Read Online His Perfect Bride? by Louisa Heaton - Free Book Online Page B

She’s…what? Different? Quirky? No. She’s beautiful—that’s what she is. Inside and out.
    * * *
    Lula closed the cottage door and touched her lips with her fingers. They were still tingling from the kiss and she was shocked. It had only been meant as a goodnight kiss, a thank-you kiss. It hadn’t been meantas anything else.
    So why did it feel like something else?
    I like Olly. He’s lovely, yes. But…
    She wasn’t here to start a relationship.
    He can be my friend, but that’s got to be all.
    It would be too complicated if she allowed a relationship to start up—and with Olly, of all people! He was her colleague. In a small village practice. It couldn’t develop into anything. He’d already told her that he wanted to have children, and she couldn’t have them, so… No. She couldn’t pursue anything with Olly.
    But he’s so delicious!
    No, Lula. Behave yourself…
    She groaned and took the mugs into the kitchen. She stared out of the window into the white expanse of the still garden. She put the mugs in the sink and saw Anubis in his tank. Sighing, she took a step closer and slowly lifted off the lid.
    All I’ve got to do is put my hand in.
    Just reach out.
    That’s not hard, is it?
    But her hands stayed where they were. It was still too scary.
    She closed the lid, shivering as Anubis stretched out one long hairy leg and began to move.
    ‘Time for bed, I think.’
    Lula switched off the lights and then spent many hours staring at the roof of her bedroom ceiling, lost in thought.
    * * *
    Olly sat at his kitchen table, holding a mug of cold tea and staring into space. Lula had only been here a short while and yet he felt she’d begun to turn his ordered life upside down and inside out.
    He felt uncomfortable with it. The last time he’d been thrown upside down with his thoughts had been after Rachel had left. When he’d discovered what she’d done…
    Lula isn’t anything like Rachel.
    Lula’s attitude to life was so refreshing. She believed in challenging herself, facing her fears, stepping out of the ruts and taking risks. She followed her heart. But she wasn’t whimsical or wishy-washy. She had a purpose, she had fun and she was extremely intelligent.
    And he was attracted to her.
    Simple as that, really, and that scared him. She was nothing like his perfect woman. Or the vision of a perfect woman he’d stupidly concocted in his infamous list. He’d never expected to be intrigued by a woman with tattoos and multicoloured hair. He’d always thought he’d be the type to fall for a regular woman, with normal hair and her only body decoration being a sedate pair of earrings, perhaps a ring or two. A woman whowore suits to work, who drove a sensible car. A woman with class.
    Lula has class.
    Was it her differences that intrigued him? Was it the fact that she was so unique and so unlike anyone he’d ever met before that made him unable to help gravitating towards her?
    No. It was more than that.
    He felt different when he was with her. He couldn’t explain it. It was as if he was seeing life differently. Through her eyes the world was a place of wonder and possibility again, rather than a world of…what?
    Beige . That was what. Lula was right about him. Perhaps he had been stuck in his rut for too long? That thing with Rachel had forced him into it even more. Perhaps he did need his world to be shaken up?
    Was Lula the woman to do it?
    Did he want her to?
    Olly got up and threw his tea down the sink, rinsed out his mug and left it on the drainer, staring into the snow through his kitchen window.
    He did want her to. But he was worried about letting go of who he was. Would he lose himself? Would he lose the respect of others if he let go and went wild for a bit?
    I’m a doctor. A GP. I’m meant to be sensible. People rely on that sensibility.
    He’d always been strait-laced. Run of the mill. Down to earth. He’d always thought that was an attractive quality. That people liked to know where