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About First and Forever by Eve Dangerfield
Title: First and Forever
Author: Eve Dangerfield
Series: Rebirth #3
Genre: Romantic Comedy
They’ll fake it ‘til they make it and then some…
Football player Sloan ‘Willow’ Williams has been looking for The One for years. He’s checked all the right places—and some of the wrong ones—and found sh*t all. But the moment he sees Eden Jade Cartwright, he knows she’s the girl for him.
Unfortunately, her entourage won’t let him anywhere near her…
Eden doesn’t want anything, aside from an international music career. She does, however, enjoy being worshipped, which the giant redhead seems inclined to do. But with a world tour beckoning, now isn’t the time for a boyfriend…
Willow has the perfect solution; a short, fake relationship that will boost Eden’s clout and scratch both their itches. Only he’s hoping the beautiful blonde will keep him around. And Eden’s praying she’ll be able to let him go…
First and Forever is a standalone romance by the critically acclaimed author Eve Dangerfield.
Excerpt from First and Forever
© 2022
Eve Dangerfield
There was nothing inside but a wide wooden staircase. Putting a hand on the bannister, she climbed. Classical string music was playing softly from somewhere, the sound sending a shiver down her spine. She paused at the top of the stairs. There was another, albeit polished, wooden door and fixed to it was a plaque.
Dr Sloan Williams
Physician
The Royal College of Physicians, Edinburgh
Eden peered at the plaque. It looked real. She touched it. It was real. It was a wooden plaque with Willow’s name written on it in gold, saying he was a doctor. He wasn’t a doctor, was he? No, that was stupid. But surely, he hadn’t gotten it made just for—
Inside the room, a chair scraped. Eden’s heart jolted.
Stop thinking about the plaque and go inside.
With a shaking fist, she knocked on the door. There was a pause.
“Miss Cartwright?”
Heavy footsteps on the floorboards, then the door swung open to reveal Willow. He wore a white coat and suspenders, and his red hair was neatly combed back.
“Hi, I mean… hello, Doctor.”
“Good afternoon, Miss Cartwright.”
She hadn’t misheard. He was speaking with a soft, Scottish brogue, and as he looked her up and down, there wasn’t any recognition in his eyes. He might have been seeing her for the first time.
Eden’s face burned. “My, um, father sent me to see you?”
“Of course. Come inside.”
He gestured behind him to a wood-panelled room. Eden entered, her heart thumping. The space looked like a dance hall with dusty floorboards and wide windows. In the middle of the room stood what looked like a supermarket massage chair, covered by a sheet. In the corner she saw a wooden desk, scattered with paper and adorned with a vase of daffodils.
“Sit in the chair,” he directed.
Eden moved toward the centre of the room. As she sat, Willow—Doctor Williams—studied her with faint interest. His gaze lingered on her breasts and he glanced away, his fingers knotting together. Eden saw a fat gold wedding band on his left hand and her stomach contracted. Was he married?
Her face heated as she realised she was being stupid. Of course, he wasn’t married. His character was. The thought, along with how good he looked in the white coat, had her fighting back a smile. It was game on.
“Would you like a glass of water, Miss Cartwright?”
God, that accent. It made Eden want to call off this charade and pull his face between her legs. She tried some showmanship of her own. Clearing her throat, she adopted her mother’s cut-glass English accent. “No, thank you.”
A faint smile creased Willow’s lips. “Very well. Try to relax. This isn’t an interrogation. I’m here to take care of you.”
Eden’s mouth went dry. She wished she’d accepted the glass of water.
The doctor paced the floorboards, hands behind his back. “Your father tells me you’re having trouble at home.”
“I… I suppose so.”
“What kind of trouble, Miss Cartwright?”
Again, Eden tried not to smile. In real Victorian times, her sister Sienna would be ‘Miss Cartwright.’ She’d be ‘Miss Eden’ until Sienna got married—
Don’t think about that.
She leaned back in what she was now positive was a massage chair. “I don’t know, Doctor. I find it hard to concentrate. I sleep lightly and I’m distracted all the time.”
Willow strode to the edge of his desk and sat on the corner. His coat opened to reveal a fitted shirt, tight enough that Eden could see his pecs.
“Are you lightheaded?” he asked.
“Occasionally.”
“Moody?”
Eden didn’t answer. Yes. Her father thought she was moody. Everyone in her family had thought she was moody because she had more than one mood. Cheerfulness, fake or otherwise, was the only acceptable emotion in the Cartwright house.
“Lass?” Doctor Williams’ voice was edged with impatience. God, this motherfucker could act.
“I suppose I am moody,” she offered.
“Do you cry often?”
Eden hadn’t cried for years, but that probably wasn’t in keeping with her character. “Almost every night.”
He nodded curtly. “Your father is also concerned that you aren’t expressing any interest in young men who are coming to visit you.”
He said it straight-faced, without so much as a gleam in his eyes, but Eden’s cheeks burned with the understanding she and Willow were really, actually playing doctor.
“I-I don’t know how I’m supposed to be around men,” she told him.
“A lot of women just enjoy being looked at.”
Eden gazed out of the nearby window, ignoring the modern buildings, the airplane she could see passing over the city.
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About Eve Dangerfield
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.
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