One wild and passionate Caribbean night leaves Annelise with amazing memories…but what happens when her vacation fling reappears as a VIP client?
Deserted by her fiancé only three months before their wedding, a devastated Annelise decides to go on their Caribbean honeymoon alone in the hope of thawing the deep freeze of her emotions. Tripping and landing on top of the most gorgeous man she’s ever seen, a sexy French-Canadian stranger, is as surprising as it is mortifying.
Rémy Gaspard is staying at his family’s remote tropical resort to get some work done after a difficult visit with his sister, but instead, he finds himself drawn to the sad young woman he sees from across the beach. When she quite literally falls into his lap, he can’t believe his good fortune.
Their passionate vacation romance is cut short by a troubling accident and they part ways, but neither can stop thinking about the other. When they meet up again in Montreal, seemingly by accident six months later, their attraction is just as strong…or stronger. As they face the challenges of misunderstandings, suspicions and a shadowy menace that won’t leave Rémy’s family alone, one thing becomes clear. Their love remains strong, anywhere and always.
General Release Date: 1st November 2022
Excerpt Click to toggle
The sky was a perfect unending blue, clear and brilliant, its beauty rivaled only by the magnificent expanse of bright aqua ocean and baby-powder-fine sand. It had always been Annelise’s dream to see the Caribbean, and she knew she should have been happy. Ecstatic. Wasn’t she still here, even if she was alone? But, instead, she just felt empty. Detached.
She’d cried her tears. So many tears. For weeks. Wondering what had gone wrong to make Kyle decide to walk out on their life together, ending their wedding and honeymoon plans abruptly. Wondering what would come next. Looking at the space where his toothbrush used to sit next to the bathroom sink, looking at the empty space in the fridge where the special espresso he loved had always been kept, she’d felt a gnawing, painful ache in her chest, raw like a sucking wound. She’d sobbed into her pillow, worried she’d alarm the neighbors in the condo above. Her hot tears signaled the end of not just a seven-year-long relationship, but also of her dreams for the future. She’d cried so much she’d gone numb.
She’d managed the chores of daily living—making food, getting dressed, going to work and to the store—but she’d felt like an imposter, like some zombie trapped inside the body of the vivacious, happy, hopeful woman she’d always been. She’d looked in the mirror and it had scared her. But still, nothing moved her anymore—not sadness, not anger, not understanding or judgment. Nothing. When the reminder from the travel agency had come through as an alert on her smartphone, the hot swell of anger had been as surprising as it had been fleeting. That spark was what had led her to do the crazy thing she’d done. Just to feel something, anything, she’d decided to take their honeymoon. Alone.
Logically, the decision had been clear. She should go—two weeks in a remote section of the Yucatan Peninsula, staying at an exclusive hotel right on the beach. It was a two-hour-long ride in a Jeep on bumpy roads through the jungle to get to the collection of luxury cabanas, perched right at the edge of a wild natural preserve. Quite a journey, but it was supposed to be worth it. This was her dream trip, and it was almost entirely paid for already…and non-refundable. When they’d booked it, she hadn’t even had a nanosecond of concern about that portion of the terms and conditions. The idea that Kyle would have chosen not to go would have been laughable to her on that long-ago morning. After seven years of blissful love, she’d thought she’d known him inside and out. She had never been more wrong.
The decision to come had been more complex. Could she handle the possible emotional roller-coaster of going on what was supposed to be the romantic trip of a lifetime by herself? Was she crazy to risk putting herself through a possible ordeal of ‘what-ifs’ and ‘might-have-beens’? But when she’d looked down at that small phone screen, slightly smudged from her fingers, and had again seen the hollow, eerie eyes in her dark reflection, she’d known. She was going to go. Her best friend, Marina, was the only one who seemed to understand and support her decision. Everyone else just looked at her like she’d lost her mind.
She hadn’t been able to muster much enthusiasm for the packing, but still, even just knowing that she was packing to go had made her feel a little less frozen. Instead of staring at the same walls where she’d hung pictures with Kyle, or sitting on the same couch they’d spent several happy hours picking out at the furniture store, she would escape—or so she’d thought. But of course, she couldn’t ever escape. Not really. She couldn’t run away from herself.
So here she stood, looking at the prettiest view she’d ever seen, hands-down. The warm breeze ruffled her hair and the air held the delicate scent of tropical flowers mixed with the tangy salt of the ocean. Even the sound of the waves lapping onto the soft sand was exquisite. Soothing. And she could appreciate it all, but only in the abstract. Here in paradise, she was still frozen. Annelise sighed and turned, determined to keep walking until she began to thaw, even if it was just a little. Maybe seeing the jungle would help. She’d read there were even toucans. She sighed again, more heavily this time, trying to feel a glimmer of her usual optimism. Marina’s voice replayed in her head, encouraging her. And with Marina’s own past sadness, her advice meant even more.
‘Go on, girl,’ her friend had said. ‘Don’t let that man take one more day of your life. You have too much in you left to give. Go wild! Do anything and everything because you never know what’s around the corner.’
With those words in mind, Annelise doggedly continued, sinking her heels into the softer sand farther away from the waterline. It truly was incredible to be alone in such an unbelievably beautiful spot, and she hadn’t seen another soul all day. She turned her face to the water again as she walked, watching as the sky lit up into a symphony of purples, pinks and oranges as the sun began to dip toward the horizon. Without warning, she fell over something large on the ground, landing squarely on a warm, hard object, which gave a startled grunt.
She scrambled up as quickly as possible, but not before she pressed up against the length of a tall, muscular man. He was warm and smelled of the ocean and the wind—and also a bit spicy, like some of the more exotic seasonings used in the local dishes. As she brushed herself off and stood as swiftly as she could, she just had time to realize that he smelled…incredibly good. For someone I apparently fell on like a ton of bricks. Smooth. Real smooth, Annelise.
“I’m so sorry!” she apologized, feeling a hot blush rise from her hairline to her ears and even onto her chest. She knew her cheeks must be flaming.
Aurora is originally from the frozen tundra of the upper-Midwest (ok, not frozen all the time!) but now loves living in New England with her real-life hero/husband, two wonderfully silly sons, and one of the most extraordinary cats she has ever had the pleasure to meet. But she still goes back to the Midwest to visit, just never in January.
She doesn’t remember a time that she didn’t love to read, and has been writing stories since she learned how to hold a pencil. She has always liked the romantic scenes best in every book, story, and movie, so one day she decided to try her hand at writing her own romantic fiction, which changed her life in all the best ways.
You can find out more about Aurora at her website here.
Reviews (1) Click to toggle
Reviewed by Thomas Newman
I'm not usually a reader of the romance genre but really enjoyed this book. The author's skillful blending of steamy romance and high stakes intrigue grabbed and held my attention from the first to la...
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