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Tricia McGill Australian Author
Tricia McGill Australian Author
Books We Love
Category:
Publishing
Publisher: Books We Love Ltd.
Type: Fiction
Pages: 172
Copyright: Jan 19, 2016
ISBN-13: 9781771459334
Price: $3.99 (eBook)
When Fate Decides is dedicated to all the women out there who dream of having a man like Jack in their lives—and to those who are blessed by having one.
For too long Tessa has seen herself as plain and dowdy, just an ordinary suburban housewife. With her confidence eroded after being married to a bully who humiliated her at every opportunity, why wouldn’t she presume she was unattractive, and someone no man would find the least bit worth bothering with?
But now Tessa is a widow, and relishing her new state of independence. Her world is turned upside down by Jack Delaney, a man she spent hours fantasizing over when he worked for her husband. A man who gave her a deliciously secret outlet from her miserable marriage. When Jack enters her life again, professing he finds her attractive, why would she believe him? Especially as he is now wealthy, successful, still extremely handsome, and to add to that, years younger than her.
Excerpt
Jack sipped his coffee as he watched her over the rim of the cup. Fancy her remembering he liked lots of sweet stuff back then. It might be small and insignificant but was something in his favor. He remembered practically everything about her, from the certain way she had of looking at him, as if about to run and hide at any moment, to the soft curve of her mouth when she smiled.
And he hadn’t lied; she’d barely altered in ten years. He could hardly believe it. If anything she was more beautiful than the last time he saw her, with slightly exotic almond shaped eyes, dainty chin, patrician nose, skin begging a man’s touch, and amazing bone structure.
And still as unsure of herself. Christ, what had her mangy dog of a husband done? If she was his woman, she would be glorying in her femininity.
Her long legs drew his gaze as she crossed them. Lord, but they brought out the savage in him. This woman’s ingrained elegance attracted him from the moment he set eyes on her ten years ago. In the jeans and sweater, he could see her figure was still as willowy, yet curved in all the right places. He’d always liked tall women, perhaps since he developed a crush on this particular one at the tender age of twenty.
What a contrast to the bitch he married. Sometimes he wondered if perhaps his marriage, never made in heaven, had started to go decidedly downhill once he met Tessa. No, it was a fact—held beside Mary, his greatest mistake, Tessa was a goddess.
Her eyes had held a wariness since he walked in, and she kept looking away every time he tried to hold her gaze. He liked the shyness she projected, had been endeared by it from the start, hoped it was still part of her make-up, not just something manufactured by his imagination. No doubt she was unaware of her attractiveness. And there was no doubt that she was unaware of his strange tug of the heartstrings just at the sight of her. God, but she brought out the romantic in him.
Jack recalled the first time he walked into her kitchen years ago as if it was yesterday. Des instructed him and Geoff to turn up at seven thirty and they arrived on the dot. Despite the early hour, she was up and about, unlike Mary who still snored beneath the blankets when he left her at home. Tessa was in the midst of preparing lunches for her two kids, and looking as fresh as a dew-kissed rosebud. With flustered confusion, she offered them a cup of coffee. It was the first of many she made them in the weeks they were here. Until this one he had now, he’d never tasted its like. Perhaps it had something to do with the fact that she made it. It was likely he would drink hemlock and enjoy it if it was made by Tessa Browning’s slender hand.
“What a shame.”
What was a shame? Jack looked at her curiously. Deep in his reminiscences, he’d forgotten completely what they were discussing.
“Your marriage?” She gave a slight nod.
“Ah, that? Not really, we were unsuited.” Boy, was that an understatement! “Mary found herself someone else, and I was glad it was all over.”
That seemed to shock Tessa. What would she say, he wondered, if he told her she was possibly behind his indifference to Mary. The indifference that grew steadily while he worked in this house. Tessa always looked so fresh, regardless of the heat, and always treated him and Geoff as if they were important, not just two tradesmen working for her husband. He’d never met another woman like her, before or since. No other woman came near to stirring his senses. No other came close to bringing out every protective instinct, every lustful response.
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