by Vina Jackson
He grew impatient in the end, and disrupted my song.
First I felt his hot breath on my neck, as he leaned in as if to kiss me, but he didn’t.
Instead, as I reached the final chord, his hand gently took the violin from my grasp and he lowered me onto the cool stone stage of the bandstand.
I opened my eyes.
Dominik, grinning from ear to ear, with that familiar dark glint in his eyes.
‘But I haven’t finished,’ I whispered.
‘Vivaldi will forgive us,’ he replied.
And then we made love. In our own way.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank our agent Sarah Such at Sarah Such Literary Agency, who did such a wonderful job in getting Eighty Days to market. A deep vote of thanks also goes to Jon Wood, Jemima Forrester, Susan Lamb, Emma Dowson and everyone at Orion, who have done so well in getting us onto the bestseller lists. A tip of the fedora to Tina Pohlman and Allison Underwood at Open Road Integrated Media. We also owe a debt of gratitude to Rosemarie Buckman at the Buckman Agency for all the foreign sales, and to all the countless foreign publishers who have taken the series on, as well as Hamish and Junzo at the English Agency (Japan), and Carrie Kania at Conville & Walsh. A final thank you to our eagle-eyed copyeditors, proofreaders and translators who worked tirelessly and at great speed.
Much of these books were written on the road and heartfelt thanks must go to our respective partners, family and friends whom we had to singularly neglect as we devoted our time to Summer and Dominik, as we roamed London, Paris, Bristol, Rome, Berlin, Edinburgh, New Orleans, New York, Chicago, Avignon and Sitges, with laptops and iPads in overdrive.
And a final thank you to Matt Christie for photography, to Vina’s employer for her support and encouragement, despite the many writing-induced absences from work, and to all the necessary anonymous sources who helped us with our research.
It’s been an exciting ride …
The turbulent romantic adventures of Summer and Dominik may have reached their conclusion, but the Eighty Days series continues with Eighty Days Amber and Eighty Days White, in which both Summer and Dominik will make an appearance, alongside Luba, Viggo Franck, the girl with the teardrop tattoo, and many other acquaintances, both old and new.
About the Author
Author photo © www.mattchristie.com
Vina Jackson is the pseudonym for two established writers working together for the first time. One a successful author, the other a published writer who is also a city professional working in the Square Mile.
Also by Vina Jackson Eighty Days Yellow Eighty Days Blue
Copyright
AN ORION EBOOK First published in Great Britain in 2012 by Orion Books. This ebook first published in 2012 by Orion Books.
Copyright © Vina Jackson 2012 An Hachette UK Company www.orionbooks.co.uk
The right of Vina Jackson to be identified as the author of this work has been asserted in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.
All characters and events in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means without the prior permission in writing of the publisher, nor be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published without a similar condition, including this condition, being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.
A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
ISBN: 978 1 4091 2778 9
Orion Books
The Orion Publishing Group Ltd
Orion House
5 Upper St Martin’s Lane
London WC2H 9EA
