True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop

by Annie Darling

  ‘I haven’t actually said that I’m in love with you,’ she pointed out, croakily. ‘Although I am very pleased that you love me. Ardently.’

  ‘It felt appropriate to quote from the source text.’ He sighed. ‘But there is one thing that’s been tormenting me,’ Johnny admitted and now he looked rather tortured again so that Verity’s heart hurt a little on his behalf too. ‘It’s been keeping me up at night.’

  ‘What has?’ Verity asked with some trepidation because if he mentioned that woman’s name again, or how he couldn’t give her up completely, then she’d have to find it in herself to leave, to walk away and keep on walking because Verity wanted all of him, not just a part share.

  ‘If we can do it, have sex, wonderful, amazing, remember-it-on-my-deathbed sex, three times in one night after we’ve both said we hate each other, then can you even imagine how much more wonderful and amazing it will be now that we’ve said that we love each other?’ Johnny asked a little dreamily.

  ‘Still haven’t actually said I love you,’ Verity said in her primmest voice. Then she relented because God, she really did want Johnny’s mouth back on hers and all the other parts of him too. ‘But perhaps I should say it so we can see how much better the sex is. We might even manage four times, though it is a school night.’

  ‘We could call in sick tomorrow?’ Johnny suggested and he was sitting so close to Verity now that she was more or less on his lap and she couldn’t think of anywhere else she’d rather be. ‘If you did want to say it.’

  ‘I do, I really do.’ Verity shut her eyes, summoned up all her nerve, and took a big leap into the unknown. She could do this. It wasn’t so hard. She had nothing to lose and everything to gain. ‘I realised that I’ve never been in love before. I never felt about anyone the way I feel about you.’ She opened her eyes to see Johnny gazing at her expectantly, lovingly. ‘So, yes, I do love you. I love you so much.’ Verity let out a shaky breath. ‘OK, that’s quite enough talking for now. You know how I’m not a big fan of too much talking. I’d much rather be kissing you.’

  Then his lips were on hers, his arms around her, and Verity was kissing Johnny back so passionately and yes, so ardently that she couldn’t even remember her own name, much less why she’d ever thought it a good idea to shun all romantic entanglements.

  In fact, she couldn’t wait to get romantically entangled with Johnny again. And again. And again.

  EPILOGUE

  ‘I am the happiest creature in the world.’

  Later, much later, weeks, months, even years later, when people asked them how they’d met, Johnny and Verity said that they owed their warmest gratitude towards an oceanographer called Peter Hardy who had been the means of uniting them.

  ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

  Thank you to my agent Rebecca Ritchie for impeccable agenting and cheerleading, Melissa Pimental and all at Curtis Brown.

  A huge debt of gratitude is owed to Martha Ashby for such incisive, good-humoured editing and chats about Georgette Heyer, as well as Kimberley Young, Charlotte Brabbin and the team at HarperCollins.

  Thanks also to all the readers, bloggers, reviewers and lovers of romance novels who have taken the trip to Happy Ever After with me.

  If you enjoyed Verity’s story, why not read Posy’s Happy Ever After?

  Click here to buy now 978-0-00-817312-8

  About the Author

  Annie Darling lives in London in a tiny flat, which is bursting at the seams with teetering piles of books.

  Her two greatest passions in life are romance novels and Mr Mackenzie, her British Shorthair cat.

  True Love at the Lonely Hearts Bookshop is her second novel.

  Also by Annie Darling

  The Little Bookshop of Lonely Hearts

  About the Publisher

  Australia

  HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

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  Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

  http://www.harpercollins.com.au

  Canada

  HarperCollins Canada

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  New Zealand

  HarperCollins Publishers (New Zealand) Limited

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  Auckland, New Zealand

  http://www.harpercollins.co.nz

  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

  1 London Bridge Street

  London, SE1 9GF

  http://www.harpercollins.co.uk

  United States

  HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

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  New York, NY 10007

  http://www.harpercollins.com