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    Solo Honeymoon
    Solo Honeymoon
    Solo Honeymoon
    Ebook122 pages1 hour

    Solo Honeymoon

    By Lisa Worrall

    4/5

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    About this ebook

    Leo Barratt hadn't written his bucket list, but he was pretty sure there were several things hewouldn't have put on it. Like... waking up to a Dear John letter from his fiance, Eric, the day before their wedding... or going on his honeymoon - alone.

    But, under the strict instructions of his mother, he found himself in Venice at Bauta, the beautiful bed and breakfast where he'd supposed to have started off married life. Instead, he planned to spend three weeks inside his room and wait for the pain to go away.

    Or at least that's what he thought...

    Bauta, was run by Matteo Leghissa and his mother, Luana. Used to getting his own way, Matteo refused to allow Leo to wallow in self-pity and appointed himself as Leo's official guide.

    Apparently, falling in love with a beautiful stranger wasn't on Leo's bucket list either but.....

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherLisa Worrall
    Release dateJun 13, 2016
    ISBN9781310384950
    Solo Honeymoon

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    • 4/5
      A fun, light-hearted romance full of Italian food-porn. I quite enjoyed it.

    Book preview

    Solo Honeymoon - Lisa Worrall

    Copyright 2016 by Lisa Worrall

    Smashwords Edition

    Smashwords License Statement

    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each reader. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

    Table of Contents

    Dedication

    Prologue

    Chapter one

    Chapter two

    Chapter three

    Chapter four

    Chapter five

    Chapter six

    Chapter seven

    Epilogue

    About Me

    Also Available

    Dedication

    For Sue, who kicked me regularly

    (lovingly of course)

    For Luana, who I badgered constantly.

    Thank you for making sure my Italian was actually Italian!

    And for all my readers who’ve stuck with me

    during this dry spell – hopefully it’s over!

    Prologue

    The insistent sound of the storm trooper death march jabbed at Leo’s eardrums like a pissed off woodpecker. Not that he should be surprised. His mother had called him what seemed like every ten minutes for the last week. He sighed heavily and didn’t even bother opening his eyes as he felt around on the bedside cabinet for his mobile. His fingers brushed against the sliver of metal and he snatched it up, then cracked an eye open enough to press the answer button and put the phone to his ear.

    Mum, long time no harp, he drawled, not even trying to hide the twang of sarcasm.

    I gave you seven hours of blissfully uninterrupted sleep, what more do you want? she quipped.

    Isn’t the recommended average eight? Call me back in an hour.

    Pish, don’t believe everything you read, dear. You’re not ten.

    Leo smiled fondly despite the missing hour. No one did condescension better than Susan Barratt. His mother was from a titled background and, as such, expected to be treated with the same impeccable manners she had been raised to extend to others. Leo’s lips twitched; and woe betide anyone who didn’t meet her expectations. So, he stifled a yawn, to what do I owe the pleasure of your dulcet tones at this ungodly hour?

    It’s nine-thirty you lazy so-and-so and unless I’ve got the wrong end of the stick, you’re getting married tomorrow. Her tone brooked no nonsense. There are things to be done, son of mine!

    You’ve been saying that all week, Leo complained. Haven’t we done it all yet?

    Don’t make me come over there. The warning was clear.

    Leo scrubbed a hand over his face. Surely he wasn’t the only thirty-two year old who was still just a little bit afraid of his mother? But then his father was sixty-four and hid in the shed when his mother was on the rampage, so Leo figured he could allow himself this one tiny foible. Sorry, Mum, he mumbled, suitably chided.

    I should think so. Now nudge that idle fiancé of yours and let’s get this show on the road. He’s got to pick up the buttonholes while you pick up Auntie Maureen and Uncle Clive from Gatwick.

    Leo threw out an arm to do as he was told but hit cool sheet instead of warm Eric. He frowned and turned over, the phone still clutched in his fingers, his mother reeling off a list of last-minute tasks in his ear. Not that he was listening to her anymore. He was too distracted by the sheet of folded paper with his name on it lying on the pillow where Eric’s head should be. His stomach tightened and he tasted the unpleasant acidity of bile in the back of his throat. He sat up slowly, his eyes never leaving the paper which suddenly seemed dazzlingly white against the duck egg blue of the pillowcase.

    Leo? Are you listening to me?

    Mum, I’m going to have to call you back. How he managed to speak he would never know.

    Leo? Her tone immediately changed, her famous mother’s intuition obviously kicking in. Leo, what is it?

    I’ll call yo—

    Leo hung up and the mobile dropped from his nerveless fingers onto the duvet. He swallowed hard and tried to ignore the rush of blood in his ears as his heart began to race.

    Get a grip, Leo. It’s just a couple of lines telling you he’s gone to get that paraffin wax pedicure he was talking about last night.

    He breathed in a sigh of relief, but couldn’t quite bring himself to let it go the same way. Instead it spluttered from between his lips like a half-hearted raspberry. Whatever was on that piece of paper wasn’t good, of that he was certain, which is why he didn’t want to touch it. Maybe if he stared at it long enough it would disappear. He’d seen a trick like that once in Vegas. Couldn’t be that hard, could it?

    That was how his mother, father and his sister, Alex, found him twenty minutes later when they burst into his bedroom—still staring. When his mother grabbed the note and opened it, he briefly wondered why he’d ever given her a key. A feeling that was quickly overshadowed by the relief that flooded through him as she shoved the note at his father then climbed onto the bed next to him and took him in her comfortingly familiar embrace. Leo closed his eyes and clung to her as if she was a life raft in a very choppy sea.

    He was right. It was not a good note…

    Chapter one

    As the water taxi overtook them the spray kicked up by its wake flew through the open window of the water bus and into Leo’s face. Politely chuckling along with the other passengers he accepted the tissue offered by the middle-aged woman sitting beside him. He tasted the tang of salt on his lips as he wiped the droplets from his skin, then returned his attention to the view. Clutching his carry-on sized suitcase Leo wondered, not for the first time, what the fuck he was doing.

    Eric’s voice echoed in his head as it had done a thousand times in the last few weeks. Just think… in three weeks we’ll be looking up into a Venetian sky as man and… man, while a gondolier warbles just one Cornetto.

    Leo had snuggled in closer and chuckled softly at Eric’s dramatic description. But then Eric was prone to drama. Hell, he thrived on it. But then that was Eric all over – Miss Drama Queen 2016 and, as it turned out, totally spineless with it, saving the ultimate drama for five days before the wedding. He disappeared leaving a short text waffling about space and not to worry, he’d be back.

    He gave himself a mental shake. His mother had told him it was perfectly normal to have cold feet at this stage in the proceedings. Even his father, who’d been the most reliable and steadfast man on the planet, had gone off on his motorbike for two days in the week leading up to their wedding. To this day she had no idea where he’d been or what he’d been doing and she didn’t want to know. He’d come back, nothing else mattered. Last year was their thirty-fifth wedding anniversary, so he’d been confident she knew what she was talking about.

    She’d been right. Eric came back three days later with effusive apologies and declarations of undying love. Leo had fallen asleep in Eric’s arms that night, after explosive make-up sex, feeling reassured everything was fine. Until, that is, he woke up the next morning to find a Dear John letter on the pillow beside him instead of Eric.

    Apparently he was too predictable. Eric couldn’t stand the thought of living his life on a schedule. He needed to be stimulated, to live for the moment and Leo just wasn’t the man for the job. Eric had thought he could do it, which is why he’d come back, but after their same join-the-dots lovemaking, he just couldn’t go through with it. Leo just wasn’t what he wanted and, for once, he had to think about himself and not everyone else.

    Leo snorted at the memory and the woman beside him shot him a sideways glance. He cleared his throat and continued to stare out of the window. Thinking about anyone else wasn’t exactly where Eric’s prowess lay. The only person Eric ever thought about was himself, but over the years Leo had learned to just roll with it, because any opinion other than Eric’s would result in

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