Then Came Love
Mona Ingram
Genre: Contemporary Romance
ISBN: 978-0-9879069-0-8
ASIN: B0080SDHWC
Number
of pages: 103
Word
Count: 31,200
Purchase
Links: http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0080SDHWC
Book
Description:
Stuck
in an unhappy marriage, Amanda Reimer grabs the opportunity to go on a short
holiday by herself. An undercover cop, Jackson Galloway is a member of the RCMP
Green Team, and he’s in the interior of British Columbia to find a marijuana grow-op.
Jackson gives Amanda a lift to Loon Lake Resort and is intrigued by the gentle
woman. The chemistry between the two is immediate and powerful, but Amanda is
determined to stick to her marriage vows...besides, she’s afraid of her
husband. Jackson is just as determined...to see Amanda again when the drug bust
is over.
But
will the growing love between Amanda and Jackson survive the pressures of
finding the grow-op?
Join
Amanda and Jackson in a journey of discovery, where the ultimate destination is
love.
Short Excerpt
Setup: Amanda’s car has just slid off the road.
Amanda unbuckled her seat belt and grabbed the empty water bottle.
A few deadfalls littered the forest floor; thankfully she’d worn an old pair of
jeans and a T-shirt. Vince hated her to dress casually. It had felt good to
pull on the old jeans this morning knowing that she had a whole week without
him harping at her for one thing or the other. It was going to be heaven. She
reached the stream and filled the bottle. The water was cool, clear and sweet.
She drank greedily, laughing at herself when some water dribbled down her chin.
It doesn’t get any better than this,
she thought, swiping at the drops with the back of her hand.
Movement along the creek bed caught her eye and she stared for a
moment, unsure of her eyes. It was a puppy. Cold and bedraggled, it appeared to
be on its last legs, clambering over the rounded rocks at the creek’s edge.
“Oh, you sweet thing.” She spoke aloud and the puppy looked up. It
spotted her and wagged its tail.
She was quite sure it was a spaniel. Even at this young age, its
ears were droopy, and even moreso since they were soaking wet. She picked it up
and pulled it to her chest. The dog was a mass of movement, shivering,
squirming with excitement and trying to lick her face all at the same time.
“Are you lost?” she asked, burying her face in its fur. She raised
her head and looked around. “That was a silly question, wasn’t it? Of course
you’re lost.” She stroked the dog’s head and it calmed. “You can’t have
wandered too far from home. I’ll bet the people at Loon Lake know about you.
Come on, let’s get up to the road and start walking.”
She wrapped the dog in her fleece jacket, grabbed her tote bag,
locked the vehicle and climbed the bank. “Someone will come along soon,” she
said, not sure if she was reassuring herself or the dog. “It may be remote up
here, but it’s not the end of the world.” She started walking. The few times
she’d come to the cottage she hadn’t been driving, but she knew that Vince used
the sign to Loon Lake as a marker. Their driveway was a mile and a half beyond
that, and led into Sandy Lake.
She’d been walking for about fifteen minutes when a pickup truck
came up from behind and stopped. The driver leaned toward her, one arm on the
steering wheel and the other draped along the back of the seat. “You okay?” he
asked, eyeing the bundle in her arms. “I’ll bet a deer jumped out in front of
you.”
She met his eyes. “That’s right. How did you know?”
He gave her a gentle smile. “It happens a lot around here. Some
people say you should just hit them.” He paused. “Thankfully, they’re in the
minority. Can I offer you a ride?”
She hesitated and looked ahead. “I’m going to Loon Lake. I can
walk, thanks.”
He shrugged. “I’m going there myself. It’s no trouble.” He leaned
across and opened the passenger door. “My name’s Jackson. Hop in.”
Vince had warned her against talking to strangers in this area.
Sometimes he treated her like a child. But then she had to admit that she’d
been acting like a child, letting him boss her around. “Okay,” she said. “I’d
appreciate that.”
She climbed up into the cab of the truck. “I’m Amanda.”
“What have you got there?” He looked at the bundle again. “Is it a
baby?”
She cradled the puppy, which was being surprisingly quiet. “No.
Yes. Well, sort of.”
He frowned, but there was a glint of amusement in his eyes. “It
either is or it isn’t.”
The puppy chose that moment to shake free of her jacket.
The man looked like he’d just won the lottery. “It’s Rocky”.
“Rocky?” She started to giggle as the dog licked her face. “You
know this dog?”
“Sure do and I also know two kids who are going to be very happy
to see him. He belongs to Hannah and Logan.” He reached out to pat the dog. “I
work for their parents at Loon Lake Resort. The dog went missing a day and a
half ago and we’ve all been looking for him ever since.” He put the truck in
gear and pulled back out onto the road. “It’s a good thing he wasn’t gobbled up
by a cougar.”
Amanda instinctively covered the dog’s ears. “Don’t say that. You’ll
frighten him.”
Jackson’s lips twitched and she studied him as he drove. He hadn’t
shaved for a day or two but it wasn’t the look affected by celebrities these
days; it was the beginnings of a real, honest-to-goodness beard. He wore his
dark hair tied back at the nape of his neck. The only thing missing was an
earring. He glanced over and seemed about to say something, then changed his
mind. Amanda was disappointed; there was something about this man that made her
want to get to know him. He was nothing like Vince, she knew that
instinctively. Her husband was a slick, perfectly groomed city type who wore
suits that cost enough to feed a third world village for a month.
Deep down she sensed that the man beside her didn’t need the
outward trappings of success. He exuded a powerful aura of masculinity that
made her light in the head. She studied his hands on the steering wheel and for
a wild, heart-pounding moment she wondered what they would feel like on her
body.
Enough. She couldn’t think like this. She was a married woman, and
although Vince had been treating her like dirt recently, he was still extremely
jealous. She hated to think what he would do if she was ever foolish enough to
get involved with another man. She shuddered and turned her attention back to
the dog.
About the Author:
Mona
Ingram was born in Ontario, Canada. Her family moved to British Columbia when
she was twelve, and she can't imagine living anywhere else. In recent years she
has lived in the Okanagan Valley and on Vancouver Island. In addition to
reading and writing, traveling and bird watching are among Mona’s favorite
pastimes.
Mona
writes contemporary romance novels and takes great delight in creating
unexpected twists and turns in her story lines. She frequently sets her books in
areas which are familiar to her, immersing the reader in the setting. One
reader recently commented that “after reading Fixing Freddie, I felt as though I’d been on a trip to Vancouver.”
Website:
http://monaingram.com
Twitter: @MonaIngram1
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