A Love Story
Reeling from the guilt of hurting the man she loves, Olivia flees city life to a tiny town in Maine to care for a scarred veteran who teaches her sometimes the scars most worth heeling are on the inside.
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Available in ebook only in the US. No paperback or audio version, per decision of Penguin Random House.
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Lauren Layne’s heart-wrenching novel tells the story of a girl with secrets, a guy with scars, and a love that could save them both . . . or destroy them.
When Olivia Middleton abandons the glamour of Park Avenue for a remote, coastal town in Maine, everyone assumes she’s being the kind do-gooder she’s always been. But Olivia has a secret: helping an injured war veteran reenter society isn’t about charity—it’s about penance. Only, Olivia’s client isn’t the grateful elderly man she’s expecting. Instead, he’s a brooding twenty-four-year-old who has no intention of being Olivia’s path to redemption . . . and whose smoldering gaze and forbidden touch might be her undoing.
Paul Langdon doesn’t need a mirror to show him he’s no longer the hotshot quarterback he was before the war. He knows he’s ugly—inside and out. He’ll do anything to stay in self-imposed exile, even accept his father’s ultimatum that Paul tolerate the newest caretaker for three months or lose his inheritance. But Paul doesn’t count on the beautiful twenty-two-year-old who makes him long for things that he can never have. And the more she slips past his defenses, the more keeping his distance is impossible.Now Paul and Olivia have to decide: Will they help each other heal? Or are they forever broken?
I’ve told myself over and over that I won’t kiss her again. That she’ll kiss me.
But I’m not above luring her in. I want her. I want her so badly it hurts.
My eyes meet hers, watching as her shock fades to desire. She wants me too.
I purposely move my gaze to her mouth. Kiss me, I silently beg. And then I say it out loud. “Kiss me, Olivia.”
She shakes her head once.
“Please,” I whisper. I don’t care if I’m begging. I don’t care if she kisses me out of pity. I need her.
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