We've picked some of our favourite
romantic reads to keep you warm this festive season in our #12booksforChristmas
Title: A Madaris Bride for Christmas
Author: Brenda Jackson
Genre: Contemporary Romance
❤❤❤❤❤
"Fans
of the Madaris family will love this. But even if you're not, you should still
read this fabulous story filled with suspense and sensuality." ~ Maya 😘
BLURB
One by one, Madaris
men have surrendered to the matchmaking schemes of Felicia Laverne Madaris,
matriarch of the family. But Lee Madaris isn’t letting anyone else control his
destiny.
He’ll bring a bride
of his own choosing to the family’s holiday gathering—if his hotel’s gorgeous
new chef will agree to a marriage of convenience. It’s not just the chance to
work at the Strip’s hottest hotel that brought Carly Briggs to Vegas.
Witnessing a crime in Miami may have made her a mob target. Though she’s
reluctant to complicate their working relationship, Lee’s tempting offer is so
hard to resist. And soon, desire is clouding their no-strings arrangement. The
danger that made Carly flee Miami is about to land at their door. So Carly and
Lee must decide who to trust, when to let go—and whether a love they never
anticipated is strong enough to pass the ultimate test.
SNIPPET
"Are you sure
you saw what you think you saw, Carly?”
Instead of answering
her best friend, Carly Briggs took a sip of her drink. The liquid nearly
scorched her throat going down. Vodka?
“Where did you get
this?”she asked, drawing in a cooling breath. As far as she knew, the only
alcohol she and Heather Kramer kept in their apartment was wine.
Heather shrugged.
“Lori gave it to me. She cleaned house and said it was left over from the New
Year’s Eve party she gave three years ago.”
Carly remembered
that party. She and Heather had just moved to Miami and into their apartment
near South Beach. Lori Cummins, a neighbor who lived in the apartment across
the hall, had thrown a party that weekend and invited them.
“Now, let’s not get
sidetracked,” Heather said, reclaiming Carly’s attention. “Are you sure you
saw—”
“I didn’t see
anything,” Carly said, her agitation not yet helped by the alcohol. “It’s what
I heard—coming through a vent in the wine room. Several men were arguing in the
alley outside the restaurant. They accused this guy of being a traitor. Then I
heard a gunshot that seemed to be muffled with a silencer.”
The conversation was
something Carly would never forget. The deep, raspy, intimidating voice of one
man and the terrifying sound of another man pleading for his life. It was a
wonder she hadn’t screamed and given her location away.
Instead, she’d
frozen and then her surroundings went black. The next thing she remembered was
being awakened by Chef Renaldo, who didn’t want to hear anything she had to say
about men and gunshots. Instead, she had been scolded about going over her
break time by ten minutes and not pulling her load on a busy night.
Fearing someone was
possibly bleeding to death in the alley, she’d talked one of the staff waiters
into going outside with her to look around. She’d made up some excuse about
hearing a kitten crying. They had checked all over the place and found nothing.
“Maybe you only
thought you heard it,” Heather said, looking at her with concern in her eyes.
“You even admit that Chef Renaldo woke you up. Maybe you dreamed you heard it.”
Instead of taking
another sip of her drink, Carly placed the glass on the table. “Why would I
dream such a thing?”
Heather stood and
waved off her question. “How would I know? You’ve been working a lot of crazy
hours and Chef Renaldo has been getting on your last nerve. Maybe all the
stress is catching up with you.”
“Maybe you’re
right,” Carly said, although she knew Heather wasn’t right.
She knew what she’d
heard, which was why she’d arrived home tonight needing a strong drink, why she
had called the police tip line. The tip-line operators promised to scramble
callers’ phone numbers so the call couldn’t be traced. She was glad it was
anonymous. The last thing she wanted was for anyone to think she was a loony
tune.
Carly stood. “I’m
going to take a bath and go to bed. The restaurant is opening early tomorrow
for a baby shower and I’ll be one of the chefs on duty to help prepare the
desserts.”
“But tomorrow is
your off day,” Heather reminded her.
“I know, but I can
use the money.”
“Now you’re making
me feel bad about moving out.”
Carly reached out
and grabbed Heather’s hand. “Please don’t feel bad. It’s not every day a woman
meets the man of her dreams. I love you, girl, but had it been me, I would have
married Joel months ago. He’s the best.”
And she really meant
it. The guy Heather had met and fallen in love with last year, Joel Garcia, was
CEO of a marketing firm in Spain, where they would make their home. The wedding
was planned for next month. A June wedding. And Carly was the maid of honor.
“Don’t forget that
you have that job interview with the hotel in Vegas next week,” Heather
reminded her, standing too.
Carly nodded. She
had gotten a call from one of her instructors from the Parisian culinary school
she had attended. He’d advised her that a newly opened hotel in Las Vegas was
looking for a pastry chef and he had thought of her. He had wanted her to apply
for the job and promised that he would highly recommend her for the position.
That Chef LaPierre
would go out of his way to call her and offer her a recommendation was all the
encouragement she’d needed. A few weeks later she’d received a letter inviting
her to Vegas to be interviewed.
“After last night,
I’m going to need the trip.”
“And the job would
be nice too,” Heather said, laughing.
“Of course.”
Carly had made the
right decision, moving to Miami with Heather three years ago. Heather’s job as
program coordinator with a major cruise line had transferred her here, and
Carly had just broken up with Nathaniel Knox, the minister she’d met while
volunteering to feed the needy, after a serious relationship. At the time,
leaving Porter, Connecticut, had been the best thing.
Although Carly liked
Miami, there was really nothing to keep her here once Heather married and moved
to Spain.
“Yes, the job in
Vegas would be nice, but if that doesn’t work out, I’ll be fine here. Rumor has
it that Chef Renaldo has his eye on that position opening up at a restaurant in
South Beach.”
“And you hope he
gets it, right?”
Carly smiled. “It
would definitely make my life easier. The man can be simply horrid.”
“Well, I’m hoping
something works out with that interview. Moving to Vegas would be good for
you.”
Carly chuckled.
“Yeah, me and Sin City. If I do get the job, the next time I go home, Aunt
Ruthie is sure to pray all over me.”Ruth Briggs was the grand-aunt who’d raised
her since she was a baby.
Heather threw her
head back and laughed. “Yes, I can see your aunt doing that.”
Carly bade Heather
good-night and made her way to her bedroom. Without Heather to distract her,
her thoughts shifted back to what she’d heard through the vent earlier that
evening.
She had checked the
alley for victims. She’d given the police a tip. There was really nothing more
she could do. First thing in the morning she would check the newspapers to see
if anything was mentioned. If not, she would no longer lose sleep wondering
what did or did not happen in the alley.
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