Ruined

by Jackie Ashenden

  I’m not a big fan of weddings, but I have to say that mine was the best ever. I even got a bit fucking misty when Cat came down the aisle towards me in her wedding dress, her big green eyes staring at me from behind her veil.

  So damn beautiful.

  She made my heart ache.

  She taught me that love isn’t just a meaningless word. That it’s deeper and richer and more powerful than I ever imagined.

  She was my friend, my lover, and now she was my wife I didn’t think life could have got any more perfect.

  But it did.

  It sure as hell did.

  * * * * *

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  DESTROYED

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  Sweet Thing

  by Nicola Marsh

  CHAPTER ONE

  Abby

  D-DAY SHOULD’VE BEEN the happiest day of my life.

  I’d envisaged a fabulous eight hours at Le Miel, creating the French pastries I’d grown to adore over the last year, followed by an intimate evening with a bottle of Shiraz and Channing Tatum.

  What better way to celebrate a divorce than with a rich red to tantalise my palate and a hot guy strutting across my TV screen?

  But my dreams of drooling into my wineglass over Channing turned to crap about an hour into the working day, when Remy King, the best boss in Australia, took a tumble off a ladder and ended up here, in Sydney Private Hospital.

  ‘You don’t need to stay,’ he said, his blue eyes filled with pain despite being dosed up on enough painkillers to fell an elephant. ‘Go back to the shop.’

  ‘Makayla has it covered.’ I perched delicately on the edge of his bed and reached for his hand. ‘Besides, I finished making the croissants, beignets, éclairs and macarons before you decided to do your lousy circus impression, so there’s not much left for her to do but serve.’

  He managed a wan smile and winced. ‘It was the ladder’s fault.’

  ‘Yeah, it just happened to move sideways on that patch of flour on the floor all by itself.’ I rolled my eyes. ‘If you weren’t such a great boss and friend, I’d give you an ass-kicking for being so stupid.’

  ‘And if you weren’t the best apprentice I’ve ever had, I’d sack you on the spot for being so bold.’

  I squeezed his hand, thanking God every day that this man had given me a chance when I needed it most.

  Apparently leaving my cold, calculating husband after only nine months of marriage ‘wasn’t the done thing’ in the Prendigast family.

  Not that my parents had cared why I’d done it. All they’d worried about was their precious reputation as one of the wealthiest families in Sydney, so they had cut me off financially and emotionally to teach me a lesson.

  They’d expected me to come running back to their harbourside mansion in the first week.

  I hadn’t been back in a year.

  Yet for all their faults, I missed my folks. My friends too. But I’d left Abigail Prendigast, the perfect daughter in a perfect world who did exactly as she was told, behind that fateful day I’d walked out on my old life and into my new.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Remy’s eyes narrowed, studying me. ‘If it’s the patisserie, don’t worry, you don’t have to handle the place on your own. I’ve already contacted Tanner, and he’ll be happy to help run the place while I’m recuperating.’

  I stiffened. While I’d never met Remy’s younger brother, I’d heard enough to form an impression. And it wasn’t good.

  The guy sounded like a flake. A rich flake, who ran nightclubs and bars along the eastern seaboard, made a squillion from them, but spent most of his time flitting overseas squandering his fortune on women.

  Yet for some reason Remy seemed to adore him. I’d heard genuine emotion in his voice every time Tanner called from one of his far-flung destinations. Guess I had to give the guy credit for keeping in touch with his brother despite his playboy lifestyle.

  I’d seen him once too, while Remy had been chatting to him on a teleconference call. It had been a fleeting glimpse of dark hair, dark eyes and stubble-covered jaw. Handsome if you liked that kind of thing. Me? I preferred uncomplicated, the opposite of Bardley, my ex, and the glower I’d seen on Tanner was enough to tell me he had complication all over him.

  ‘Isn’t Tanner overseas?’ I asked, sounding way calmer than I felt. I didn’t need some stranger who wouldn’t know a praline from a peach melba looking over my shoulder. I was confident in my work at Le Miel and didn’t need some rich-boy novice slowing me down. ‘Because I can handle the everyday running on my own.’

  ‘You can’t create and do everything else.’ Concer
n clouded his gaze before he blinked, and I wondered if I’d imagined it. ‘Tanner is a great businessman. He’s run restaurants. He’ll handle things at Le Miel for a month before I’m back on deck.’

  ‘A month?’ It came out a yell, and Remy chuckled.

  ‘That’s what the doc said. Apparently the more I keep off the fractured ankle and rest up the broken ribs, the faster it’ll all heal.’ He winked. ‘Who knew?’

  Damn, I should’ve known he couldn’t use crutches to move around the shop when he had three broken ribs too. But when he’d said Tanner would be overseeing the daily operations, I’d envisaged a week, tops. Now I’d have to put up with the gypsy playboy for a month?

  Feeling guilty for my selfishness when my friend was in pain, I squeezed his hand again. ‘You focus on healing fast. I’ll take care of the rest.’

  ‘Don’t you mean we?’

  A deep voice came from behind me, the kind of voice that invoked images of dark bars, dark chocolate and dark souls. Deep. Rich. With an underlying hint of impudence that immediately put me on guard.

  I turned and locked gazes with the devil himself.

  Crap. Those eyes. A startling sienna, almost golden, the brown was so light. But it wasn’t the colour that unnerved me as much as the way they looked at me.

  Like I was a tasty tarte tatin waiting to be devoured.

  An involuntary shiver crept down my spine as that hungry stare zeroed in on my hand, where it lay covering Remy’s on the bed.

  ‘Isn’t this cosy?’ His insolent drawl made me bristle. ‘Hope I’m not interrupting anything?’

  I snatched my hand away as Remy said, ‘Don’t be a dick. Tanner, this is Abby, my apprentice and the best damn French pastry chef outside of Paris.’

  ‘Next to you, of course, bro.’ Tanner’s assessing gaze focussed on me and damn if the parts of me that hadn’t experienced a guy’s touch in over a year didn’t zing. In a big way.

  ‘That goes without saying.’ Remy beamed, his affection obvious as he beckoned Tanner closer. ‘Thanks for doing this.’

  ‘My pleasure.’ As Tanner stepped forward, I stood and resisted the urge to scoot away.

  As if those eyes weren’t enough, the closer he got I realised how big the guy was. Huge. At least six-three, with the kind of build honed from many hours in a gym. Or doing other forms of exercise.

  Hell. Where had that come from? For the second time in less than a minute, I’d associated sex with him.

  I really needed a bout between the sheets. If I could ever be bothered.

  Being celibate since Bardley hadn’t been an issue. I’d been too busy assembling a life that didn’t involve society high teas, expensive dinners to woo clients and yachting on the weekends. All this squeezed around my business degree. Which I’d also walked away from. Bully for me.

  ‘Actually, your timing couldn’t be better.’ Tanner dwarfed everything in the room as he propped against the bed. ‘I’ve been looking for a new challenge.’

  My skin prickled with awareness as Tanner’s daring stare alerted me to the fact he wasn’t just talking about Le Miel.

  Either Remy was oblivious to the tension sizzling between Tanner and me, or the pain meds were really kicking in, because he waved us away.

  ‘Good. Then why don’t you two go get acquainted and leave me to wallow in agony?’

  ‘Your wish is my command, bro.’ Tanner leaned down to give Remy a gentle hug, an unexpected gesture that made me like him a little when I didn’t want to. ‘I’ll keep you posted. And don’t worry, the patisserie will be fine.’

  ‘Take care, Rem,’ I said, skirting the bed to the opposite side of Tanner, before bending down to place a kiss on his cheek. ‘Get well fast, okay?’

  ‘I will.’ Remy’s cheeky grin alerted me to the fact I wouldn’t like what he said next. ‘You’re in Tanner’s capable hands now.’

  Heat surged to my cheeks as I imagined exactly what it would feel like to be in those hands, literally.

  Then I made the mistake of glancing up to see Tanner hold up the hands in question, the corners of his mouth curved in a devastating smile. ‘Lucky you.’

  Many words could be used to describe how I felt right at that very moment.

  Lucky sure as hell wasn’t one of them.

  Copyright © 2018 by Nicola Marsh

  ISBN-13: 9781488082429

  Ruined

  Copyright © 2018 by Jackie Ashenden

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