After being dumped by her fiancé, Eleanor Carrington flees to Paris to help her self-medicated mother. While keeping her mom from popping pills like gummy bears, Eleanor launches a new, no-strings-attached life plan with absolutely NO falling in love whatsoever. On her part at least, because her self-esteem could do with one or two Frenchmen going un peu crazy for her.
What she doesn’t need is for her first Grand Amour, Zachary Murdoch, to burst back into her life. Whatever shit-show she’s just been through was a stroll. What Zach put her though was a climb up Mount Everest. Barefoot. In a bikini.
Now a club-owner in Paris, Zach is intrigued by the troubled woman who was once the sweet girl he had to give up. Offering a shoulder for her to cry on is what he owes her. Loving her is what he lost the right to. Because there’s a reason he broke up with Lenor and that reason is why she’s in Paris.
But Paris is known as the City of Love…
Will he be her turn at love?
*You Turn is a contemporary adult romance and part of the Second Chances series. However, Lenor and Zach’s story can be read as a stand-alone novel. There is no cliffhanger. *
~ EXCERPT from YOU TURN, copyright 2014 Marion Croslydon ~
“I’ve missed you,” he says
his voice lower than before. My eyes widen. His are dark and burn through me.
“I knew I missed you before you came to Paris. I just didn’t know how much.” A tremor flickers in my heart. “I’ve often looked back at that summer five years ago. The summer I lost my mother, I lost myself… the summer I found you. What I did about it–about you–was without doubt the worst decision of my life.”
“Spare me the word ‘sorry,’ will you?”
“I don’t believe in ‘sorry.’ I believe in the truth and the truth is that you were the first friend I ever had. You believed in me, you supported me.” The faintest shadow of a smile emerges at the corner of his mouth. “You kicked my ass … and you loved me.”
My throat constricts. “But you didn’t love me back.”
“Not the way you wanted me to, but more than I had ever loved anyone before.”
Alcohol has taken dozens of points off my I.Q. so I struggle to make sense of his admission. I got
annoyed. “You either love someone or you don’t.”
“That’s my girl.” A generous grin brightens his face. “At last, I can see a glimmer of the real
you.”
“It’s been the real me all along.” In one swift movement, I place the plate on the balcony floor and jump to my feet.”I’ll call a cab and get back to my place.”
I launch myself towards the balcony door when his fingers circle around my wrist and stop me
mid-flight. “Don’t.”
I try to yank my arm free, but he refuses to let me go. “I’m fine now. Don’t worry about my mom seeing me–“
“You’re going to stay here and we’re going to spend tomorrow together.”
The order startles me.
“Don’t you have a life, Zachary? Parties to plan? Women to schmooze?”
“Don’t do this, Duchess.”
He stands up opposite me. His fingers relax their grip on my wrist, only to brush along it and turn my palm up. His thumb caresses the center of it, his touch as light as a feather. He stares down at our joined hands while I try to tidy my emotions. “Let me be there for you the way you were there for me. Let me be your friend like you were mine.”
“I. Was. Never. Your.
Friend.” His face rises and the hurt I see etched in every fiber of it feels like a slap. I continue nonetheless, “I was the little girl who loved you from afar. I was the woman who gave herself away for you and ended up losing a lot of who she was.”
He studies me without a word, then takes hold of my other hand to intertwine his fingers with mine. I
hear a short intake of air before he speaks, “Then allow me to give you back some of what I stole.”
