Is this their happy ending?
After her plans for a storybook wedding are derailed by a shocking discovery days before the big event, Ava Bradley retreats to a tranquil beach cottage. Days of intense soul-searching turn into nights of passionate yearning when she clashes with her infuriatingly arrogant and incredibly sexy Hideaway Island neighbor. Derek Patrick is tempting her, not just as a lover but as a soul mate, and itâs a connection unlike anything sheâs ever experienced before.
The up-by-his-bootstraps entrepreneur is proud to be mayor of the beautiful, secluded tropical island. Derek doesnât need some social-climbing diva messing with his hard-earned serenity. Yet Ava keeps surprising him. When their no-strings affair leaves them both hungry for more, Derek is tempted to take their island affair to the next level. But Ava doesnât intend to make her permanent home there...until a natural disaster threatens Derekâs beloved island, making them realize what matters mostâa love too precious to lose.
âI know I shouldnât have walked into your house and started cleaning, but I knocked and you didnât answer. I just meant to straighten up a little but I got carried away.â
He just cocked his head to the side and looked at her.
âI was feeling restless,â she explained.
âI can tell.â He took off his gloves, tossed them onto the counter and came toward her. âYou just canât come into a manâs home and be bent over in his refrigerator without some consequences.â
âConsequences?â She swallowed hard. âHow about a thank-you, you big jerk? Your house is a disaster and Iâve been working my fingers to the bone to make it habitable.â
âOh, poor princess. Had to do some actual work and now sheâs all worn-out.â He placed his big hot hands around her waist and she couldnât think clearly.
âShut up, Derek.â
âOkay.â He placed his mouth over hers and gave her a shockingly sexual kiss, and what was even more shocking was that she let him. She wrapped her arms around him and kissed him back. It wasnât something she could control anymore.
Chapter 1
Ava Bradley wasnât often nervous. Her twin brother often said that she had cold water running through her veins, that she was an ice princess. But today, as she stood in the living room of her charming seaside cottage, she felt anything but cold. Her heart was racing. Pounding so hard she wondered if it was going to burst out of her chest.
An enormous black garment bag had just been hand delivered to her by the designer after more than a thousand hours of work had been put into what was inside.
It was his masterpiece, as he called it.
Ava called it her wedding dress.
Her $25,000, crystal-encrusted, frothy confection of a wedding gown.
Most brides would be nervous, excited to receive their completed gowns.
It symbolized closing the door completely on one life and starting another.
But Ava didnât feel excitement. She felt more like throwing up.
This was her second wedding gown. She had purchased a simple but elegant one originally, which she had found in a shop right on Hideaway Island. It had been love at first sight. The ivory gown was vintage inspired, something a young bride might have worn in the 1940s, but that wasnât the dress she was going to wear when she walked down the aisle.
Her fiancé wanted her to wear something...better, he called it. Something luxurious and extravagant. It seemed like such an incredible amount of money. They could feed Miamiâs homeless for years with that amount of cash, but her fiancé wanted her to have it, so she had it. It was like that with everything. The car she drove had to be top of the line. The handbag she carried had to be so exclusive that most people were on a waiting list for a year just to be able to buy it. He was extremely wealthy and powerful, and he wanted his woman to reflect that.
âI only want the best, sweetheart,â he purred in his Belgian accent. âThatâs why I picked you.â
No, simple wouldnât do for Maxime Vermeulen. He was forty-four years old. Never married. He told her that he planned to be married only once, and thatâs why this wedding had to be the event of the century. Every time she had voiced her concerns about how much money they were spending, he would tell her that he had to spend it because she was perfect for him. And that she was beautiful and smart and lovely and all the things every woman wanted to hear from the man she was going to spend the rest of her life with.