Tropical Escape

By Anne Marie Beck

Tropical Escape
Book One
Tropical Escape Series

After finding the courage after ten long months, twenty-seven-year-old, Lorna Hamlin break off her engagement. Lorna needs to get away Seattle to regroup and find out what she wants out of life. When offered a chance to take a free two-week vacation, Lorna and her best friend, Jackie, jump at the chance. The two hop on a plane to the beautiful Hawaiian island of Oahu.

All too soon though, it has become clear to Lorna that this has become more than a relaxing two-week vacation. Soon danger is lurking at every street corner and Lorna’s only has once chance for survival. Lorna must put her trust in man she has just met. She realizes though that the real danger isn’t from her stalker. The real danger Lorna is about to face is losing her heart to her handsome Hawaiian hero.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Anne Marie Beck
• Release date: Feb 14, 2014
• ISBN: 9781310468612

Anne Marie Beck

Anne Marie Beck lives in a quiet Northern Idaho Community with her husband, two dogs, and two cats. She has raised two wonderful adult children and has been blessed with one wonderful grandson and four beautiful granddaughtersWhen Anne Marie is not writing, she loves to travel, take walks in the forests of North Idaho, where can enjoy another one of her favorite past-times nature photography. But the thing she cherishes most is spending time with children and grandchildren.After spending most of her life struggling with a learning disability, Anne Marie finally saw her dream come true February of 2012, with the publishing of her first eBook. Now over three years later, Anne Marie has over twenty books under her writing belt and hs plans on writing many, many more for her growing fan base.Feel free to follow me on Facebook

Book preview

Tropical Escape

Book One

Tropical Escape Series

By Anne Marie Beck

Cover Photograph

O’ahu * Hawaii

Cover Photograph By

K. M. Morgan

~*~ Aloha Everyone ~*~

This book is dedicated to all women, no matter how old or young. We all deserve to have a little tropical escape in our lives. I hope you enjoy your little trip to paradise, even if it is only on your e-reader. Mahalo nui loa to all my fans and new readers. You give me the drive that keeps me writing and improving, with each new adventure we take together.

~*~ Mahalo ~*~

Anne Marie

Dedication

A big thank you to my daughter Krissy and my son in law Matt for allowing me to enjoy time with them and showing me all the beauty that Oahu has to offer. Without your help, this book series would not have been possible

Love Mom

Basic Hawaiian Translations

A

aloha - hello; goodbye; welcome; farewell; love

H

hale - house

haole - a foreigner, often referring to a Caucasian

heiau Hawaiian temple; place of worship; sacred ground

hula - native dance of Hawai'i

K

kama`aina - native born or local resident of Hawai'i

kane - man

keiki - child(ren)

L

lanai - a porch, balcony or veranda

lua - bathroom

lu`au - a Hawaiian feast

M

mahalo - thank you

Mahalo nui loa - Thank you very much

makai - a direction: towards the sea

mauka - a direction: towards the mountains

O

ohana - family

ono – delicious

P

pali - cliff(s)

pau - finished; done (pau hana = done with work)

poi - crushed taro root made into a sticky paste

W

wahine - woman

Pronunciation Tips:

1. The Hawaiian alphabet has only 13 letters - the five regular vowels (a, e, i, o, and u) and eight consonants (h, k, l, m, n, p, w, and the okina: ' ).

2. The vowels are pronounced ah, ey, ee, oh and oo, not ay, ee, eye, oh and you, as in English.

3. Usually, each vowel in a word is pronounced separately.

Other titles by Anne Marie Beck

The Preston series

Blindsided By Love

A Wedding Melody

Cruising For Love

Love at Lunch

Hero of my Heart

Love Wears a Stetson series

Wyatt

Jesse

Carson

Josh

Cowboys of the Northwest

Match Made in Heaven

Never Say Never

Double or Nothing

Good Guys Don’t Always Finish Last

His Snow Angel

The Halfling Kings

The Halfling Kings

Tropical Escape

Tropical Escape

Tropical Breeze

Coming Soon

Tropical Storm

Last Chance Series

Second Chance at Love

Box Sets

The Preston’s

Love Wears a Stetson

Cowboys of the Northwest

Stand-alone books

Secrets of the Full moon

The Story of us

Table of Content

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Bonus Read

Tropical Escape

Book One

Tropical Escape Series

By Anne Marie Beck

Published by Anne Marie Beck at Smashwords.com

Copyright 04/2014 Anne Marie Beck

~*~ Chapter 1~*~

Lorna Hamlin was a bundle of nerves as she sat across the small intimate table from her fiancé, Bradley Brooks. She watched his face turn various shades of red. Wait. Correct that, her red-faced, irritated, ex-fiancé, as of three minutes ago. They sat in their usual corner table. In their favorite upscale Seattle restaurant, as Lorna spoke the words that had been weighing heavy on her mind for months now.

The only thing she could offer Bradley was as close to the truth, as possible. But not going so far into the details of her decision to hurt him.

Closing her eyes, she inhaled a deep, shaky breath into her lungs. She did her best to steady her nerves before she had to continue.

Desperate to ease Bradley’s pain, she reached out with her hand across the table and placed it on top of Bradley’s. She gave his larger hand a light, supportive squeeze, as she fought for the right words to say. She let the tears that been threatening to fall, escape her eyes as she glanced up to meet his gaze. Lorna could see the pain she was causing him. But it was not that emotion that had worried her. There was something more there. Something almost dark in Bradley's eyes.

As she studied him, Lorna could see him struggling with the darker emotion that always seemed to be just below the surface, seemed to be struggling with his self-control. She had seen it there, for months now. With every disapproving look or every exasperated sigh, it had grown darker. It was to the point that when Lorna would look at Bradley, it scared her. It was all she could do now, not to shiver from the sensation that his darkness caused. Just thinking about it made her skin crawl. Never in her life had she seen so much hatred and anger in one single look. And now, right at this moment, the evil had intensified, and it was all directed straight at her.

Bradley, you have no idea how sorry I am. I just feel that if we go through with this wedding, it will be a humongous mistake, for both of us. You know, the last thing I would ever want to do is do something to hurt you. I love you; you know that. But I have come to realize that I’m not in love with you. I just feel we would both regret this if we followed through with our wedding plans. I think we would be better off if we were to stay just friends.

You are serious? You're doing this now, right now, Lorna? For almost a year now, Lorna, we've been planning this wedding. And out of the blue, you decide that you are not in love with me? I want to know the truth. I want to know what has brought this on, all the sudden. Have I done something wrong or…wait a minute; there is someone else, isn’t there? That is what this is all about, isn’t it? You’ve met someone else, and now you're kicking me to the curb like some unwanted dog.

No Bradley, of course not, you know me better than that. I would never cheat on you, ever. I promise there is no one else. But I just can’t shake this feeling that we are not…right together.

Lorna knew she could not tell Bradley the truth. How do you tell someone that you agreed to marry, that he creeps you out? She had caught him so many times over the months, staring at her with the cold hard stare of someone…just not right. But what was she supposed to say to Bradley?

Hey Bradley, over the past six months, I have had a growing feeling that there is something, oh I don’t know, not quite right with you.

Oh yeah, she knew that would go over like a lead balloon in the middle of the ocean. To say that conversation would be awkward would be a huge understatement. Lorna had so many questions for Bradley, about his ever growing strange behavior.

She wanted to know why he had started leaving their bed and their home in the middle of the night when he thought she was asleep. He would return hours later and go straight to the shower upon his return. Whenever Lorna would question him about his whereabouts, he would make up some lame excuses. There was no way she was buying his excuse of he couldn’t sleep or he went for a drive or a jog. But over the last few months, his mood swings were what was freaking her out. It was to the point where Lorna felt like she had to walk on eggshells around him so that she would not upset him. She would ask him what was wrong and would get the standard reply of, stress at work. She knew, being an attorney could be stressful, but something was off with him.

Well, up until five minutes ago, I thought we were right for each other, but I guess I was wrong on that account, wasn’t I? The Lorna I met and fell in love with two years ago would have never hurt me like this.

Bradley’s voice trailed off, and Lorna’s tears started to flow once again, but this time sadness was not the cause. The murderous look that was on Bradley’s face had Lorna fearing for her life. She was thankful she had decided to break off their relationship in public. There was no doubt in Lorna’s mind, now. She knew without a shadow of a doubt that there was something not quite right, about Bradley Brooks. The feeling that Bradley was hiding something from her, something big, overwhelmed her. And right then, she felt fear flood her as she struggled to breathe in a normal manner.

She took a chance and trailed her gaze from looking at Bradley’s face to looking him straight in the eyes. Eyes that were so cold and hard, it reminded her of granite. She had never seen so much hate and rage in someone’s eyes. The force of his dark stare made her sit back in her chair and grab the edge of the table. All she wanted to do, right at this moment, was to run away from him as fast as her feet would carry her. Within moments, a false veil fell over his face, and he gave her a weak smile that did not meet his cold, hard eyes. Lorna could not diminish the fear that was washing over her in waves.

So, now what do we do about everything? Where do we go from here?

I’d planned on bunking at Jackie’s, for right now. It will give me some time to figure out what I want to do with my life and where I want to go from here.

So, that’s it? You’re going to pack your things and leave without even trying to work this out. Without giving us another chance, you’re just going to turn your back on us, on me. You’re just going to walk out the door, without looking back?

Bradley, it’s not like that. Please, try to understand that I…

Oh, I understand, I understand just fine, Lorna!

With that, Bradley roughly shoved his chair back. Pinned Lorna with his ice cold glare that made her heart stop and her whole body tremble in fear. Taking out his wallet, Bradley threw several bills on the table. Then he tossed several more at Lorna. He reached down and snatched up the two-carat diamond engagement ring she had handed him, earlier and shoved it into his pocket.

You’ll understand; I just can’t deal with this right now. There is enough money there for you to call a taxi, to take you over to Jackie’s apartment. I would like your things moved out of my home by the end of this weekend. I’ll talk to you later, once I have…once I have had time to calm down. Goodnight Lorna.

With that, Bradley turned, back stiff with what could only be described as controlled fury and stormed away from her table.

Please, Bradley don’t…

Bradley turned on his heels and growled out his response towards her, between clenched jaws.

Not another word Lorna, not another word!

With that, he turned and stormed out of the restaurant. She watched him through the window, as he walked along the sidewalk, heading for his BMW, parked out in front of Delmonico’s.

It took several long minutes for Lorna to finally calm down her nerves, after Bradley’s angry and abrupt departure. Lorna knew that Bradley had every right to feel hurt. And he was more than entitled to his anger, as well. But she just could not shake the bad feeling that there was something more to it. All those little subtle changes that Lorna had noticed over the last six months. They had started to add up in her mind.

Retrieving her cell phone from her