Steamiest read of the summer
Sex, Lies & Alibis is the eagerly anticipated final book in her deliciously steamy and shockingly scandalous trilogy that began with the runaway success of Eva Mazza's debut novel, Sex, Lies & Stellenbosch, followed hot on the heels by Sex, Lies Declassified.
This will have readers turning pages in anticipation to discover what finally happens to our heroine, Jen, and the rest of the dysfunctional cast from Stellenbosch, with its penchant for impropriety and unapologetic wealth.
After stumbling on her adulterous husband, John, in book one, by the time Jen gets to the final part of the trilogy, she's discovered that happy endings don’t necessarily come in the form of a man, no matter how good the sex or how exquisite the backdrop.
Despite trying to escape her past by flying to Monte Carlo, where she's landed a million dollar contract to re-design the interior of a superyacht, circumstances beyond her control force her to return to the Stellenbosch winelands. The steamiest book you’ll read this summer.
EXTRACT
The surge of guilt that swept over Jen was followed swiftly by a gulp of wine.
Frankie was dead!
Had her ex-book-club buddies not supported Frankie during the devastating loss of her husband? A little too late to care! Frankie may have been an adulteress, a femme fatale, but Jen knew her estranged friend hadn’t wanted to lose her husband, Lee – not to divorce, and especially not to death. Frankie needed him, loved him even. This, Jen knew. Frankie had always maintained that, after years with the same partner, average sex was a given, a minor issue compared to the bigger picture – the “bigger picture” being respectability and lifestyle, and Lee had given her both. “I’m not stupid enough to give it all up for multiple orgasms,” she had often joked.
The boarding gates were now open. Jen drained her wine glass before gathering her belongings to join the long queue of passengers boarding for Paris. She was finding it difficult to process Frankie’s suicide. Murder and suicide are up there as the worst ways to lose someone – suicide possibly even more devastating because perhaps it could have been prevented. Did nobody see the signs? Had Frankie sunk into depression after Lee’s fatal car crash? Jen would never know because she had cut all ties with her after discovering the affair between her best friend and John, who just happened to be Jen’s husband. Despite their estrangement, they’d been friends long enough to know that Frankie hated the word “depression”. People had to “pull themselves together”.
There’d been many reasons to escape to Paris, the predominant one being to avoid Frankie’s cremation service. To have to publicly mourn her ex-friend’s death, which had shaken her more than she cared to admit. If she was going to feel down and be filled with regret, she would rather do it alone and in another country. If anyone would’ve been there to console her, it would probably be her two closest friends, Sharon and Claudia ... and then there was Patty. In the midst of all the angst, she had forgotten about Patty!
Patty had left unexpectedly for New York and her phone had been off ever since. They had all been worried about
her and had tried to follow up, but it was difficult to track her whereabouts at the best of times, and, if Jen was brutally honest, Patty had always been elusive. They actually knew very little about her, except that she was involved with some dubious, members-only Gentlemen’s Club at an undisclosed address in Cape Town, so there was no way they could simply pop into her workplace to enquire about her. Jen handed her boarding pass to the air hostess and was directed to her seat. She loaded her hand luggage in the compartment above her row and slid into her seat, fastening the seatbelt before removing the pillow and blanket from their plastic wrapping and placing them in the pocket in front of her. She plugged in the headphones, ready to use when needed, all the while ruminating over the turmoil Frankie’s death had triggered.
Before check-in, Jen had exchanged a very emotional farewell with her boyfriend, Myron.
Wanting more of a commitment from her, he had spent half the year begging her to move in with him. Having been married most of her adult life, she had tried to explain, in the gentlest possible way, that moving in with him did not excite her. She was satisfied with the way things were. Perfectly fine, in fact, with “multiple orgasms” (she smiled) and the novelty of having her own space. But still the knot in her stomach tightened at the thought that she may lose him forever, especially after opening his Whatsapp message.
“As difficult as this is for me, see this break as a hall pass.” A hall pass was the last thing on her mind, and it irked her that he had so readily sent her a permission slip. She may not have wanted the commitment that came with living together, but she certainly wasn’t winging off to Paris to cavort with other men. She would be in Paris for a few days to avoid Frankie’s cremation, yes, but also to indulge in a homage of sorts in memory of Frankie. Then she’d make her way down to the port of Monte Carlo where she was due to begin redesigning the interior of a superyacht, the Gwenhwyfar. She hadn’t done much research on the company, Helm Trading, but Zinhle, her assistant, had been in touch with Mr Jack Wallerst to confirm that she’d be starting work on the project a few weeks earlier than originally scheduled.
Jen shifted, inadvertently kicking the passenger’s seat in front of her. She was quick to apologise to its disgruntled occupant who turned to glare at her, but she was interrupted by the air hostess requesting she remove her earphones for take-off. At this point, Jen allowed herself to glance to her right to see who was seated beside her. An elderly woman was fussing over her husband, securing his seat belt and adjusting his headrest. Jen had been raised to believe that marriage was forever.
It had been her dream to grow old with John. She could have been that woman if the truth about her husband’s infidelity hadn’t hit her head-on. Numerous rumblings about John’s indiscretions and Frankie’s betrayal of her with her husband had sure as hell dashed any dream of growing old together. It had certainly altered her aspirations (if she had had any beyond a long and arduous together-forever).
Divorce had made her a more assertive and confident version of the Jen to which everyone had grown accustomed. Despite Brigit and Pete’s protestations about her leaving, and her emotional parting with Myron, more than ever, Jen was determined to do what suited her.