Hearts of Glass (The Glass Trilogy Book 3)
Read Hearts of Glass (The Glass Trilogy Book 3) Online
Authors: Arianne Richmonde
Tags: #Arianne, #Richmonde, #Erotica, #romance
Synopsis of Shards of Glass and Broken Glass
(The Glass Trilogy #3)
by
ARIANNE RICHMONDE
All rights reserved. This e-book is copyright material and must not be copied, reproduced, transferred, distributed, leased, licensed, or translated, in printed or electronic format without permission. Please respect this author’s hard work and do not participate or encourage piracy of any kind. Purchase only authorized editions. Any unauthorized distribution, circulation or use of this text is a direct infringement of the author’s and publisher’s rights, and those responsible may be liable in law accordingly.
Arianne Richmonde 2015
Kindle Edition
Copyright © Arianne Richmonde, 2015. The right of Arianne Richmonde to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted by her under the Copyright Amendment (Moral Rights) 2000
This book is a work of fiction. Names, places, characters and incidents are either a product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
Cover design and photography © by: Arianne Richmonde
Arianne Richmonde is an American writer and artist who was raised in Europe. She lives in France with her husband and coterie of animals.
The Glass Trilogy
is based on much of her personal experience—she used to be an actress.
As well as
The Glass Trilogy Books, she has written
The Pearl Series,
The Star Trilogy
, and the
USA TODAY
bestselling suspense story,
Stolen Grace
.
If you like sales, giveaways and being the first to find out about the latest release CLICK HERE.
For more information on the author visit her website:
Click here to follow her on Amazon and browse a list of her books
Links to books #1 and #2 in The Glass Trilogy:
Shards of Glass
(The Glass Trilogy #1)
Broken Glass
(The Glass Trilogy #2)
The Pearl series:
The Pearl Trilogy bundle (the first three books in one e-box set)
Pearl & Belle Pearl (books 4 and 5 in one e-box set)
Shards of Glass
and
Broken Glass (books #1 and #2).
A brief synopsis of Janie and Daniel’s story so far . . .
Shards of Glass
(#1)
Ingénue actress Janie Cole is in love with her director, Daniel Glass. He’s controlling, he’s demanding, and he’s a perfectionist, and Janie wants nothing more than to be his shining star. Tall, dark, and devastating, and with eyes so blue they sear, she cannot get him out of her mind, or her dreams.
Just one problem though: Daniel’s married.
But when his wife dies in a coma, and some time later Daniel casts Janie in his erotic romance movie, Janie’s fantasies become a reality, and it terrifies her. Her mind, her soul, and especially her body . . . Daniel could take it all, no matter how hard she tries to hold her own.
While filming
The Dark Edge of Love
in Hollywood, Janie’s leading man, Cal Halpan, gets fired and none other Daniel Glass is set to be her new leading man, as well as her director . . .
Broken Glass
(#2)
Janie collapses with exhaustion from anemia and ends up in the hospital for a brief spell. Filming is put on hold. Janie can’t shake off her obsession that Daniel is still in love with his late wife, the invincible blonde bombshell, Natasha Jürgen. Not only that, but rumor has it he’s sleeping with half of Hollywood. Janie is determined to keep Daniel at a comfortable distance and their relationship strictly professional, but his insistence, charm, and the power he has over her psyche, wins her over. She simply can’t resist.
Because of family commitments, Janie sets off to Vegas, with Daniel in pursuit. Janie finds out that Daniel is far from the player she imagined and she lets herself be his, but just when their relationship is cemented, a calamity befalls the couple.
Daniel is in a coma, and his sister-in-law, the neurologist Kristin Jürgen, appears at the hospital, suddenly in charge of his wellbeing. And the last thing she wants is Janie by his side. Janie is banished from Daniel’s hotel . . . worse, she finds out that Kristin Jürgen is married to Daniel.
Or so Dr. Jürgen
claims
. . .
Read on to find out what happens next . . .
Daniel.
T
HE HORROR OF what is happening to me is beneath my fingertips, but I cannot move them. It is on my breath but I cannot speak. It is before my eyes yet I cannot even blink.
I am immobile.
But my brain is alive. Very much alive. I want to jump up and grab them by the throats—these gatekeepers who are forcing me to be imprisoned in my own body. I was awake. I was well. Janie was with me and it was a matter of hours—yes, hours—before I knew I’d be up and running again. I could taste recovery. But then they medicated me. Medicated me back to oblivion.
This is déjà-vu. I have seen this before. How could I have been so blind? I should have seen it fucking coming. I should have been on my guard.
I cannot move.
I hear her sugared voice. I smell her cloying scent, hovering above, her white coat a reminder of the power she wields over me.
I guess this is it.
I never thought I could be snuffed out so easily, like a flickering candle.
Encased in a tomb of frustration and internal anger, my mind wanders back to Janie. If I could shed tears, they would be for her. I think of her beautiful fragile frame in my arms. Her lovely lithe body spent and sated after I have given her my all. The way she likes to be dominated by me but won’t admit it. And now I lie still, dominated by another, someone I now know is pure evil. I am a shell. A soul. I cannot protect myself. I cannot protect the one person I love. I imagine the soft timbre of Janie’s voice, Her innocent yet fiery brown eyes, the love pouring from her gaze.
I will never see her again.
I am as good as nothing.
“DANIEL, WAKE UP!”
“What?” A voice that seemed only vaguely familiar lifted me out of my sleep. I rubbed my eyes. My neck was stiff and felt as if someone had cranked it sideways. I’d fallen asleep and, in a brisk moment, remembered where I was: at Natasha’s bedside in the hospital in New York. The nightmare flooded back to me; the reality of where I was, the choice before me.
“We need to make a decision, Daniel.”
“I . . . I need time,” I rasped, my voice barely a whisper. I looked up at Kristin, my sister-in-law. Not just my sister-in-law, but Natasha’s neurologist. I barely knew the woman and here we were sharing this horrible fate. There was camaraderie in the misery we were about to endure. Because, even though I had long since given up on my marriage and knew Natasha was in love with another man, she was still my wife, goddamn it, still a part of me.
Kristin leaned over and pushed a wayward lock of my hair from my sweaty brow. “She’s brain dead, Daniel. There’s nothing anyone can do for her. She’s no more than a vegetable. The oxygen—”
“Please stop,” I shot back. “I can’t do it, alright? I simply can’t make a decision to end someone’s life!”
“It’s what she wanted, Daniel. It’s in her last will and testament.”
It was true. Who in their right mind would think of stipulating that sort of thing in a will? Well Natasha had, apparently. Drawn up by an attorney, with Kristin as her witness. Natasha had also made her sister the executor, should anything befall her. Kristin in charge of everything despite the fact so much of my own money was part of the various trusts Natasha had set up, including a charity, close to her heart, for orphaned chimpanzees. However coldhearted Natasha had been with me, particularly regarding her extra marital affair with her polo-playing lover Ricardo, she was kind to animals—something that warmed me to her from the beginning. I didn’t like the idea of this stranger—her sister—pushing her way into Natasha’s life, and wanting to end it just as quickly, yet taking over everything in her wake. Natasha had left her entire estate to her sister, not to me. Including a house I’d bought her in the Hamptons as a wedding gift. A cottage in Bermuda, before, of course, I’d got wind of the fact that she had married me for my money, and in love with Ricardo all along. Yes, I’d been a fool. And a generous one at that.
“What the hell do you want me to say, Kristin? That I’m okay with pulling the fucking plug? Because I’m not, can’t you
get
that?”
She held my gaze for a second, a tear sliding down her cheek. “You think this is easy for me? She’s my little sister. And I love her. But Daniel, it
is
what it is. I can’t change fate.”
I was beginning to regret that I’d insisted Natasha come to the very same hospital where Kristin worked, after her accident in the park. It seemed like an innocuous fall, when a bicycle in Central Park careened into Natasha as we were crossing the road. She even got up and laughed about it. Her leg was bruised, but she seemed fine. It was only later that evening she began to complain of a splitting headache, and I called Kristin. She was top in her field—it seemed the obvious thing to do. But I should have picked a doctor outside the family, someone more impartial. Because Kristin was invested in following Natasha’s wishes, to a tee. The will I never even knew existed was now being thrust in my face.
“Daniel, this was what she wanted. This is what she
wants
.”
THE SCENE STRETCHES before me like a never-ending yawn, my mind frantic but my body unable to respond. I wonder now if Natasha’s death could have been avoided. I wonder now if Kristin accelerated—no, caused Natasha’s condition. I wonder now what drug Kristin administered to Natasha. Maybe what she did to me she did to her. Because all I know is that I was fine an hour ago, but now I’m paralyzed.
This woman is a shark and I am her prey.