Page 1 of Hayes

Chapter 1

Cutting off the scream, Camelia was jolted from her sleep and the nightmare that had taken hold of her.

With the moans strangled inside her throat, she managed to fight the pressure pressing down on her chest as she clawed her way out from a deep pit, she felt the walls closing around her. Sitting up, she dragged air into her lungs and reached over to switch on the lamp.

It was back. The therapist had warned that she would probably be facing something like this when she returned, and the woman was right. Her throat was parched, and she was trembling. Closing her eyes, she took several breaths to compose herself.

A lone reporter had cornered her on her way from the market to try and revive a story that was no longer of interest to the public.

Too many things had happened since her life had been overturned and demolished, and she had scathingly told the pathetic little man that. No one cared what had happened twelve years ago, except the people who were left behind.

Swinging her legs off the bed, she dragged her fingers through the tangle of thick dark brown hair. She wondered vaguely why she had not done her usual nightly routine by brushing it thoroughly and wrapping it into a bun. It would be hell to deal with in the morning.

Reaching for the silk robe, she wrapped herself and belted it before going into the bathroom. She was about to fill the glass with water when her reflection caught her attention, and she stood there examining her features.

She was beautiful because her mother had been an exquisite beauty who had taken Hollywood by storm. Her complexion was a mixture of coffee and heavy cream. Her forehead was high, her nose small, and her lips full. Lifting a hand, she spread her fingers over them, dark brown eyes shadowed as memories came flooding back.

“You are certainly not a poet," she remembered saying that teasingly.

“Just because I compare your lips to ripe plums. Well, they are.”

“Surely, with all the tutoring in English literature, you could do better than that?”

“I am a jock, and if the other guys hear me spouting nonsense about your lips and the texture of your skin, they are going to boot me off the team.”

“Which one?” she had asked him laughingly. “You are on so many of them, Hayes Marsden.”

“You are one to talk. You are the overachiever. And I don’t see why you bother with them all since we both know you are going to follow in your dad’s footsteps,”

The tears came and she blinked them back furiously. It would not do to have the memories, any of them coming to the surface. She was back because her aunt had decided that it was time to come back.

“We have been hiding far too long now, darling. The entire nasty deal happened over twelve years ago, and people have moved on to other, more juicy stories."

Shaking her head, she finished the water and stepped away from the counter. She was going to pick up the pieces of her life and try to find some semblance of order to it. After years of therapy and telling herself that it was all in the past. She was ready.

Going back inside the bedroom, she climbed back into bed and pulled the sheets over her. She was going to be editor for a society magazine. It was not ideal and was nothing more than tabloid gossip, but it had a wide range of readers, and she had been given carte blanche to include more human interest pieces.

A love story here and there. Happenings on the artsy side of town. Jackson Colby had even agreed to an interview and for photos to be taken of his latest pieces. She had a feeling he had only agreed out of pity, but she did not care.

If she was going to get her life back, she was willing to take any handouts she could get.

She was going to try and stay away from Hayes, but if she happened to bump into him while on an assignment—her heart shuddered at that. She had no idea what she was going to do. She hadn’t thought that one through completely.

He was almost engaged. She had read that in one of those gossip columns, and she was happy for him, or at least, that was what she was telling herself.

No doubt he hated her, and she couldn’t blame him. But she could not allow herself to dwell on that either.

She also would not dwell on the fact that she had gone from being a society princess to just a normal girl with a horrible past behind her. She was still alive and healthy—it could have been worse.

Switching the bedside lamp off, she slid down onto the pillows and tried valiantly to go to sleep.

*****

Hayes looked up at the knock on the door, a smile curving his lips as the wraithlike woman slipped in, a searching look on her lovely face.

“I am just about through. I know I missed dinner, but I had to get this out of the way. The acquisition of Southern Airlines is quite a coup. Dad would have been proud.”

“He would have been.” Hillary Marsden walked over to his desk to perch a hip on the edge. “You work too hard.”

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