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Harvest Moon (Hideaway (Kimani), 5) - Softcover

Buch 5 von 15: Hideaway Legacy

Alers, Rochelle

 
9780373534449: Harvest Moon (Hideaway (Kimani), 5)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0373534442 ISBN 13: 9780373534449
Verlag: Harlequin Kimani Arabesque, 2011

Inhaltsangabe

Actress Regina Cole achieved overnight success in Hollywood, but stunned the world when she gave up her career to marry a much older man. After his death, Regina encounters his estranged son, Dr. Aaron Spencer, a Brazil-based microbiologist, and is unable to deny the instant attraction. Driven to seduce his father's widow, Aaron finds that the revenge he sought pales in comparison to his desire for Regina, and the passion he feels is far more than he imagined.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Hailed by readers and booksellers alike as one of today's most popular African-American authors of women's fiction, Ms. Alers is a regular on bestsellers list, and has been a recipient of numerous awards, including the Vivian Stephens Award for Excellence in Romance Writing and a Zora Neale Hurston Literary Award.  Visit her Web site www.rochellealers.com  

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Mexico City, Mexico—August seventeenth…

Oscar Clayborne Spencer died today at the age of seventy-seven after a decade-long bout with lung cancer.

The multiple award-winning film director, who won an Academy Award for his last film, Silent Witness, also earned more than a dozen awards from the Cannes, Venice, and Sundance Film Festivals during his illustrious thirty-five-year movie career.

Spencer is survived by his wife, Regina Spencer, and son, Dr. Aaron Spencer, of Bahia, Brazil.

Funeral arrangements will be private.

Regina Cole-Spencer's left hand trembled noticeably as she reached for the telephone on her bedside table. She loathed having to make the call. It would have been easier if she had called Aaron when his father was first diagnosed with the illness that had laid claim to his life second by second, minute by minute, and day by day for a decade.

Her fingers curved around the receiver. She knew the telephone number without glancing at the yellowing, frayed business card lying atop the highly waxed surface of the table; she had picked up the receiver and dialed the South American country's international code more than a dozen times over the past week, only to replace it in its cradle before the impending connection. But this time the call would be completed.

Oscar had issued an explicit order for her not to contact Aaron until after his death. Now was that time.

Her husband died quietly in his sleep, slipping away from their life together and into the next with the aid of the potent narcotic the doctor prescribed to make Oscar's pain more tolerable toward the end.

Pressing the buttons, she punched in the numbers and then closed her eyes and listened to the sound of the steady, measured ringing.

"Ola. Sao Tome Instituto de Medico Pesquisa."

Regina heard the feminine voice speaking Portuguese, and was instantly reminded that Brazil was the only South American country whose official language was not Spanish.

"Hola," she responded in Spanish, a language she had learned from her Cuban-born grandmother and had perfected since living in Mexico for nearly a decade. "I would like to speak to Dr. Aaron Spencer."

"Lo siento," the receptionist replied in the same language, "Dr. Spencer is not scheduled to work at the institute today."

There was a long silence. It was obvious the receptionist wasn't going to be forthcoming with any information regarding Oscar's son's whereabouts.

"It is imperative that I reach him. This is a family emergency," Regina added.

"I can page him and have him return your call."

She let out an audible sigh. "Thank you." She gave the woman her name and the telephone number to her house in a remote town nearly a hundred miles south of Mexico City, and hung up.

Rising from a tapestry-covered armchair, she walked over to the French doors and stared out at the lush property surrounding El Cielo. An expression of profound sadness settled into her delicate features as she opened the doors. The cloudless summer sky made the Sierra Madre Del Sur mountain range seem close enough for her to reach out and touch. She had lost count of how often she had awakened to stare at the jagged peaks blending with the sky. The first time she stood on the veranda staring down at the valley she had felt as if she had come to heaven. The mountain peaks had appeared to pierce the verdant, rolling hills of the valley to rise heavenward like spires on a Gothic cathedral, prompting her to call the property El Cielo. It had become heaven and a safe haven for her, as it was to become a final resting place for Oscar Spencer.

For eight years she did not have to concern herself about whether someone recognized her as Regina Cole, the actress who at seventeen had been nominated as Best Actress in her first film. No one had ever stared at her or whispered behind their fingers whenever she and Oscar dined out or shopped in town. They were allowed their privacy as private citizens, to share their lives uncensored as a married couple.

The telephone chimed softly, and she returned to the bedroom to answer the call. "Hola."

"This is Dr. Spencer," came a deep, powerful voice speaking fluent Spanish.

Regina inhaled, then let out her breath slowly. "Dr. Spencer," she continued, switching to English, "I'm Regina Spencer. I called you because I want to inform you that your father passed away earlier today." Her eyes filled with tears. "He did not suffer."

There was an interminable silence before Aaron Spencer spoke again. "What was the cause of death?"

"Lung cancer." Tears she had kept at bay now overflowed and stained her cheeks.

"When was he diagnosed with cancer?"

"His doctor discovered it ten years ago."

"Ten years! You waited ten years, and for my father to die, to call me, Miss—"

"I was just following his wishes, Dr. Spencer," she countered, interrupting him. "He forbade me to call you until after he'd died." She felt a rush of heat suffuse her face. He had no right to yell at her, and he had no right to accuse her of something he knew nothing about.

"What do you mean, he forbade you? Just who the hell are you, anyway?"

Her fingers tightened on the receiver. "I was your father's wife."

A soft curse came through the wire as Aaron Spencer mumbled angrily under his breath. "And now you're his widow." He had not bothered to hide his sarcasm. "Have you made funeral arrangements?"

Sitting down on the armchair, Regina pressed her back against the cushion, closing her eyes. She hadn't realized how tired she was, or how great a strain she had been under for more years than she could count.

"No, I haven't. I waited because I wanted to call you. If you intend to come to Mexico, then I'll hold off until you arrive. If not, then I'll proceed with my original plans."

"Don't do anything until I get there."

Nodding, she opened her eyes. "When shall I expect you?"

"I'll try to be there sometime tomorrow. Give me the address where you're staying."

She blotted her cheeks with the back of her right hand as she gave her late husband's son the directions to the sprawling property she had occupied with Oscar since they fled Southern California.

He repeated the information she had given him, and without offering the ubiquitous "goodbye" or "have a safe flight" she hung up.

All she had shared with Oscar swept over her as she left the chair and lay down on the large bed where she had slept alone since becoming Regina Spencer. She thought she had prepared herself for this moment. She had thought she would welcome the time when Oscar would slip away from her to a place where he would never feel pain, or see the sadness she valiantly tried to conceal from him.

She'd thought she had a lot of time to get used to the day when she would eventually become a widow, but she was wrong. She was wrong, because when she married a man fifty years her senior she never thought she would come to love him as much as she did.

Aaron Spencer sat in the dark long after he'd called a carrier which would take him from Salvador to Mexico, numbed by the news that his father was dead. It had been twelve years since he last saw or had spoken to Oscar, and despite their estrangement he had never envisioned him not being alive.

There had been one time when he picked up the telephone to call Oscar and set things right between them, but it had been too late. His father's telephone had been...

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Verlag
Harlequin Kimani Arabesque
Erscheinungsdatum
2011
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0373534442
ISBN 13 
9780373534449
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
320
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