Lacey

By Fiona McArthur

Nine months later...

Lacey Jerome had always fought her attraction to sexy police officer Cameron James, but one crazy night, she let her hair down and fell into bed with him. Their night together turned more passionate, more soul-scorching than she’d imagined it could be, but mixed messages from Cameron had her fleeing the scene.

Now, she's back in Wirralong with the memories of their one-night stand etched into her mind and a mission to reconnect with the man who made her lose her head in the most delicious manner.

Cameron never forgot Lacey -- and not for lack of trying. He has his own restrictive code, but somehow his thoughts always manage to wander to the newly returned beauty. He has questions and Lacey knows all the answers.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tule Publishing
• Release date: Mar 13, 2019
• ISBN: 9781950510061

Fiona McArthur

Fiona McArthur is an Australian midwife who lives in the country and loves to dream. Writing Medical Romance gives Fiona the scope to write about all the wonderful aspects of romance, adventure, medicine and the midwifery she feels so passionate about. When not writing, Fiona's ether at home on the farm with her husband or off to meet new people, see new places and have wonderful adventures. Drop in and say hi at Fiona's website www.fionamcarthurauthor.com 

Book preview

Author

Chapter One

Wirralong, Victoria, Australia

Summer

A soft breeze ruffled the feathers on an inquisitive kookaburra as he scrutinised the crowd at Wirra Station wedding centre. Similar eddies of breeze must have filtered through the green eucalyptus leaves a hundred years ago when determined men had panned along Wirralong’s meandering river in search of gold.

Today, in March, at the wedding of Holly Peterson and Ben Brierly, perhaps some of that long-ago gold sparkled on the cushioned ring. A ring held by a small boy as he waited with his new dad for the bride.

Lacey Jerome stroked her memorabilia fan as she sat beside her friend, Maggie.

Maggie ran the wedding centre at Wirra Station and had eased down next to her for a moment to unobtrusively observe the gathering. Really, Lacey knew, Maggie was doing a welfare check on her, the newly divorced woman she felt sorry for.

She was okay.

Maggie glanced around and raised her brows at the happy people. ‘It all looks smooth at the moment.’

‘As it does with your events,’ Lacey said. ‘Where’s your beautiful baby?’

‘Her father.’ Maggie smiled. ‘Unless someone’s snaffled her for a cuddle.’

Lacey clasped her empty hands. ‘I wouldn’t mind a cuddle.’ Maggie was the only one who knew about Lacey’s life before Wirralong. She whispered, ‘It’s a little ironic I divorced my nightmare of a husband yesterday and sit here for a wedding today.’

Maggie patted her arm. ‘I think it’s auspicious. A sign of a fabulous new start for you.’

Lacey lifted her head. Friends were wonderful. ‘It is a glorious day. And your garden feels olde-worlde romantic.’ She held up her hands in mock horror. ‘Not that I’m looking for romance. But the fairyland grotto does make me laugh.’

Maggie glanced to her left. ‘I’m glad. I love it. Those twin nephews of Holly’s had a ball searching for the fairies and elves.’

The boys were a delight. ‘You know Miranda has plans to add something similar with Holly and the boys moving to Brierly Park?’

Maggie raised mocking brows. ‘And you as jack-of-all-trades will do the work while Miranda directs from the sidelines.’

Lacey smiled toward her boss in the front row of white chairs. ‘All good. I’ll have it done before I go.’

Maggie’s voice lowered. ‘When do you leave for Perth?’

‘A week. When the house sells over there—fingers crossed—I hope to buy here.’

Maggie nodded decisively. ‘Now that you don’t have to hide from an ex-husband with connections in every maternity hospital in Australia.’

True. She so wanted to get back to the job she loved. ‘My days as a housekeeper are coming to an end, though it’s been fun.’ They glanced toward Lacey’s boss.

Then both winced, as an exuberant teenager bumped a large ornate vase askew and it teetered on falling. Maggie squeezed her arm as she rose to correct the floral arrangement. ‘I think you’ve been incredibly strong through it all. Hang in there.’

Lacey felt her throat tighten and waved her friend away. ‘Thanks, Maggie. You go.’

She would hang in there.

No more subterfuge about her past or her future.

No more stiff upper lip as the silent, hiding housekeeper.

Thank goodness.

Elsa Hargreaves waved her husband Jack on to get them seats and plonked down beside Lacey for a quick hello.

‘Hey, stranger. Come visit me so I can play with your hair. Now that the cold war between your boss and I is over, I’ll bet you’re happy not to do the cutting?’

Lacey laughed. Miranda was a sweetie under the snappy exterior Elsa seemed to draw from Lacey’s employer. ‘Very happy to relinquish that task into more skilled hands.’

‘Hi, Lacey. Hi, Elsa.’ Isabella Martensen called softly as she and her winemaker husband, Harry Harrison, walked past and Lacey waved. Isabella, the celebrant who would officiate at the impending nuptials, moved to where Ben waited with young Sam under the daisy-covered arch at the front.

All the members of the Smart Ladies Supper Club, Wirralong’s business women’s group, were here, and Lacey thought how she would miss the fun set she’d only just joined if she left.

But she wasn’t planning to leave for good. Just go back across the great red expanse of Australia and clear the debris of her marriage.

Then she’d return to Wirralong, because this was the first place in a long time that felt like home.

But it would be unpleasant going back to Perth.

Gerry, her ex, would not make it easy. Not since she’d stopped saying yes to everything. She glanced down at her bare hand and straightened her spine. Toughen up, Lacey.

Because now she could come out into the open safely and return to the profession she loved, once Perth was done. But it had been harder than she expected to end that one-sided marriage.

Elsa peered at her. ‘Are you nervous?’

‘Just a little.’ She searched for a reason. ‘Mostly about my first gig playing with the band in front of a crowd.’

‘You’ll be awesome.’

They both saw Maggie had returned with her baby and her local grazier husband, Max, to take their seats. Elsa jumped up. ‘Better go sit with Jack and be romantic.’

‘Young love,’ Lacey teased, and waved the hair stylist away.

Processional music drew the attention of the stragglers and the last people took their seats.

She patted her small purse and grimaced. She’d forgotten her handkerchief and today she suspected she might weep at a wedding.

A movement to her left had Lacey lift her chin and quickly stare straight ahead as a tall, well-built man slipped in beside her.

Damn. There was that ripple of awareness and, of course, a tendril of expensive aftershave drifted across like a wisp of sin without her even having to turn her head.

Naturally she knew who it was.

Great.

Cameron James, Wirralong’s sexiest single policeman had arrived. The first time she’d seen the man all her receptors had spun like dervishes and she’d been calming them down ever since. He exuded raw masculine power and a devil-may-care sinfulness that made her want to sigh from behind a curtain as she watched him walk by.

Lacey’s skin prickled and warmed and she fixed her gaze on the floral archway. Pretended she didn’t know Cameron was there. One would have thought she’d have learned her lesson about men with seduction skills and my-way-or-the-highway issues.

The last one had made her life hell, with his blatant infidelity. Then he’d rant about the way she dressed and finally forced her to give up the profession she loved, to be his homebody.

Cameron probably wasn’t like Gerry. Just an upfront ladies’ man and, unfortunately, that made her remember the first time she’d realised her husband had been unfaithful.

Cameron had absolutely nothing to do with her reasons for choosing to face her past.

Or decide to settle here.

Weddings for happy people made her feel on the outside and she needed to put down a new foundation for her life. Which ruled out Cameron.

Cameron James the seducer did not go with either noun—wedding or foundation—he was a surface dweller and she knew it. Which was fine. The last thing she needed was another man.

Chapter Two

For Cameron James, the adopted son of ‘the Colonel’ and the late Mrs. James, coming home had been a surprise. The town of Wirralong was jumping.

After five years of experience across Victoria as a young policeman, from one remote police station to another, Cameron discovered home had changed from sleepy to thriving and the Colonel, his adopted father, was glad to see him back.

Even more surprisingly, the town was full of luscious ladies happy to have a good time without getting into a heavy relationship.

He might be sitting at a wedding, looking at his friend Ben up front, but marriage would never be in his plan.

Next to Ben was one of his new stepsons. Kids weren’t in his plan either.

The fact that his biological dad had never tried to find him spelled bad father genes, he reckoned. So kids were out for him; best to not even try. Which was fine by him.

Single life and a little seduction was the way to go. He definitely avoided the serious women.

Like the honey he was trying not to stare at, sitting primly next to him at his friend’s wedding.

He glanced away from the man magnet beside him and decided Maggie’s Wirra Station did a good job of a sad day. He sighed. Another single bloke to meet his end.

Though, thankfully, it was a pretty slick ceremony, simple and sweet, so that not even he or the children grew bored.

Not usually a marriage enthusiast, he’d been impressed with how ridiculously happy his mate Ben looked as he cast away bachelorhood for his Holly. But Cameron didn’t envy him.

The happy couple kissed and the crowd erupted into applause.

Ben was married. Whoopee. Not.

Footloose and fancy-free suited Cameron just fine. Freedom meant he could sidle up to any sensible, single woman and offer seduction without having to worry about the morning after.

Or the marriage after.

Or especially the motherhood after, which he knew from bitter experience was the most heartbreaking of all for the kids left behind.

Somehow the thought jarred a little when his gaze slid sideways again to Lacey Jerome. Ben’s grandmother’s mysterious housekeeper wore a particularly seductive neckline today, and was surreptitiously and unsuccessfully dabbing at her wet cheeks with her finger.

He’d had no idea Lacey could cry.

Tall and willowy, with classical features and a too-often prim mouth—though that neckline was not shouting prim—there was something about the woman that made him itch in all the wrong places. It must, just, be that big old KEEP OUT sign that was making her so attractive to him.

Almost before his head knew where his hands were, he’d passed his handkerchief to her to mop up.

The Colonel had instilled the necessity of always having a rescue rag ready for a lady, even if this one looked down on him like he was still the lost seven-year-old in the orphanage, before the Colonel and Marna adopted him.

Lacey delicately dabbed her eyes and raised the fabric his way in apology. ‘Thank you. I’ll just wash it before I give it back.’

‘Keep it.’ He waved the offer away knowing she’d hate to be beholden. Lacey wouldn’t want something of his and it tickled him. Who knew why.

Then she gave him that look, the amused one that drove him crazy enough to want to defect her perfectly roadworthy car, or fine her for speeding a kilometre over the limit, just to get her riled.

To see if she’d lose it.

Which he doubted she would.

And he hadn’t had the chance to do it. Yet.

Yep. That there, that was a smile of immunity to his charms, and she had it perfected as she folded the material and skilfully slid the linen square inside her bodice. She slid it over her golden flesh and it disappeared under her dress like a pickpocket in reverse.

His mouth kicked up. To be a handkerchief.

It was funny.

Tormenter. No chance of him snuggled like that near those puppies.

Lacey’s breasts were so off-limits he had more chance of flying to the North Pole by flapping his arms. Actually, he might have that handkerchief back just because that was as close as he was going to get to Lacey Jerome’s lushness, and he’d been tempted to try too many times.

With Arctic responses.

He sighed and turned back to the bride and groom.

The newly married couple was being ushered away with the relatives for photos and Lacey stood, nodded her head at him and sauntered off—another thing he didn’t know she could do—heading around the corner of the building toward the area where the band had set up.

Cameron’s first grabbed-by-the-throat response was to follow, but then he decided, sensibly, he needed a drink. Non-alcoholic unfortunately, as he was the law enforcement on call later tonight, but thinking about Lacey made his mouth desert-dirt dry.

He could satisfy that need, at least until the speeches where he had the dubious honour of wishing Ben and Holly well, and damn straight he was not following that woman anywhere.

*

Three hours later the music drifted through the French doors and Cameron could hear a saxophone. A real one.

He loved sax.

Change a vowel. He loved sex.

Cameron grinned at the thought.

The meal had been consumed, Cameron had excelled at his speech, or at least Holly had looked very pleased with him, which meant Ben was over the moon, and most guests had just stood to move toward the band and dance floor set up outside.

The haunting wail of that lone saxophone infiltrated Cameron’s senses with gossamer fingers, the way sirens pulled ships to the rocks. It had been playing for half a song already, and he tried to get past the bottleneck of bodies moving outside so he could watch.

He gave up and craned his neck.

And blinked when he recognised the musician.

The real siren was oblivious to his presence as she stood in the far corner under an overhead spotlight with her slender hands wrapped lovingly around the instrument.

The sax player’s body swayed in her slinky green dress, a dress he happened to know was the exact colour green to match her eyes, while her glorious chocolate hair floated in a thick cloud around her head. He could feel the music vibrating in his veins and shook his head like a wet pooch to break the spell.

Resisted the urge to do it again because it didn’t work.

She seduced both the saxophone and his libido with her eyes closed—he’d known she could—and it wouldn’t do him one damn bit of good thinking about her swaying next to him with those giraffe lashes resting on her porcelain

Reviews for Lacey

[ayoshina-1 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

After spending a passionate night that lead to an unexpected pregnancy, you would think a storyline like this would draw my attention but no no! The relationship escalated far quickly than I have anticipated and the characters were so boring. So as much as I appreciate the ARC, it comes to no surprise that I've decided to dropped this series before making half way through.