Life's a Beach and Then... (The Liberty Sands Trilogy Book 1) (28 page)

‘Damn,’ Holly swore, as she stubbed her toe on a partially
sand-covered rock. Normally she was careful on this side of the island where
the beach was punctuated by vegetation and rocky groynes designed to prevent
sand erosion, but her thoughts had drifted to Philippe, making her lose
concentration. After finding Rosemary’s note while en route to the Seychelles,
urging her to forgive Philippe, Holly had decided that she would give him a
chance to explain his actions but only if he tracked her down, which Holly
reasoned wouldn’t be too difficult as they had a mutual friend in Rosemary’s
husband, Robert. But there had been no contact from Philippe even though Robert
had told her that he was back in the UK to promote his new book. Disappointment
had turned quickly to anger, and the sense of betrayal returned with a
vengeance when she started to read pre-release reviews on his ‘new
masterpiece’, as one magazine put it. His true identity was still a mystery to
most people but Holly had begun to hear rumblings in the book world that maybe
the elusive Veronica Philips was not really a woman.

Holly could feel the familiar prickle of a blush rising from
her chest to her face. The fewer people who knew how stupid and gullible she
had been to fall for Philippe’s charms the better. If her friend DD, who, as
chance would have it, was also his publisher, ever found out that she was his
muse for the new book her other career as a copy editor for Ripped Publishing
would be over. It wouldn’t just be the embarrassment of facing DD after the
revelations in Philippe’s book, there was a strong possibility that DD would
never trust her again.