BOOK INFORMATION
Author Name: Victoria Pinder
Book Title: Chaperoning Paris
Publisher: Soul Mate Publishing
Date Published: 06/11/2014
Genre: Contemporary
Romance
SYNOPSIS
Gigi Dumont
never forgot how she walked away from the only man she ever loved.
She’s a
teacher who has led her students to the finals of an international French
competition to be help in Paris. The night before the trip, the Principal tries
to cancel the trip before he, in turn, loses his job to her high school
boyfriend, Sean Collins.
Sean Collins
has survived cancer, a divorce, and Gigi having aborted their child back in
high school. He assumed he’d hate her, if they ever crossed paths again. But he
discovers she’s exactly what he wants.
When Gigi
and Sean are stuck together for a week in Paris, Gigi feels she has lost all
her control. How can she survive her attraction to Sean? The man’s sexier now
than he was back in the day, and once upon a time, he’d had her heart. She
finds herself falling for him, even knowing forever is impossible.
BUY LINK
EXCERPT
Payback
time. Standing in his mother’s kitchen, Sean Collins smiled as he hung up the
phone.
He hovered at the phone for a moment, then charged along the
carpeted hallway to his bedroom. In a flash, he changed from his T-shirt and
jeans into his black pin stripe king-of-the-business-world suit complete with
black tie and shiny black shoes.
Finished dressing, Sean jittered at the door and listened to
his son talking nonstop to his mother upstairs. His skin tingled and he closed
his eyes. At least moving to his parents’ country estate where he had grown up
on Cape Cod had been good for everyone.
Breakfast could wait. He grabbed the keys on the counter
downstairs, and he called upstairs, “I’m leaving. I won’t be gone long.”
Last year, the school principal had fired him with bogus
charges. Sean had sworn on every holy book that he’d been fired because his
doctors had discovered cancer in a routine physical exam.
The sickness sucked. But he’d survived. And now he used his
vast wealth to get what he wanted. No teacher should be treated so callously.
He had taken the job at the time to prove to himself he had more choices than
being the chief financial officer of his father’s corporation.
He set his jaw and walked outside to his car, where the
smell of freshly cut grass hit his senses.
The moment he stepped outside and headed toward the garage,
Sean stared at the vast forested area on the property for a moment and pressed
his lips together. Trees made sense. Women never had. His luck with women had
been bad from the start. His first girlfriend, Gigi Dumont, had left him for
parts unknown, and then later his wife, now his ex, Jennifer, had also left.
She’d played with a whole set of loose scruples. But Jennifer hadn’t hurt him,
not like Gigi had. Sean rolled his shoulders. Why did everything in his life
always seem to go back to Gigi leaving?
He fished out his keys from his pocket. And now Gigi had
moved back into the house next door.
Sean opened the garage door. A quick click of a button and
the gate lifted.
Last night he hadn’t slept. Today his shoulders were
straight. This moment had nothing to do with women and everything to do with
justice. His fingers traced the shiny finish of his brother Gerard’s Aston
Martin. Without blinking, he opted to borrow the car. He’d be early and
outshine everyone else. Gerard had offered to loan it to him specifically for
today. Sean licked his lips and turned the key, igniting the engine, and took
off.
A daydream flashed in his eyes. Principal Murray’s jaw
dropped to the ground in shock the second Sean stepped inside the office with
the papers.
Sean clutched the wheel. He intended to twist the knife even
further. People like Mr. Murray gave businessmen around the world the
reputation of cold, heartless automatons, especially when he claimed the firing
had been over “job performance.” Every one of Sean’s students had passed the
state assessments.
Now, Sean ran the finances for his parents, his father’s
company, and his brothers. The support of his family to get him through cancer
treatments had been phenomenal, but what if he hadn’t had that support? What if
he’d had no money to pay for treatments? He’d be dead because the principal had
fired him due to the insurance increases. Well, now Sean had a better solution.
He sped down the country road for the half-hour trip. During
his horrible marriage to Jennifer, he’d worked as a teacher, and his students
had achieved both academic and social successes. Jennifer had been the
nightmare that drove Sean away from Collins Industries, Collins Enterprises,
Collins Investments, and Collins Mutual, to list a few of his father’s multiple
companies. Post divorce and cancer, Sean had made the decision to offer
employees packages in cases of sickness. Anyone who worked for him would now
receive a payoff equal to the job performance done over the years as part of a
settlement. Money paid hospital bills.
Sean’s stomach clenched as he gazed at the sign for the
Barnstable Charter High School parking lot. Sean parked Gerard’s fancy lawyer
wheels that screamed “out to impress” right next to the about-to-be-sacked
principal’s BMW sedan. The Aston Martin made the perfect goodbye gesture.
Murray had been outclassed.
Sean leaned forward in his seat, refusing to feel guilty. He
waited for the school bell to ring and watched students bounding outside.
Unlike most people, his family had money, and normally he
wouldn’t like flaunting wealth. His Jeep Wrangler suited him just fine, but
today he needed to look like the elite businessman he was. He stepped out a
minute later, and in a fast walk, he strode down the halls. Sean winked the
second he saw the school guard’s shocked face.
“You had cancer?” asked the older African American lady who
coached the wrestling team.
“Yes, I did. I’m better now,” Sean said, smiling.
He inclined his head and passed the security desk then Sean
turned right toward the principal’s office.
In his briefcase he carried the school board’s ruling and
the proof of sale of the school to Collins Enterprises. Barnstable was a
private school that followed school board law. The sale to his company had been
finalized, but Sean had insisted on telling Murray in person. The minutes of
the meeting would be posted at one that day. Victory waited for him, and
justice tasted better than homemade chocolate chip cookies.
In the office, the overqualified secretary, Mattie, dropped
her pencil on the floor. Sean made eye contact with her and the older woman
smiled back. Then he picked up the pencil in stride, and handed it back to her.
She opened her mouth to speak, and he shook his head, placing his finger over
his lips to silently request her silence.
She smiled her response and swiveled her chair back to her
computer.
He had seen Mattie in action and understood the older woman
had known how to treat people more than anyone else in the office.
Outside the principal’s door, Sean straightened his tie into
perfect alignment. His heart rate sped up and his entire body became alert then
he heard her voice.
Gigi, or should he say, Giovanna Dumont. Her quiet, sweet
voice unmanned him, making his palms sweat. Why would she be here? And how
could she still steal his breath away?
AUTHOR BIO
Victoria
Pinder grew up in Irish Catholic Boston then moved to Miami. Eventually, found
that writing is her passion.
She always
wrote stories to entertain herself. Her parents are practical minded people
demanding a job, but when she sat down to see what she enjoyed doing, writing became
obvious.
The Zoastra
Affair, Chaperoning Paris, Borrowing the Doctor, and Electing Love, Mything the
Throne and Favorite Coffee, Favorite Crush will be published in 2014.
Now she is
represented by Dawn Dowdle of Blue Ridge Literary Agency.
Also she’s
the Vice President for the Florida Romance Writers. Her website is
www.victoriapinder.com.
AUTHOR FOLLOW LINKS
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