Anew in Old Paris

By Alexandria Ashcroft

LOVE CAN BRUISE...

After a painful end to her previous relationship, Grace journeys back to Paris. With the help of her childhood crush, Durant, she rediscovers how it feels to love again, the joy of the chase, the feel of the fall when you know that one will be there to catch you.
 

Food is what Durant loves most until he sees her, again. Over a decade later, fate brings them together and at a time where her spirit is bruised. Wrapped up in the magic of memory, he embarks on a journey to reassure her that love is eternal, no matter distance or time. And he too finds that...
 

LOVE CAN MEND WHAT WAS ONCE LEFT BROKEN.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Black Quill Publishing LLC
• Release date: Jan 25, 2019
• ISBN: 9781949294026

Alexandria Ashcroft

Alexandria Ashcroft is the pen name for romance and erotic novels. She's a lady who writes things naughty and sometimes nice. A designer, a mom and an avid traveler "Where will the next journey take me? Join my wonderful community hosted on my website: www.alexandriaashcroft.com where you can gain access to some of my WIP, naughty erotic one shots, enter giveaways and sign up for my mailing list! LET'S CONNECT! INSTAGRAM: https://www.instagram.com/alexandriaashcroft TWITTER: https://twitter.com/AlexandriaAshe FACEBOOK: https://www.facebook.com/alexandriaashcroft/ YOUTUBE: Alexandria Ashcroft https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCAKR5Ifb1zhhN9HvG3znfUg

Book preview

Grace was startled from her thoughts when her journal was snatched from the nook of her arm.

––––––––

Mischievous grey eyes met hers.

What you reading? He wanted to know, looking down at the journal cover.

Not reading. Now, give it back.

What is this? He held it up when she reached for it.

Seriously? We’re too old for this. If he opened and read it, she’d curl up in a ball and die. Her private thoughts were in that book.

Maybe that’s the problem. Old people don’t play enough. His attention wasn’t focused on the book anymore.

Durant, seriously, give it back.

The corner of his mouth tilted up. Come and get it. He started back peddling amusement evident in his eyes.

Black Quill Publishing LLC

Anew in Old Paris by Alexandria Ashcroft

Published by Black Quill Publishing LLC Madison, WI USA

www.blackquillpublishingllc.com

© 2018 Alexandria Ashcroft

All rights reserved. No portion of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission from the publisher, except as permitted by U.S. copyright law. For permissions contact:

[e-mail]

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events, locales, and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

Cover by Alexandria Ashcroft.

Author bio Pic by: Jason Photography

Editing by: Black Quill Publishing LLC

Ebook ISBN: 978-1-949294-02-6

This book is dedicated to the resilience of the human heart and mind. We are stronger than we may ever know.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

PART 1: A Broken Heart Weeps

PART 2: Be Our Guest

PART 3: How May I Be of Service

PART 4: Magic of Dusk

PART 5: Child’s Play

PART 6: Somewhere Beyond the Clouds

PART 7: Something to Come Home To

PART 8: Bittersweet Too Late

PART 9: Feather and the Wind

PART 10: Old Paris

PART 11: Star-Speckled Night

PART 12: Anew

PART 1: A Broken Heart Weeps

Get Up!

Grace shielded her eyes when the curtains were pulled back, the sun blinding. Ma, no, Grace whined, pulling the covers over her head.

I can’t do this anymore, Grace Diana Hankford.

Grace peeked from under the corner of the cover at the sound in her mother’s voice. The look on the woman’s face made Grace prop herself up on her elbow. Why can’t you just let me sulk? I deserve a good sulking.

Oh, dear girl. Pamela Hankford perched on the edge of the bed next to her daughter and smoothed the girl’s frazzled curls from her face. Two weeks is long enough. You’ve got a life to live.

Grace flopped back down on her bed, pulling the covers over her head. I’ve got enough PTO to stay here for the next two months, because that’s what I do, mom. I work. I work so effing hard that I don’t even notice that my fiancé is falling in love with another woman.

Pamela pulled the covers away from her daughter’s face. You've cried enough tears for a prince that wasn't ever yours, to begin with. Come on. Up you get. She pulled the covers back; the crisp morning air made Grace pull her bare legs to her chest. Pamela swung Grace’s legs over the edge of the bed, forcing her into a seated position.

Grace looked at her mother’s beautiful, sparkling blue eyes and a dashing white smile. If a man could leave Pamela Hankford ⎼ charming, gracious, Pamela Hankford ⎼ then there was no wonder that a man could leave Grace. Charming and gracious are not two words that Grace would use to describe herself even being raised by one of the most charming people she ever met. Determined and task-oriented were most definitely her calling cards, which earned her a director of marketing position at her company. 

Grace looked nothing like her mother, considering she was adopted. Brown sugar-colored skin, a mass of curls quite opposite Pamela’s straight blonde hair and fair skin. It wasn’t even her mother’s looks that made her a prize. It was her love for life, her warm heart, and her persistence. And boy, the woman could be persistent, as evident by her swanning around Grace’s loft opening windows and turning on lights.

Grace was persistent too, but apparently not when it came to Jonathan. She clutched her chest as the pain of loss racked through her. Tell me, ma. Does the pain ever go away? The burn. The physical discomfort. She failed to stop a trail of tears from spilling over her lower lid.

For her, sobbing was a most unattractive display. Some people had the movie star cry, delicate, a well-placed tear drop running down the cheek, not Grace. It was a category 5 hurricane, torrential downpour, runny nose, red eyes, and dark bags left in its wake. She didn't want to shed any more tears; not for Jonathan. She wished she could forget about him like he forgot about her. On to the next one just like that. Out with the old, in with the new. Pamela pulled her daughter into her chest, rocked her, and whispered calming reassuring words.

Right before Grace went to college, her parents went through a heart-wrenching divorce. Pamela begged, pleaded, got angry, smashed up cars, burned clothes, but it was for not because Patrick Hankford cut the check and moved on with his mistress. Pamela’s sister, Aunt Patricia, said Pamela got-em-good, even though the prenup stopped her from walking away with half the man’s enormous empire.

You said you had two months, right? Pamela cooed, running fingers over Grace’s mass of hair.

She nodded, her sobs subsiding.

Let's go somewhere. Let's take a trip. Get the hell out of here. That was the best therapy Patty provided for me.

Grace pulled away a little, wiping tears from her cheeks. A trip? Where?

"Anywhere. Just me and you. Anywhere