Could you solve your own murder?
When Rhys Evans agrees to house-sit for his uncle, the last thing he expects is to find a strange girl hiding in the greenhouse. A girl with no memory of her past and no chance at a future unless he helps her.
A freak of nature gives Coco a second chance at life, but before she can live it, she needs to find out who she is and where she came from. The answers aren't quite what either of them were expecting…
Coco du Ciel is a standalone romantic suspense novel set in the Planes world.
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Excerpt: The Girl…
There…a glimpse of white among the green.
What was that?
He found her crouching behind a Fatsia japonica. Or was it a Gunnera manicata? Which one had the bigger leaves? Why the hell was he even thinking about leaves? There was a naked freaking woman in front of him.
Who was she?
Why was she in the greenhouse?
And why did she look so scared?
So many questions, and absolutely no answers.
As Rhys looked her up and down, she shrank back farther, cowering against the base of whatever damn plant it was as she attempted to cover herself with her hands. He reached out and bent one of the leaves in front of her, and her knuckles turned white as she snatched it and gripped the edge.
“Uh…” he started. What on earth was he supposed to say? “Are you…all right?”
Time ticked by, and the bird swooped past, squawking. That startled her too.
Finally, she gave her head a quick shake. No, she wasn’t all right. Hardly surprising, given the situation.
“So, this may be a silly question, but what are you doing here?”
She hugged the leaf against herself and gazed at him with eyes the colour of molten chocolate.
“I don’t know,” she whispered, so softly he could barely hear.
“How did you get here?”
She shook her head again, damp brown curls cascading over her shoulders. “I don’t know.”
“Did you walk? Come by car?”
“I think I fell.”
“You fell? From where?”
Was naked skydiving a thing?
“I woke up in the dirt under that tree.” She started to point at the closest coco du ciel tree, but the fatsia-slash-gunnera leaf pinged away and she had to grab it back to save her dignity.
Wait a second… A broken nut, priceless according to his uncle. A mysterious trespasser. Had she climbed up to steal Albert’s pride and joy and then slipped? It seemed like a definite possibility. Should he call the police? How else was he meant to deal with a naked burglar?
A naked freaking burglar.
Excerpt: The Nightmare…
The keening wail cut to Rhys’s core, and he knifed up in bed, his heart racing.
His first thought? A fox had caught next door’s cat. His second thought? Coco.
As his eyes adjusted to the darkness, he saw her thrashing on the bed, the sheets tangled around her feet. A sliver of moonlight caught the sheen of perspiration on her forehead. A nightmare. She was only having a nightmare, but it sounded as if she were dying.
“No! No, no, no…” The last word dissolved into sobs, and she arched off the bed, her limbs stiff. Bloody hell, this was like a scene from a horror movie. Should he wake her? Call an ambulance?
“Help me,” she gasped.
How?
Her body gave one last heave, and then she lay still, head and shoulders hanging off the side of the bed. Was she…alive?
Rhys crawled to her side and grabbed her wrist, his own breath coming in pants as he felt for a pulse. Faint, but there it was, powerful in contrast to her limp body. Thank goodness. Her hand felt cold and clammy, and when he touched her cheek, it was slick with sweat. And…something else. Tears. She’d been crying in her sleep.
“Coco,” he whispered, then raised his voice and tried again. “Coco?”
Nothing. Rhys switched on the bedside lamp, bathing the room in a yellow glow, and risked shaking her shoulder.
“Wake up!”
Her eyes popped open. Their focus wavered at first, but when her gaze finally fixed on Rhys’s, his skin prickled. Why? Because he’d never seen fear like that before. A second later, Coco threw herself into his arms, holding him in a death grip.
“It’ll be okay,” he soothed, empty words for empty promises. “Everything’ll be okay.”
Rhys’s T-shirt grew damp as more tears fell, and she gulped in air as if tasting it for the first time. Desperate, hungry breaths. Boy, that must have been some nightmare.
“What happened?” he whispered. “Can you remember?”
“I…I was in the water. Under the water, and I couldn’t get out. Something was keeping me down, and I couldn’t…I couldn’t breathe.”
She’d dreamed she was drowning. How cruel a person’s mind could be. First the amnesia, and now this.
“You’re okay now. You’re safe.”
“But it was so vivid. So real.”
“The only water in this place is in the bath, and if you want, I can come with— Ah, shit, now I sound like a right perv.”
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