by Raine Miller
Who in the hell are you kidding, foolish woman? You still have nothing for Marie.
I think I was starting to panic a bit. I sighed and kept looking.
I drifted around and found nothing and decided it was time to leave. I stepped up to the counter to pay for my hat and scarf and saw the display of costume jewelry under the glass. Now this caught my eye. It was very pretty stuff, for one thing—vintage bohemian fit Marie’s personality like a leather glove. Score!
One piece stood out clearly to me and it was perfect. A dove pin. Silver with seed pearls on the wing and tail, a black crystal eye and a tiny heart charm dangling from its beak with a blue crystal in the center. A dove symbolized peace, and God knows the world could certainly use some of that. The best part was that I could picture my aunt wearing this pin. I knew she’d love it.
I paid in a rush, almost giddy to have struck gold in my labors of gift-buying angst. Checking my watch, I knew I needed to get going and saw it was a bit of a walk to my Tube station.
It was cold.
Frickin’ frigid.
Cold enough that I pulled on the new hat and wrapped the scarf around my neck right then and there on the street. I checked my face quickly in the window of a parked car, just to make sure there wasn’t something stupid-looking in my appearance—not that I cared too much when it was so freezing.
I walked another couple of blocks until I couldn’t stand the cold another second, and pushed into the first place that had a door with a WE’RE OPEN sign. Fountaine’s Aquarium. I was in a pet store. Or more correctly, a tropical fish shop. Worked for me. It was warm and quite dim inside, the humidity rising from the tanks making it a pleasant change from where I’d just been. I unwound my scarf and wandered around, stopping by each tank to observe and read the names of the fish.
The saltwater section reminded me of a trip I took to Maui when I was fourteen. I’d gotten to snorkel and see some of the same fish that were in these tanks. I didn’t know it at the time, but that vacation had been the last one I’d take with both of my parents. My mom and dad separated soon afterward, and there would never be another trip for all of us as a family unit. Sad. They had to fight to be civil to each other now. Well, isn’t that the perfect oxymoron . . . “fight to be civil.”
I stopped at one particularly interesting fellow. A lionfish. Lionfish are something else up close, with all their spiky colored fins making them look unreal. This guy seemed curious, and came right up to the glass and fluttered at me as if he wanted to have a conversation. He was cute. I knew they were poisonous to touch, but still captivating to watch. I imagined that a saltwater aquarium was a great deal of work to maintain.
“Hey, handsome,” I whispered to the fish.
“Can I help you with anything?” a young guy asked behind me.
“Just admiring. He’s really a beautiful fish,” I told the store clerk.
“Yeah, he’s been sold, actually. The owner is coming to pick him up today and take him home.”
“Ahhh, well, I hope you’re happy at your new home then, handsome.” I spoke to the fish again: “Hopefully it’s someone who’ll spoil you with treats.”
The clerk agreed with me and chuckled.
I turned away from the tank, deciding it was time to brave the outside cold yet again and head home to my flat. I still needed to wrap Marie’s gift and I had plans to bake tonight—some sugar cookies that I would take over there tomorrow. It was a little tradition we’d started, and it was really fun piping on the frosting and adding sprinkles to decorate them. My favorites were the snowflake ones.
I headed for the door to leave, adjusting my hat and rewrapping my scarf around my neck and halfway up my face, when someone entered the shop. I stepped aside to let him pass and was impressed with what looked like a tall person and a nice coat, but I didn’t look up at him. My eyes were focused on what lay beyond the open door of the shop.
Snowflakes.
It was snowing on Christmas Eve in London!
“It’s snowing?” I muttered in amazement.
“Yeah . . . it is,” he said.
I stepped out into the white and caught the most appealing scent on him as we passed each other. Like some exotic spice mixed with an indulgent mix of soap and cologne. It was nice when a man smelled so good, I thought. Lucky girl, whoever was getting to smell that all the time.
I went up to the window of a black Range Rover HSE parked on the street and checked my hat in the window’s reflection as I’d done before when I’d started out. I didn’t want to look like a dork on my walk home.
The snow had started falling more heavily now, and I could see some flakes beginning to settle on my new purple hat, even just in the reflection in the Rover’s window. I smiled under my scarf as I turned to go.
I was cold on my walk home. Cold . . . but strangely content. Snow for Christmas, for a California girl, all on her own in London at the holidays. Totally unexpected. But I realized something on my way home. The small things in life are sometimes the most precious gifts we are given, and when you recognize them when they arrive, then you are truly blessed.
Naked
The Blackstone Affair, Book 1
Read book one in the bestselling The Blackstone Affair series to enjoy the beginning of Brynne and Ethan Blackstone's whirlwind love affair.
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Naked
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All In
The Blackstone Affair, Book 2
Read book two of the bestselling The Blackstone Affair series to find out what happens between Brynne and Ethan Blackstone.
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All In
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This book is a work of fiction. Any references to historical events, real people, or real places are used fictitiously. Other names, characters, places, and events are products of the author’s imagination, and any resemblance to actual events or places or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2012 by Raine Miller
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First Atria Paperback edition August 2013
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data TK
Miller, Raine
Eyes wide open : the Blackstone Affair, book 3 / Raine Miller. — First Atria Books trade paperback edition.
p. cm. — (Blackstone Affair ; 3)
1. Romantic suspense fiction. I. Title.
PS3613.I547N35 2013
813’.6—dc23 2012049352
ISBN 978-1-4767-3560-3
ISBN 978-1-4767-3561-0 (ebook)
Table of Contents
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
A Gift for the Reader: A Christmas Story—Ethan and Brynne’s Very First Meeting
Table of Contents
Cover
Dedication
Acknowledgments
Prologue
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
A Gift for the Reader: A Christmas Story—Ethan and Brynne’s Very First Meeting
Copyright