NO MORE LIES--Excerpt

Short Synopsis:
A lie that brings a smile... or the truth that draws tears?

Dr. Olivia Crane lives a quiet life. No one questions why she doesn't socialize or where she spends every weekend. When the visiting physician from France strolls into her office, with open arms and a confident smile, her perfect control is about to crumble. Good God, he can't be Dr. Luc George, the man she loved ten years ago? Should she return his scorching kisses, or should she lock her door before he digs into her many secrets?
Secret daughter, secret friend, secret enemy. Had Luc really known his sweet Olivia back then? He wants her back, but he wants the truth, too. Now, Olivia has to face her past before she can grab her second chance.
Excerpt:
Luc frowned as Olivia bolted off the bench. “Mom, don’t tell me how to handle my daughter. Put her on again.”
Olivia had a daughter?
Ten years was a long period to be alone. But she wasn’t wearing a ring. Neither she nor McMillan had mentioned a present husband, fiancé or boyfriend. And she hadn’t said a word about this daughter all day long. Still she could have had a child anytime after he’d left. But why had she kept her a secret from him?
He scowled as he trudged through the grass surrounding the pond, his breathing labored, blood pounding against his forehead. “Olivia.”
As she turned toward him, she mumbled a quick, “Bye, Mom,” and then shoved her cell phone into her purse. “Luc, what are you doing here?” She bent to retrieve her high-heeled shoes from under the stone bench and slipped them on while he dumped the bottle, bucket of ice and glasses on the bench.
“Ah.” Merde. One of the glasses had shattered on the stone. Mumbling a string of curses, he collected the broken pieces and threw them into the ice bucket.
Why had she not told him she had a daughter?
Something did not make sense here. Olivia Crane had always been a secretive woman, difficult to understand. Still...
Is it possible that Melissa is...?
His jaws tensed. “Olivia, how old is your daughter?”
Lies by omission had cost him a child. Pain spiked through his heart at the thought of his little Paul and the lying bitch, the salope, who’d kept his son hidden from him for two years.
Was the nightmare of his past slithering around him again?
Luc resolutely took the last step separating him from Olivia. He wouldn’t allow her to knock his structured world out of control the way another woman had, years ago.
“You’ve been eavesdropping? How dare you?” Her chin lifted, and she scowled.
The memory of a pale toddler still scorched his heart after so many years. He was inflexible when it came to secrets and lies.
“Dis-moi. Tell me the truth. How old? Is she mine?” How could she have hidden this from him? She was no better than Brigitte. Were all women fickle liars?
Mon Dieu, not his Olivia. He grabbed her shoulders with more strength than he intended to.
“You’re hurting me! Are you crazy?” Slanting green eyes locked with his and widened with disbelief. “Luc, stop it.”
Silence drifted over them as they gauged each other’s thoughts.
“Did you find out you were pregnant before or after I left?” God help him, he was trembling and shaking her at the same time.
She snorted, a bitter laugh that stunned him. “Melissa is sixteen.”
“Sixteen?” He released her and dropped his arms to his side. “Sixteen, but—” His mind blanked. How could it be? Olivia had had a six-year-old when he was here last time? “I don’t understand. You have never mentioned a child.”