Love Redesigned
Page 17
‘Do you believe in love at first sight?’ Daniel asked, fixing her with a piercing look.
‘Is that your idea of flirting?’ Holly asked, thinking herself very clever with her reply.
‘Answer the question,’ he ordered, his eyes never leaving her face.
‘I thought I loved you at first sight,’ she sighed, looking off into the middle distance. She was afraid to meet his eye. Afraid to see what she would see there. Or wouldn’t.
‘Well, I do. I loved you the first time I clapped eyes on you. Or at least I thought I did,’ Daniel began, still watching her closely, gauging her reaction. He had Holly’s attention. Her head snapped upright and she met his eye.
‘So what went wrong?’ she asked.
‘You left me,’ he said simply. ‘And I thought I’d gotten over you,’ he continued, just as she was about to defend herself. ‘But then I met you second time around.’
‘And?’ Holly asked, permitting herself to feel excited about where this conversation might be headed.
‘I thought we were finished. I thought I’d moved on. But when I knocked on your door that first morning, and found Harry, it was like I’d finally woken up—after having been living in a daze for half a decade. And I don’t just mean this is all about Harry. You must know I’m… still in love with you,’ Daniel said, clearly finding it awkward to spill all these words.
‘How much have you had to drink?’ Holly asked, trying to lighten the tone. She’d been longing to hear these words for months, but she was finding it hard to hear what he had to say.
‘Don’t joke. I mean it,’ he gently reprimanded. ‘I’ve always prided myself on being a pragmatist in everything I do. After you left I never really thought that there was such a thing as the one. But since I knocked on your door, I’ve come to realise that not only are you the one, but you’re the only one. I’m only sorry it’s taken me this long to figure it out.’
‘Wow,’ Holly replied. As declarations of love went, that was a good one. A damn sight better than I still like you. But she now had a problem. What was she ever going to say to that, that was halfway epic?
‘Is that all you’re going to say? Wow?’ Daniel asked.
‘Are you just saying these things because of the drama of the night?’ Holly said, a niggle in her mind forcing her to ask.
‘Holly! I mean every word,’ he said, exasperated.
‘Okay then,’ she said simply. ‘I still like you too,’ she added, cocking her head to one side. Coming up with something epic would have taken too long. She then stood up and leaned across the counter to kiss him. A heady, passionate, all-consuming and loving kiss.
‘But what about the business? We’re in direct competition now,’ she said, pulling away as the thought popped into her mind.
‘I’m glad you’re savouring this moment,’ Daniel laughed at her. ‘After tonight’s events, I have a feeling I’ll be needing a new job. Know of any up-and-coming property development companies I could apply to?’ he asked as he effortlessly pulled her over the kitchen counter so she was sitting in front of him.
‘Well, I’ll have to run your application past Chloe, of course,’ Holly teased as she wrapped her arms around his neck, a megawatt smile plastered across her face.
‘Of course. I wouldn’t have it any other way,’ he said in mock seriousness.
‘She is in charge of HR now. And I probably couldn’t pay you much either.’
‘I’ll take anything you have to offer,’ he said, leaning into her and kissing her for a very long time.
Dear Reader of Love Redesigned,
Hey you! YES YOU! Just a couple more moments, I promise.
Firstly, thank you so much for getting your hands on my second, self-published novel Love Redesigned. Hopefully you've bought this copy, but if you got it for free whether legally or not, then I'm still glad you've got it. I'm guessing if you're reading this page, then you've probably managed to carve your way through my storytelling and reach the end. So, thank you.
Secondly, whilst the story is still fresh in your mind, it would be hugely helpful and immensely appreciated if you could post a quick review on Amazon or Goodreads (or both if you feel so inclined). Or any other place you see fit to post book reviews, for that matter. The fact is, reviews play a huge part in the success or obscurity of a book. This is especially the case for an independent, self-financed author, like myself. The more reviews I get, ultimately leads to more people wanting to read my books, which basically means I am in a position to devote more of my time to writing.
If you do leave a review, then I'll be forever in your debt (disclaimer, this is of course merely a figure of speech and by no way or means holds me liable to actually fulfill my debt to you – sorry).
Thank you once again, and until next time,
Jo
For upcoming information on new releases visit www.joiles.com
Follow me on twitter @joauthoriles
Acknowledgments
Again a huge thank you to David Gatewood, for his excellent editing. Thanks to my lovely fiancé, James, for his continual support and occasional prodding. And lastly, thanks to my own little munchkins, Bella and Custer for always making me smile and for letting me write in relative peace.
Author Bio
Jo Iles is a British novelist, living in Hong Kong. Following university she entered the wonderful and incredibly glamourous world of recruitment consultancy and quickly decided this wasn't for her. However, life got in the way and over three years later she was still doing the same thing. Something had to change. Jo and her boyfriend (now fiancé) upped sticks and set off for the bright lights of Hong Kong. That was over six years ago and they're both still there, enjoying a quiet life in the busy city.
Jo now belongs to a small family of village dogs which take up all her time when she's not writing romance novels.
If you would like to find out more about Jo and her life in Hong Kong, then feel free to have a gander at her blog www.joiles.com or follow her on Twitter @joauthoriles
Please enjoy this excerpt of the first two chapters from Jessie Slaymaker's Non-Existent Love Life, by Jo Iles. Now available on Amazon.
Chapter 1
Jessie Slaymaker was one of life’s plodders. She was bright, clever, decent-looking, but she had always taken the safe path through life. Dependable, reliable, safe Jessie. And all her steadiness had gotten her was a solid career as a research economist at Finance First Bank. That was another word that described Jessie: solid. Jessie, whom no one expected to set the world alight, least of all herself. She worked hard. She always tried her best. But she was stuck.
Nothing made this realisation more apparent than her friends. Love them and treasure them as she did, they were all career high-flyers who were either married with babies, married with babies on the way, or in the process of getting married and probably having babies in the not-too-distant future. Jessie was doing none of these things.
Although she hated to admit it to herself, Jessie was lonely. As her girlfriends had all slowly but surely started settling down and getting married off as soon as they’d hit thirty, Jessie hadn’t even begun to do any of these things. Her fun, friend-filled twenties hadn’t quite carried over into her thirties, and she felt like the world was moving on while she was standing still. She had no one to settle down with. Not even a single potential candidate in that department, in actual fact.
Unless you counted her boss, the dreamy Charlie Davenport whom she’d been secretly in love with since she’d first clapped eyes on him. How clichéd was that? Unrequited love towards the boss. And it was unrequited. Charlie didn’t notice her unless she was talking to him about the GDP of this country or the CPI of that one. None of them countries she would ever get to visit in this lifetime.
Charlie was hot. There was no point mincing words over it and trying to be politically correct. He was tall and athletic, with clear blue eyes and light brown hair. He had the nicest smile Jessie had ever seen—not that he smiled that often, really
. He lived life at too fast a pace to stop and waste time smiling at Jessie. When he could be pried away from his work he was a decent guy; he was just oblivious to Jessie’s puppy-dog looks across the office floor.
Jessie was slumped at her desk, reading but not really registering a long-winded report on currency appreciation, when she heard her name.
‘Hey Jessie,’ Charlie called, as he marched purposefully towards her desk.
‘Hi,’ Jessie replied awkwardly, feeling the heat rush to her cheeks. Maybe he was coming to ask her out. She hoped.
‘This came to me by mistake,’ he said, handing her an envelope. So, no date then.
‘I’ve got one too though, so maybe I’ll see you there.’ And then he was gone. Could that be classified as a date? At a severe stretch, maybe.
‘Yeah, sure thing,’ Jessie replied to his retreating back.
It had arrived. Hand-delivered by no less than the dishy Charlie Davenport. Well, kind of, as Jessie looked at the stamp. She’d known it was coming. She’d been expecting it for some time. ‘It’ was a crisp white envelope made from the highest quality paper money could buy. She sat staring at it, wondering whether to open it. She knew what was in it, so why should she put herself through the ordeal of actually seeing it written down in black and white?
‘It’ was a wedding invitation. Another bloody wedding invitation. Ten years ago, Jessie had loved going to weddings. They were fun occasions to get dressed up, see some friends, meet some new people and have a good time. Now, Jessie was jaded by them. Each wedding she went to was just a glaring reminder of the widening gap between Jessie and her circle of friends. The gap had been imperceptible at first, but now it was definitely noticeable. People were moving on, coupling up, and subsequently sticking to their own kind: other couples. The result: a lonely Jessie. Her friends probably weren’t doing it deliberately, but she felt increasingly left out, and the number of dinner and social invitations she received was definitely on the decline. At least, she hoped they weren’t doing it deliberately.
The jaded feeling was exacerbated by the fact that she harboured some doubts about the couple whose matrimonial bliss she’d been invited to attend. The couple in question consisted of Charlie’s best friend, Nick Donaldson, and one of Jessie’s good friends, Natalie McAllister. They looked like a great couple on paper, but the problem was that Nick was a total sleazebag. Before he met Natalie, Nick was a notorious womaniser. Notorious in capital letters. Unfortunately, Natalie was too besotted with the bugger to see him for what he really was. She believed she’d tamed any undesirable tendencies in the beast and that was it. They were meant to be together forever.
It didn’t help that Jessie felt a tad responsible for introducing them. It had been Jessie who’d suggested—well, practically begged—Natalie to join her for after-work drinks rather than go on their planned late-night shopping trip. When Jessie had heard Charlie was going for drinks, she’d been desperate to go as well, in yet another feeble attempt to catch his eye outside of the office arena. Natalie had been a perennial pal, and without too much persuasion had agreed to be her wing girl for the night. Once in the pub, Nick (probably playing Charlie’s wing man) and Natalie had caught each other’s eyes and that was that. Smitten. The whole shebang. Well, that’s how it was for Natalie, anyway, and Jessie supposed he seemed pretty keen too—when she was nearby. Trouble was, when she wasn’t superglued to his side, he had a roving eye—and a crass mouth to boot when it came to talking about women.
Apart from that, they made a perfectly decent couple, and Jessie hoped it would work out. She didn’t think it would, but she hoped it anyway. There was no way Natalie would have listened to anything negative Jessie or anyone else had to say about Nick, so Jessie kept her true feelings to herself to keep her friendship with Natalie alive.
No, Jessie wasn’t really looking forward to these impending nuptials. On the plus side, she would get to see more of the lovely Charlie Davenport outside of work, and hopefully this wedding might be the day he’d finally see her as something more than just a colleague. It was worth a shot, Jessie thought to herself as she slowly opened the wedding invitation. After all, he had said he’d ‘see her there’.
Chapter 2
Jack was back. Back in London. Back to the city and the people who’d made him want to run away seven years ago. Disappointingly, not much had changed. A new building here, an attempt at a skyscraper there. London was practically the same. Nothing like the constantly evolving massive metropolis of Shanghai he’d just returned from. Why he was back, he wasn’t too sure. But Nick’s wedding had come at an appropriate time for him to make an appearance. Plus, he was curious. Seven years in China without a sniff of Blighty was a long time.
‘Yes,’ he kept telling himself as he looked in the mirror, knotting his tie.
‘Time for a visit. Maybe not forever, but for a while anyway,’ he said, trying hard to convince the image staring back at him.
It was like some string that he thought he’d severed long ago had pulled him back for this stupid wedding. Jack hated weddings with a passion, and for the life of him he couldn’t understand why any man would want to tie himself down to one person. The concept of monogamy for a length of time longer than a few weeks was simply beyond him.
But someone had to keep an eye on his womanising and roguish older brother. At least that’s what he kept telling himself. In reality, he knew he was probably no better than Charlie when it came to women. Although no one in the family had actually spelled it out to him plainly, he had inferred from what hadn’t been said about his brother that Charlie was up to no good and close to breaking point. Again.
Charlie’s problem was that he did everything by extremes. Whether it be women, drugs, alcohol, gambling or even work, Charlie had done it all and overdone it all. Jack hoped that seeing his brother in a social public environment—such as, say, a wedding—would guarantee against Charlie going ballistic. Charlie hated being called out on his reckless behaviour, and had been known to put his foot through the odd door on occasion, or even take his frustrations out on the dog. Hopefully there wouldn’t be a dog at the wedding.
Charlie especially hated being lectured by his younger brother, who could do no wrong. Which was true, and Jack knew it. Of the two boys, Jack had been his mother’s baby, and both her sons knew it. When Jack had gone off the rails, Mummy had been there to pick up the pieces, and to be a pillar of strength and support. When Charlie had gone off the rails, he’d been shipped off to his grandfather for what his mother had referred to as tough love.
To his credit, Charlie had never treated Jack badly because of this overt favouritism, but there was an unspoken rivalry between them which prevented them from ever becoming really close. Maybe Jack’s return to England would give them an opportunity to mend old wounds, to get to know each other again. Jack hoped so. Maybe it was a yearning to repair those familial ties that had brought Jack back. But whatever the reason, he had to get through this blasted wedding and try and start afresh with Charlie. That was the order of the day; anything else would have to wait.
Love Redesigned
Jo Iles
© 2013 Jo Iles
All rights reserved
Cover Design by James, GoOnWrite.com
Formatting by Polgarus Studio, PolgarusStudio.com
Table of Contents
Part 1 Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Part 2 Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Part 3 Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Acknowledgments
Author Bio
Excerpt: Jessie Slayer's Non-Existent Love Life