Secrets by Alice Ward
(Lords of the City, #2)
Publication date: September 14th 2016
Genres: Adult, Contemporary, Romance
Who is stalking Blaire and is her new love, Cristiano, involved?After following other people’s orders my entire life, I’ve finally struck out on my own. I realize that I don’t even know who I am. It’s time I found out who Blaire Daniels really is. I need to discover myself… reinvent myself.
And, if the breathtakingly sexy and handsome, not to mention super rich, Cristiano Leventis is a part of that equation, who am I to complain?
But, is it just coincidence that I meet him now? When I think someone is following me? Or is something more sinister going on? Please don’t let me be falling in love with the wrong man. He seems like such a perfect Mr. Right…
Although this novel is part of the Lords of the City series, it is a full-sized STANDALONE novel with an HEA and NO CLIFFHANGERS.
*** Taming the Billionaire – The Complete Series is also included in this book as a FREE BONUS plus some other EXCLUSIVE FREE BONUSES! ***
A
breeze wafted in through my bedroom window, lifting the lace
curtains. Down on the street two floors below, a car honked and
someone shouted in Spanish. Women chattered and birds chirped.
Spring. It had arrived just as gloriously as it always did.
I
took a deep breath and gazed at myself in the floor-length mirror
leaning against the wall. I meant to hang it weeks ago, but like so
much else in the apartment, I just hadn’t gotten around to it.
Nearly six months into the lease and I still wasn’t sure how I felt
about living alone. It was weird, waking up in the middle of the
night and being able to do whatever I wanted. I knew it was good…
well, hopefully I would one day see it as good. Besides, it was past
time to cross living alone off the bucket list. But it was still odd,
just like almost everything else that had happened in my life this
past year.
I
brushed some of my blonde hair from my eyes and twisted my lips,
making a funny face at myself.
“Don’t
be nervous,” I said out loud. “You got this.”
I
scrunched up my nose, Mirror
Me
not believing Right
Side Me.
“Really,”
I stressed to my reflection, giving myself an encouraging fist pump.
“Really.”
The
one seriously fantastic bonus about living alone that I had
discovered? You could talk to yourself twenty-four-seven, and no one
else was around to look at you funny.
With
a confident nod at myself, I turned from the mirror to rifle through
one of my jewelry boxes. My recent visit to the Swap-O-Rama flea
market had turned into something akin to hitting a gold mine.
Brightly colored chunky bracelets now filled one side of my blue
velvet jewelry box. I selected a coral one and an orange one,
slipping them both on my left wrist, the blend the perfect complement
to my reddish-orange and white romper. Just being fully accessorized
had a way of making me feel better.
Snatching
up my leather fringed purse from the bed, I left the bedroom and
crossed the tiny living room.
“Phone,”
I murmured to myself, feeling in the bag for it. “Keys… check.”
I
unlocked the front door and yanked it open… then let out a yelp.
“Sorry.”
Derek grinned, gazing down at me. His unruly brown hair fell down
over one side of his face, nearly hiding one of his eyes. He looked
like a college kid trying to be goth. When I first met him, I thought
he was actually younger than he was, mostly because of the hair.
I
exhaled loudly. “It’s all right. I was just… lost in my head.
How are you?”
“Good.”
I
rolled up onto my tiptoes so I could reach his face and give him a
quick peck on the lips.
“Were
you leaving?” He shifted his weight and rested an arm against the
doorway. “Yeah, I’m going to the orphanage today. Remember?”“Oh,
yeah. That’s right.” He straightened up. “Well, let me walk you
to your car.” “Sure.”
“Oh,
yeah. That’s right.” He straightened up. “Well, let me walk you
to your car.” “Sure.”
Derek
stepped out of the way and waited silently while I pulled the door to
my apartment closed and locked it up.
“How’s
it going over there?” he asked as we clomped down the stairs.
“Good.”
I smiled just thinking of their faces. “The kids at Hampton Road
are great.”
He
pushed the building’s front door open and held it for me as I
hurried through and out onto the bright sidewalk. “I parked on the
street last night,” I explained. “Just down a bit. I’m sorry
you stopped by for nothing. I thought you knew Saturday was going to
be my regular day there.”
He
shrugged before looping an arm around my shoulder. I pressed up
against him, the crook of his arm warm and familiar. Derek and I had
been dating for about four months, ever since we met through mutual
friends at a concert. He was the only man I’d been with in the
whole last year and the relationship sometimes seemed too good to be
true. It was smooth, easy. We had our own things that we did
separately, and we had our things that we did together. It was my
life and his life, the two existing independently but meeting in the
middle like one of those bubble graphs showing what two variables had
in common. It was a simple and well-defined formula. It worked for
us.
Wait.
Was that called a bubble chart? Or was there another name for it?
“It’s
all right,” Derek replied, jarring me out of my head. “I have a
few hours to kill before work.”
I
nodded, trying to act like I totally hadn’t spaced out for a few
seconds. “How’s it going at the shop?”
“Pretty
good. Lots of people bringing in their cars to get checked out before
they go on vacation.”
We
stopped next to my silver Honda. “I can hang out later,” I told
him. “When do you get off work?”
He
shrugged. “Depends on what time Rodney leaves. I’ll text you.”
“Okay.”
I smiled up at him. “Maybe we can catch a movie or something if
you’re not too tired.”
“Yeah,
there’s that new James Bond.”
I
wrinkled my nose slightly.
Derek
laughed, the smile transforming his face. “Come on. You’re the
last person who should hate James Bond.”
I
snorted. “It’s so
fake.”
“Every
movie is fake. Those romances you love, especially. People don’t
just meet and fall in love then get married all in one week.”
I
gently swatted his arm. “That’s not how they go!”
“Close
enough.”
“Yeah,
yeah,” I said, knowing he was right. “Whatever. Well, either way,
have a good day.”
“You
too, babe.” Derek bent down to kiss me, then turned with a wave
before striding off down the street.
Realizing
that I had no clue as to what the exact time was, I quickly pulled my
keys from my purse and hopped into the car. Being late on my third
day of volunteering would not be good. The staff there was friendly
and understanding, but I’d been raised to never make people wait.
Any time I did it, I ended up feeling awful about myself.
On
the first day to Hampton Road Orphanage, I used GPS to take me there.
On the second day, I used my memory but then ended up taking the
wrong road once or twice. Surely by my third day, I would finally
have it down.
Heading
out of Chicago after the weekend rush hour meant traffic was fairly
light, and I made it to the three-story brownstone in great time.
Tall oak trees dappled the small gravel parking lot with shade,
making it the perfect temperature. Built decades before as a summer
home for some rich scholarly family, a full wraparound porch hugged
the building. Lush green grass stretched out all around the property,
giving it an impressive amount of land when compared to the lower
middle-class houses clumped together on the rest of the street.
I
tossed my sunglasses on the passenger seat next to my purse, then
locked the car and left everything behind. The upcoming day’s
activities were still a mystery, but since my other volunteer hours
had involved cleaning the kitchen and taking a group to the park to
play basketball, this third one would likely be just as physically
involved. I didn’t want to be encumbered by a bag hanging off my
shoulder or a ringing cell phone.
I
took the front porch steps two at a time, escaping into the cooler
air of the awning. Before I could open the door, it flew open, a
little face appearing only inches above the door knob.
“Blaire!”
Jenny yelled up at me, her strawberry blonde pigtails bouncing along
with her feet. “Blaire!”
Though
there were a couple dozen kids in the orphanage and I wasn’t even
close to remembering half of their names, Jenny would be the hardest
to forget. At six, she was one of the most precocious and social kids
I’d ever run into. She was also a master manipulator as the
orphanage’s director quietly told me on the first day. Jenny could
design excuses to get what she wanted like a spider weaves webs.
“Hi
Jenny,” I said, stepping inside. “You answer the door now?”
“Jenny!”
a woman’s voice called from somewhere down the long hallway.
Jenny
ignored the call, instead keeping her pale blue eyes trained on me.
“Cris… Cris… on is here.”
“Oh.”
I paused, not having even the tiniest idea what the child was talking
about. “Okay…well, that’s nice.”
Teresa,
the home’s director, popped her head out of the doorway leading to
the kitchen. “Jenny! Aren’t you going to go play Red Rover?
They’re out there waiting for you.”
“Okay!”
the little girl yelled, turning and barreling down the hallway. The
back screen door gave under her palms, and a second later, she
vanished into the back yard. Realizing the front door was still left
hanging wide open, I turned around and gently shut it.
Teresa
came out into the hallway, the dozens of gold bangles she always wore
clinking together musically as she lifted a hand to brush some silver
and black streaked hair from her brow.
“Blaire,”
she sighed. “You’re looking good. I love those bracelets. How are
you?”
I
smiled wide. “Great! How are you?”
“Just
fine,” she said with a bright smile of her own. Though Teresa
easily had one of the craziest jobs in the whole city, she always
moved with grace, constantly wearing a smile and giving her full
attention to whoever was in front of her. She reminded me of my
mother in a way, although a much calmer version of the woman who
raised me. Maybe it was her warmth. She had told me she’d never had
any children of her own, but to see her with the twenty kids who
lived at Hampton Road, it was clear she felt very motherly towards
each and every one of them.
“Good,
good.” She sighed lightly and rested her hands on her hips. “Thanks
for coming on a Saturday. Amy is busy getting the last minute stuff
together for her wedding, so she’s gone until tomorrow. Until then
it’s just me.”
“Oh,
no worries. It’s my pleasure. I can even stay longer today if you
want me to. I have nothing going on.”
She
bit her bottom lip, her eyebrows bunching together. “Let’s see…
it seems to me I had something… hmm…” She ran her thumb over
her lip, thinking hard. “There was something I had planned for you
to do, but now I just don’t remember it. Oh well.” She threw her
hands up in defeat.
“I
can help clean,” I suggested. “Or take some kids to the park. You
know, whatever you need.”
She
smiled. “Oh, that’s all right. I don’t think any of them will
want to leave. One of their favorite visitors is here. He’s out
back playing with them.”
I
cocked my head. “Really?”
“Mm-hmm.
Cristiano Leventis.”
My
heart flipped. “The
Cristiano Leventis?”
“You’ve
heard of him?”
I
slowly nodded. “He was on the local news last month. I don’t
remember which station, but he was in this segment about up and
coming Chicago entrepreneurs.”
“I
saw that!” she exclaimed, then wiggled her eyebrows. “He looked
so good.”
Yes,
he did. So good, in fact, that the sight of his face had bestowed me
with my first real
insta-crush
in years. I hadn’t gone so ga-ga for a guy I didn’t know since
fourth grade and N’Sync’s first album cover. His raven black
hair, olive toned skin and sparkling amber eyes had practically
melted me to the couch cushion.
I
swallowed hard. “C-cool.” So that was what Jenny had been trying
to spit out. Cristiano was there, in the flesh.
Teresa
smiled even wider. “Why don’t you go out and play with them? He’s
a really wonderful young man.” She winked at me. “He’s single
too… as far as I know.”
I
nodded, blushed, and all at the same time, suddenly feeling
put on the spot. Could Teresa read the effect the mention of
Cristiano’s name had on me? “All right,” I said with a thick
tongue.
Stay
professional,
I told myself. This
isn’t about you getting kicks from the attention of some
semi-famous hot guy.
I
was a shy kid so lived out many of my fantasies through the stories I
read. In time, I decided that I wanted to write some of my own. What
a blessing it is that there are readers who want to read them!
What
kept you going throughout the writing process?
Nothing
keeps me going. I mean, I don’t need anything to keep me going. I
absolutely love writing and look forward to it every day.
Who
is your most meaningful character and why?
This
is a tough question. It’s like asking me to choose between my
babies. But if I’m forced to answer… I think all the characters
in my first book, Reckless,
were my most meaningful. That story… those characters… helped
show me that I might actually be able to do this. Tell stories that
other people want to read. So it will forever hold a special place in
my heart.
What
experiences from your past do you find yourself drawing upon
repeatedly for inspiration in your work?
I
think this is, for me, the opposite. I was a shy kid so a big part of
why I started to write was so I could have the adventures in my own
head that I thought other people were having in real life. So, I
guess I might be writing about the things I might want to do and then
I just let my imagination take off from there.
Since
you are a storyteller, please tell one good lie about yourself.
Well,
my mother brought me up to never lie so I guess I’ll have to tell
you now that all my books are based on my own life. Before I settled
down and got married, I had one hell of time!
What
do you think makes a good story?
The
characters - if I don’t care about them as I write them, then the
reader won’t either. And, if the reader doesn’t care about them,
having the best story in the world won’t save the book to make it
an enjoyable read.
Do
you ever experience writer's block and if so, how do you overcome it?
If
any other writers are reading this - please don’t hate me! I have
so many overflowing ideas that my biggest problem is having enough
time to write them all. So, no - I don’t experience writer’s
block. At least, not yet. Hope I haven’t just jinxed myself!
What
was the scariest moment of your life?
Hitting
“Publish” for the first book I ever uploaded to Amazon. What a
deliciously terrifying time that was! All my hopes and dreams went
into that moment and I had no idea how it would all turn out. That
book is called Reckless
and I haven’t looked back since. I count my blessings every day.
What
would we find under your bed?
Isn’t
that where the monsters lurk? Oh wait, I’m a romance writer not a
horror writer! Under my bed… probably a couple of dust bunnies and
a paperback or three.
What
hobbies do you actively pursue?
Reading…
I tend to have a one-track mind. But I also enjoy scrapbooking. I
have one dedicated to potential hot male characters and go to it when
I need some inspiration.
If
it was mandatory for everyone to read three books, what books would
you suggest?
Any
three books. It doesn’t matter what they are. Just read. Discover
the joy of losing yourself in a good story.
Alice lives in Miami with her hunky husband. The beach is her all time favorite place to relax with her laptop and write.
She might or might not have a thing for Gerard Butler (it’s the accent).
To find out what Alice is up to currently, visit authoraliceward.com.
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