Foreign Love (An International Sports Romance) (Love in Shades) Read Free

injury that wrecked my career, I’ve been pretty callous with my sexual exploits. Any woman with a pulse and a full set of teeth seems like fair game these days. I’ve just needed something to take the edge off, something to get lost in for a while. And sex provides that every few days.
     
    Wait – I haven’t had sex since airplane-lavatory-gate last week.
     
    I scratch my bearded chin, double-checking my memory just to make sure I haven’t somehow forgotten about an escapade or two...Nope. I haven’t had sex in a week.
     
    Am I subconsciously abstaining because of that riotous, blonde firecracker I fucked against the airplane sink?
     
    Nah – that can’t be it. No one woman could hold me down like that. I just haven’t found the time. I’ve been busy. That’s why I’ve gone for eight days without sex and didn’t even notice it until now.
     
    But, I must admit that I have thought about Julia. Often. She has be—
     
    “ Oui ?” Sabine says, irritated, her stare pierces me like a venom-dipped arrow.
     
    “ Un rendez-vous avec Cynthia ce vendredi ,” I say with a sweet edge to my voice as I request an appointment with Cynthia on Friday.
     
    That doesn’t manage to soften her. Instead, she rolls her eyes at me. Okay – lesson learned. No more sleeping with my physiotherapist’s passive aggressive receptionist.
     
    Unable to bear the weight of her resentment, I turn away from her desk, glancing around the empty waiting room as she checks her appointment book for Cynthia’s Friday availabilities.
     
    That’s when the door opens, letting in a gust of humid air from the street. A dainty, ethereal figure moves into the doorway, blond hair messy and disheveled from the wind, gorgeous even in a black t-shirt and jeans.
     
    Her eyes meet mine and her name rolls over my tongue before my brain even has the chance to register what’s going on.
     
    “Julia…”

Chapter 5
     
    Julia
     
     
     
    Ah – the way he says my name sounds so good.
     
    JEWH -lyah.
     
    He makes it sound exotic, like everyone who’s ever spoken it before him has somehow mispronounced it.
     
    A part of me wants to turn around and dash out the door so I don’t have to face him again. Meanwhile, the other part of me – let’s just call her ‘my inner salope ’ – wants to grab Lucien Beauvier by the bulging bicep and find the nearest restroom.
     
    Thankfully, my sense of decency kicks in and I opt for an entirely different approach.
     
    “Hello, Lucien,” I say in my most aloof and unaffected tone. I give him the world’s most awkward wave, because there really is no etiquette class on how to behave when you randomly run into the rugged stranger who inducted you into the mile-high club somewhere over the Atlantic. I had kind of hoped I’d never see again but in all honesty, I orgasmed in a sex-toy-induced frenzy two nights ago fantasizing about how good it would be if I did.
     
    My body is stuck in the doorframe, refusing to move. Is he actually better-looking now than he was on the plane? Is that even possible?
     
    He moves towards me, meeting me where I am. “It is lovely to see you,” he brogues, his accent smoothing over the words. He braces me by the shoulders and his body forms a sheath of warmth around me. His beaming eyes rake over my face, my neck, down into my cleavage before he places a chaste kiss on each of my cheeks. A spark of something reckless crackles in my stomach the moment his lips touch my face. “I never thought I’d see you again.”
     
    And because I’m an impulsive freak with a fetish for facial hair, I reach up and run my fingertips along his scruffy beard. “Well, it appears that you guessed wrong,” I say clucking my tongue.
     
    His smile is wide and devious, an invitation for trouble. “What are you doing here?”
     
    I purse my lips momentarily. Seeing him here had caught me off-guard. It had made me forget where I am and why I’m here. It made me forget to be gloomy and