Leslie North’s Newsletter
The Jawhara Sheiks Series
The Sheik’s Pregnant Bride (FREE)
The Sheik’s Troublesome Bride
The Sheik’s Captive Bride
The Botros Brothers Series
The Sheik’s Accidental Pregnancy
The Sheik’s Defiant Girlfriend
The Sheikh's Demanding Fiancée
The Fedosov Family Series
The Russian's Stubborn Lover (FREE) (Excerpt Below!)
The Russian’s Bold American
The Russian’s Secret Child
The Denver Men Series
The CEO’s Pregnant Lover (EXCERPT BELOW)
The Marine’s Virgin Lover
FBI Agent’s Reluctant Lover
Navy Seal’s Innocent Italian
Catch Mason’s Story Next in the “Burton Brothers Series”
Mason cupped his hands around his mouth and yelled, “Control, Dustin. When are you going to learn some control?”
The kid had natural talent, but was all in his ground game. His standup skills sucked. Mason winced as Dustin took a hit from Beck. He and Beck had padded up the kid as much as possible, and Mason could see his brother pulling back. But it was clear Dustin was going to have to learn the hard way.
“Hold up,” Mason called out. He climbed into the training ring. Dustin backed off, breathing hard, his sandy hair darkened and matted by sweat. The guy was fit, no doubt about it. Muscles rippled on his chest, arms, and legs. But the padding Mason and Beck had put on him was making him sweat rivers. Mason pulled off the padding and tossed it out of the ring.
Once he was down to just his gloved hands, mouth guard and groin protection, Dustin pulled out his mouth protector and shot a narrow-eyed glance at Mason. “Told you I don’t need to be coddled.”
Glancing at his brother, Mason asked, “Ready?” Beck nodded.
Mason waved for Dustin to try other go with Beck. Dustin charged Beck, swinging hard. The kid looked like an uncoordinated colt—all long limbs. Also unpredictable, unsteady and dangerous. Beck tucked low and took Dustin to the ground with a kick. He slammed Dustin into a head lock.
“Okay, cool down,” Mason called out.
Dustin stopped struggling. Beck let him go and both men stood. Mason got in front of Dustin. “That’s three matches and each ones ended up in the same way—you on the mats and Beck in control. Dustin ducked his head low. “You starting to see you need help? You need to put that ego of yours aside if you’re going to learn.”
Shoulders slumping, Dustin pulled out his mouth guard again. “Okay, okay.”
Beck came over and propped a hand on Dustin’s shoulder. “Kid, you can fight. What you need to learn is patience. You need a ton more work at martial arts. You need to slow it down and make it solid.”
Nodding, Dustin followed Mason out of the ring. Mason threw the kid a towel. Dustin pulled off his sparing gloves. A ring from his bag had him bending down, pulling out his cell phone and groaning.
“Bad news?” Mason asked. He leaned over for a glimpse at Dustin’s cell phone, caught an image of a girl too gorgeous to be true. Golden waves of hair flowed around her face, curls bracketing a perfect oval. She smiled at the camera, deep violet-blue eyes warm and laughing. Mason sucked his breath in as her ethereal beauty struck him right in the chest. I could spend hours looking at her!
How had a kid like Dustin ever landed a girl like that?
“What?” Mason waved at the kid’s phone. “Who is she?”
Dustin rolled his eyes. “My older sister. She’d convinced her baby brother’s not old enough to wipe his own butt let alone fight.”
Mason’s jaw slackened. That angel face was Dustin’s overprotective sister? He’d heard Dustin mentioned her once or twice before and he’d imagined some dried-up, hatchet-faced nag who didn’t have a life outside of her brother. To hear Dustin talk, she was completely against the sport of MMA and was convinced that Dustin would die if he so much as stepped into the cage to fight.
Mason almost gave a laugh. “Kid you’re going to have to figure out if you go after your dream, or do you give in to her fears.”
Glancing up, Dustin fixed a desperate look on Mason. “You’ve got to help me. You know what family’s like, and she’s all I have left. She’s texting she’s going to come see me. You’ve got to help me make her see this is what I was born to do!”
Mason glanced at his brother. Beck held up his hands, bare now. “Hey, he asked you to help.”
Blowing out a breath, Mason glanced at the photo on Dustin’s phone. “Well, how hard can it be to convince an angle like that of anything?”
“Yeah, face of an angel and stubbornness of mule,” Dustin muttered. But he grinned. And a shiver trickled down Mason’s spine. What the hell had he just gotten himself into?
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Excerpt from ‘CEO’s Pregnant Lover’ (Download Instantly – Click here)
“HR, Janet speaking. How may I he-”
“Janet? Trent. I need you to send up a replacement for Pam. Her daughter was injured in an accident, and she just left to go take care of the children and such. I’ve no idea how long she will be gone, so send me someone that you weren’t planning on firing at the end of the week.” Trent said matter-of-factly. He didn’t really care if she fired twenty people each week; if they couldn’t do the job they could find somewhere else to work.
Janet Marshall worked as the head of HR for Coldwell Enterprises. She was not only a friend, she was the toughest woman Trent had working for him. She was also his second cousin and married to his best friend from college. While Janet didn’t have to work another day in her life, she enjoyed managing people and understood Trent in a way others didn’t. He was as alpha as they came, she’d never met a more dominating, arrogant man until Trent had come along.
“Oh dear! Which one of Pam’s daughters was hurt?” Janet asked with obvious concern in her voice. Pam had worked for the company for as long as she could remember, first as Trent’s father’s personal assistant, and now for Trent. She was one of the nicest women Janet had ever worked with and she only hoped that her daughter wasn’t too badly hurt.
“Susan,” Trent replied, thinly hiding his impatience.
The timing couldn’t be worse as Trent was in the process of acquiring a large production company in Europe and the contracts that had been drawn up by his European office were in chaos. He had been in the process of finalizing his corrections when Pam had announced that she must leave immediately. He needed these contracts fixed today!
“Oh, no. And she just delivered twins a few months back. That poor woman,” Janet commiserated over the phone. “Don’t worry about it; I have just the girl in mind. She’s only been working here for about six months, but her reviews are excellent.”
Janet was thinking of the young woman she had hired a little over six months back. Janet had interviewed her and been surprised at how mature she seemed for someone only twenty-four years old. Smiling to herself, she tried to envision how Trent would react to the young woman who wore her hair like a fifty year old, clothing that didn’t fit her body, or compliment her natural coloring, and honestly had no idea of just how attractive she could be. On top of all that, she was the most capable woman Janet had hired in months.
“Whatever - just send her up after lunch. I’m right in the middle of negotiations for that buyout in Germany, and Pam didn’t have time to make the corrections on the contract yet. I need them by 3 o’clock - if not sooner.”
“Not to worry. I’ll go tell her now and then send her to lunch. I assume that I can offer her the same benefits and salary that Pam was drawing?”
“Of course.” Trent started to hang up the phone when he heard Janet call him back. Sighing, he put the phone back to his ear and answered, “What?” Damn it, he had work to do. He didn’t have time to chitchat with Janet; that’s what her husband was for. He’d mention just that fact to Shawn next time he saw hi
m.
Janet took a breath and thought about keeping this information to herself, but then she decided that Trent would want to know. “Shawn and I went to that symphony fundraiser last night.”
Trent waited for her to continue, and when she didn’t, he impatiently replied, “And? I assume it was a smashing success and all that.”
“It was, but that wasn’t my point.”
“Well, get to it. I have work to do and so do you.”
“I saw Marco Bresi there.” Janet said in a rush, holding her breath for the explosion she assumed was coming. When nothing happened, she paused, letting Trent digest what she had just told him. Marco Bresi was a very wealthy, and very influential businessman in Europe. He and Trent had a past marked with tragedy and Marco had stayed in Europe for the last three years because of it. Janet had been shocked to see him back in the States, especially in Denver.
Trent was silent as he let Janet’s words sink in. Serena’s father was back in the states. Trent immediately tamped down on the emotion that threatened to sideline his focus. He hadn’t thought of Serena for several months now, and wanted to keep it that way.
Serena Bresi had taken the fashion world by storm at the age of sixteen. Three years after that, she had met Trent at a fundraiser in New York City and they had fallen madly in love. At least, Trent thought she had been in love with him as much as he had been with her.
Their love affair had been the subject of all the social magazines and the paparazzi had hounded them mercilessly. When Trent had taken over Coldwell Enterprises from his father, he had immediately used his many contacts in Europe to expand the company overseas.
Everything had been going smoothly, or so he thought. Serena had signed a contract with a large fashion house in Milan and had temporarily moved to Italy. Trent had missed her, but had so many things on his plate in the states, that the time had just seemed to slip away.
Four months later, he had flown to Milan to surprise Serena for the weekend. He had gone straight to her flat, flowers in hand, surprised to find her home in the middle of the afternoon. The surprise had been on him, however, as she had answered the door with the arms of her current lover wrapped intimately around her.
Trent had been so furious, he had immediately left and returned to the airport. His private jet had been airborne several hours later. Serena had called him repeatedly, but he had ignored her calls. Trent valued honesty and loyalty above all else, and her betrayal had hurt him deeply. He had let it be known to the media, that they had decided to break things off, but were still friends. He’d had no wish to tarnish her reputation in the publics’ eyes.
When she had called him three weeks later during the middle of the night, he had reached for the phone, unaware that she was on the other end of the line. Having been caught off-guard, he had listened as she tearfully apologized and begged for his help. It seemed that she had just found out she was pregnant and expected Trent to come to her rescue. Trent knew there was no possible way the baby was his since he hadn’t touched Serena for over five months.
Trent had been repulsed and hung up the phone without replying. Two days later, he received news that Serena had driven her car off a bridge. Her suicide note made it seem that Trent had refused to do the right thing and marry her, and that she couldn’t bear to shame her family by having a child out of wedlock.
Marco Bresi, Serena’s heartbroken father, had managed to keep the suicide note out of the media, but had vowed to get revenge for Serena’s death. He blamed Trent for causing her death. Trent had thought of telling Marco the truth, but didn’t think that her grief-stricken father was in any position to listen at the time so had kept silent.
True to his word, Marco had started to go after Trent, keeping their feud to the business world, thus far, but Trent knew that it was only a matter of time before Marco started trying to attack him in his personal life as well. Now that Marco had personally come to Denver, it seemed that time had arrived.
“Did you speak with him?” Trent asked.
“He didn’t give us a choice. He made a point of cornering us during the intermission. Trent, there was such hatred in his eyes when he asked about you. I know you and Serena broke up before her death…”
“Janet, let it go. I told you then, and I’ll tell you the same thing now. What happened between Serena and myself was between us. I will not discuss it and as she’s dead, there really is no point. Marco believes some things that are not true. I’ve tried to correct his thinking, but he doesn’t want to hear it. That is on him.” Trent took a breath and then continued, “Now, we both have work to do. Was there anything else you wanted to discuss with me?”
Janet wondered if she should just let it go like Trent had commanded, but then pushed forward anyway, “Trent, he asked me to deliver a message to you.”
Trent clenched his jaw and then looked to the ceiling before asking Janet to continue. Whatever the message was, he assumed it was more threat than anything and part of him felt bad that Janet and her husband had been put in the middle of his and Marco’s feud.
“Tell me.”
“He warned me that you were going to get what you deserve and that I should tell you to watch your back very carefully. He also mentioned a company called Global Tech. Does that mean anything to you?”
Trent cursed softly and quickly pulled his keyboard towards him and pulled up the information on the company they were currently buying out. When he scrolled down through the list of shareholders, he cursed again. How could he have missed something like that? Marco Bresi’s company owned thirty-two percent of the stock. No wonder he was in the states. He must have gotten wind that Coldwell Enterprises was in the process of negotiating a hostile takeover and was already talking with bidders, for when the company was split apart. The current shareholders stood to lose a lot of money when that happened.
Trent had dealt with Marco trying to derail other business negotiations, and Trent had made it a point to stay away from any company attached to the Bresi family name. He had no wish to harm Marco or his family, and didn’t have time for complications with this current negotiation.
Pinching the bridge of his nose, he held his breath and then let it go in a rush, “Janet, don’t worry about it. I’ll handle the problem. Get me that assistant.” Trent hung up the phone and then went back to reading the contract in front of him, making marks with a red pen as he went. He would deal with Marco later. Right now, he needed to finish these contract papers.
Janet shook her head as she said “Goodbye” to a dead line. Trent exasperated her with his ability to be rude without trying. One of these days she hoped he learned to curb his impatience, just a little bit. Shaking her head, she placed the call that would bring Trent’s stand-in assistant to her office and hoped that whatever Marco Bresi was planning would fail before it got off the ground.
*****
Trent Coldwell was the CEO of Coldwell Enterprises. If someone were to ask what the company did, the answers would vary. Coldwell Enterprises had many interests, but mainly purchased failing companies and then either sold them off in pieces, or turned them around and made them leaders in their market. They did their job very well.
At the age of thirty-one, Trent Coldwell was one of Denver’s most eligible bachelors, never lacking for female companionship, but never being seen with the same women for more than a few weeks. The fact that he was richer than Croesus didn’t hurt his eligibility either.
Trent Coldwell had inherited the company from his father upon his retirement, and had immediately implemented changes. He had successfully taken it from a small regional firm, and created an international mega-company with interests worldwide.
Not known for his patience, he briefly thought of calling Janet back and making sure that she was sending him someone who knew how to work and wouldn’t burst into tears at the first sign of criticism. He was a perfectionist and expected the same from his employees. He often spoke his mind and had been told by more than one employee that he
should take lessons in how to communicate effectively. Trent scoffed at the idea. He communicated fine. He told people what to do and they did it. End of story. He saw no reason to explain his requests as he was the boss and as they worked for him, it shouldn’t matter why he wanted something done. His employees were paid to take care of the job to the best of their ability. Deciding that he would just send the girl away if she were unsuitable, he went back to reading his contract.
Excerpt from ‘CEO’s Pregnant Lover’ (Download Instantly – Click here)
Excerpt from ‘The Russian’s Stubborn Lover’ (Download Instantly – Click Here) (FREE)
Julia Thompson sat at the bar and watched the crowded dance floor, once again trying to find her best friend, Tonya, amidst the masses of writhing bodies. She pushed her glasses up on her nose, and her brown hair off her forehead, fanning herself to move the air around.
It was Friday night and they were supposed to be celebrating Julia having won the coveted exchange position in her company. Every year, three employees from the American-based mining company traded placed with three employees from the Russian-based mining company. Prior to this year, all of the exchange positions had been filled with men, but Julia had proven that she could hold her own in the financial world. Much to her counter-part’s dismay, she had been given the chance to fill the position for the upcoming year. She would be leaving for Russia within the next few weeks and needed a break before the madness of preparing to leave the US for a year began.
She had been ecstatic and she and Tonya had gone out to celebrate. The hottest nightclub in the city was DYSH and they had waited for thirty minutes to gain access to the inside. The crowd was to be expected so early on a Friday evening, and Julia hoped that as the night progressed, the people would begin to thin out.
She loved to dance, but being pressed up against five other people while she did so was not her idea of a good time.
While she waited for Tonya to return, she glanced around the large room once more, focusing once again on the group of good-looking men sitting at the corner table. They were all tall, with dark hair, and great physiques. The two younger men kept going out on the dance floor, but the third man simply watched.
MMA Fighter's Fierce Temptation (The Burton Brothers Series Book 1) Page 9
