Gigi Dumont never forgot how she walked away from the only man she ever loved.
She’s a teacher who has led her students to the finals of an international French competition to be help in Paris. The night before the trip, the principal tries to cancel the trip before he, in turn, loses his job to her high school boyfriend, Sean Collins.
Sean Collins has survived cancer, a divorce, and Gigi having aborted their child back in high school. He assumed he’d hate her, if they ever crossed paths again. But he discovers she’s exactly what he wants.
When Gigi and Sean are stuck together for a week in Paris, Gigi feels she has lost all her control. How can she survive her attraction to Sean? The man’s sexier now than he was back in the day, and once upon a time, he’d had her heart. She finds herself falling for him, even knowing forever is impossible.
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Payback time. Standing in his
mother’s kitchen, Sean Collins smiled as he hung up the phone.
He hovered at the phone for a moment, then
charged along the carpeted hallway to his bedroom. In a flash, he changed from
his T-shirt and jeans into his black pin stripe king-of-the-business-world suit
complete with black tie and shiny black shoes.
Finished dressing, Sean jittered at the door
and listened to his son talking nonstop to his mother upstairs. His skin
tingled and he closed his eyes. At least moving to his parents’ country estate
where he had grown up on Cape Cod had been good for everyone.
Breakfast could wait. He grabbed the keys on
the counter downstairs, and he called upstairs, “I’m leaving. I won’t be gone
long.”
Last year, the school principal had fired him
with bogus charges. Sean had sworn on every holy book that he’d been fired
because his doctors had discovered cancer in a routine physical exam.
The sickness sucked. But he’d survived. And now
he used his vast wealth to get what he wanted. No teacher should be treated so
callously. He had taken the job at the time to prove to himself he had more choices
than being the chief financial officer of his father’s corporation.
He set his jaw and walked outside to his car,
where the smell of freshly cut grass hit his senses.
The moment he stepped outside and headed toward
the garage, Sean stared at the vast forested area on the property for a moment
and pressed his lips together. Trees made sense. Women never had. His luck with
women had been bad from the start. His first girlfriend, Gigi Dumont, had left
him for parts unknown, and then later his wife, now his ex, Jennifer, had also
left. She’d played with a whole set of loose scruples. But Jennifer hadn’t hurt
him, not like Gigi had. Sean rolled his shoulders. Why did everything in his
life always seem to go back to Gigi leaving?
He fished out his keys from his pocket. And now
Gigi had moved back into the house next door.
Sean opened the garage door. A quick click of a
button and the gate lifted.
Last night he hadn’t slept. Today his shoulders
were straight. This moment had nothing to do with women and everything to do
with justice. His fingers traced the shiny finish of his brother Gerard’s Aston
Martin. Without blinking, he opted to borrow the car. He’d be early and
outshine everyone else. Gerard had offered to loan it to him specifically for
today. Sean licked his lips and turned the key, igniting the engine, and took
off.
A daydream flashed in his eyes. Principal
Murray’s jaw dropped to the ground in shock the second Sean stepped inside the
office with the papers.
Sean clutched the wheel. He intended to twist
the knife even further. People like Mr. Murray gave businessmen around the
world the reputation of cold, heartless automatons, especially when he claimed
the firing had been over “job performance.” Every one of Sean’s students had
passed the state assessments.
Now, Sean ran the finances for his parents, his
father’s company, and his brothers. The support of his family to get him
through cancer treatments had been phenomenal, but what if he hadn’t had that
support? What if he’d had no money to pay for treatments? He’d be dead because
the principal had fired him due to the insurance increases. Well, now Sean had
a better solution.
He sped down the country road for the half-hour
trip. During his horrible marriage to Jennifer, he’d worked as a teacher, and
his students had achieved both academic and social successes. Jennifer had been
the nightmare that drove Sean away from Collins Industries, Collins
Enterprises, Collins Investments, and Collins Mutual, to list a few of his
father’s multiple companies. Post divorce and cancer, Sean had made the
decision to offer employees packages in cases of sickness. Anyone who worked
for him would now receive a payoff equal to the job performance done over the
years as part of a settlement. Money paid hospital bills.
Sean’s stomach clenched as he gazed at the sign
for the Barnstable Charter High School parking lot. Sean parked Gerard’s fancy
lawyer wheels that screamed “out to impress” right next to the
about-to-be-sacked principal’s BMW sedan. The Aston Martin made the perfect
goodbye gesture. Murray had been outclassed.
Sean leaned forward in his seat, refusing to
feel guilty. He waited for the school bell to ring and watched students
bounding outside.
Unlike most people, his family had money, and
normally he wouldn’t like flaunting wealth. His Jeep Wrangler suited him just
fine, but today he needed to look like the elite businessman he was. He stepped
out a minute later, and in a fast walk, he strode down the halls. Sean winked
the second he saw the school guard’s shocked face.
“You had cancer?” asked the older African
American lady who coached the wrestling team.
“Yes, I did. I’m better now,” Sean said,
smiling.
He inclined his head and passed the security
desk then Sean turned right toward the principal’s office.
In his briefcase he carried the school board’s
ruling and the proof of sale of the school to Collins Enterprises. Barnstable
was a private school that followed school board law. The sale to his company
had been finalized, but Sean had insisted on telling Murray in person. The
minutes of the meeting would be posted at one that day. Victory waited for him,
and justice tasted better than homemade chocolate chip cookies.
In the office, the overqualified secretary,
Mattie, dropped her pencil on the floor. Sean made eye contact with her and the
older woman smiled back. Then he picked up the pencil in stride, and handed it
back to her. She opened her mouth to speak, and he shook his head, placing his
finger over his lips to silently request her silence.
She smiled her response and swiveled her chair
back to her computer.
He had seen Mattie in action and understood the
older woman had known how to treat people more than anyone else in the office.
Outside the principal’s door, Sean straightened
his tie into perfect alignment. His heart rate sped up and his entire body
became alert then he heard her voice.
Gigi, or should he say, Giovanna Dumont.
Her quiet, sweet voice unmanned him, making his palms sweat. Why would she be
here? And how could she still steal his breath away?
Victoria Pinder grew up in Irish Catholic Boston then moved to Miami. Eventually, found that writing is her passion.
She always wrote stories to entertain herself. Her parents are practical minded people demanding a job, but when she sat down to see what she enjoyed doing, writing became obvious.
The Zoastra Affair, Chaperoning Paris, Borrowing the Doctor, and Electing Love, Mything the Throne and Favorite Coffee, Favorite Crush will be published in 2014.
Now she is represented by Dawn Dowdle of Blue Ridge Literary Agency.
Also she’s the Vice President for the Florida Romance Writers. Her website is www.victoriapinder.com.
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