Chasing Summer: Date with Destiny / Marooned with the Maverick / A Summer Wedding at Willowmere
Will they say ‘I do’ before the end of summer?Date with Destiny by Helen LaceyGrace Preston doesn’t do small Australian towns. Or first loves. But when she has to go home, she’s faced with both. Local cop Cameron Jakowski has loved Grace for most of his life, but while he’d wanted to settle down, she didn’t. And now she’s home – a walking, talking temptation!Marooned with the Maverick by Christine RimmerWilla tried hard not to hold a grudge, but she was sure bad boy Collin Traub didn’t remember the kiss they’d shared years ago. Now they were stranded in a storm together and resisting his sweet talk was easy. Resisting his strong arms and dark eyes was another story…Summer Wedding at Willowmere by Abigail GordonWillowmere in summer is breath-taking, but nurse Laurel Maddox has come to hide from her past not admire the scenery. Dr David Trelawney is captivated by his new colleague and he’s determined to make Laurel blossom and, before the summer is out, make her his bride!
Читать Chasing Summer: Date with Destiny / Marooned with the Maverick / A Summer Wedding at Willowmere онлайн беплатно
Chasing Summer
Date with Destiny
Helen Lacey
Marooned with the maverick
Christine Rimmer
A summer Wedding at Willowmere
Abigail Gordon
Table of Contents
Helen Lacey
HELEN LACEY grew up reading Black Beauty, Anne of Green Gables and Little House on the Prairie. These childhood classics inspired her to write her first book when she was seven years old, a story about a girl and her horse. She continued to write, with the dream of one day being a published author, and writing for Mills & Boon Cherish is the realization of that dream. She loves creating stories about strong heroes with a soft heart and heroines who get their happily-ever-after. For more about Helen, visit her website, www.helenlacey.com.
For Gareth
1966–2009
Forever in my heart
‘DO come in, Mrs Diamond.’
Salome gave the man still seated behind the desk a cool look.
‘You’re very punctual,’ he added with a cursory glance at his watch.
‘Ralph was not one of those men who liked to be kept waiting,’ she said, before realising that she was talking about her husband in the past tense.
But then came the bitter reminder that, for her, Ralph Diamond was past. Otherwise Charles Smeaton, Ralph’s long-time legal adviser, would have been on his feet, extending a polite hand and showing a wide smile beneath his pencil-thin moustache. Instead, he waved curtly towards the vacant chair in front of the desk.
Salome closed the door of the office far more politely than her inner turmoil warranted. She walked across the plushly carpeted floor, well aware that Charles’s beady eyes were running over her eye-catching figure with an insolence he would never have dared display in front of Ralph.
But she sat down and crossed her long, shapely legs without batting an eyelid. If there was one thing her husband had taught her, it was to show apparent indifference to what others did or said.
‘You will have to learn to ignore the gossip, Salome,’ Ralph had warned her right from the start. ‘There’s bound to be plenty, with your being only nineteen to my forty-nine. People who don’t know you will think you’re marrying me for my money, in exchange for which I get to bed the most beautiful girl God ever put breath into. There’s no point in telling the world the truth, my dear. No one will believe you. You’ll just have to learn to live with the slurs. But don’t worry, I’ll teach you how to distance yourself from malicious tongues, how to hold yourself above them.’
Ralph had been right, of course. People had thought the worst of her. Not that they had ever shown their true faces in front of her husband. He was too rich and powerful to offend directly. But there’d been looks and sniggers behind his back. Once, shortly after their marriage, Charles had cornered her at a party and told her to make hay while the sun shone, since dear old Ralph had a habit of discarding his material possessions with regular monotony.
For ages afterwards Salome had been plagued with doubts about the sincerity of Ralph’s love. But as the months passed—very happy months—she had gained more and more confidence in herself and her unusual marriage. The doubts were firmly buried, and remained so for over four years, only to resurface with a vengeance one day in May last year—the day Ralph had told her their marriage was over.
‘Well, Charles?’ she asked, setting cool green eyes upon his smarmy-looking expression. ‘Why did you want to see me? I received the final divorce papers in the mail last week. What more is there to be said?’
‘You’re looking as ravishing as ever, Mrs Diamond,’ he drawled, leaning his fleshy frame back into the swivel-chair and giving her the benefit of a further scrutiny, this time letting his eyes linger more insultingly on the thrust of her high, well-rounded breasts.
Salome didn’t flinch an inch.
‘It’s Miss Twynan now, Charles,’ she said with silky smoothness. ‘Or Salome, if you prefer.’ The sudden thought that her ex-husband would have been proud of her unruffled demeanour only brought pain. Oh, Ralph...why did you do it? Why marry me, make my whole life revolve around you, then toss me out like a worn-out shoe? Why?
An ugly smile twisted the lawyer’s thick lips. ‘Salome. Such an...interesting name.’
‘Molly liked it.’
‘Molly?’
‘My mother.’
‘Ah, yes...your mother.’ His derisive tone suggested that just mentioning her mother was distasteful.
‘Couldn’t we get to the point, Charles?’ she asked icily.
