Title: Beauty From Pain
Author: Georgia Cates
Release date: January 31, 2013
Genre: Contemporary romance
Age Group: Adult
Event organized by: AToMR Tours
They agreed on three months...but their love knew no boundaries.
Jack McLachlan is a winemaking magnate and easily one of Australia’s most eligible bachelors. His success and wealth makes him no stranger to the complications of romantic relationships and that’s why he goes to extreme measures to avoid the hassle. He prefers simplicity in the form of a beautiful female companion with no strings attached. He arranges relationships like business deals and they’re always the same. No long term relationships. No real names.
It’s his game and his rules. He’s content to play as usual, but when Laurelyn Prescott enters his life, his strategy must change because this player is like none he's ever encountered. His world is turned on its head after he begins a three month affair with the beautiful American musician. Nothing goes according to plan and as he breaks more and more of his own rules for her, she’s exceptionally close to becoming something he never thought possible. His ultimate game changer.
Links: Amazon Barnes and Noble Goodreads
Jack
McLachlan’s POV
I
sit in the dark corner and scan the room like a starved predator
searching for prey. I haven’t chosen her yet, but the woman who
will share my bed for the next few months is in this room right now.
I
watch a lovely blond approach my table. “What can I bring you?”
Hmm. A waitress—not at all my usual taste.
I
have a type. Attractive. Mature. Refined. This barmaid meets the
attractive requirement well enough, but she’s void of refinement or
maturity as displayed by her choice of apparel—a white, barely
there tank top and frazzled cutoff denim shorts. She doesn’t do it
for me. Plus, my last two companions were blond. I want a different
flavor this time, but no redheads. I want a brunette. A beautiful
one.
I
remind myself I’m not in Sydney where I have an endless variety of
sophisticated women from which to choose. My choices are more limited
in the small town of Wagga Wagga, but that doesn’t mean I have to
settle for the first attractive woman I see.
“I’ll
have a Shiraz.”
I’m
prepared for a more prolonged relationship this time—three whole
months instead of the usual three or four weeks. I’m looking
forward to keeping this one around a little longer, and that’s all
the more reason to be certain I make a wise choice.
I
begin my search of the club with the first table toward the front of
the room. A brunette beauty sits with a group of women. I watch her
for a while, but decide she’s too friendly with the woman sitting
next to her. Lesbians aren’t in my repertoire.
I
spend the next hour scanning the club and come up empty-handed. I’m
discouraged. No one stands out as the one and this club is by far my
best bet for meeting single women in this town. Maybe I should
consider coming back another time when it’s not open mic night.
Tonight, the place is crawling with boozed college students.
Tonight’s
search has been a failure, but at least the karaoke was entertaining.
I’m
finishing off the last of my wine before I leave when an announcer
from the club takes the stage and asks for the next singer to step
forward. A small group of people across the room nominates one of its
own. My view of the poor bastard is blocked by the crowd of
intoxicated kids standing between us, but I’m certain this is going
to be another delightful train wreck.
The
club erupts into cheer and chants. “Do. It. Do. It. Do. It.” A
young woman walks onto the stage and stands with her back to the
crowd as she lifts a guitar from its stand. She lifts its strap over
her head and then tosses her long brown hair over one shoulder. When
she’s finished settling the guitar into place, she circles around
and sits on the stool in the middle of the stage.
She’s
beautiful. And somehow overlooked during my search.
She’s
wearing a short ivory dress and a denim jacket with brown cowgirl
boots. She bares her thighs as she lifts her feet to rest on the
bottom rail, but she’s careful to push her dress between her legs
so she doesn’t provide a peep show to the crowd.
She
strums the borrowed guitar a few times and then leans into the
microphone. “Is everyone having a good time tonight?”
She’s
American. I think. Her accent sounds different—not like what I’ve
heard in the past.
The
crowd erupts into a drunken cheer and I hear a man’s voice yell
over the crowd, “It’s better now, sweet thing!”
She
smiles and adjusts the mic. “I’m not from around here. It’s my
first night in Australia.”
“Leave
with me and I’ll make you feel right at home!” a man shouts from
the back of the room.
She
ignores the fat, ugly bastard yelling at her. “I don’t know what
kind of music Australians like, but this has been one of my favorites
for as long as I can remember.” She strums a few more chords. “This
is ‘Crash Into Me’ by the Dave Matthews Band.”
She
sings it slower than the original, putting her own twist on it. Her
voice is raspy and sexy, her eyes closed. She oozes eroticism. She
tilts her head and opens her eyes when she begins to sing the chorus.
I swear it feels like she’s looking right in my direction, singing
to me. “Oh, and you come craasshh … into me. And I come into …
you … And I come into you … in a boy’s dream … in a boy’s
dream.”
The
stage lights shine in her face and common sense tells me she can’t
see me sitting in the dark corner at the back of the club, but that
doesn’t stop me from hoping.
She
finishes the chorus and shuts her eyes again. Her long legs bounce
against the rail of the stool to keep rhythm and I fall victim to her
siren’s song. She has bewitched me. And I want her. She’s the
one.
Georgia resides in rural Mississippi with her wonderful husband, Jeff, and their two beautiful daughters. She spent fourteen years as a labor and delivery nurse before she decided to pursue her dream of becoming an author and hasn’t looked back yet.
When she’s not writing, she’s thinking about writing. When she’s being domestic, she’s listening to her iPod and visualizing scenes for her current work in progress. Every story coming from her always has a song to inspire it.
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