Mara had always loved fruit. Peaches and plums. Grapes and mangoes. The feel of the skins and the smell of their juices, the tart sweetness of their flesh. She was fully immersed in the process of making the largest, most perfect fruit platter she’d ever created… which was why she didn’t notice Derek standing beside her, eating slices of fig as quickly as she cut them. At least until he choked on the juice. She swatted his arm. “You’re ruining my fruit platter!”
“I am not,” he said, coughing into his tattooed fist. “I’m making sure everything’s taste-ready.” He picked up a wedge of blood orange and tossed it into his mouth. He was wearing his new black shirt because she’d convinced him not to dress like an off-duty YouTuber, at least some of the time.
“Need any help, Little Miss?” he asked, sneaking a few grapes.
“Yes, could you please make sure all the chairs are set up outside?”
“On it.”
Mara laid the rest of the figs on the platter, scattering burgundy grapes in the remaining space. She carried the dish to the huge carved dining table, placing it among the cheese and torn sourdough bread. Derek’s arms closed around her from behind. “Everything looks amazing.”
“You promise? It’s the first party in our new house. I want it to be perfect.”
“It will be.” He kissed her cheek. “Has Daddy told you lately how much he loves you for moving in with him?”
Mara smiled. A month into her and Derek’s engagement, she’d blindfolded him. After convincing him it wasn’t a sex thing and he should avoid getting an erection at all costs, she had driven him to 101 Terrace Avenue, Richmond. Then she’d walked her future husband into the middle of the living room and taken off the blindfold.
He’d stared at her, almost furious with shock. “You haven’t… You can’t be serious?”
“The house is yours,” she’d told him. “If you still want it. I bought it for you. To say sorry and that I love you.”
Derek rubbed a hand over his mouth then dropped to one knee.
“We’re already engaged!” she reminded him.
“Come live with me. Right now. Tonight.”
“But it’s not ready! And what about my house?”
“You could rent it out?”
She’d hesitated then, because the subject of whose place they were going to live in was a sore one.
“It kind of goes against my morals,” she’d told Derek. “I love my townhouse so much, and now I’ve finally sold my place in Albury, I want to practice what I preach. Own and live in one house.”
“So where does that leave us?”
“I’m not sure. But it’s early days, why don’t we just wait and see?”
Derek’s eyes had glowed. “Okay, but I’m gonna make this place so good, you’ll beg me to move in.”
Mara had looked at the battered staircase and leaky ceiling and wished him well. Terrace Avenue had great bones, but it wasn’t a patch on her townhouse.
She shouldn’t have doubted him.
With Chase’s help, Derek had hired three teams of renovators and spent an entire season’s wages redoing the place. He bought the biggest bed available in the southern hemisphere. He redid the bathrooms, including the installation of a mobile, claw-footed tub that could be transferred onto a nearby balcony so they could bathe in the morning sunshine. He got Tracey Emin to paint a mural for their living room. He called in Martha Stewart to co-design the kitchen. It was based on her Bedford Farmhouse Kitchen and when Mara saw it, she’d broken down and cried. He rebuilt the fireplaces. He landscaped the entire backyard, including a huge deck for summer parties, an in-ground pool, and a puppy palace for Pan.
And just when Mara thought he couldn’t possibly do more, he put a lock on the spare bedroom and installed a leather bondage horse, floor-to-ceiling mirrors, and a walk-in closet full of vibrators and lingerie. After twelve hours in that room, Mara had finally thrown in the towel and begged to move in with him. Two days later she’d sold her townhouse and put all her cookbooks and fantasy novels on Derek’s handmade shelves.
There had been some negative press about how elitist she was for owning a multi-million-dollar home, but it hadn’t made much of a splash. The stories about her and Derek were the real sellers. On a slow news day, photos of them getting coffees or walking Pan made the front page. It was ridiculous, but Mara supposed they were ridiculous, the socialist ex-socialite and the football god. The hometown couple made good.
Derek nuzzled her neck, pulling her ass onto his stiffening cock. “How long before people show up?”
“None. You’re all jacked up on fruit, aren’t you?”
“I’m all jacked up on you.” He ground his hips into her ass. “Come upstairs. Let me put you back on the horse.”
For a second, she closed her eyes and let herself imagine. Then the doorbell rang. “That’ll be our guests, Derek.”
He swore. “I’ll get the door. But let’s be clear—the second these cunts are gone, you’re getting tied to that horse and having your brains fucked out.”
“Whatever you say, dear,” she said, shooing him out of the kitchen.
Eight football players and their wives showed up at once, having booked a limousine. Once they were settled on the porch, Mara returned to the kitchen to bake four wheels of Camembert in her Wolf Pyrolytic Built-In Oven. The cheese was embedded with dried pears and honeyed pistachios, and she wasn’t expecting it to last long. There was a loud knock on the wall and Willow sashayed in. He was extravagantly dressed in checked pants and a tie, carrying a bottle of wine in each hand. “Mara, you look gorgeous, as per usual.”
She tugged at her blood-red Matin dress. “Thanks, Willow. You can put the wine in the fridge if you’d like?”
“Or I can crack it open now.” He placed one bottle on the kitchen island, pulling the cork from the other. “What are you making?”
“Baked cheese.”
He groaned theatrically. “God, you’re the perfect woman.”
Derek stuck his head through the door. “What are you doing, dickhead?”
“Talking to Mara.”
“Go talk to someone else.”
“Don’t be a cock,” Willow said, swigging from the bottle. “I’m not trying to steal her away—although I could—I need tips.”
Mara laughed. “On how to bake cheese?”
“On what a girl like you wants in a man. I need to meet someone. I wanna get married so fucking bad.” He gave Mara a look of such hopeless Basset Hound despair, she giggled.
Derek whipped a mandarin segment at him. “Get away from her, you desperate scab.”
“But she hasn’t told me where I can find someone!”
“You can’t.” Derek strode forward, gripping Willow’s arm. As he dragged his friend away, he turned and mouthed something at her that looked a lot like ‘bondage horse.’
Mara grinned.
Beth and Byron arrived when the party was in full swing. Beth squealed as she ran into the kitchen, kissing both of Mara’s cheeks. Byron nodded in that curt, male model way of his. She was glad to see them both. She’d gotten close to Beth and Byron over the last year. Even went on a mini holiday with them, the boys golfing while she and Beth read by the pool.
“It’s so good to see you,” Beth said. “Everything smells amazing.”
“Thank you.” Mara handed her a non-alcoholic cider. “How’s the podcast?”
“Coming on leaps and bounds. When am I getting you on there?”
“Never.”
“Fine, but I’ll get Hardiman one of these days. If it kills me, I’ll have that sourpuss answering questions about Doja Cat.” Beth leaned in closer. “How’s his book coming along?”
“Shh.” Mara glanced around, checking the coast was clear. “He’s almost done with the first draft, but he’s still refusing to show it to anyone without a pseudonym. If he knew you know about it, he’d burn the whole thing.”
“Well then, it’s good I don’t know,” Beth said, tapping her nose. “He will be on my podcast.”
“Hello, hello,” Chase said, bustling in with a bottle of tequila and a bouquet of tiger lilies. “Sorry we’re late, Milly had an accident.”
Andy held the sheepish-looking puppy. She was from the same breeder as Pan, her half-sister in fact. Mara dropped her cheese knife to plant kisses over the puppy’s chocolate brown fur. “She’s so sweet.”
“When she’s not shitting herself,” Chase said, opening the bottle. “Anyone for shots?”
The party was long and loud and friendly. No one threw up. No one did drugs in front of Tegan’s cop girlfriend. There was music and dancing, and the food vanished as soon as she laid it down. Derek made a short toast before dessert, the ice in his vodka barely shaking as he thanked everyone for coming.
“I’ve never felt like I had a family before Mara. Now I have so many people, it gets overwhelming sometimes. But it’s worth it. I love you all.”
Everyone had cheered, and unless Mara was mistaken, Willow looked away, wiping his eyes.
“He’s such a sweetheart,” she told Derek at four in the morning. Everyone had finally left, and after a vigorous hour in the sex room, they were enjoying a bath under the stars. Derek lowered his cigar. “Willow’s a knob.”
“He is not! Although we should set him up with someone. He seems a bit desperate.”
“On that, we can agree. Who d’you have in mind?”
“I don’t know! I can’t think of anyone who suits him.”
“Well, think fast. He’s talking about going on The Bachelor.”
Mara laughed.
“Yeah, it’s all funny now, but then it’ll happen, and it will be genuinely embarrassing to be seen with him.”
“If you’re so worried, maybe I should jump ship and be his wife instead?”
Derek exhaled a cloud of sweetish smoke. “Is that right, Little Miss?”
“What if it was?”
He leaned forward, sending a wave of warm water over her breasts. “Then I’d say you can do whatever you like, but you’ll be punished when you come back. Because you will come back. And then Daddy will be angry.”
Mara kissed the tip of his nose. “Good thing you don’t have to worry.”
“No.” Derek leaned back, sucking on his cigar. “I don’t.”
It was a small moment. An insignificant one in the scheme of things. But as Mara watched her lover stare up at the stars and smoke, something twisted from her heart. Some grievance she hadn’t known was there fell away, and for the first time, she felt it. The unshakable sense that she and Derek were back where they’d come from. That they had returned.
Thank you so much for reading RETURN ALL. Derek and Mara will return for their wedding in FIRST AND FOREVER—the third novel in the Rebirth series. FIRST AND FOREVER follows Willow and his search for a soulmate. Sloan ‘Willow’ Williams has been looking for the one for years and the moment he sees Eden Jade Carter, he knows she’s the girl for him. Unfortunately, she’s DJing, and her entourage won’t let him anywhere near her…
If you haven’t already found out how Beth and Byron fell in love, you HAVE to read the first Rebirth novel, BEGIN AGAIN AGAIN.
“ Begin Again Again is a breath of fresh air romance that cuts right through the haze.” NYT Bestseller, Tessa Bailey
And if you’re craving more dirty romance, I recommend my bestselling Daddy novel ACT YOUR AGE!
“Thoughtful and incredibly hot, I loved Act Your Age! Eve Dangerfield is a new auto-buy author for me.” NYT bestseller Skye Warren
“Fresh, sexy, and fun. Act Your Age is erotic romance at its best.” NYT Bestseller, Kylie Scott
Turn the page to read an excerpt from ACT YOUR AGE