Title: Return All Author: Eve Dangerfield Series: Rebirth #2 Genre: Romantic Comedy
Hundreds of women have tried to win Derek over, but the only girl he’s loved is nowhere to be found…
Derek Hardiman has been crowned a football prodigy—but success came at the cost of his dorky high school sweetheart, Mara Temple. A decade after she left town, he still can’t imagine marrying someone who isn’t her… Traveling for most of her twenties, Mara has returned home with a designer wardrobe, a sweet puppy, and a new last name. What better to keep her surly ex-boyfriend from recognizing her?
When Mara and Derek are thrown back into each other’s lives the obsession that began when they were teenagers returns in full force. Derek can hardly believe the goddess his once-awkward lover has become, and he’s determined to win her back. But Mara is determined not to give in to the hype surrounding her bachelor superstar ex. Unfortunately, Derek has always lived up to the hype. After all, a girl only has one daddy…
Derek moved toward her, getting bigger by the second. “Mara? Mara! It’s me!”
His eyes were wild, his face—his face looked different. His moustache was gone. Clean-shaven, he was more like the boy from school than ever, jogging toward her in a black hoodie as though this was Albury in 2011.
Mara lowered hands she hadn’t known she’d brought to her chest. “Hi.”
She said it so quietly he couldn’t have heard her, but his face lit up. Naked happiness so bright it was terrifying. She wanted to burrow into the ground like a scared rabbit.
Chase turned. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Derek didn’t even glance at him. His unworldly black eyes were locked on hers. Mara’s cunt contracted. He was going to pick her up. He was going to carry her away like a marauding conqueror. Then he didn’t. He pulled up, his body jolting. “Mara. I can’t believe it’s you.”
She stared up at him. Even in her fuchsia Attico pumps, she barely came to his shoulders. He’d grown since he was a teenager. Up close, his face was different too. There were lines around his eyes that weren’t visible in photos or on TV. Neither was the black stubble under his skin. The word rose unbidden, Daddy, and euphoria spread through Mara’s chest like honey.
“Hello? Asshole? Can you hear me?” Chase demanded.
Derek ignored him. His gaze dragged over her face, studying her as she studied him. She touched a hand to her lips. Had he noticed her injection? Her eyelashes? Her nose? The fact her ears no longer stuck out through her hair?
Then he shook his head. “You’re fucking stunning. You look so… I don’t know how to say it.”
Expensive. She looked expensive. Money had flowed into her life, glossing her rough parts, and buffing the bright places to a near-impossible shine. She looked like a rich girl. Mara stared at her toes. For years she’d dreamed of this moment, dreamed of him saying these things, but now he was here, and she wanted to hide.
“Mara… where have you been, baby?”
It was such a huge question, tied off with such a ridiculous pet name, Mara didn’t know how to answer. “Around. I guess.”
Derek’s face sagged. “But—”
Chase stepped between them. “Maybe I should have made this clearer at our meeting, stay the fuck away from us. Now leave or I’ll call the police.”
“One minute, mate.” Derek sidestepped Chase. “Your hair. When did you grow out your hair?”
Mara almost laughed. “When I was twenty. Derek, what are you doing here? Is this about the house?”
“The house? The fucking house?”
He took a step toward her, and Chase moved across, blocking him. “Talk with your words, Hardiman.”
Derek scowled but took a step backward. “I’ve been looking for you for years. I couldn’t find you anywhere.”
Mara felt a small streak of pride. She’d paid handsomely to keep her name out of Google search terms. It was nice to know it had worked. “I… got off social media.”
“Right.” Derek shoved his hands into his pockets. “Fuck. Well, I’m so sorry, baby. I’m sorry, for everything. I’m sorry we lost touch and…”
His words washed over Mara like dirty waves. So sorry. Lost touch. Baby. They meant nothing. They were just sounds crammed together. A woman in a gray coat ducked past them and she realised they were blocking the path. She turned her face away.
Chase glanced from her to Derek. “Okay, this has been sufficiently weird, but we need to get to work. Goodbye, Mr Hardiman. Don’t come here again.”
Chase slid his arm through hers and steered her around Derek and back toward HFA.
“Mara!”
Derek’s voice stirred waters deep inside her. Places she’d allowed to crumble in the darkness of her twenties. She turned and found him staring desperately after her.
“Mara!” Derek’s voice was clear, a king calling across his hall. “Mara, we’re not done.”
She stopped as though he’d commanded it and Derek’s legs ate up the ground between them. “You. You’re the sexiest woman I’ve ever seen.”
She flushed, aware of Chase sputtering at her back. “Derek, I don’t know what to do.”
“So let me decide.”
Anger sizzled through her like hot oil. “Things aren’t the way they used to be.”
“Okay. I get that. You want me on my knees?”
“What?” she and Chase said together.
To her astonishment, Derek dropped like a stone onto the dirty footpath, cutting his height in half.
“For the love of Christ,” Chase groaned but Mara could only stare. Derek had always been unapologetic in his affection, but this was insane. He was a famous footballer and anyone could see him. How could he possibly be this desperate to speak to her? “Derek…”
“Give me your number.” He raised his tattooed palms as though in prayer. “Let me give you mine. I need to see you again.”
But you’re seeing me right now…
Chase touched her shoulder. “I’ll give you some privacy. But I’m right here.”
“Okay,” Mara whispered.
Derek watched Chase go, his gaze flicking back to hers as soon as he gauged Chase was far enough away.
“Baby,” his voice was gravel. “Baby, I want to kiss you. I am barely holding back right now.”
Mara knew that. She felt his energy vibrating out at her like orange heat. He wanted to snatch her up, crush her, take her down. Her body responded like warm paper desperate to curl into flame.
He smirked, so handsome, it almost stopped her heart. “It’s been too long, Little Miss.”
She stepped back. Little Miss. She called Pan that. But he had called her that. Not all the time. In bed. Pan. Pan was chewing away at Chase’s jumper upstairs. She needed to go to her. She needed to be with Pan. She took another step back. “I don’t know why you came, but I have to go.”
Derek stayed on his knees. “Give me your number. Or take mine. We’re not done, baby.”
Eve Dangerfield has loved romance novels ever since she first swiped her grandmother’s paperbacks. Now she writes her own stories about complicated women and gorgeous-but-slightly-tortured men. Her work has been described as ‘genre-defying,’ ‘insanely hot’ and ‘the defibrillator contemporary romance needs right now’…and not just by herself or those who might need bone marrow…OTHER PEOPLE! She lives in Melbourne with her boy and a bunch of semi-dead plants. She can generally be found making a mess.
We wish you a merry Christmas and a happily ever after! This special holiday historical romance anthology featuring three heartwarming novellas proves that no matter the obstacles, ’tis the season for love.
Meet Me Under the Kissing Bough by Josi S. Kilpack
Deborah Winfrey hasn’t had the heart to host a holiday party since her husband’s death. But this Christmas, it’s time to move forward. The festivities bring renewed life to her home, and the attentions of two very different men promise a chance at new love.
Healing Hearts for the Holidays by Anneka R. Walker
Julia Hunt is strictly forbidden from associating with the family in the nearby manor—including the handsome younger son, Esmond, who quickly steals her heart. With Christmas around the corner, an old bundle of hidden love letters may be the key to her own happily ever after.
A Christmas Correspondence by Sarah L. McConkie
In this novella inspired by the timeless tale, A Christmas Carol, John Charleston finds himself on an unexpected journey in the company of the insufferable Lady Caroline Morleigh. But the magic of the season has a way of softening even the hardest of hearts.
This book is a retelling of A Christmas Carol. Most of the characters’ names are some kind of spin-off of the original, or found somewhere in the book. It was fun figuring out a way to make past, present, and future work through letters and not ghosts! One of my favorite subtle hints are the door knockers (that give a nod back to the original) and the opening line of chapter 1: “The fact was that John Charleston felt dead. Dead as a doornail, really, whatever that meant.”
Sarah L. McConkie started her writing career in the second grade with a thirteen-page magnum opus about dinosaurs. Although the plot line and penmanship lacked polish, Sarah learned she loved retiring to bed thinking of what to write the next day. On a good night, she still does the same thing. Sarah took up the pen several years later after tucking her own little dreamer into bed and now combines modern life experiences, a robust knowledge of regency classics and a passion for all things old fashioned and proper to craft her historical romances. She co-stars with her own Mr. Right in the real-life romantic comedy she calls life. Sarah believes creating thought-provoking and moral stories promotes literacy in a world that needs more readers. She has a bachelor’s degree in Music Education and taught junior high choir for several years before becoming a stay-at-home mother to four darling children. She currently teaches piano and voice for BYU independent study.
Novelist Christine Lind has achieved her lifelong dream—a string of best-selling books and a cable-TV adaptation about to go into production. But on her way to London FanFest for the cast reveal, disaster strikes: their leading man is injured in a motorcycle accident… and his replacement is the one person she hoped she’d never seen again.
Nick Cleary has clawed his way to recognition as a Hollywood actor, but it’s long past time he get the chance to show he’s more than a pretty face and a chiseled set of abs. His big break comes in the form of a juicy lead role in a new steampunk fantasy series. There’s just one catch—casting has to be approved by the author… a woman he once devastated through his own youthful stupidity.
Christine is the last person to be starstruck by the handsome heartthrob, but as the clock ticks down to the cast announcement and Nick races to show that he’s really changed, she begins to wonder if there’s more to her ex than his Hollywood persona. Except now the consequences of being wrong no longer apply only to her career… but also to her carefully guarded heart.
Meg Adamson has been slaving away as a junior associate at a tiny Denver architecture firm since graduation, contributing to significant projects but not making any headway up the corporate ladder. So when she gets the chance to make a last minute bid to renovate an eccentric heiress’s mansion in Vail, Colorado, she’ll do almost anything to get the job—even risk driving into the high country before an impending snowstorm. If she’s quick and careful, she can get the information she needs and be back in Denver before the first flakes fall.
That is, until she’s confronted by long-time rival—and college crush—Declan McKenzie, who has also been invited to bid on the project. Declan has been one step ahead their entire acquaintance, nabbing the top spot in their graduating class and a coveted job at a world-class architecture firm, barely edging her out every time. Meg has spent her entire career in his shadow, and she’s determined that he’s not going to get the best of her this time.
But when their bickering conceals the early arrival of the massive snowstorm and they find themselves stranded with no heat or power, they’ll have to put aside their differences to make it through the weekend. Because as the temperature drops and their competition heats up, the only way out is together… with or without their hearts intact.
Real estate agent Bailey Jensen just wants a single quiet weekend in the midst of her goal-driven life, and a professional conference in Islamorada, Florida seems like just the thing—if she can ignore the fact she’ll be flying conspicuously solo at the company awards banquet in front of her ex-boyfriend and his new love.
Free spirit Zane Whitney would normally consider the Florida Keys his happy place, but considering he’s in Islamorada to witness his college roommate marry his ex-girlfriend, it’s the last place he wants to be. Complicate that with the fact he RSVP’d for two and he’s still conspicuously dateless, and this has all the earmarks of a humiliation in the making.
When Bailey and Zane find themselves double-booked into the same vacation rental, they realize their host’s mistake just might be the answer to their problems: share the house, act as each other’s plus-ones, and then move on with their lives. But neither Bailey nor Zane anticipates the possibility that a fake relationship might just give way to real feelings…
I’m a sucker for a romantic setting, whether it’s my favorite overseas spots or little-known corners of my own hometown. But where setting can be a nice surprise in a full-length book, it’s absolutely crucial in a novella!
Romance novellas are short and sweet, and they focus exclusively on the falling-in-love butterflies between the main couple, without much distraction from outside plot or secondary characters. Setting adds a necessary texture and interest to an otherwise straightforward story, and it can either act as a main feature in the couple’s burgeoning romance or as a source of conflict that threaten their happiness. So with that kind of importance in the story, why not make it a great one?
My Discovered by Love novella quartet does just that—it features some of the most beautiful settings in the world as a background for sweet, heart-warming romance.
In Jilted, a private island off the coast of Belize serves as both the catalyst and the backdrop for a whirlwind romance between a jilted groom, Derek, and the island’s private chef-turned-tour guide, Bethany. As they tour Mayan ruins, sample street food in charming mainland towns, and bask in the sunshine and turquoise waters, it’s hard to imagine not falling in love with an intriguing stranger!
Starstruck takes the excitement of London and the whimsy of a comic and fandom convention to bring a fantasy novelist back together with her estranged actor boyfriend when he’s subbed in as the romantic hero in a last-minute cast change for her TV adaptation. As the clock counts down toward the cast announcement and Nick scrambles to get Christine’s approval for the role of his lifetime, London Fan Fest is not just an entertaining background but a challenge to overcome.
For Snowbound, I stuck closer to home—my beloved Colorado—but set the story in the high country near the ritzy enclave of Vail. This time the setting is a straight-up source of conflict when two rival architects get snowed in at the site of the dream renovation and are forced to work through their differences to make it out in one piece! (Still, I’m not sure it’s a complete hardship, being stuck in front of a roaring fire in a multi-million-dollar ski lodge with your grad school crush…)
And last, Sunswept takes us back around to another sunny, tropical location, this time Islamorada, a village that stretches across six of Florida’s keys. When a tech entrepreneur reluctantly comes to Florida to witness his ex-girlfriend marry his college roommate and ends up double-booked in a beach house with a real estate agent there for a conference, they decide to turn an inconvenience into a solution to their plus-one problems. Which means that the lovely ocean-front cottage is both conflict and catalyst for their happily ever after!
Clearly, I’ve caught the travel bug hard with these novellas, and my biggest goal was to make readers fall in love with these beloved settings as much as the characters. Because the only thing better than falling in love is having a beautiful sunset to ride into together.
About Carla Laureano
Carla Laureano is the two-time RITA® award-winning author of over a dozen books, spanning the genres of contemporary romance and Celtic fantasy. A graduate of Pepperdine University, she worked in sales and marketing for more than a decade before leaving corporate life behind to write full-time. She currently lives in Denver, Colorado with her husband, two sons, and an opinionated tortoiseshell cat named Willow. Visit her website at carlalaureano.com to download the romance novella, JILTED, for free!
