Page 37 of Hot in the City
Yuki: Miss you too. Bring me a present from Ireland! Pretty please?
Declan: Since you asked so nicely, pretty girl. Call you later.
Yuki: xxx
Sinead spoke, as they started walking again. "Are you still up for coffee?"
Yuki nodded. "Yes. I'm up for anything."
As she walked, Yuki's mind whirled. Maybe the thing between her and Declan would work out, even with them both working and travelling all the time. She hoped so.
She pressed her fingertips to the stunning necklace Declan had hidden under her tiny Christmas tree, before he left for Dublin. It was a swirly silver heart, from Tiffany's. She loved it. She hoped he liked the deluxe Santa hat and red silk tie she had couriered to his parents' house.
The new year was turning out to be an amazing ride so far. Her life of adventure had officially begun. Hopefully soon she’d be travelling the world, having adventures she’d couldn’t even imagine yet.
Sinead winked at her, as she showed Yuki into the elevator, pretending to demonstrate the way to the emergency exits. "Let's go, Mermaid crew."
Mermaid crew. Yuki liked the sound of that. A lot.
Girl on a Babymoon
A Girl on a Plane novelette
Cassandra O’Leary
Author’s Note on Girl On A Babymoon
Dear reader,
I wrote this novelette in 2022 based on an idea I had a couple of years ago to revisit Sinead and Gabriel, the lead characters from my debut novel, Girl on a Plane. Please note, the events in this story take place five years after the events in that book, around the time of the couple’s fifth anniversary. I hope that’s not a spoiler!
I recommend you read Girl on a Plane first, if you haven’t already. You should still be able to understand the story as a stand alone though, but please be aware the characters are a long-term couple by this stage.
Cheers,
Cassandra x
Chapter One
Melbourne, Australia
Sinead had no hope of containing her giggles as she stared at her phone’s screen, but she slapped a hand over her mouth anyway. She half snorted, half coughed into her palm before shaking her head to get herself under control. The Uber driver would think she’d lost her mind, but who cared about that? Not today, she didn’t.
She clicked out of the amazing image on her phone screen and stared out the car's passenger side window instead, watching the streetscape whiz by in a blur of colours, sky blue, white and grey. The warm fuzzies in her belly settled, fluttered and subsided.
Gabriel was going to absolutely love her anniversary surprise. Love. Adore. Worship at her feet and hopefully worship every last nook and curve of her whole body in minute, sensual detail. Several times. Oh, yes. This anniversary trip had been an excellent idea. How could they have been married for five years already?
She didn’t know how her news would go down with Gabriel. Hopefully, he’d be on board. All she had to do was let him know what she wanted and fill him in on the plan. She sighed, exhausted suddenly. He would be pleased, wouldn’t he? Happy? It was a lot to take in. She’d had a minor freak out already.
He’d be okay, she was almost positive. He’d research this like he would with a business deal or an investment. He was good at details, her Gabriel. The best at everything he did. Having a man like him, so focused and determined in everything, work and play, had turned out very nicely in their relationship so far, especially in the bedroom. The only problem was, sometimes he was a wee bit put off by spontaneous changes of plan.
He'd love her surprise. And if he didn't bloody love it, she was possibly going to have him killed. Or at least torture him in a sexy way until he admitted he loved her and her surprise, and then he could do the minute detail worshipping of her body.
Yes, that was a plan. She grinned and rubbed her hands together with pure, undiluted, only slightly evil glee.
She gave a nod and word of thanks to the Uber driver, a very sweet man named Aziz who often drove her home from work at the luxury travel agency she ran at Gabriel’s office building in the city. She straightened out her shirt and threw her phone in her bag. The car rolled to a stop.
In one mostly elegant motion, she launched herself and her handbag out of the car and onto the footpath, then she was clacking along in her electric blue high heels. Her phone was in her hand, tapping on her husband’s name and he answered the call before she'd even taken five steps towards the front door of their beachfront townhouse.
