Total pages in book: 88
Estimated words: 84673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 84673 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 423(@200wpm)___ 339(@250wpm)___ 282(@300wpm)
She mentally shook her head. No, she couldn't say that either. Because even though his penchant for PDA was a little embarrassing, it was also an inherent part of Slade, and she would never want to change him.
So what else was left to say?
Kady took a deep breath.
"You—-"
Slade pressed a kiss to her forehead, and the gesture startled her into silence.
"I know, sweetheart. I butt you, too."
The End
Previously published as Billionaire Rancher Secret Crush (Thornton)
He thought he was hiring a woman...
Thornton had only one requirement for his live-in shopkeeper: someone who wouldn't run away crying the moment he scowled.
And Blake Golding?
She might be the wrong gender, but she was definitely what he had asked for...since his irrepressibly cheerful employee-slash-roommate seemed to have fallen in love with him at first sight.
The Bachelor and
His Forbidden Roommate
By Marian Tee
Previously published as Billionaire Rancher Secret Crush (Thornton)
Copyright 2023 by Marian Piñera
All rights reserved. This book or any portion thereof may not be reproduced or used in any manner whatsoever without the express written permission of the publisher except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
All characters appearing in this work are fictitious. Any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.
Chapter One
DEAR CONSTITUENTS OF Hartland, Wyoming:
A Hollywood studio has requested permission to shoot a movie here for three months. After making some inquiries, I've learned that the director attached to the film is rather infamous for making a lot of noise when things don't go his way.
That said, the temperamental SOB is highly likely to feel offended and suspicious if we turn the studio's request down.
In light of this, I propose we simply bite the bullet and see how things turn out. We've always known we'd have to deal with something like this sooner or later. We can use this as a learning exercise and make adjustments as we see fit.
Please contact my secretary if you would like to have her provide you suitable candidates to temporarily take over management of your respective establishments. Let others work in your stead whenever filming is scheduled in your area.
Your cooperation on this matter will be deeply appreciated.
Sincerely,
Oliver Winterbourne II
Mayor of Hartland, Wyoming
THE BOOKSTORE WAS A plain stone building with a well-aged look to it, and hanging on top of its porch was an equally plain white signage board. Painted on it was the shop's name - HARTLAND BOOKS - in no-nonsense Times New Roman. The overall effect could've been excessively stark, but having colorful book spines pressed against its cut-up windows gave its simplicity a rather whimsical charm of its own.
All in all, Frankie could see why her bookish friend was so enamored with her weeks-old workplace, but...
"Oh my God, Blake. Will you please stop that?" Frankie complained in a groan.
"Stop what?" Blake pocketed her keys as she pushed the store door open and stepped aside to let her friend in.
"That." Frankie made a vague, irritable gesture towards her friend's face. Blake's eyes were shining too brightly, and the idiotic grin hadn't left her friend's face ever since Frankie had accidentally let it slip about Thornton Blackwood being single for years.
"I really don't get what you see in him," Frankie grumbled. So, sure, Thornton and his twin Aidan were dead ringers for Keanu Reeves, but with the former it was having a more distinct likeness to John Wick.
He was just had this terrifying way of looking at a person, Frankie thought uncomfortably, like being dropped dead in the middle of a sniper rifle's crosshairs.
Inside the shop were bookshelves standing a dozen feet tall and reaching all the way to the ceiling. Ladders on rollers were on every side, and in one corner was a reading area with mismatched chairs paired with wooden tables edged in black steel.
After placing her tote bag under the counter, Blake joined her friend at the table, where Frankie already had their homemade salad bowls out of her eco-bag and was already pouring coffee from a flask.
"Mmm." Blake took an appreciative whiff of the salad, which was Frankie's specialty. "I smell truffle."
"All thanks to you," Frankie answered.
"Me?" The answer bewildered Blake, and the ambivalent look on her friend's face was an even greater puzzle.
"I got my recruitment bonus last Friday." It had been twice the usual amount, too, and rightly so, considering how their local John Wick had rejected over twenty job candidates in just one week.
No. Next. She won't do. He had Frankie climbing walls in frustration, with the way he wouldn't even deign to explain what his darn criteria was. By the time Thornton threw Candidate #31's resume into the rubbish bin, she had been ready to quit and was about to tell Mayor Winterbourne to find someone else for the job when her phone started to ring.
It had been Blake, whose mood at that time had erratically swung from tearful to panicky as she relayed her dilemma to Frankie in a choppy jumble of words. Apparently, Blake's grandmother had suffered a mild stroke, and it had left Amanda partially paralyzed. The quickest and surest way for Amanda to regain full control of her limbs was to undergo therapy at a nursing home and enjoy round-the-clock medical supervision.