ebook of the month :: a night with the society playboy

A NIGHT WITH THE SOCIETY PLAYBOY ::  ebook

About the book 

As society playboy Caleb Gilchrist stands up as best man to his best friend he wonders if the whole world has gone mad.  Is he the only one not running off to get married and live happily ever after?

Then within the mass of frippery and finery in the wedding chapel crowd he sees Ava Halliburton.  The girl who a decade before had left him standing in a crowded airport with his heart in ashes at his feet.  A woman who it seems can make his heart race more than any before or since.  The one that got away.  The groom's sister. 

 If only he wasn't the only one in the room who didn't believe in happy endings...

  

4 stars Romantic Times

"A Night With the Society Playboy is an emotional tale. Ally Blake does a terrific job of starting in the present and weaving the past throughout the story so the readers see all aspects of the relationship."

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The excerpt:

After a good long hour of photographs taken around the iconic Brighton beach huts, Caleb finally stepped out of his limo in front of the Halliburton’s house at the upper end of Stonnington Drive.

He stretched his arms overhead, let out an accompanying groan, and once the other groomsmen, Chelsea’s brother-in-law and one of Damien’s cousins, had moved on through into the house, he let his gaze swing straight to the second floor window, third from the right.

Ava’s bedroom window.

And between two beats of his heart he went from thirty-two-year-old man of enviable experience to twenty again, riddled with wild hormones and unable to help watching the sway of cream and white gingham curtains flapping gently at the window, wondering if Ava was up there sleeping, studying, getting dressed, getting undressed...

Today the window was closed.  No lights were on.  His mind eased.

His hormones were another matter.

He jogged around the side of the massive house, hoping the exercise might relieve some tension he’d carried with him from the church.

The Halliburton’s manicured back lawn had been overtaken by two massive, white, brightly lit marquees.  They draped languidly like decadent Bedouin tents.  A ten-metre gap between them left a makeshift cork dance floor open beneath the stars.  Fat pale purple blows were wrapped around the two hundred odd antique bronze chairs and the round tables were heavy with white roses, crystal glasses and gleaming silver cutlery.

He reminded himself not to stand directly below any of the dozen chandeliers.  He was no engineer but he couldn’t for the life of him figure out how the outrageous things wouldn’t bring the whole deal crashing down upon their heads.

He took a deep breath, tucked his hands into his tuxedo trouser pockets and sauntered inside, familiarising himself with all exits, making instant friends with a passing waiter so he’d get first look in at the hors d'oeuvre, before making a beeline for the nearest bar.

He ordered something heavy and straight up.  The burning liquid had barely touched his lips when an all too familiar female voice from behind him said, ‘Caleb Gilchrist, as I live and breathe.’

He hadn’t thought of her in days.  Maybe even weeks.  Yet his glass still clinked against his teeth as he swallowed more than was entirely sensible on an empty stomach.

‘Well if it isn’t little Ava Halliburton.  In the flesh,’ he said as he turned, a nonchalant smile already planted steadfastly upon his face.

And oh what a choice of flesh.

Her long dark hair hung from a centre part just as it had when she was nineteen, and it was still oh so sexily mussed, as though she’d spent hours running agitated fingers through it.  Her blue eyes were luminous in a round face that had always made her look younger than she was.  A naturally wide smile hovered cautiously upon her mouth and her cheeks were flushed.

The champagne glass between her fingers exposed fingernails bitten to the quick.  She wore a shapeless, sleeveless dark pink lace dress that stopped square below her knees.  It was off beat, slightly too big and not quite formal enough for the occasion.

She hadn’t changed a bit.

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