Ruby's Fantasy (20 page)

Something clicked bright like a strike of lightning in her mind. ‘Is that why you're so over protective with me? Because you think you failed Remmy?'

‘I couldn't let you out of my sight. Jeez, Ruby, I couldn't lose you too.'

He pulled her in so tightly she could feel the firm ridges of his stomach muscles pressed against her torso. His skin was cool in the evening air but inside him, Ruby could sense the turmoil and yet his pain brought her clarity. Jake could be dominating, damn it, he could be downright authoritarian, but now she knew why. Was there really anything wrong with loving someone too much? ‘I can't bring your brother back, but I can try again, but you have to understand, I won't let you order me around. I expect to be included in decisions.'

‘Ruby, you're safe now. Your shop's secure. I don't need to order you around. I just want to make you happy.'

‘And I will be.' Hugging him tight, she felt his body lean into hers. His big hand stroked her hair.

She could do this. She could learn to trust him because the man had a good heart and now she understood what drove him.

He closed his eyes for a moment, his relief palpable. ‘I love you, Ruby, and I'm always going to.'

‘I love you, too.'

Ruby walked through the front door of Jake's magnificent mansion with him by her side just in time for the start of the party. Waiters, naked from the waist up, their torsos tanned and buffed, stood ready, their trays loaded with champagne and canapés. Jake took two glasses and handed her one. The mansion had been transformed with a magical fantasy theme. Huge lanterns hung from the ceilings glowing with mystical light. All the expensive artwork she'd noticed from her last visit had been removed and in their place sat magnificent scenes from old black and white Hollywood movies and exotic stills of princesses and princes from make-believe fables. In the foyer sat a fountain bubbling full of champagne. ‘This is just amazing. I feel like I'm in another world,' she said.

He gave her a devastating smile. ‘Our world together,' he said bending over to kiss her lips.

She and Jake walked through the large lounge area to the back of the house, onto the large colonnade. Hundreds of plants interwoven with fairy lights divided up the area into a large seating section for dinner and a dance floor with stage where a band was tuning their instruments. Burning torches flared on the lawn to where a path meandered down to the harbour. Boat lights winked on the harbour and a slight breeze stroked the skin left bare by her Princess Leia slave girl outfit so she slipped her arm around Jake's waist.

Soon, they were surrounded by partygoers to whom Jake introduced her. Ruby recognised some famous people she'd seen on television and others she'd spotted in the
Herald
. ‘I had no idea you knew so many people. It's like the who's who of Sydney society here,' she said to him when they had a spare moment.
Did she even belong with these people?
Even though everyone wore fancy dress and most of it from their shop, the women had expensive looking jewellery, perfectly groomed hair, makeup and nails. The type of grooming that took constant upkeep and money.

‘They're clients.' He stroked her cheek so tenderly that her skin puckered up her neck and she wiggled with delight. ‘You're my special person.' He leant down and kissed her.

‘Yuck! You two. Get a room,' Emerald said.

Ruby broke the kiss and laughed. Emerald had Ghost dressed in his Tarzan outfit with a difference. His pale skin was almost translucent against his fur costume, but where she could see bare skin there was plenty of muscle underneath. ‘You have Tarzan on a collar and lead. I don't remember that combination together.'

Emerald shrugged. ‘I like to improvise. It's time Jane ruled the roost.' Two coconuts covered her breasts and a leopard skin barely there skirt just covered her bottom. Tiny bones hung from her ears.

‘That's a worry,' Ruby said. ‘Watch her, Ghost. She's caused enough trouble as it is.'

‘Ghost likes trouble,' Emerald said, running a scarlet fingernail down his chest.

Ghost grunted.

‘Tarzan on a leash,' Jake said, raising his eyebrows at Ghost.

Ghost grinned.

‘He likes his leash,' Emerald said to Jake with a laugh.

‘I thought Tarzan was king of the jungle,' Jake said.

Ghost grunted. Picked up Emerald, slung her over his shoulder. Emerald shrieked in surprise. He walked off and Ruby was glad Emerald had thought to design a leopard-skin gusset in her skirt.

A woman with brunette hair and perfect makeup approached Jake linking her arm in his. ‘Jake, darling. So nice to see the house filled with people.'

Although Jake had taken Ruby's hand, she might as well have been invisible. Jake introduced Ruby but the woman barely glanced in her direction. Instead, she started to talk about people they both knew.

‘I'm going to get another drink,' Ruby said, excusing herself. She walked off before he could answer, not wanting to humiliate herself by being the extra at Jake's side. He loved her. She knew that and she loved him, but her throat felt tight like she'd swallowed a cotton wool ball and it had become stuck. She saw Emerald now back on the ground with her hand firmly gripping Ghost's leash, happily chatting to a group of people. Ghost was nodding and grinning.

Why couldn't she be more gregarious like her twin? She looked back at Jake but he was no longer standing where she had left him, instead the brunette stood there, her gaze moving over Ruby, as if she were dirt beneath her shoe.

Ruby stared back until the woman looked away. Good. Jake had chosen her. It was a beautiful party and she was determined to enjoy it. Jake had gone to a lot of trouble. Maybe she didn't belong in this world but she loved Jake and he wanted her there, so she took a glass of champagne from a passing waiter and went to join her sister. Before she could reach them, a microphone screeched and everyone turned to the stage where the band had been set up.

Jake had the microphone in his hand. ‘I want to thank everyone for coming tonight, but more importantly I want to thank
Fantasy
for supplying their fabulous costumes. Please give a round of applause for the twins, Emerald and Ruby.'

The crowd clapped and Ruby smiled.

‘But most of all I want to introduce you to my favourite fantasy woman. Princess Leia, where are you?' Jake scanned the audience.

Ruby gulped. She walked towards the stage and the crowd of smiling people parted for her. Jake held out his hand and helped her up onto the stage. ‘This is Ruby, the woman I've fallen in love with, the woman I'm going to marry.'

A gasp echoed around the audience.

Ruby's mouth dropped open and her head spun with shock but she took in a long breath. ‘Are you ordering me or asking me?'

Laughter rang out from the crowd, but Jake didn't laugh. Instead he dropped to his knee. ‘Ruby, would you do me the honour of becoming my wife?'

Tears of happiness pricked her eyes. This was it. This was the dream, the one she'd thought she'd never have because she was too damaged to trust a man, but she mustn't be because she trusted Jake. She loved and believed in him with all her heart. ‘Yes. Yes I will.'

A roar of approval sounded across the beautiful garden echoing out onto Sydney Harbour and Ruby realised that her sister was right. Goods things were happening, good things like Jake.

Love, Lust and Lies

Cathleen Ross

Family, friends, culture, and expectation clash in this heart-wrenching story of a broken marriage
—
and the battle to repair it.

Gabriella Vitadini thought she had the perfect marriage until her husband Tony stopped wanting her, and started wanting other women instead. Throwing him out of the house was the only thing she could do—how does she throw him out of her heart?

When a much younger man reminds her that she is still a desirable woman, Gabriella reminds herself that turnabout is fair play. But even a naughty fling can't eject Tony from her thoughts. What happened to their happy marriage? Why did Tony turn away from her? And is there any hope that they can find true love again?

 

Lingerie for Felons

Ros Baxter

If there's one universal truth, it's this: You're always wearing your worst underwear when you land in trouble.

Lola's parents told her that
everyone
can make a difference. And she believed them. She's been fighting the good fights since she was eleven years old. But at 23, Lola falls hard for an Australian stockbroker who thinks Doctors Without Borders is a porno and Joni Mitchell sounds like a harp seal being battered to death. She cuts him loose, but over the next fifteen years, through protests, misunderstandings, humiliating predicaments, and a number of poor underwear choices, their lives and paths continue to converge.

Along the way, Lola learns a few important life lessons: Never wear a red lace thong to a strip search. Make sure you take motion sickness pills if you're going to the Southern Ocean to save the whales. And sometimes, Mr Right can be all wrong, and Mr Wrong just needs time to find the right path.

Funny, touching, emotional and political,
Lingerie for Felons
is Bridget Jones meets
An Inconvenient Truth
, about doing the right thing, finding the right person, and always thinking through your underwear choices.

 

Carrier

Vanessa Garden

For fans of
The Walking Dead
and
The Hunger Games
comes a YA novel about freedom, choice and family — and the terrifying disease that makes them mutually exclusive.

From the day she was born, Lena has viewed the world through the jagged window of a razor-wired fence. The hundred-acre property she shares with her mother in the Australian outback may keep her safe from the Y-Carrier disease, but it is no longer enough to hold Lena's interest, and her mother's increasingly tight grip on her free will is stifling.

Just as her curiosity blooms and her courage rises, she meets a boy through the fence — the first boy she has ever laid eyes on. His name is Patrick and he comes with a dangerous yet irresistible invitation of adventure beyond the fence, an invitation to which Lena cannot say no.

But Lena's newfound freedom is short-lived and she soon discovers that the Y-Carrier disease is not the only enemy she faces on the outside. Her new enemies want something Lena has, and they are willing to do anything to get it...