Just Once

By Iris McKairin

"Good Lord!" Madeline gasped as her eyes fell upon ... There were no words for the gorgeous young cover model posted by the photographer who had recently sent her a friend request. His chiseled chest and pouting lips, seductive beneath an emerald gaze, were so arousing she could barely contain the molten desire that coursed through her veins and

• Language: English
• Publisher: Iris McKairin
• Release date: Aug 2, 2020
• ISBN: 9781087900339

Book preview

Just Once

By: Iris

McKairin

Copyright July 2020 Iris McKairin

All Rights Reserved

The characters and events portrayed in this book are fictitious. Any similarity to real persons, living or

dead, is coincidental and not intended by the author.

No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher.

1

AT THE AIRPORT

You might have to take off your shoes. And you’ll need to take off your coat as well. Ugh. The rigors of going through airport security. Madeline sighed as she lay the small lavender carry-on down for inspection and slipped out of her coat, placing the black quilted bulk down beside it. At least being TSA pre-check liberated her from the humiliation of the full body scanner. Grateful for that small favor she stepped through the metal detector, concealing her tension behind a coy smile. Further delighted by the absence of a buzzing rejection of her blue Mary Janes she grabbed her belongings and tarried toward the gate. It was only 9:30. Her flight was not scheduled to leave for another two hours.

Exhausted. Depressed. And a little bit hungry. Those were the words best describing her now. They should have been different. She wished that they were. After all was she not on her way to New Orleans, ‘the city of her heart’ as she fondly referred to it? From the moment she’d first set foot in the French Quarter thirty years ago she’d felt an affinity the likes of which she had never known. It was as though she had been there before, perhaps in a former life, walked the streets whose very names had whispered of bygone remembrance.

She should be happy, but a cloak of staid melancholy weighted her shoulders. Psychiatric nursing was taking its toll. Four jobs last year. Well, actually, three considering that she’d returned to one when she’d discovered another appalling. Between dealing with children whose lives had been turned inside out by abuse and forcing a calm façade while psychotic criminals threatened to kill her, she’d grown weary and all but completely burnt out.

I am too old to be working full time, let alone twelve hour night shifts, she lamented aloud as she continued her trek through the bustling terminal, embittered by the thought of her ex-husband’s recent retirement. Sixty years old and still working her ass off