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to talk some sense into her that day.  His plan was to bring her back here and make love to her in his home.  His intention had been to stop her from making a colossal mistake with that rat-bastard Pete.  But when he saw her standing there, sweet and wide-eyed, thinking he didn’t want her, he had to remove any doubt.  He wanted to show her how very much he did desire her.  From a purely animalistic standpoint, he needed to lay claim to her.  To possess her.  To show her, if only for that moment, she belonged to him.  Selfishly, he hadn’t wanted any barriers between them when he took her, not even a condom.  But he wasn’t about to say that to Gabriela Vega.
    He cleared his throat.  “I didn’t think protection was warranted.  Cherry was anxious and determined to lose her virginity.  Given that, I assumed she was on the pill.  And not that it’s any of your business, but I’m clean.  I’ve not been in a romantic or sexual relationship with anyone for a quite a long time.  There was no cause for either of us to worry about sexually transmitted diseases.” 
    He stopped pacing and blew out a deep breath.  “I don’t believe in your dreams, Miss Vega.  If Cherry were pregnant, she would have come to me by now.  So, if we’re done here, I need to get going.”
    Zane was shocked when she suddenly jumped to her feet, placed her hands on her hips and stared at him with an intensity he had never seen in anyone’s eyes before.
    “We most certainly are not done.  Sit.  You will hear what I have to say now.”
    Zane sat and gave her his full attention.
    He watched her features soften as she spoke.  “Cherry is smart and funny and beautiful.”
    “Yes, I know,” he said, smiling.
    “What you do not know is she carries great sadness and fear inside her.  She has rejection and abandonment issues that run deeper than the Rio Grande.”
    Zane furrowed his brow.  “Cherry’s only twenty-one.  At that age nobody has experienced enough of life to have the issues you’re talking about. What is this? More dream analysis?”
    She huffed.  “It most certainly is not.  You will feel foolish once I have explained, Señor.”
    Despite his skepticism, Zane nodded.  “I’m listening.”
    “Bueno, for what I have to tell you is importante— important.  When Cherry was but an infant, her mother left her on a church step.  A priest took her to the orphanage where she stayed until she was six years old.  Usually babies are the first to be adopted, but Cherry was sickly early on, and people only wanted hearty, healthy babies.”
    Zane groaned. “My God, how horrible for her.”
    “Sí. But on her sixth birthday, she got the best present of all.  A nice, older couple—Charles and Anna Mercer—visited the orphanage, looking for a little girl to adopt.  They chose Cherry and, with time, she blossomed under their care.  They were sweet, loving, patient and nurturing people.”
    “ Were ?” 
    She nodded.  “They died in a tragic accident during Cherry’s freshman year at Erskine.”
    “What happened?”
    “After Cherry left for college, the Mercers decided it was time to take a second honeymoon.  For over thirty years, they had been saving and planning for a cruise to Hawaii.  Shortly after their ship docked in Honolulu, they chartered a helicopter.  They wanted to view Hawaii from the air before deciding which islands to explore. There was a mechanical malfunction in the turbine engine, and the aircraft crashed into the highest side of the Mauna Kea Mountain.  In Hawaiian mythology, the peaks of the island of Hawaii are sacred, and Mauna Kea, meaning White Mountain is one of the most sacred. An ancient law allowed only high-ranking tribal chiefs to visit its peak.  The Mercers’ demise was tragic but somehow, fitting. Cherry’s adoptive parents were among the highest-ranking human beings on earth.  Their hearts were pure and, within their hearts and home, they made room for my best