t even the worst of it. No, the worst was his personality, what there was of it. He reminded her of the toad mother from the tale of Thumbelina. She hadn’t thought of that childhood story in a long time. Maybe she should pray for fairy wings and to be the size of a thimble. Maybe she should just finish going crazy and call it a day. She leaned her head down on her arms and wanted to cry, wanted to laugh but was far too angry to do either.

  So she did the only other thing she could think of. She lifted her head high, arched her neck and opened her mouth on a piercing shriek that helped relieve some of the tension she felt. She beat her fisted hands on the table and kicked her feet on the floor.

  “Wow, never really been greeted that way before.”

  Charity cut the scream off midstream, stopped flailing around like a mad woman and turned her head towards the door. There was a rather large man standing in the cabin doorway. She hadn’t even heard the door open, hadn’t heard the sound of a vehicle approaching the cabin at all. Perhaps she should have been paying more attention to her surroundings and a little less energy venting.

  He was tall with broad shoulders. His black hair was short on his neck but thick and full on his head, the lush locks just begging for her to run her fingers through them. He smiled and there were twin dimples on each side of his very kissable looking mouth. But it was his eyes that drew her to him. Thick black lashes curved around the greenest eyes she’d ever seen. His eyes were so bright that she could see them from where she sat at the table and they were absolutely beautiful. As was the gorgeous specimen of mankind that stood before her. Maybe God smiled on her after all. Surely this man was sent to save her, not jail her.

  Charity had long heard what a beauty she was with her long blonde hair and blue eyes. And she did have long legs, well formed breasts that were high and firm and an all over fit body. She’d always been an athlete and did her best to eat right and exercise daily. Now it was time to put that beauty to good use and see if she could get out of her current situation. She had to get a little information from Mr. Tall, Dark and Handsome first though. That would be the key to getting away from here.

  “So, are you the bodyguard?” she asked him doing her best to look casual as she shifted in the chair and crossed her long legs.

  He licked his lips as he eyed her and nodded. She definitely had his attention and planned to do whatever she needed to in order to keep it.

  “So do you have a name?” she asked and smiled at him.

  He smiled in a way that sent tingles to all her feminine places and nodded. “Deverau. Deverau James.”

  “Is that first and last or last then first?” Charity wasn’t sure what his first name was.

  Deverau laughed and this time it was Charity’s turn to catch her breath. “First and last. Mom had a great sense of humour. She decided since I would have a first name for my last that I should have a last name for my first.”

  Charity laughed as well. “Sounds like an intriguing woman, your mother.”

  Deverau’s smile disappeared. “She was.” There was a sadness in his eyes that she could understand all too well.

  “I’m sorry Deverau,” Charity said and meant it more than he could know. After all she knew what it was like to lose a mother. She had only the very vaguest of memories when it came to the woman who had given birth to her. But they were the happiest memories she had. Times filled with laughter and joy, with her father’s laughter and joy.

  “Thank you,” he said with a nod as he moved into the room, “and you can call me Dev.”

  “Nice to meet you Dev.” Charity stood from the chair and made for the cabin door which still stood wide open. “You left the door open. We try not to do that in this part of the country. Wild animals and such.” She grinned at him as she reached to shut it.

  “Yeah,” Dev nodded as he tossed a bag on the floor by the sofa. “Unfortunately the only wild animal out there at the moment is my brother. Douglass is getting some other supplies from the truck.”

  “Douglass?” she questioned and turned to glance out the door. What she saw was a carbon copy of the man in the cabin right down to the green eyes. Heaven help her there were two of them. She must have died and gone to heaven or someplace very similar. Then she remembered that he was her body guard, maybe both of them were. So maybe she was in hell to be surrounded by the two finest specimens of the male population and have them be saving her from escaping the worst example of the male population. Fate was still toying with her.

  “Hey darling,” the man named Douglass said. “Hope this cabin is big enough for three.” He stepped past her, his arms filled with duffel bags, sleeping bags and a couple of pillows. “Damn, it might get a little cosy over the next few days. Hope you aren’t the shy retiring type.”

  Charity laughed and shook her head at him. “No, I’ve never been accused of being a shy girl. If anything I’m just the opposite.”

  “Was that you I heard screaming like a banshee when I was unloading the Jeep?” His eyes sparked with humour when he looked at her.

  “Sorry,” she had the grace to blush with embarrassment. “I felt the need to release some tension. I’m not usually so…vocal,” she added at a loss for what to say. It was not the way she would have chosen to meet them for the first time.

  “No problem, darling,” Douglass grinned at her. “All kinds of ways to relieve tension. You just chose the one that worked best for you.”

  “And what would you do to relieve tension?” she queried though she had an idea of what activity they would choose. And man would she love to see them hot and sweaty and…

  Douglass grinned at her. Dev laughed and Charity wondered which brother she might be able to seduce into helping her escape. Her glance flickered back and forth between the two men and Charity smiled a smile that had both of the brothers’ full attention. Why not just seduce them both? With a turn she shut the door and flicked the lock. She had three days to convince them to help her. The way they were looking at her she was betting it would barely take one, if even that. One thing was for sure. She was going to have the best time of her life trying.

  Doug couldn’t help but to shake his head when he entered and saw the
woman that they were to guard. She was gorgeous. Absolutely gorgeous. Hands down the most beautiful woman he’d ever seen. Long blonde hair flowed down her back and her big baby blues were as pure as the morning sky on a sunny day. She had long legs and curves in all the right places. No wonder the old man was worried she wouldn’t make it to the wedding day. There must be a million men out there that would be willing to do anything to stop her from marrying someone else, men who would want her for their own. He couldn’t help but wonder who the hell she was to marry. And why it seemed they thought she might run away before the vows could be exchanged.

  One look at Dev and he knew that his brother only had one thing on his mind. Getting to know the bride-to-be really well. Preferably in the biblical sense. Dev was a walking hormone at times. Of course if Doug were honest he’d admit that he wanted the same thing from this woman. Hell, he’d love to get her naked and have his wicked, and he did mean wicked, way with her. He’d help her work off all the tension that she needed to. He’d love nothing more than to lay her across the top of that sturdy looking dining table and spread her shapely legs wide. Maybe he’d put them over his shoulders while he tasted the honey she would most definitely have between her thighs. God knew he wanted to ram his dick so deep inside her tight little cunt that she choked on it. And the thought of her choking on it, of his cock buried between those lush lips was enough to have him shaking his head and thinking of a cold shower.

  She was the job and he never mixed business with pleasure. Dev on the other hand had no such compulsions. So he’d have to watch his brother closely. And the way that the girl was eyeing them… Well, it had his blood pumping again just fine. At this rate he’d be just like his brother, a walking hard-on.