She wiped the tears from her cheeks and grabbed the box. Walking away from him, she looked like she was walking to a shooting squad.
Luke watched, wishing he could do something to help her, to make her feel more excited about the possibility. He probably shouldn’t have made her do this, he thought. He was positive about what was going on. He should have been content with that.
He paced back and forth, ignoring his cell phone that kept buzzing. It was his brothers. They all knew what Luke suspected and were waiting on news. Well, not waiting so much as trying to reach him to find out.
Damn, she was terrified! Luke glanced down at his watch, cringing at the passing of time. He shouldn’t have pushed so hard! She’d been in there for ten minutes now!
Thoughts of what she might be doing made his body tense with fear. Walking over to the bathroom, he found that the door was open and Naya wasn’t in there any longer. When he glanced to the side, he found her in her office. Her pink-walled, flowered-furniture office. She’d done this on purpose because he’d made so many comments about her flowered couch before their wedding. So, instead of having just one piece of furniture that was painfully frilly and feminine, they had an entire room filled with the stuff.
When she’d showed him the designs for this room, he told her that he wouldn’t be able to walk into the area. Too much estrogen, he’d quipped. She’d laughed. Damn, he loved it when she laughed.
Right now, she was crying though. She was crying and his heart wrenched with those tears as he walked over and knelt in front of her. “Naya, honey, it’s okay. I know you wanted to have kids, but we can keep trying.”
Naya looked down at him, loving the man so much. “I do want to have kids. Lots of them. With you.”
He took her hands, warming her cold fingers as best he could. “So the test was negative this time.” He tried to smile through the crushing disappointment he was feeling. He’d been so sure! She was two weeks late, she hated the smell of coffee, and he could barely touch her breasts because they were so sensitive. Damn, but he’d been sure all of that meant that she was pregnant!
“We’ll keep trying.” He pushed a copper curl out of her eyes. “I’ll dedicate every waking hour to the task. I promise.”
She laughed and some of the tension lifted from his shoulders. Not all, because he was still trying to come to terms with the fact that she wasn’t pregnant.
“No need,” she told him and turned the plastic stick around. “I’m pregnant now. You were right.”
He looked down and saw the plus sign. Then looked up into her pretty, brown eyes. “You’re sad about this?”
She shook her head quickly. “No. I thought I would be sad about it, but I’m so excited, I almost tripped coming out of the bathroom to tell you.”
He laughed, the disappointment lifting and his mind barely able to grasp the fact that Naya was pregnant! She was pregnant! They were going to have a baby! Damn, he hadn’t thought life could get much better! “Which is why you’re in here, right?”
She shrugged, thinking about the room. “Or maybe I’m just in here so that I can influence the gender of the baby,” she whispered. “You know – because of all the estrogen in here.”
He was stunned for a long moment and then he threw back his head and laughed. Standing up, he lifted her into his arms. Just holding her because he needed to. “I love you, Naya Steele,” he said softly. “And this baby is going to be a boy, so he can join our soccer team.”
Naya laughed. The brothers were all eager to get the males organized onto a soccer team, even though some were only a year or two old. Soccer balls and soccer paraphernalia regularly showed up under Christmas trees and at birthday gatherings, even though the infants and toddlers had no idea what to do with the soccer balls.
“Girls can play soccer too,” she argued right back.
He chuckled. “Yeah, but so far, none of the ladies in my family have given us a girl. I’m just following the trend.”
Naya laughed, but she sobered as reality came rushing back to her. Pregnant! Goodness, she and Luke were going to have a baby! “I love you so much!” she whispered.
“I love you too.” He smiled, thinking about adding a room filled with male stuff that could counter the estrogen in this room.
Excerpt from “A Difficult Man to Love”
Book 1 of the Friends Forever Series
“What am I doing here?” she whispered as she stared out the floor to ceiling windows. The view was magnificent! She’d never seen Washington, D.C. from this height before. The headquarters to Chenko Industries wasn’t actually in Washington, D.C. but was right across the Potomac River in Arlington, Virginia. Hence the sky rise building and the amazing view. The buildings in Washington, D.C. weren’t very high. There was an old law limiting the height of buildings in the nation’s capital to be no higher than one hundred and ten feet. That law had been amended, but the buildings still couldn’t be very high. Hence, any tall buildings were constructed just outside the actual city limits in both Virginia and Maryland.
And there were very few plants, she thought.
Her eyes scanned the horizon, looking for green. There was the National Mall, which was a swath of grass going from the Capital building all the way down to the Lincoln Memorial with the Washington Monument right in the middle. The grass was lined with big, tall, beautiful trees but…
With a sigh, she turned away from the view. She was focusing on the wrong things. Finding patches of green amidst the sea of concrete structures was not going to help her figure out how to broach the subject of selling her land. Especially not after their last meeting. She’d been so adamant, so firm about not selling her family’s land and home to the man who had…well, he’d irritated her with his arrogance and…and his eyes. Yeah, his eyes had conveyed a completely different conversation.
Of course, that wasn’t the reason she’d refused to sell to him. It had only been why she’d been so rude.
Hayden pulled oxygen into her lungs, trying to get her head back in gear. It was just the thought of how tall he was that was making her feel like this. Shaky. Nervous. She wasn’t excited. Nope. She rejected the possibility that this this tingling sensation was excitement.
He was a challenge, she told herself. And Hayden always loved a challenge.
She looked like a pauper, Hayden thought. The borrowed clothes didn’t fit her properly and everyone could see that. Even the man’s assistant had looked down her nose at Hayden’s dress and shoes.
Ugh! There was nothing to be done about it though. She was a glorified farmer, just like her father and grandfather. She might have a degree in botany and know more of the technical details on how to grow things and she grew things that made a yard more beautiful instead of something one could put on a table, but in essence, she was still a farmer. Nothing more, nothing less.
Normally, she felt a great deal of pride in her work, loving the plants that she raised and knowing that her “babies” were superior, healthier. But in this kind of corporate environment, she still felt…awkward. Amid the ladies who knew how to elegantly walk into a room in heels and speak on just about any subject, how to sway their hips so that a man took a second look, Hayden felt like a schoolgirl playing dress-up.
Lifting her chin, she shook off her silly thoughts. She shouldn’t concern herself with someone else’s opinion. She knew who she was. Deep down inside, she was a good person. She didn’t lie, cheat or steal. She loved to read anything she could get her hands on and she cared about the world and her community. At the end of the day, being a good person was all one could ask, right? Knowing how to buy the perfect dress was not her priority.
Shake it off, girl!
Viktor’s hands crumbled the note his assistant had given him. She was here. The gorgeously defiant, beautiful woman from the plant nursery was waiting for him in his office. Storming out of the meeting without any explanation didn’t concern him. His second in command could take charge. Nothing else mattered because…H
ayden Ferrant was in his office.
The woman had haunted his dreams over the past thirty days. He’d thought of her too many times, smiling over the stubborn tilt of her jaw which was such a contradiction to her adorable nose and her soft, full lips.
Walking down the hallway, he accepted that he was more interested in this woman because she’d defied him, threw his offer to buy her land in his face. Yes, she was lovely. But he had been with many beautiful women over his lifetime. They were always around, always more than willing. But Hayden Ferrant…chert! She was one of a kind. Smart, unconsciously sexy and independent to a fault. Despite her lack of creature comforts, she had scoffed at his offer.
Stepping through the door, he watched the delicate beauty walk around his office, amazed by the innate elegance in her movements. He was fascinated. What was it about this woman? From the first moment he’d met her, Viktor knew that he’d acted out of character. Oh, he was still a bastard towards the woman, but in different ways than how he treated his business competitors. With the competition, he crushed them.
As he watched, she smoothed her hands down over her slender hips and he almost growled with the desire to do that himself.
How the hell could she look so elegant in a dress that was two sizes too big for her finely boned figure? Her hair looked…soft even though it was pinned up in what might have been an elegant twist, but soft, wisps of dark curls escaped, gently framing her lovely features. Her beauty wasn’t tied up in superficial accoutrements. Her elegance and self-confidence was just who she was.
That sense of self was what made her so…alluring. Enticing.
Beautiful.
Pulling himself out of his contemplation of her figure, he closed the door to his office and walked purposefully towards his desk. “Ms. Ferrant. I thought we’d concluded our business during our last conversation,” he said conversationally. His hand indicated one of the leather chairs in front of his desk. “To what do I owe this visit today, then?”
As he came around to sit in the big, leather chair, Viktor was once again shocked by the beauty of her eyes. Those lashes! Long, dark and thick, those lashes framed eyes that belonged to a cat, he thought. A mischievous, adorable, sexy cat. And those lips! Damn, his body was contemplating what she might taste like, feeling those lips against his mouth as she kissed him back.
She blinked at him and all thoughts of sexy cats and purring kittens vanished. There was a flash of vulnerability there that captured his attention. Gone was the confident woman who had basically told him to go to hell last month when he’d offered to buy her house and farmland. At this moment, as she tried to hide her vulnerability from him, and failed, all of his previously non-existent protective instincts kicked into high gear.
Those shockingly blue eyes glared at him. “I was wondering if the offer to buy my family’s land and house was still available,” she explained.
Viktor watched with a fascination that bordered on fury as she licked her lips. Was she doing that on purpose? Was she trying to sexually torment him?
Women had tried their little tricks on him before, never succeeding. If he was interested, he would allow a woman to lure him into her arms. If he wasn’t interested, he would walk away.
So why was this woman’s seemingly unconscious gesture making his body harden with a desire that almost doubled him over with need?
Perhaps it was that unconscious defiance tied to the sexual come-on. He wasn’t sure, but it was powerful.
The shaking of her hands as she smoothed her skirt down over her knees was his first clue that she wasn’t doing this to him on purpose. Every gesture, every covert glance through those thick lashes was…genuine? Impossible!
So why was she pushing the hemline of her skirt down lower? If she were trying to play him, she’d be sliding that hemline higher, trying to give him a glimpse of what was on offer.
“So…?” she prompted.
Viktor looked at the gloriously daring beauty standing so primly on the other side of his desk. He’d done his research on this woman. She ran one of the best plant nurseries in that area. Her plants were healthier than anyone else’s and she had a larger, more diversified stock. But as much as the woman knew about plants and growing things, she knew nothing about business. She was in debt up to her pretty, blue eyes, underpriced her products, had no ongoing collections efforts and allowed her customers to walk all over her, falling for every sob story.
A month ago, he’d told himself he was getting information in order to put her out of business. He needed her land in order to start development in that area. As his research team pulled more and more information together on this woman, the only hindrance left to the bigger picture of developing the land out her way, he’d thought of about twenty different ways to pressure her into selling him her land.
But he hadn’t implemented any of them.
And now she was sitting here, looking shockingly beautiful and still defiant, yet ready to sell him the land he needed without any effort on his part.
“No,” he told her, unaware of the intensity of his look as his mind worked through his next move.
When her eyes dropped, he could have sworn that he saw a hint of a tear. Damn it, tears had never bothered him before. Why did the glisten of her eyes make him want to lift her up into his arms and tell her that he’d make everything okay?
“I see,” she was saying. Her fingers were trembling in earnest now as she picked up her purse. Holding that accessory against her stomach, he suspected that she was having trouble absorbing his answer and his gut churned with acid. “I’m so sorry to have wasted your time.”
He saw her prepare to leave and everything inside of him wanted her to stay. He didn’t examine his motives too closely as he quickly made up his mind. “But I’ll save your business.”
Those crystal blue eyes looked up at him, surprised, but not nearly as surprised as he was. Just two days ago, he’d had a meeting to determine how and when to put her out of business. Now he was saying he would save it? It was her eyes, he thought as the startling blue looked across his desk at him. He felt like he’d just been punched in the gut. How could a pair of pretty eyes have such an impact?
“I’m sorry?”
Viktor stood up and came around to the other side of his desk. Leaning against the steel and glass, he looked down at her, wanting to banish the fear and worry in those lovely eyes. “Marry me and I’ll save your business.”
Here’s what’s coming up over the next year…
Of course, in November, Luke’s story comes out – the final book in the Steele Brothers romance.
And then, several new series are ready for your reading pleasure.
A Christmas Wedding
Five Novellas for $0.99 Each
Released Each Week from November through December 2017
Four college friends, one wedding date – Five Weddings!
(Titles Subject to Change)
Stolen Time – November 18, 2017
Click Here to PreOrder
Passionate Mystery – November 25, 2017
Click Here to PreOrder
The Seductive Truth – December 2, 2017
Click Here to PreOrder
Doing the Right Thing – December 9, 2017
Click Here to PreOrder
Making Her Smile – December 16, 2017
Click Here to PreOrder
Friends Forever Series
A Difficult Man to Love – December 25, 2017
Click Here to PreOrder
Spanish Passions – January 2018
(Pre Order Links coming soon!)
The Sheik’s Redemption – February 2018
(Pre Order Links coming soon!)
The Russian’s Proposal – March 2018
(Pre Order Links coming soon!)
Also in the queue:
Navy SEALs
Five men have to team together for five special missions.
This is a bit different from my normal stories. All the books in th
is series will be a complete romance (NO CLIFFHANGERS!) but I’m weaving a mystery throughout the whole series that will be resolved in the final story. It is going to be a bit of a challenge so I’m not sure when it will be finished, but it’s in the works.
Lottery Winners!
I was inspired by the story of the woman who won $458M in the big jackpot. I dreamed about what I would do if I’d won that much money, imagined what life would be like…and then I realized I didn’t have to just dream it! I could WRITE it!
Four employees, three waitresses and a cook, in a greasy, truck stop diner, win a mega jackpot and split it four ways. This series will tell how each of them change their lives, what they do with all of that money, how they fall in love and how they change a small part of their world.
Of course I have another sheik series – four siblings, three brothers and their sister. This is more in line with my regular stories and I’m just having fun with new ideas.
The Jones Brothers
Right now, this is a two book series – One brother has built up a makeup empire – but now he finds love. The other brother is a sheriff in a small mountain town – slapping his forehead as the new lovely lady in town learns how to not kill herself while running the only bar in town.
Book List
I used to include my entire backlist of stories, but the list has gotten so long, that I’ve had to shorten it a bit. So for a full list of all my stories, go to http://www.elizabethlennox.com/books/.
Below are just some of the more recent and upcoming books. Enjoy for many hours of escape!
(By the way, I also write a line of erotica romances under the name Gabriella Rossi. They are a bit more sexual in nature, but still have the delicious alpha males and the strong women – just with an erotic slant. You can find more about them here: http://www.elizabethlennox.com/TheAlexaCollection)
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