At Second Glance

By Vicki Ballante

Four years after her divorce, Merryn decides she’s ready to find someone. Joining an online singles site, she connects with the perfect guy. Funny, sexy, sensitive. When he suggests they meet, excitement compels her to say yes.

Kirk pines for his ex-wife, but realizes he must move forward. After several stimulating online chats, he believes she might be the one for him. Smart, sexy, willing to experiment and learn. But when he happens across his ex, all his plans fly out the window.

Will Merryn learn to relax and have fun without giving her heart? Can Kirk forget the past and become the man he longs to be?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Decadent Publishing
• Release date: Sep 5, 2014
• ISBN: 9781613337349

Vicki Ballante

Vicki writes erotic and fantasy romance. She loves taking her characters into an alternate world where strange and sexy things happen. She lives with her patient husband and three noisy kids in South Africa. In between being a busy stay-at-home Mom who hates housework and spends half her life cooking everything from scratch, she runs several blogs, writes under another name, and buries herself in the delightful world of her characters.

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This book is a work of fiction.  Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

At Second Glance

Copyright © 2014 by Vicki Ballante

ISBN: 978-1-61333-734-9

Cover art by Tibbs Designs

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by Decadent Publishing Company, LLC

Look for us online at:

www.decadentpublishing.com

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At Second Glance

By

Vicki Ballante

~Dedication~

To my husband who gave me the courage to write.

Chapter One

Merryn pulled off her surgical gloves and walked to her work computer desk. The message tone on her computer had gone off several minutes ago, but she’d needed to finish studying the lab test results first. She read the question on the screen in the chat box asking why she was up so late and typed her answer.

Hedge: I work night shift at a hospital.

Why did chatting with a guy she hardly knew and had never seen before make her heart thump like crazy and her mouth dry? She wiped her forehead with the back of her arm. Whew, was the night hot, and it was past midnight already. In summer in South Africa, midnight to two o’clock in the morning was the best time to work. She’d get her second wind about one. Night shift had become a routine after two years. But tonight, the later hours hadn’t cooled the night at all.

Panda: You’re a nurse?

Hedge: Lab technician. I check out bodily fluids.

Merryn smiled at her computer screen. She’d joined an online singles group in Bloemfontein, and a guy had started a chat with her. They both had chosen a cute animal as their profile pic and name to remain anonymous, one of the things that had drawn her to him.

Panda: Sounds scary. Anything contagious?

Hedge: I wear a mask and gloves. It’s quiet tonight. No urgent tests needed at the moment. Why did you join the singles group?

Panda: Boredom.

She laughed.

Hedge: Loneliness?

Panda: Not really. I’m sort of dating someone already.

Hedge: So, you’re not really single?

Panda: Single means unmarried, doesn’t it?

She twisted her lips in thought.

Hedge: Nowadays, it means unattached. No romantic involvement.

Panda: Well, I’m an old-fashioned man.

She smiled again. She’d been very old-fashioned for years. That’s why her ex had left her.

Hedge: I used to be like that. I’ve changed.

There was a long pause. She wondered if he’d left the online chat because he was bored with her.

The doctor on duty came through with a vial of blood. Malaria test.

Oh, okay.

Dr. Seer gave a stern nod and left.

Malaria tests were rare. The disease was sometimes found in someone who had traveled farther north towards Botswana, Zimbabwe, or even in Mozambique.

A message tone binged. She ignored the reply to her message and got to work testing the blood. Five more messages came through, and by the time her results were sent to the doctor, she couldn’t wait to get to the computer. The person was malaria free. Could mean something more serious. She sometimes wondered why the doctors didn’t order all the tests at once to eliminate every possibility, but that wasn’t her decision.

She read her messages. No one minded her doing personal stuff during working hours. She was a prized possession. Finding staff willing to carry the night shift during the dreary, sometimes intensely quiet time was rare. The salary had made the work hours worth it, and she enjoyed the lower stress. It gave her moments to do her research. She’d even completed her full study course for a lab technician in the first year.

Panda: How were you old-fashioned? Was it the way you used to dress? Or the way you thought about your work? I’ve learned to be more old-fashioned. I was too progressive before, always wanting to change people into my way of thinking. I thought by going with the latest trends and ideas, I would experience life to the fullest. Did. Not. Happen.

What had happened to him? A sudden desire to know made her want to type faster. She would take it slow, though. She didn’t want to be a pushy single on an online site. Although they had been chatting for days already, they still hadn’t met.

She thought of a suitable reply.

Hedge: I don’t know. Just pretty green in many ways. I wasn’t willing to try new things.

Panda: Like a Bloody Mary or a Limoncello?

Hedge: Huh?

Panda: Yeah, you are pretty green.

Hedge: I don’t drink much and I work at night. Who wants to have a cocktail at eight in the morning?

Panda: Point taken. You haven’t answered my question though.

Oh, what the heck? She’d never see the guy anyway. She would make sure of that. And he seemed easy to talk to. She’d told him all about her landlord hassles in the previous place she lived in, and he’d sympathized with her without giving strong opinions yet not sounding soppy. Just the right balance.

Hedge: To do with relationships.

She took in a breath and, with shaky hands, typed.

Hedge: Sex, actually.

She waited for the tone, the red bubble to show a message, but nothing. Okay, this guy was still modern in his thinking. He wasn’t interested in a girl who didn’t know all about making love.

Hedge: I’ve changed though. I’ve been doing some research.

Panda: Research?

He replied to that fast.

Panda: You mean experimentation?

Hedge: Not yet. A bit, by myself. But you normally need someone willing to take part with you.

Her face heated and her hands shook, but she pressed send. His ability to accept whatever words she sent the last few days gave her the courage to hit the button. She suspected he wouldn’t despise her. Maybe he wouldn’t be attracted to someone like her, but for now, he was a