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Her Client from Hell
Louisa George
Her customer satisfaction guarantee…!Cassie Sweet has a new mantra in her life—failure is not an option! Her good-for-nothing ex might have run off with all her money, but she’s determined to make her new catering business a success. So no distractions. Nothing. Nada. Zero. Which means her infuriatingly rude—and exasperatingly handsome!—new client, filmmaker Jack Brennan, is definitely off the menu…After all, while the customer might always be right, Jack’s clearly every shade of wrong! So when his clothes end up on her bedroom floor why do they look so right? And the biggest question of all: is this a recipe for disaster—or the best mistake of her life…?
‘Jack.’ It was meant to be a warning. A definitive no. But it sounded like a whimper.
No, it sounded like an invitation. And maybe it was. Cassie didn’t know. Didn’t know anything, really—except that this man had stirred something in her that had long been dormant. Which was equal parts thrilling and scary. Actually, it was scary as hell.
Before she could breathe again Jack was in front of her, all six feet plus of impressiveness, his scent of heat and man filling her nostrils. His hard body … there. The open-necked shirt revealing just a little of a tanned chest that she suddenly wanted to touch, his smile now almost blossoming.
The street seemed to fade out a little as her vision narrowed to just him. His hand was on her cheek, the lightness of his touch making her heart stutter. The intensity in his eyes caused her abdomen to contract with a need she hadn’t expected.
This was utter crazyville. A choc chip short of a cookie. How could she want to slap him and kiss him at the same time? He was pompous and a giant pain in the neck … and she wanted to kiss him.
No. No. No.
Yes.
Dear Reader
After deciding to write a book we’re often told to write what you know, but with this book I got a chance to write what I love too! My heroine Cassie is a chef and, while I am far from the proverbial domestic goddess, I do absolutely adore food, so it was a real treat to be able to indulge that passion throughout Cassie’s story and have a little fun with it along the way!
I also love carnival time and dancing, so setting some scenes at the famous Notting Hill Carnival in London meant I could reminisce a little about my experiences there too—I hope I’ve captured some of the magic of this amazing event.
We met Cassie Sweet in my first Modern Tempted
book, BACKSTAGE WITH HER EX, where we discovered that she is a woman who just wants to have fun and takes life less than seriously. What could be better, then, than for her to meet her match in Jack Brennan, who is the ultimate in serious?
Now Cassie is trying to make a go of her catering business—under a certain amount of financial pressure—so she has to impress the unimpressable Jack in order to win a catering contract, while trying to ignore the pull of an intense attraction. Jack, meanwhile, is not interested in having any kind of deep and meaningful relationship, especially with a woman like Cassie, so watching these two struggling with the sizzling tension is a real delight (authors can be so mean!).
I love writing for the Modern Tempted series—the characters are so fresh and real and fun. I hope you enjoy reading about them too.
For all my writing news and release dates visit me at www.louisageorge.com (http://www.louisageorge.com)
Happy reading!
Louisa x
Her Client
from Hell
Louisa George
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
Having tried a variety of careers in retail, marketing and nursing (where a scratchy starched uniform was mandatory), LOUISA GEORGE is now thrilled that her dream job of writing for Harlequin Mills & Boon
means she gets to go to work in her pyjamas.
Originally from Yorkshire, England, Louisa now lives in Auckland, New Zealand, with her husband, two sports-mad teenage sons and two male cats. Writing romance is her opportunity to covertly inject a hefty dose of pink into her heavily testosterone-dominated household.
When she’s not writing or reading Louisa loves to spend time with her family and friends, enjoys travelling, and adores eating great food (preferably cooked by someone else). She’s also hopelessly addicted to Zumba
.
Visit her at www.louisageorge.com (http://www.louisageorge.com)
Other Modern Tempted
titles by Louisa George:
BACKSTAGE WITH HER EX
This and other titles by Louisa George are available in eBook format from www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To Warren, my carnival partner
and failed recipe attempt victim,
your support means everything to me.
Happy anniversary!
Thanks for the last 20 years—here’s to another 20!
I love you x
Contents
Chapter One (#u0acc93d0-6103-5a8c-9a99-99ea0b117e8d)
Chapter Two (#u5b3519d0-dff0-5628-9061-65c4b55a0052)
Chapter Three (#u95e1d454-47d5-5b7c-bbd0-f4cc1b24422c)
Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
ONE
Sweet Treats Website Contact Form, 10th August, 9.55p.m.
Hi! How can Sweet Treats help you?
Contact from: JB@zoom.co.uk
I need catering for a wedding party of 50 (fifty) adults (no children) on 6th September. Better include some vegan options. Nothing too ‘out there’. (Neither too trendy nor endangered).
Send menu suggestions ASAP.
I hope your food is better than your website.
JB
* * *
Whoa, someone was in serious need of a happy pill.
Cassie Sweet squeezed the bridge of her nose, closed her eyes and wondered what the hell she’d done that was so bad she had to endure this.
Impossible clients. 1: Like JB@zoom. At way too late o’clock, making rude comments about her business. 2: People who said things and then explained them in brackets.
Impossible choices. Her regular no-holds-barred mojito night with the girls struck out for a mind-distorting evening in front of the laptop trying to magic her business out of financial chaos.
And impossible decisions. Instead of telling JB where to stick their rude comments, she’d have to smile sweetly and reply positively. It was a job and, even though her work schedule was overflowing, one glance at her bank statement told her there were far too many minus signs. Looked as if she didn’t have a choice.
Email to: JB@zoom.co.uk
Well, hi, JB. Are you Mr? Miss? Dr? Rev? Lord?
Cassie resisted the temptation to add Sith?
Congratulations on your upcoming wedding!
Sweet Treats would be happy to help. Please find enclosed a copy of our specials menu and suggested vegan options for three, four and five courses. Please don’t hesitate to contact me for further info. I’m more than happy to talk things over.
Cassie
For Sweet Treats
She looked back down at the spreadsheet and willed the red numbers to be black. Damn her stupid trusting genes. She was way too much like her father; there was no doubt that William Sweet’s too-trusting blood definitely ran through her veins.
The figures swam in and out of focus. One day she’d been financially stable and then...wham! Sucker-punched by betrayal. She would never trust a man again.
Except, perhaps, for her bank manager, who she would not only trust but would love for ever if he could help her work a way out of this. Or maybe the bank manager was a woman? Who knew?
Her ex, actually. He’d set up the accounts with Cassie’s signature and apparent blessing. She, meanwhile, had focused on the catering side, giving little attention to running the business.
Well, hell, she was paying attention now. And oh, it would be so easy to run to her family and ask for help, but this time—this time—she was going to prove them all wrong. She did have stickability. She could cope without them.
Unlike her failed dog-walking business...her brief foray as a children’s entertainer...or the blip that was her disastrous market stall—why the hell they had to have them so early in the morning she didn’t know. This time she was going alone and this time she would succeed.
Her mobile rang. Blocked number.
Glancing at the clock, she breathed in, fists curling in anticipation. What time was it in deepest, conveniently out of killing distance, South America? By the time she’d finished with him, his number wouldn’t be the only thing that was blocked.
Picking up, she kept her voice steady. ‘Patrick, if that’s you I swear I’m going to take out my paring knife and chop your—’
‘Hey, hey. Steady, lady. Put. The. Knife. Down.’ The voice, so not her ex’s, was deep and dusky, a little tired at the edges. Like her. It wasn’t a posh accent per se—definitely London. Did she mention dusky?
‘I’m not Patrick. And even if I were I wouldn’t admit to it now.’
‘Believe me, if you were Patrick you wouldn’t have a breath left in your body.’ Although, three months down the line, she’d given up hope of seeing him or her money again. Case closed, they’d said.
‘Oh? A woman scorned?’
She supposed she was. Her ex hadn’t so much broken her heart as completely stamped on every trusting fibre in her body. ‘Who is this?’
‘Jack Brennan. I just got your email with suggestions.’
Not the ones she was really thinking. Such an unexpectedly warm voice for one so rude.
‘Oh, hello. Yes. My food is great; I come highly recommended. You saw the testimonial page?’
‘Eventually. Does it need to be so busy? I couldn’t find anything; it’s definitely not user-friendly. There are too many tabs. Too many options.’
Well, really? Mr Sexy Voice had become Mr Cocky and Irritating in the blink of an eye. Maybe she wasn’t so desperate that she needed to add his job to her already overflowing schedule.
Yes, she was. ‘Thanks for the feedback. I’ll make a note and consider a re-jig of my website next time I have an advertising budget.’ Like never. Raising her head above the cyberworld parapet and reminding the webmaster of her existence, and therefore her unpaid overdue bill, would only cause more trouble. ‘I guess it could do with a spruce.’
‘It needs a deforestation.’
Like your manners. ‘As it happens, the website detail belonged to my...er...ex-business partner. I’m making changes. It takes time.’
‘Your ex-partner and Patrick—I presume they’re the same person?’
‘Yes, he was the brains behind the business, allegedly. I’m the chef.’
‘Private party? Personal chef. Yes—’
‘Please don’t make any comments about that byline. I came up with it, and I like it.’ It was about the only thing she had left. Apart from my dignity, and that was starting to sag a little round the edges too.
