Parisian Passion
Evelyn Trimborn
Just when Caroline Edwards thinks she has escaped from her past in the competitive world of high-fashion modeling, she is propelled into a nightmarish encounter with her controlling ex-fiance Michael, who seems hell bent on either having her back, or ruining her new career as a top photographer.
Trapped in Paris with desperate designer Derek Alexander, on deadline to get his next collection's shoot done, she struggles to cope with the ghosts from her past and her tumultuous feelings for her new boss.
Is Derek only interested in her as another pretty face? Why is he so intent on luring her back into the world she thought she had firmly left behind?
When someone starts sabotaging the photo shoot, who can Caroline trust? Is the secretive and mercurial Derek really all he seems? Or is he part of Michael's whole plot to entrap her and get revenge?
Caroline must choose between the devil she knows, and the one she doesn't, but longs to with every fiber of her being, if she is ever to leave her past behind and risk all to win true love with the enigmatic Derek.
Evelyn Trimborn
ISBN: 978-1-58345-254-7
Contemporary Romance, Single Title Romance
Word Count=81,000
Rating: Moderately sensual
Setting: England, Paris, Rural France
Price: $4.99
Chapter One
The ringing phone rocketed Caroline halfway out of her bed. She fell back onto the pillows, shoved her auburn hair out of her tawny eyes, and stared blearily at the glowing numbers on the face of her alarm clock. Who in the name of...
"Hello?"
"Is that Caroline, Caroline Edwards?"
Her mouth went dry with fear. It had to be bad news. Her mother, her father, her brother Tim...
"Yes, yes it is," she managed to get out.
"I'm sorry to be phoning at this hour, but I have a small crisis on my hands. I think you're the only person who can help me." The woman's voice on the other end of the line was genuinely apologetic.
"Crisis?" Caroline repeated blankly.
The voice was completely unfamiliar to her. But at least she didn't sound like someone official. Surely if there were something wrong with her family, she would have said something about it by now.
"Yes, I know. I have a nerve ringing you like this, and at hour as well, but I've only just finished speaking to Bob McDonald's wife Tina. I believe you know her?"
"Yes, I know Tina very well. She was my mentor when I was training to be a photographer."
"She said that you were pretty much my only hope," the cultured voice continued.
"Hope?" Caroline rubbed her tired eyes. "Please, it's very late. I don't mean to be rude, but can you get to the point?"
"If you'll bear with me, Ms. Edwards, I'll try to make a bit more sense. This has all happened so suddenly, my head is still reeling."
"What's happened, exactly?"
"I'm Emma Thomas, the head of the fashion section at Rhapsody magazine. Bob and one of our junior photographers were meant to be going out to start a photo shoot in Paris, and from there on to the south of France. I say meant to, because Bob was rushed to hospital this evening with appendicitis."
"Oh, no, is he all right? Poor Tina."
"He's fine, recovering from the surgery already, though it was quite a shock for both of them, and now for me. Tina phoned me a couple of hours ago to tell me the news.
"Of course I'm really upset that Bob has been taken ill, but it's even worse than I imagined. I've been ringing around everywhere, and can't get anyone with enough experience to do the shoot for Bob. Tina just rang me back a couple of minutes ago to suggest I try you. It was like being thrown a life-line."
Caroline steeled herself for the request, and tried to frame any number of a dozen reasonable excuses for refusing.
"I know this is pretty irregular, and very short notice, but I took the liberty of speaking to your agent and going over your portfolio of past work. I hope you don't mind. It's just that there's more riding on this shoot than you could possibly imagine, and I needed to be sure you were the right person for the job. "Your agent also tells me you have a two-week gap in between projects at the minute, which is all I'm asking. Please, Ms. Edwards, would you consider taking Bob's place on the Paris shoot?"
Caroline was about to refuse, when she suddenly wondered if it were some sort of practical joke that one of her friends, or even Bob and Tina were playing on her. It was all just too good to be true. She certainly didn't want to make a complete fool of herself by buying into the cock and bull story too easily.
All the same, though, whoever this woman was, she was doing an incredibly good impression of someone at the end of her tether.
"Er, sorry, Miss er, what did you say your name was?"
Caroline flicked on the table lamp, and began scrabbling though her pile of magazines by her bed for the latest issue of Rhapsody.
"Emma Thomas."
Caroline stared at the name of the chief fashion editor: Emma Thomas.
"And you say you spoke to my agent Sam?"
"That's right, Samantha Harrison. She did say you were working on a Great Barrier Reef spread at the minute at home, but it wasn't due into National Geographic for another month. She said you're great about always being well ahead of schedule on everything you do."
So far everything checked out perfectly. Maybe it wasn't a joke after all? "Then she also told you I have to be in Kenya in two weeks."
"I know, the shoot would probably overlap slightly. If you want me to, I can talk to the people at National Geo, explain how desperate I am, that it would only overlap by two days. We would of course pay you and them generously if they were so kind as to wait for you to fly down there. We would also be happy to fly you back via France as well, if you wished to have a little holiday before going on to your next assignment. I'll be honest with you. At this late stage, money's no object."
Caroline admitted, "It sounds like music to my ears. But you haven't given me any concrete details. If I were to accept, how soon would I have to leave?"
"There's a flight to Paris, Orly airport, at eight that you could catch if you started getting ready now."
"Which airport?"
"Heathrow."
"Eight?" she echoed. "I'm not sure-"
"Believe me, I wouldn't ask if this weren't absolutely crucial."
"All right, all right, we haven't got time for that now, have we. I assume you can fill me in on the dire emergency when we meet?"
"Yes, of course."
"I don't know, though. Eight is cutting it a bit fine if I'm going to have to get ready for the Kenya trip as well. Could we make it the next flight?"
"There's another one at ten."
"I could make that easily without driving myself crazy, even if it is all the way across the city." She took a deep, steadying breath, then asked, "Are all the models and ground crew already in Paris?"
"Yes, they are."
"In that case, get them to scout a few locations for me, the usual bridges over the Seine, that sort of thing, and leave me a message at the hotel reception about where to meet them. Which hotel will it be?"
"The Excelsior."
"Hmm, very nice," Caroline said, deeply impressed.
"As I said, money is no object."
"I can see that." She sighed heavily, and took the plunge. "Right, in that case, since Bob is ill and Tina such a good friend, and you're obviously at your wit's end, I'll do it. But I'm going to need a hand with my equipment and luggage. I use digital technology, you see, so I would need to take my photo equipment and my computer as well. And of course clothes and things," she added, staring thoughtfully at the mountain of clothes draped over the top of the lid of her travelling trunk.
She had only just got back from Australia a couple of days before, and hadn't even had time to get everything washed.
"Whatever you need. You just say where and when, and I'll have someone pick you up in a limo, and deliver you straight to the hotel in Paris."
"This is sounding better all the time."
"So you mean you'll do it?" Emma was obviously relieved.
Caroline laughed then. "Of course I'll do it. You didn't seriously think I would turn you down, did you?"
"Well, I was worried about your other commitments, family, things like that. You've only just got back from six weeks in Australia, after all."
Caroline let out a ragged sigh. "I have nothing like that, to tell you the truth. I've been working on a book of my own photos, and had planned to spend the next two weeks with it. It'll just have to go on the back burner for a while. I couldn't let you let dozens of people down, now could I?"
"I can't tell you what an angel you are. I'm sure we're going to get along marvelously."
"Are you coming to Paris too, then?"
"I'm ringing from here. But I'm warning you now, Ms. Edwards, that I doubt it's going to be much of a holiday for either of us."
"Oh, and why is that?" she asked, more curious than alarmed.
"Never mind, I'll tell you everything when you get here. I wouldn't want to scare you off. What time do you want the men to come around to pick you up with the limo?"
"Oh, the earlier the better. Say six o'clock?"
"It is two now. That doesn't give you much time!" She sounded surprised.
"I'm in Walthamstow, on the edge of London, and you know how long it takes to get to Heathrow," she explained.
"I suppose you're right. Very sensible. How will be we find you?"
"Find the main entrance to the Walthamstow underground station, make a left and a right, and you'll find a large Victorian mansion, number 23, Wilbraham Road. I'll be waiting outside, the tall woman with the auburn hair."
"Listen, Ms. Edwards, I can't thank you enough."
"Please, call me Caroline. And thank you for giving me this chance. I promise I won't let you down."
"With your past experience in the field, I am sure you'll be perfect for the job," Emma replied. "See you in a few hours then. Look forward to meeting you."
She hung up, and Caroline put the handset back in the cradle with a thoughtful expression. Emma certainly did seem to know an awful lot about her. Things she would have preferred to forget herself. Sam, her agent, must have been praising her work to the skies again.
But as soon as Caroline got off the phone, the news began to sink in, and she hugged herself with glee. She had some reservations about working on a fashion photo shoot. She had thought she had left all that behind years ago, to go into nature photography.
Still, the money was good, Paris was glamorous, and it might be fun to have some luxury in her life for a change.
For a minute she wondered if it had all been a marvelous dream. She loved France, and could certainly use the money Emma had quoted as her salary. She pinched herself a few times, and padded into the bathroom to splash her face with some cold water.
Then she looked around her bedroom and wondered where to start. Less than four hours wasn't much time to get everything packed and ready for two months away from home.
Caroline decided to get herself ready first. She hopped into the shower, and stood under the hot jets, letting them revive and invigorate her while she started making some mental lists of all the things she would need.
When she got out of the shower, she toweled herself off, and pulled her spare toilet kit out of the vanity unit below the sink. A seasoned traveler, she had two of everything, and was always pretty much packed so far as the essentials were concerned. She checked her shampoo and shower gel, and took the fuller of the bottles of each. She also checked her toothpaste, toothbrush, and mouthwash.
Then she tugged out her makeup bag. She never used very much, but this was going to be a glamorous occasion. She had no intention of looking like a frump surrounded by all the gorgeous models, male and female. Not that she was out to call attention to herself; far from it. Since her fiance Michael and she had split up about three years before, she had never wanted another man within twenty yards of her. They simply weren't worth it. Getting involved with people only brought about pain and heartache.
There was a great deal of leftover bitterness over the relationship, such as it had been. It had come to a crashing halt for two main reasons, one of which had involved Caroline's younger sister Amanda. By the time Caroline had found out about the sordid affair, nothing had surprised Caroline about Michael any more. But how her own sister could have behaved like that... And after she had tried to warn her...
Caroline paused in her packing. This had been the first time in as long as she could recall that she had had any lucky breaks. Damn Michael. Had he been so wonderful, that he could simply allow him to ruin the rest of her life?
Of course not. He had been a monster.
But not all men were monsters, she reminded herself. It was hard to learn to trust people, even after all this time. Wasn't it worth trying to trust again, to get over it once and for all?
She had struggled so hard to break free of the past. She was not going to spoil things for herself by dredging up any unpleasant memories. She would get in, do the job she was being paid to do, and get out again, with a bigger bank balance and hopefully more fabulous shots to add to her portfolio.
Not that the money mattered. It was the recognition which counted. But she wanted the money to help support her in her dream to create a book of photos of England and Scotland, of fabulous stately homes with a bit about the history of each house and the families who lived in them.
She has struggled too long and hard to be free of Michael and her past life to let the proposal from Rhapsody magazine get her into a tizzy.
Caroline looked through her make up bag absentmindedly one more time, and went to tackle her wardrobe. Surely they had laundry services at the hotel, she reflected, stuffing her summery clothes back into her trunk. Shorts, tanks tops, what more would she need in Kenya?
Then she paused. Paris would be very different.
She padded over to her crammed wardrobe, and looked carefully at her clothes. She would have to choose mix and match and things which were warm and comfortable to work in. She would also try to blend into the background. She didn't want any one recognizing her and asking her why she had given up a career as a top model to get behind the camera.
Tina McDonald had been the second reason for her leaving Michael forever, for she had been the guiding light in her new career direction. They had met on a shoot in Venice and struck up an instant friendship. When she had asked about how she learnt to become a photographer, Tina had shown her all the tricks. Caroline, never very good at academic subjects at school, was astonished at how she seemed to take to the camera Tina had lent her like a duck to water. She had never looked back.
Michael had of course been furious, but her reasoning had been impeccable.
"I won't be young and lovely forever," she had told him when he had asked her why she was wasting her time "playing about with the camera" as he had put it.
"I need something else besides modeling, and being your wife. I don't want to have to work long hours, travel wherever I'm told, or be treated like a piece of meat. I fell into modeling because you told me I was pretty and not brainy enough to do anything else.
"But that's what your kind always say. You prowled around every beauty contest in the UK until you met me. Didn't you?"
She recalled that Michael hadn't even bothered to deny this accusation. Her only regret was that she had been too young and naive to realize what Michael was until it was too late. Too late for her, and certainly too late for Amanda.
She pushed this thought to one side, shuddering uncontrollably now. She ran into the bathroom to be ill, and as she shakily stood in front of the sink and rinsed her mouth out with cold tap water, she debated in her mind whether she should ring Emma Thomas back and tell her she had changed her mind about working on the fashion shoot.
She looked in the mirror, at her shadowed light brown eyes, tawny like those of a lioness, and decided that this time she was not going to run away from the truth. She had been haunted by the events of three years ago for long enough. She was older, stronger. Michael couldn't hurt her any more. No man could.
She would have to live with the mistakes she had made for the rest of her life. But there was no sense in missing this opportunity if it could bring with it the chance she had always dreamt of, to produce her own book of photographs.
So Caroline shook her whole body from head to toe, as if shaking off the taint of Michael, and reached for her overnight toiletries kit to start packing for Paris.
Evelyn Trimborn
ISBN: 978-1-58345-254-7
Contemporary Romance, Single Title Romance
Word Count=81,000
Rating: Moderately sensual
Setting: England, Paris, Rural France
Price: $4.99
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