Something to Live for (Moonlight Dating Series) Read Free

to the villages of Mosta and Mgarr , rather than veer
right toward the thoroughfare that led to his apartment. Tonight, he was going
somewhere different.
    A couple
of successive potholes rattled the car suspension and jolted his conscious mind
into overdrive. What had gotten into him to do something this insane? He knew
lots of people, and his calendar was full every weekend. He went to a nightclub
and got the pick of the female litter. Simple and painless. He visited the gym five times a week, and it showed, although he didn’t care.
He did it to blow off steam – work off the noxious drive that pummelled him –
not to become a babe magnet. Still, women loved a guy who took care of himself,
especially if he wasn’t cocky about it.
    He didn’t
need help, not on the surface. But, deep down inside him lurked a quiet despair he couldn’t continue to ignore. Loneliness clung to him
like a spectre reluctant to leave a spooked mansion. True, it was by choice. A
deep, emotional attachment can destroy a person, just like the time it almost
crushed him to the point of no return.
    It was so
much easier to keep feelings in check, to be genuine and down-to-earth, yet,
stay away from too strong ties that create so much havoc and hurt, or at the
least, disappointment.
      It was too bad that he couldn’t shake off a
sense of helplessness, for life was flying by and he didn’t have much to show
for it. On the business front, he ran a successful family business, but
personally, he lived with a mask permanently glued to his persona. That mask
was his spectre, his friendly ghost that gave him what he wanted. A life lived
alone, in his small one bedroom apartment in St. Julians ,
the fun capital of the island.
    What he wanted...
    Well, he
suddenly wanted to evict that ghost, at least for a night.
    He wanted
something more – with an urge so strong that he signed up with Jeanette
Lagrange’s service on a whim. If his friends found out they’d rib him to death,
but this would remain a secret between him and the four walls of his flat.
    No one
would ever find out that he craved the company of a different sort of lady. He
had specified “intelligent”, above all else. Classy but not conceited. Feminine but not prissy. A woman who would look beyond his
physical shape and see the man he was beneath, without him having to explain or
prove anything – only for a night.
    It felt
like he was looking for a girlfriend. No, he wasn’t, was he? He just wanted an
evening with someone who didn’t spend hours talking about the highlights in her
hair and the wild parties she’d attended during her latest trip to Ibiza. If that evening came with chemistry and passion, all the better. Jeanette had also shared that many couples hooked up for the long haul after
meeting through her.
    He didn’t
necessarily want that. He just wanted to be. . . what did
he want to be?
    Surprised.
    He drove
to a dead end and turned left toward Mgarr , and a
little ways further, right onto a country road. About fifty meters onward he
came upon the gated entrance to a private property. The gate was open so he entered
the long driveway. The tyres kicked gravel and dust in the pitch dark that led
to a converted farmhouse where the email instructions specified he’d meet his
company for the night.
    He noticed
no other cars were parked there when he switched off the engine. Perhaps she
hadn’t arrived yet.
    What did she look like? According to the custom profile he
was forwarded, this was a very particular lady and he needed to go slow with
her. That may mean one of two things—she either wasn’t used to meeting men this
way, or she was as unsure about this as he was.
    The solid
wood front door was slightly ajar so he didn’t have to use his key. He
discarded it on the inlaid wood console table by the entrance and walked into a
welcoming, classic modern sitting room steeped in earth tones. His feet stepped
on an expensive-looking brown and beige Persian rug that covered