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chose to do so. After only two rings, her mother answered.
    “ Hello darling, how did you sleep?” Her mother’s voice, literally, purred the provocative question. Obviously, Arabella didn’t have to wonder if Elizabeth had picked up on her daughter’s x-rated dreams.
    “ Mother…” Arabella pronounced the personal pronoun with mostly mock warning. “Please…” She felt like a fourteen year old again.
    “ I’m not judging, dear.” Elizabeth laughed. “Actually, I’m jealous. I wish my nights were filled with such amorous adventure. Who is he, by the way? I don’t know him, or do I?”
    “ Mother, he isn’t…I mean…there isn’t, oh shoot. I don’t know what I mean. I’ll explain it to you the best I can when you get here.”
    “ Actually, I’m almost out the door. Mother and the rest are on their way aren’t they?”
    “ Can’t hide anything from you, can we?”
    “ Never could.” There was a pause. Arabella assumed she was checking her watch. “I’ll be there in about five hours.”
    “ Take care,” Arabella murmured. “See you soon.” She blew out a long breath. All of a sudden, her life seemed quite complicated.

Chapter Three

    Jade could hear the gentle buzz of the overhead fluorescent lights as he lay perfectly still. After all, he couldn’t move a muscle. He wasn’t getting any better and evidently, he never would. Even though Dr. Reynolds and the others were not convinced he heard or understood, they had gently told him he was a tetraplegic. Jade knew about being a paraplegic or a quadriplegic, but apparently, tetraplegia was a whole different ball game. His life had become a burden—a horror—and he didn’t even have the personal power or ability to bring his nightmare to an end.
    A nurse had come in and read a legal document to him. She was probably required to do so just in case he could comprehend. It seemed they were transferring him to a long-term care facility called Tranquility Place . The sappy name alone made him wish he could gag—he knew there would be no tranquility for him. Every moment he lived constituted sheer hell; machines were keeping him alive and his caretakers were not even thoughtful enough to turn on a TV at the slim chance he would be aware of the picture or noise. So he looked at the ceiling; he wasn’t even propped up enough to see around his own room. With no close family of his own, and a fiancé who had been cold enough to have left her engagement ring lying on his chest, Jade only had Reese to check on him and even his visits were getting fewer and farther apart. It seemed the doctors were right. The mercurial rise of the charismatic Jade Landale, former darling of the Austin political scene, had come to a screeching halt. In fact, he could see nothing in his future except loneliness and the never-ending hopelessness of being frozen in place like an abandoned action figure.
    Nurse Edding said he would be transferred to Tranquility Place in the morning. Sleep had become his greatest comfort; he would have slept all the time if he had a choice. In his dreams last night, Jade had met the dark haired beauty once again. The excitement and pleasure he had felt with her had put to shame the pallid, one-sided sex he had experienced with Kate. Kate had just lain there like a limp doll, seemingly unaffected by any feelings whatsoever. He had been captivated by her cool beauty and she had wanted to ride his coattails to the governor’s mansion and—in her mind—possibly, the White House. She enjoyed the envy of the other members of the country club set for her conquest of the rich, eligible bachelor who appeared to have such a bright future. Now he guessed he was still rich, but it would be a far stretch to call him eligible, and he would certainly never be governor of Texas.
    For ninety-nine percent of the time, Jade was alone, and the solitude made him crazy. But when he could sleep, he had the most incredible dreams. With pleasure, he pictured her