Second Chances Boxed Set: 7 Sweet & Sexy Romances in 1 Book

by Tracey Alvarez

  She knows he doesn't want a preoccupied single mother, but concealing her daughter's existence from the man she's falling in love with is getting harder and harder. If he discovers her lies, she'll instantly lose everything.

  Warning: contains one determined golden-skinned man who knows his way around boats, bodies and bed-sheets.

  Excerpt

  She eyed the small cable car with trepidation. Its walls were only hip-high and there were very thin looking sheet-metal doors on the sides. No seats, no roof, just a high post in each corner. Rafe rattled a door open, stepped on board, and drew her toward him.

  “Don’t worry. It’s safe.”

  “I’m not scared,” she muttered, willing herself to believe that a flimsy box plunging almost vertically down a steel rail was not in the least hazardous. “I’ve seen nicer ones.”

  “It’s only for the construction work at this stage. The proper weatherproof cab with seats isn’t far off.”

  She nodded at that, imagining how many loads of timber and fittings must have traveled up and down this way.

  As though reading her mind Rafe said, “We used a chopper for the big stuff. A tough job for the pilot—there are tricky updrafts off the sea.” He crowded her against one of the corner posts and slid an arm around her waist before he pushed a green button and sent them whirring downwards.

  Sophie was grateful for the arm, not that she’d admit it. She grasped the post and tried to ease away from his too-close chest. His grip was inescapable. She was trapped there, head tucked under his chin, far too aware of his body as they dropped toward the huge expanse of slatted timber. His heart beat steadily in her ear. His cologne displaced the ocean’s salty fragrance. Then she heard a rumble of laughter deep in his chest.

  “Stop struggling.”

  “I’m not.” She could feel her face heating with a telltale blush.

  “Could have fooled me.”

  “You’ve probably done this dozens of times.”

  “Hundreds. It’s not far. It’s perfectly safe.”

  But I’m not, she thought as flickers of sensation rampaged low in her belly. She felt so sexy. So deliciously damp and strangely swollen.

  For heaven’s sake stop it, she begged her twitching flesh. Okay, he’s gorgeous. But he’s a possible client. Keep it that way and you’ll get Camille back sooner.

  About the Author

  If it’s fine, Kris gardens. If it’s wet, she writes. And if the writing’s going well, the garden can look after itself...

  Right now she’s working on ‘Her Man with Iceberg Eyes’ — a novel set in the alpine resort of Queenstown, way in the south of New Zealand. It should be released by early April.

  Kris writes sizzling contemporary romances, and is the current membership secretary for Romance Writers of New Zealand. Her books are generally set at least partly in the capital city of Wellington so she can make use of the beautiful harbor in the plots. Six of these make up her ‘Wicked in Wellington’ series.

  Kris has written all her life — from her autobiography at twelve, to her own special wedding service, to short stories published in mass-circulation magazines and broadcast on National Radio in New Zealand. She has a background as an advertising copywriter and a decor specialist.

  During the past eight years she’s produced a selection of racy romantic novels, and publishing them on iBookstore has been the ideal answer to share them with the world. For more information on Kris’s other books, please visit her website: http://www.krispearson.com.

  Return to Totara Park

  by Shirley Wine

  Dedication

  This book is dedicated to the memory of Justin & Nolan, my beloved twin sons who lie sleeping for eternity in Hautapu.

  United in death as they were in life.

  We will love them until the rivers run still

  Copyright 2012 Shirley Wine

  Publisher: Shirley Wine 2012

  Cover Design Copyright © Shirley Wine 2012

  Photo from Dreamstimes

  Kindle Edition

  ISBN: 978-0-473-20853-0

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, scanning to a computer disc, or by any other informational storage and retrieval system without express permission in writing from the author and publisher. This work is protected under the statutes of the copyright act.

  Disclaimer. The characters and events in this book are the creation of the author, and resemblance to persons, whether living or dead, is strictly coincidental. Towns and places are used as settings and have no relation to any event or actual happening outside the author’s imagination.

  Chapter One

  WINSOME GRAINGER STRUGGLED to remain calm. One glance at her estranged husband made that almost impossible. Although no longer the shy, insecure girl who’d come to Totara Park as Jared’s bride, she feared the impending meeting.

  It hung over her head like the sword of Damocles.

  Up ahead was Gaelen’s house nestled among the grove of oaks. The last leaves of autumn clung to the trees. Fallen leaves lay in mouldering heaps against the railings and beneath the sod, bulbs waited for spring.

  As did the malevolent secrets of Totara Park.

  Winsome shivered, suddenly very afraid.

  Suffocating tension tortured every cell of her body as Jared parked in the driveway behind his mother’s car and switched off the engine. Between them, unspoken, lay the past with all its grief and anger.

  Jared’s parting ultimatum a tangible barrier—if you leave, I will never come after you.

  “Dad stipulated his will was to be read today after his funeral.” Jared broke the oppressive silence and made a low, disgusted sound in the back of his throat. “I thought the family reading of a will was a discontinued, archaic relic.”

  Her heart slammed against her ribs.

  Harvey’s will?

  Was that why she’d been requested to attend his funeral today and bring Lacey? And afterwards visit Totara Park?

  “God knows what he’s done.” He slammed a hand against the steering wheel in frustration, amber eyes glittering.

  Winsome glanced at him, horrified.

  Five years ago she’d left Totara Park vowing to never again set foot on Grainger land. Now, at Harvey’s insistence, she was returning.

  Gaelen and Paige would hate it.

  Gaelen can only hurt you if you allow it. Dr Cartwright’s gruff words seeped into her troubled mind, bringing immense comfort.

  She took a slow deep breath, and then another, willing herself to relax.

  Jared turned in the car seat to face her and the sunlight turned his tawny hair gold, every unruly strand slicked down and in its place. “Later, when afternoon tea is over, Max Harpur will read Dad’s will. I’m as apprehensive as you obviously are.”

  Jared? Jared admitting to human frailties?

  Winsome stared at him shaking her head in bewilderment. Obviously she wasn’t the only one who’d changed. “I didn’t think you possessed fallible, human emotions.”

  If looks could scorch she’d be melted into the seat.

  “This meeting isn’t my idea,” he said in a biting murmur. “Raking over the past is pointless, it can’t be changed. Let’s keep this as civilized as we can.”

  What could she say? The burden of guilt grew heavier.

  “This is just as difficult for my mother as it is for you.” His clipped tone was unfriendly, his amber eyes dark with grief. “Try not to cause friction.”

  “I have never caused friction.” Chin high with proud defiance, Winsome opened the door and escaped the claustrophobic confines of the car. She opened the rear door and unbuckled Lacey, lifting her from her booster seat.

  “I don’t like this place, Mummy,” Lacey whispered as her arms snaked around Winsome’s neck.

  That makes two of us, kiddo.

  Lacey was unnaturally quiet, and had been eve
r since they left Cambridge.

  At Harvey’s wish—his farewell had taken place there in the small Waikato town in New Zealand’s rural hinterland, at the church where he’d worshipped all his life. His cremation was private, between him and his God.

  Grief wrenched at Winsome with the force of a physical pain. How was she going to survive without the one person who never judged or accused?

  “You’ll be okay, sweetheart,” she murmured, desperate to reassure herself as much the little girl.

  Lacey gave Jared a scared, wary look that threatened to break Winsome’s heart. In cutting her from his life, he’d also cut contact with his daughter.

  She watched him look at Lacey, and caught his expression of anguished regret and her resolve firmed. Their separation was not of her making. Jared must know his choices had denied him knowing his daughter.

  And she was no longer prepared to remain tied to the man who’s rendered their marriage defunct.

  “Are you my father?” Lacey’s question caught them both off guard.

  Jared stopped, and then crouched to her level. “Yes, I’m your father.”

  “Then why don’t you live with us like other fathers do?”

  He can answer. I’ve fielded Lacey’s questions ever since I explained we were coming to visit her father.

  Winsome inhaled a ragged breath.

  This close, tawny heads almost touching, no one could mistake them for anything other than father and daughter. And seeing them together now hurt her heart.

  “Sometimes there are reasons little girls don’t understand.”

  She flinched on a swift stab of anguish.

  How did you explain to a little girl that her father didn’t even want to know she existed?

  “Susie’s father doesn’t live with her but she stays with him. Why don’t I ever see you, if you’re my father?” Lacey challenged him with the unassailable logic only a four-year-old possessed, her grey eyes shadowed with doubt.

  “Susie?” Jared looked at Winsome.

  “Her friend from kindergarten.”

  “I’m seeing you now. Perhaps you can come and stay with me sometime soon.”

  Over my dead body. Winsome clenched her hands.

  If Jared thought this visit gave him any rights, he was in for one very rude shock.

  “Can I really?” Lacey’s voice rose with excitement. “Come and stay with you?”

  Under the same roof as Gaelen?

  Never.

  “We’ll see. This is just a visit, Lacey. Remember we talked about it.” Winsome blistered Jared with a furious glare. How dare he raise the child’s hopes like this?

  “Okay.” Lacey’s resigned, put-upon sigh was intended to make her mother feel guilty.

  Jared glanced at her, his icy glare chilling her to the bone as he held out a hand to Lacey. After a moment’s hesitation, she slipped her small hand in his. He put his other hand under Winsome’s elbow; it was a protective gesture she remembered well. Her arm burned at his touch and it took every ounce of self-control not to flinch or pull away.

  As they walked up the wide front steps, she almost succumbed to panic. She stopped mid-step, wanting nothing more than to turn tail and run.

  What the hell am I doing here?

  Jared noticed her hesitation and compassion softened his hard expression.

  In that moment Winsome caught a fleeting glimpse of the man she’d met and married so precipitously.

  “Don’t be scared,” he murmured, the soothing tone meant to allay her fears. “Mother’s looking forward to seeing you both. Come and meet your grandmother, Lacey.”

  Biting hard on her lower lip, Winsome struggled to subdue a burst of hysterical laughter. Jared had expressed similar sentiments the day he’d brought her home to this house as his bride.

  And how tragically farcical that had proved to be.

  Gaelen had hated her on sight.

  Winsome was nowhere near good enough to marry Gaelen’s adored son and she’d done everything in her power to break up their marriage.

  Now time, and Dr Cartwright, had given Winsome the strength to face the woman who once made her life hell on earth. Anger and pride stiffened her spine as Jared escorted her down the wide corridor and into the spacious lounge. She looked around.

  It’s every bit as oppressive as I remember.

  Hand crocheted cloths spread like an evil lichen, growing on small tables and chair backs. The sight of them made her shudder.

  Lacey pulled away from Jared and moved closer and Winsome put a hand on the child’s shoulder. The physical contact steadied them both.

  “Mother, I’ve brought Winsome and Lacey.” Jared’s deep voice was loud in the pulsing silence.

  Winsome’s gaze clashed with Gaelen’s and they were both remembering—

  “How long do you think my son will lust after you?” Gaelen raked Winsome with scorn-filled eyes. “Once he knows about your tainted blood.”

  “Tainted blood?” Winsome’s heart jerked in fearful panic.

  “I know about your father and mother and their legacy to you. Did you think Jared would have married you had he known? A Grainger doesn’t tolerate defective genes in cattle or in humans.”

  “How did you find out?” This was the visitation of nightmare.

  “Was it meant to be a secret?”

  Too afraid he would stop loving her, Winsome had never shared the appalling details of her parents’ deaths with Jared, or the years afterwards.

  “I know my son,” Gaelen whispered in a gloating purr. “When he discovers your past, your lies, he’ll throw you out on your sexy backside—

  Winsome blinked and Gaelen’s face came into sharp focus.

  With stark perspicacity, Winsome realised her fear had not only allowed Gaelen to victimise her, she, herself, had handed Gaelen her weapon.

  With the clarity of hindsight she knew that had she been honest with Jared, Gaelen could never have blackmailed her.

  And when Jared knows will he ever forgive me?

  Winsome swallowed, her throat working painfully.

  Gaelen approached.

  Tall and commanding in funereal black, she wore a delicate Spanish lace mantilla over her fair hair. She looked down her straight Roman nose at Winsome and Lacey.

  A petite five foot and of slender build, Winsome was too aware of her mother-in-law’s statuesque presence.

  “Winsome.” Gaelen nodded, regal and pale.

  “I’m sorry about Harvey.” Winsome rushed into speech needing to break the unbearable tension. “You’ll miss him.”

  Gaelen’s topaz eyes widened in surprise, obviously taken aback by Winsome’s genuine emotion, but the reprieve was only temporary. “I’m only sorry it’s taken his death to bring you back, or to permit me to meet my granddaughter.”

  Lacey backed away from Gaelen’s outstretched hand. “Does Grandpa live here?”

  “Not anymore.” Gaelen’s face crumpled and she stepped towards Lacey. “Come and give me a hug, child.”

  Lacey sidled closer to her mother.

  Winsome’s eyes narrowed, her direct gaze colliding with the older woman’s. Don’t you dare so much as lay one finger on my precious child.

  Gaelen halted mid-step, and eyes wide with shock, her hand dropped and colour flared in her pale cheeks. “You’ve ruined her just as you ruined Matthew.”

  Winsome picked up Lacey and looked at Jared over her daughter’s head. “We’ll wait in your apartment until this is over.”

  For one moment she thought he was about insist she stay, but something in her expression made him pause. “I think that would be advisable.”

  His compressed lips and glittering eyes radiated anger, and this did nothing to ease Winsome’s searing tension as he escorted her down the east corridor to the apartment they’d shared during their brief, failed marriage.

  Jared opened the door and, as they stepped inside, Winsome suddenly felt the years fade as if they’d never been.

  These rooms,
the haven of their marriage, were exactly the same. It was as if she’d never been away.

  She looked around with hungry eyes taking it all. The oak sideboard and bookshelf, the pretty chintz and velvet covered chairs and sofa, and the black console with its stereo and television, every item chosen with love in the mistaken belief that their marriage would withstand every chill wind.

  But love had proved no match for Gaelen.

  “I’ll bring you afternoon tea, coffee for you and milk for Lacey?” Jared asked breaking the tense silence.

  “Yes to both. Could you bring some sandwiches for Lacey? We left early and she hasn’t eaten since breakfast.”

  “I’ll bring a tray and then I have to help Mother entertain our guests.”

  “You do what you have to.” Winsome laid a hand on his arm feeling a sneaking sympathy for his bafflement. “Lacey and I’ll be fine.”

  Jared had never understood, or even recognised, the warfare between his wife and his mother.

  “You’re sure?” His gaze swept over her and when she nodded, he sighed and left them.

  Alone, she slowly surveyed the room that had once been the centre of her life.

  It was strange, this sense of dislocation.

  As she looked about her, she had the eerie feeling that she was an observer, stepping back and seeing a younger, different person, a person hopelessly young and naïve.