Authors: V. K. Black
Unexpected Places (16 page)
‘Um, Luke…’
‘Mmm.’
‘You know when you said ‘sometimes I win, sometimes I lose’?’
‘Mmm.’
‘You said, ‘More about that in a minute.’ What did you mean?’
‘Ah.’ He drew away. Excitement and mischief shone out of his eyes. ‘We’re going to get those emeralds back.’
‘But…but…Jason has sold them already. He was booking his tickets for Hong Kong when I left him.’
‘Ah,’ Luke said again.
She eyed him sternly. But she couldn’t help her lips from turning up at the corners.
‘It all worked out rather well,’ Luke mused. ‘Mr Lee, my mega-rich man in Hong Kong, was called away to an urgent meeting in the Ukraine on the day I was supposed to sell him the emeralds. He flew back into Hong Kong yesterday.’
An excited bubble inside her threatened to burst, as she realised what that meant. ‘So Jason still has the emeralds?’
Luke grinned. ‘And my contacts tell me he has an appointment with Mr Lee in three days’ time.’ He lifted her into his arms. ‘Are you ready for our first job together, sweetheart? Parting your old friend from our emeralds?’
Ariana laughed and threw her arms around his neck. ‘Yes!’
New Year’s Promise
Anna Clifton
They’ve been colleagues, allies and best friends forever, but he wants more — and he’s not above using the magic of the Christmas season to get it.
When Business Development Executive Ellie Halligan is offered the job of a lifetime in Paris, it seems her chance to live a fairytale adventure has finally arrived. Her only hurdle is convincing legal eagle Justin Murphy — her boss and friend since childhood — to wave his boss’s wand and waive her four-week resignation period so that she can start her adventure by Christmas. But Justin proves to be a demanding fairy godmother. He’ll let her go early, but not unless she spends time with him over the festive season up until New Year.
Ellie doesn’t know what to do. Is Justin finally looking at her romantically after all these years, or are far more threatening dynamics at play? Justin has a secret, and he seems to want to pull her back into a past she’d rather forget. But delving into that old pain might be the only way to move forward — and for Justin to finally be free. But will doing this for Justin become Ellie’s final gift of love as she loses him forever?
Fiona Greene
What began as an impersonal-but-cheerful holiday gift for a soldier far from home becomes so much more…
Sergeant Tate McAuliffe, stationed in Afghanistan, opens his Christmas care package from Australia and is stunned by both its contents and the sender. Fun-loving Christmas tree designer Layla Preston is a breath of fresh air for loner Tate. Although they’ve never met, their email friendship quickly develops and their feelings for each other deepen.
But Layla knows the heartache that loving a soldier can bring and when Tate is injured, her deep-seated fear drives them apart. With their relationship in tatters, can Layla and Tate work through their differences, so Layla can welcome Tate home for Christmas?
Nicole Flockton
From Nicole Flockton, author of
Bound by her Ring
– the last thing he wants is an emotional attachment to his new assistant, but it might be the only thing he truly needs.
Nick Rhodes has been burned before, so when he hires a new assistant, he has one rule: no emotional attachments. On either side. Pamela Bishop is everything he needs in a professional colleague, and comes with an ironclad guarantee – she absolutely will not fall in love with him.
Pamela Bishop has only one goal in her new job: getting on top of the mountain of debts incurred through her mother’s medical expenses. Jeopardising this chance by falling in love with her arrogant, if handsome, employer is the last thing she would ever do.
But as the lure and romance of New York City surrounds them, and Pamela and Nick find themselves spending more and more time together, they can no longer ignore the attraction flaring between them. Nick has always lived by his own rules – can he learn to break them in time to grab this one chance at happiness?
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ISBN: 9780857991980
Title: Unexpected Places
Copyright © 2014 by V.K. Black
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All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.
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