Danielle Pires's life is going well. She has a boyfriend who wants to marry her and is building a reputation as a talented and hard-working interior designer. Keen to expand her portfolio, Danielle is delighted by a request to breathe life back into the Victorian Mansion that handsome Scott Jordache is renovating.
Her parents, meanwhile, have organised a surprise Caribbean cruise to give her a much-needed break.
Danielle sets sail only to discover Scott aboard the same ship, but mysteriously travelling under a pseudonym. Intrigued, she feels torn between mistrust and being drawn in by his charm.
Should she let herself fall for Scott or return to the security of the man she left at home?
33,000 words.
Excerpt
Chapter One
The dawn broke, flooding the room with light. Danielle stretched and moaned. Her eyes widened when she touched the clammy skin of the person sharing her bed. Crap!
She shimmied out of bed, careful not to wake her sleeping companion, and jumped in the shower. She had hoped that standing underneath the water would wash away the shame she was feeling. Going over what had taken place the previous evening, made her question if she really wanted to continue to live like this.
Her handsome partner, Dean was nice enough, but recently his faults outweighed the kindness he’d once shown. Faults which grated and tried her patience daily, maybe her heavy schedule had something to do with that too. But all the same his attitude toward her over the past couple of weeks had left her wondering if their relationship was doomed. Hence her amazement to find him asleep, tucked up in her bed.
The evening had begun as usual, with her being exhausted after a mentally tiring day’s work. Interior designing didn’t always live up to its glamorous TV image. She encountered arguments and disputes between builders and clients even on the smallest project. Anyway, Dean had rung her at lunchtime, his lunchtime not hers, nowadays she only had time to grab a sandwich in the car between locations. He’d ordered her to be ready at seven. She had tried to argue with him, but he’d insisted she’d been working too hard lately and she needed a break.
His timing was out of sync with her schedule as usual, but during the afternoon she’d upped her already hectic pace, and called on her sister, Claudine to help out at the office, to ensure she’d get home early that evening.
She’d been with Dean for three years now, maybe the impromptu night out was him trying to make amends for the way they appeared to have drifted apart recently. Dean was tall, dark and good-looking, every girl’s dream — he just didn’t set her world alight. She’d been more conscious of this lately because of the amount of romcom movies doing the rounds. Once a week Danielle and her sister settled down to see the latest movie over a bottle of wine. She’d noticed how the woman always seemed to blush when the man touched her. Yes, she knew it was different in the movies, but all the same it left Danielle wondering why she’d never been fortunate enough to feel that way. In any of her relationships, past or present. Maybe she was just unlucky, is that why she was prepared to settle for her relationship with Dean, for fear of sitting at home on her own every night? No the trouble was boredom. All her relationships had ended because she’d grown bored of her partner. Was that the problem with Dean?
Arriving at her newly bought, half-renovated Chelsea Mews at four, she ran a bath in the new bathroom her team had put in a few months ago. She soaked for the next half an hour in the expensive foam bath her mother had given her at Christmas, while Curtis Stigers’ sexy voice filled the bedroom next door. If his sexy voice couldn’t put her in the right mood then no one could.
Soaping her body she imagined her hands belonged to an insatiable lover. What an idiot you can be at times Danielle. She washed her long auburn her and emptied the water. Wrapping the fluffy bath sheet around her, she returned to her bedroom. She plucked the pink flowing dress she’d only worn once from the rail, and laid it out on the bed. As it was the beginning of September, she decided to wear a lacy white cardigan over the top. After blow-drying her hair she fastened the sides back with some pretty butterfly combs. She slipped on a pair of wedged sandals, and cursed the fact she’d not had the time lately to paint her toes. A light application of make-up and she was set to go.
The doorbell rang at seven on the dot. Another thing that narked her about Dean, his predictability. She opened the door with a false smile which dropped the second she saw how handsome he looked in his tuxedo.
“Something wrong?” he asked.
“You should’ve told me to dress up.”
It wasn’t the first time he’d done that either, making her suspicious of his motives. Maybe he likes hogging the limelight.
He shrugged and walked back down the path to the car. “You look fine.”
The smile remained on her face but inside she was livid. Fine, just fine! Two hours preparation and the only compliment you can bloody come up with is FINE!
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