“I know. It won’t happen again.”
He pulled them tight to him. It won’t happen again. Yeah, right. He seriously considered taking the office job that they kept offering him in London. If this was what it was like now what would it be like when they had two kids, or more? He should never have encouraged her to loosen up in the first place, once she got a taste for the wild side she’d never looked back. He felt Laura smile against his chest. No doubt she was planning her next trip into the Amazon. He’d created a monster. All he wanted her to do was lead a full life, not become a dare devil.
As he looked down at his wife and child he realised for the first time that he’d actually succeeded. She was living a full life. And it was all thanks to him.
Of course, she probably thought that she’d made him a better man too.
There was just no winning with her.
THE END
I hope you enjoyed Laura’s Big Break. If you’d like to find out more about my books you can sign up to my newsletter here, or check out my website.
Also Available by this Author
Mad Love
The Davina Code
Lingerie Wars
Lingerie Wars
Englishman Lake Benson loaned his life savings to his dippy sister so that she could buy a shop. It was a big mistake. His sister has been steadily flushing his money down the drain – and now he wants it back. Years in the special forces taught Lake that if you want a job done, do it yourself. So he steps in to make the shop profitable, sell it and get his money back. The only problem is, the business is an underwear shop. And all Lake knows about underwear can be summed up in how fast he can unsnap a bra. To make matters worse, the tiny highland town already has a lingerie shop. A successful one, run by an ex-lingerie model. A very gorgeous ex-lingerie model, who’s distracting him from his mission more than he’d like to admit. If Lake wants to get his savings back, and get out of Scotland, he only has one option – wipe out the competition.
Kirsty Campbell has spent years rebuilding her life after she woke up in hospital in Spain to find her body scarred, and her ex-fiance had run off with all her money. The last thing she needs is a cocky, English soldier-boy trying to ruin all she has left. Her home town is only too happy to help her fight the latest English invasion, although Lake is beginning to sway them with his sex appeal and cut price knickers. With the help of her mother, and the retired ladies of Knit or Die, Kirsty sets about making sure that her shop is the last one standing in Invertary.
It’s Scotland versus England as you’ve never seen it before. It’s lingerie war.
Excerpt
Lake Benson’s midlife crisis lasted exactly twenty-four hours. In that time he quit his career with the army and bought a lingerie shop. All things considered, he was glad the crisis hadn’t lasted longer.
“I told you,” whined his little sister. “I can do this myself. I have a business plan. You’re only interfering because you’re bored and don’t know what to do with yourself.”
“That’s not the point,” Lake told her as he looked up at the sign on the front of the shop. “The point is, you obviously need my help. You’re haemorrhaging money. My money.”
He hadn’t even set foot inside the shop and already he could see a problem.
“That”—he pointed at the sign—”has to go.”
Rainne twisted a strand of her long hair, a dead giveaway that he wasn’t getting the whole story.
“I can’t get rid of the sign,” she said at last. “It’s part of the town’s heritage.”
Lake folded his arms tight across his chest. Heritage his hairy backside.
“You also didn’t tell me how isolated this place is,” he said.
“It’s busy during the tourist season—you know, summer.”
For Scotland that was about two weeks in August.
“And you neglected to mention that we have competition.”
He cocked his head towards the lingerie shop, which sat opposite them on the high street. Unlike the shop that had eaten all of his money, the one over the road actually looked like people would buy lingerie in it.
“Ah, yeah,” his sister said as she toed the pavement with her pink Doc Marten boot. “But Kirsty’s shop has a different clientele than ours.”
“One that buys underwear?”
She missed the sarcasm.
“Uh, no, she sells sexier stuff—you know, for occasions. We sell everyday wear. Think utilitarian.”
He was about to tell his sister that she was talking rubbish when the shop door flew open and a tiny cube of a woman hobbled out. Lake guessed her age to be close to two hundred.
“You,” she said as she pointed at him. “What are you and why are you here?”
Rainne shrank beside him. Her face shot past pink and straight to purple. Here it comes, thought Lake, the catch. Every time he got involved with his family there was a catch.
“I’m Lake Benson,” he told the Hobbit. “I own this business.”
The woman’s eyes narrowed under eyebrows that were hairier than her head.
“Rainne girl,” she said, but she kept her eyes on Lake. “I thought I sold my business to you.”
His sister shuffled on the spot, making all the tiny bells sown into the bottom of her tie-dye skirt jingle.
“Ah, well,” she said. “My brother here, he’s, um, like my silent partner.”
“I’ve been watching,” the woman said. “He’s doing an awful lot of talking for a man who’s supposed to be silent.”
Before Rainne could answer, the woman jabbed her finger in Lake’s belly. She seemed surprised when it bounced back off him.
“What do you know about underwear, boy?” she demanded.
Lake stared at the woman calmly. He’d been face to face with drug lords and terrorists. There was no way a little Scottish woman could intimidate him. Amuse him, maybe—if the bulk of his savings weren’t tied up in the joke.
“I know how to unhook a bra in two seconds flat,” he told her.
About the Author
Janet Elizabeth Henderson is a Scot living in New Zealand and married to a Dutch man – it can get a little confusing in her house! She has two little girls and a menagerie of animals that keep her busy during the daylight hours. At night, when everyone is asleep, Janet writes contemporary romance. Her main aim is to make herself laugh so loudly that she wakes her husband - it’s payback for his snoring! Janet trained as a fine artist, has worked all over the world and – like some of her characters – has been fired from too many jobs to count. Janet’s main hobbies are reading, painting and talking – and not always in that order.
So far Janet has published four books - Mad Love, Laura's Big Break, The Davina Code and Lingerie Wars. Lingerie Wars is the first in a new series, which is set in Scotland. Janet is also the winner of Romance Writers of America's Silken Sands Award for Laura's Big Break.
DATING DAISY
by Joanne Hill
Kindle Edition
Copyright © 2013 by Joanne Hill
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced without written consent of the author.
Cover design: Joanne Hill
Photo by Dreamstime
For more information about this author visit:
www.joannehill.com
"There are three things that amaze me—
no, four things that I don’t understand:
how an eagle glides through the sky,
how a snake slithers on a rock,
how a ship navigates the ocean,
how a man loves a woman."
Proverbs 30:18-19 New Living Translation
Chapter One
Daisy Miller had never stepped foot in a university lecture theatre in her life but she was beginning to think there was something quite thrilling about it. She shivered as she glanced around. There was an air of anticipation, of excitement. Of something else that skittered up her spine.
The lecture ha
ll was filling up fast, so fast the only remaining seats were up in the back row, yet people were still pouring in, finding gaps in the aisles where they sat on folded-up raincoats and bags.
Alongside her Michelle pulled a book out from her shoulder bag and began reading.
Daisy glanced again around the lecture theatre. Although... Something seemed a little out of place, and she couldn’t put her finger on it. She looked at the women to her right. To the women in the rows in front of her. Shot a discreet look at the women behind her.
That was it. She elbowed Michelle.
"Ouch." Michelle fake rubbed her side. "What is it?"
"Do you realize there are hardly any men in here? The women outnumber the men by..." She spotted some male faces. "Ten to one. How weird is that?”
Michelle glanced up briefly. “It’s not weird. History is dull. When I was at school only girls took it.” She looked back down at the book, her head nodded in agreement and she reverently turned a page.
Daisy scrutinized the flyer in her own hand. It showed images of Hadrian’s wall, the Roman Circus, a gladiator. She had no great interest in things Roman but it had seemed like something to do. Kate, one of her few loyal customers at Poppy's Books, had thrown a couple of flyers at her and mentioned the lecturer was her brother, back in Auckland from a year's sabbatical in France. Daisy had almost thrown them away until she’d flicked through the pile of envelopes on her table with bills from the power company, the insurance company, the water company and thought what the heck. This lecture was free and if they were using Russell Crowe on the advertising, then they were clearly marketing it as some sort of entertainment. Free entertainment was pretty good right about now. And the picture of Russell Crowe on the front – although it was a bit blurry - well, she'd never admit it in public but it was enticing.
Daisy glanced again at Michelle and the book she was reading. It wasn't familiar. “Did you get that from my shop?”
“Good grief, no.” Michelle gently closed the book. The pristine white satin-shiny slipcover was decorated with mauve flowers. “This is The A to Z of Guys and Girls. I saw it on the women's forum Twitter feed. I ordered it on line but you can get it in e-book.”
Daisy raised her eyebrows. “How can an intelligent woman like you get sucked in by this rubbish? It's self-help psychobabble.”
“Whoa there, girl." Michelle held up a hand surrender-style. "I’m in no position to call anything that gives me an edge, ‘psychobabble’.” She cast an unrepentant glance around the lecture theatre. “And I’ll tell you something else. It beats what’s ahead of me here any day. I regret I agreed to come along to hear this dreary professor go on about togas and chariots and..." She waved her hands around. "All that ancient history. It’s my future I’m trying to get a handle on here. Not someone else’s past and certainly not from some ageing professor."
“He's hardly old. Kate’s forty and he's her younger brother.” Daisy glanced again at the flyer and re-read it. Professor Joel Benjamin had a Ph.D. from Yale, was published in prestigious journals, had overseen an archaeological project in Italy, and during his year in France did a stint advising on the film being touted as the new but historically accurate Gladiator.
He was currently editing a book – Tarquinius Superbus to Cato the Elder: Revisionist Heresy.
“Holy crap,” Michelle suddenly muttered in a shocked voice.
“What?” Daisy peered around her. “What happened? What is it?”
Michelle gestured faintly to the front of the theatre. “That.”
Daisy followed her gaze right over the heads of the women and the occasional man, and it landed on...
She pressed her lips together tight to stop her mouth falling open. This was… He was….
Michelle snapped, “You didn't tell me the guy’s built like flipping... Oh, man, my mind's gone blank."
Daisy stared, unable to look anywhere else. She let out a long breath. So this is what that air of anticipation had been about. “I didn’t… I couldn’t…” Her heart pounded as her throat nearly seized up. “I had no idea that he was so… so... That he looked so... How is that possible when his sister is Kate?" She felt mean just thinking that but Kate was tough. Tough in looks, tough on the courtroom floor. That her brother had not inherited some of her – pronounced features - was surely some freak of nature.
Daisy glanced back down at the leaflet. She stared at the picture and realized it wasn't a younger Russell Crowe on the cover.
It was him. Kate’s brother.
Michelle reached down for her bag, swiftly pulled out a small mirror and flipped it open as Dr Joel Benjamin took a stack of notes from his briefcase, ran his hand through his thick rich brown hair, and glanced absently towards the back of the room. His gaze flickered briefly beyond them before he turned back to his notes.
Michelle added mascara. “Is he married? I can’t see his hands from here."
"He’s single.” Daisy swallowed hard. “But he just out of a relationship. He was advising about some big movie being shot in Paris and he was dating the lead actress. Kate reckoned it was doomed from the start. He's in love with his job and there's no way any woman could change that."
Down at the podium Joel Benjamin glanced down at his notes, checked his wristwatch, then cleared his throat.
He bent his head to the microphone and the hum of chatter abruptly – almost magically – ceased.
“Good evening,” he said. His voice was deep with a rough edge that made Daisy shiver. Good heavens – he could take the lead in a movie himself.
“His voice,” Michelle moaned breathlessly. “Sweet mother in heaven, his voice.”
Daisy remembered her notebook, flipped it open and wrote in bold letters, ‘Ancient Rome’. She flexed her fingers but they were trembling. She didn’t blame them.
Not when Joel Benjamin possessed not only a God’s-gift-to-breathing-women voice but judging by the breadth of that leather jacket, rock-solid shoulders. And he was tall, and that stubble which on any other man might look deliberately groomed to be bad-boy was, she suspected, entirely accidental.
“Go and talk to him after the lecture,” Michelle whispered. “Introduce yourself.”
Daisy almost shuddered at the thought. It was so juvenile, so desperate. “I don't think so."
"Go on. You know his sister. Introduce yourself."
She could think of nothing more embarrassing. "Like heck I'm going to do that and will you be quiet? You might just learn something."
“Learn something?"
Daisy glanced curiously at her. “Of course. Aren’t you taking notes? I’ve got a spare pen I can loan you.”
“No point.” Michelle sat back and stared unblinkingly down towards the front of the theatre. “Not when I haven’t got a hope of ever concentrating.”
The lecture lasted an hour but the time flew by. Dr Joel Benjamin was one amazing lecturer.
Amidst the buzz of chatter and movement as women rose to their feet, Daisy stretched her arms on a groan of contentment. He had taken them back in time to hold them enthralled by every syllable he'd uttered from his beautiful mouth and she was surprised - actually, she was downright shocked - at how much she'd enjoyed the lecture. At how much it had made sense. He planned to give two more free lectures over the term, and free was never to be sniffed at the way things were going with her cheque account.
The way things were going with her shop.
Michelle nudged her. “Go down and see him. Say hello. You can introduce me.”
Daisy narrowed her gaze down to where a crowd was beginning to gather.
“There's no point. I’m just the woman who sells books to his sister.” She pocketed her notebook, grabbed her coat, zipped up her tote and when she stood up, she glanced around. Women were still making their way down the front, lots and lots of women. Like teenyboppers to a pop star. She hauled her bag over her shoulder and shot what she could see of Dr Joel Benjamin’s hair a regretful glance.
“Let’s go,” s
aid Michelle breathlessly.
“Have you taken your eyes off the man for even a second to check out that crowd? This is worse than when I spent half a day in line to get Kenny Roger's autograph for my gran.”
“You were twelve."
“And I'll feel twelve losing my dignity with that lot. Anyway, you never know. Kate might bring him by the shop some time. So we can see him up close.”
Michelle stabbed the air with her finger. “Have you been inhaling body spray? What on earth makes you think for a second a guy like that would want to fight it out between the Zimmer frames and walking sticks for a cheap romance? Get real, Daisy. We’re losing us a little dignity and,” she added in a don’t-mess-with-me voice, “we’re damn well going in. Follow me, stay close and under no circumstances are you to diverge from the plan.”
“There's a plan?”
“Just follow me.”
Against her better judgement Daisy followed and smartly realized that ‘going in’ had been no exaggeration. They were soon engulfed in a thick and sultry cesspit of seething female sexuality. A hint of Chanel No 5 here, a dash of Arpege there. The only scent she’d applied was her imitation musk underarm. The women brushing past her reeked of six-figure incomes, post-graduate degrees and a complete lack of self esteem issues. They were women who didn’t hold back in going after what they wanted and from the calculated way they were milling around Dr Benjamin, they wanted him.
Having never had the problem of too much self esteem, a university education and a healthy bank account, Daisy grabbed Michelle’s arm. “This is ridiculous. There’s no point hanging around here. Let’s-"
“Thank you for coming,” she heard him say to a woman in front of her. The woman, well into middle age, gazed starstruck as he shook her hand and signed a book.
Second Chances Boxed Set: 7 Sweet & Sexy Romances in 1 Book Page 64