Unleashed - Colours of Love E-Book

Kathryn Taylor

• Herausgeber: Bastei Lübbe
• Kategorie: Gesellschafts- und Liebesromane
• Serie: Colours of Love Series
• Sprache: Englisch
• Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2015

Seitenzahl: 71

Beschreibung

Like a fairy-tale, it should have been so wonderful: after a year of marriage, Grace Huntington still experiences undreamt-of passionate bliss. But stubborn doubts keep eating away at her. Despite the many happy moments when she feels close to Jonathan, sometimes he seems just as inscrutable as he did at the start. What's going on with him? And now she has something to confess, something she knows will put an enormous strain on their relationship.

Finally, it's what all the COLOURS OF LOVE fans have been waiting for: the continuation of Jonathan and Grace's captivating love story.

If you love E.L. James' "Fifty Shades of Grey," Silvia Day's "Crossfire" series, or Jodi Ellen Malpas' "This Man" trilogy, then COLOURS OF LOVE will thrill your desire for sensual romance.

Even as a little girl, Kathryn Taylor knew she wanted to write. She published her first story at age 11, and after a few detours in life, she found her happily ever after. Her first novel, UNBOUND: COLOURS OF LOVE was a success with readers and critics alike. She has continued the series with UNCOVERED and UNLEASHED. Two more novels, SEDUCED and SURRENDERED are slated for publication in 2017.

Leseprobe

Contents

Cover

About the Book

About the Author

Title

Copyright

Dedication

1

2

3

4

5

About the Book

Like a fairy-tale, it should have been so wonderful: after a year of marriage, Grace Huntington still experiences undreamt-of passionate bliss. But stubborn doubts keep eating away at her. Despite the many happy moments when she feels close to Jonathan, sometimes he seems just as inscrutable as he did at the start. And now she has something to confess, something she knows will put an enormous strain on their relationship.

Unleashed is the third part of the Colours of Love series

Colours of Love

Unbound

Uncovered

Unleashed

About the Author

Kathryn Taylor has been a writer since childhood—publishing her first story when she was eleven years old. From then on, she knew that she wanted to be a professional author one day. After a few career detours and a happy ending in her personal life, her dream has finally come true: COLOURS OF LOVE is her first novel.

Kathryn Taylor

Unleashed

COLOURSOFLOVE

»be« by BASTEI ENTERTAINMENT

Digital original edition

»be« by Bastei Entertainment is an imprint of Bastei Lübbe AG

Copyright © 2015 by Bastei Lübbe AG, Schanzenstraße 6-20, 51063 Cologne, Germany

Written by Kathryn Taylor

Translated by Iona Italia

Edited by Sonya Diehn

Cover design: Jeannine Schmelzer and Sandra Taufer, Munich, featuring images from © shutterstock: fuyu liu

E-book production: Urban SatzKonzept, Düsseldorf

ISBN 978-3-7325-0419-0

www.be-ebooks.com

For R.,who has never let me down.

1

My eyes are tightly closed and I take a deep breath. OK, Grace, come on, you can do it, I think — but my heart is in my mouth, and I hesitate for a moment. There’s nothing to be done, I have to know.

I carefully slit open my eyes and blink at the white plastic stick in my hand, with its clear window, which I’ve been gripping tightly this whole time. On the packet, it says you should wait a few minutes. That time has long since elapsed, so I’m pretty sure I’ll be able to know the results.

And I can. There’s a thick blue line through the middle of the window. Exactly as I feared. “Pregnant.” I say it out loud because, although I suspected as much, I simply can’t believe it.

Jonathan and I are going to have a baby.

Up until now, I didn’t know that you can feel utter joy and complete horror at the same time. But clearly, it is possible, because right now the combination of both feelings is causing such a dizzying chaos inside me that I have to hold onto the sink to not fall down.

A thousand thoughts are flashing through my mind at once. A child. How wonderful! But how is it possible, when we’ve always used contraception? And now of all times. And what will Jonathan say? Will he want it?

I lift my head and look into the mirror. My green eyes are shining almost feverishly, and my face is so pale that it forms a glaringly stark contrast to my strawberry blonde hair.

OK, Grace — one thing at a time, I chide myself, and try to go through it point by point.

How can I be pregnant, when I’m on the Pill? Everything was fine, everything was the same as usual, I didn’t forget to take it, and it was no different from … Damn it, I think suddenly. That terrible stomach flu which caught me off guard last month. I was completely knocked out for three days, I could hardly move — and I could hardly keep anything down. Maybe that interfered with its efficiency? It didn’t even occur to me; I thought the Pill was the most reliable form of contraception of all of them, as long as you take it regularly. I kick myself, because that’s so typical of me.

But at the end of the day, it doesn’t matter how it happened. I didn’t do it on purpose — and it’s come at the most inconvenient time possible, because a baby is the last thing I wanted.

I mean, I’m only twenty-four, and I’ve been married to the most exciting man in the whole of England for just a year now, and I’m actually busy dedicating myself to my career. I’m just beginning to really settle into my role as project manager at Jonathan’s company: I enjoy my work, I feel comfortable there, and I’ve achieved a lot. If I’m pregnant, it’s going to completely mess up my plans.

Not that Jonathan won’t be able to find a solution. He always does, actually — that’s why I’m sure he’ll be able to find a way to deal with this — if he wants to. It’s also possible that he’ll be totally horrified when he finds out. Because the last time we discussed it — and up till now, the only time — he categorically refused to ever have children.

“Mrs. Huntington?” I can hear the sound of our housekeeper’s voice through the bedroom door. I drop the test into the sink, and hurriedly walk through the adjoining bedroom to the door. Mrs. Matthews would never come in uninvited — but I still feel as though I’ve been caught red-handed, somehow.

“What’s up?” I ask as I open the door, smiling to try to conceal my agitation.

“I just wanted to ask if I should prepare some food for you and your sister-in-law,” Mrs. Matthews explains. She’s still wearing an apron. “You haven’t had breakfast yet and I thought that perhaps you’d like something when Mrs. Norton arrives — some eggs with bacon, perhaps?”

Sarah, I think with a start, kicking myself again. That’s right. She wanted to come by this morning. But I was so worried about the test that I completely forgot.

“Oh, that would be lovely. But no bacon, please.” The very thought of the smell suddenly makes me feel sick. “Just a couple of eggs. If it’s not too much trouble?”

“Of course not. It’s my pleasure,” she assures me and disappears, smiling.

Mrs. Matthews has been working for Jonathan for a pretty long time. She was here before I became part of his life. Luckily I’ve had a good relationship with her right from the start — and since I’ve been married to him now, it’s been almost touching, the way she’s looked after me. I think she just enjoys being able to indulge her culinary skills. Because — unlike Jonathan — I’m a complete failure in the kitchen. Or I was — because I’ve learned a lot, thanks to the two of them. But today, I’m grateful for her offer all the same, because in my current state I’d be certain to even burn scrambled eggs.

I hurry back to the bathroom and get rid of the pregnancy test by putting it back into its packaging and then into the plastic bag I brought it in, tying the bag firmly in a knot, and then stuffing it into the very bottom of the bathroom trash can. I don’t want Jonathan to discover it. He needs to hear this from me, even though I have no idea how he’s going to react to the news.

I return to the bedroom with a beating heart and pick out something to wear. While I’m still buttoning the blouse I picked to go with my jeans, my mobile phone rings. It’s on the night stand.

It’s Jonathan — I can see his picture light up on the display and my heart starts beating what must be a million times faster than before.

“Grace.” His deep voice is so familiar and yet a pleasant shiver runs through me every time, at the sound of it. I can immediately visualise his face: the attractive, angular features that captivated me from the moment I first met him, the longish black hair, and the sparkling blue eyes, which don’t miss a trick.

“Where are you?”

“Still in Paris,” he says, and I can tell that he sounds tired. “But I’m about to fly back.”

I close my eyes, because I still find it hard to be separated from him. At the beginning of our marriage it simply never happened, but lately he’s had to go away a lot. There’s been trouble at the company — in fact, there have been some pretty serious upheavals, which he’s had to deal with personally and which have kept him on tenterhooks for a while now.