Table of Contents
Title Page
Book Description
Blindfold Release Schedule
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
All series from M. S. Parker
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Acknowledgement
About The Authors
Blindfold Vol. 1
By Cassie Wild and M.S. Parker
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Copyright © 2015 Belmonte Publishing LLC
Published by Belmonte Publishing LLC.
Book Description
I came from a large family, neither rich nor poor. We never went hungry, but we always had to work for what we wanted. So when I was sent to work as the personal assistant to Isadora Lang, the twenty year-old orphan and multi-billionaire heiress, I knew I could never fit into her world. Not that I had any desire to fit in…that was, until I met her gorgeous ass of an older brother, Ashford Lang.
For the last thirteen years, Ashford Lang has been the substitute parent to his younger sister, and when he hears that Isadora has hired a personal assistant named Toni Gallagher, he's determined to do what he's always done – protect his baby sister.
The last thing he expects when meeting Toni is a tiny, fiery redhead who doesn't give a damn who he is. A challenge no doubt. One that Ash is more than willing to take.
What he doesn't know is that, soon, Toni will be the least of his concerns.
Don't miss the first steamy book in the Blindfold series, the newest collaboration from M. S. Parker and Cassie Wild.
Blindfold Release Schedule
Blindfold Vol. 1 – September 18th
Blindfold Vol. 2 – September 25th
Blindfold Vol. 3 – October 2nd
Blindfold Vol. 4 – October 9th
Blindfold Vol. 5 – October 16th.
Chapter 1
Toni
“Six months.”
I stared at the check Dr. Willis Schumacher had given me when I visited him in the hospital, trying to understand how this could have happened. All right, I understood how it happened. On an intellectual level anyway.
A hand reached out and tugged my hair, successfully getting my attention. Victor, my pain-in-the-ass older brother was grinning at me. He'd always pissed me off when he pulled my hair as a kid, but it had always been impossible not to smile at least a little.
Only a little, though.
It would take quite a bit more to make me smile as much as I normally did. I didn’t get down often, but the past week had managed to shoot my mood straight down to the level of toxic.
“Aw, come on, Sis.” Vic braced his elbows on the table and leaned down, trying to catch my gaze. His dark red hair was the exact same shade as mine and the wind blew it back from his face. “It’s going to work out.”
The brisk April breeze had managed to rip my hair from its loose knot, so I glared at him through a tangle of hair. “Six fucking months!”
He sighed and leaned back in his chair. “Toni…”
“Stop it, Vic.”
Aggravated, I surged up from the wrought iron chair and started to pace. We’d met for coffee in Bryant Park, which showed how well Vic knew me. At twenty-seven, he was three years older than me and we'd always been close. It had been Vic and me against our three older brothers more times than I could count. And he knew that what I needed right now was to vent.
“Doc Schumacher had a heart attack, Toni.”
Sometimes, I needed somebody to yell at since I couldn't yell at life.
“Really?” I practically snarled at him. “So that’s why I spent ten minutes pounding on his chest?”
Ribs had cracked. I’d never forget the sound of it. Rubbing the heel of my hand over my chest, I swallowed back the bile that rose there even as I thought of it now, days later.
Vic lapsed into silence. Doc Schumacher, my boss – former boss now – was one of my oldest friends. One of my family’s oldest friends. I’d known him since I was a little girl. He was part of the reason I decided I wanted to help people. I’d had a kitten when I was four, and she’d somehow managed to break her leg. He’d found me bawling in the alley next to my family's house, the house where my parents still lived.
He’d helped calm the kitten – and me – down, then he’d stabilized her leg and taken me to my parents. Her name had been Reeses. Like the candy. She died a few years ago. I’d never forgotten how kind he’d been. That was one of the reasons I'd wanted to work for him while I put myself through college.
I guess that’s why I wasn’t prepared for the fact that the heart attack that almost killed him would also terminate my employment earlier than I'd planned. Willis had always seemed invincible to me. Even at seventy-two, I'd only seen him as strong and capable. I'd seen him that way up until the moment he collapsed. When he told me that his doctor told him he had to make major changes, I hadn't truly realized what that would mean.
I was trying to be logical about this. Logical and not selfish, but the job that had paid my tuition, my living expenses, for my books, for everything these past few years was just…gone.
I was six months shy of being done with my Ph.D in psychology. I could have been done two years ago, but balancing the course load with my finances…well. It was basically impossible.
Feeling Vic’s gaze on me, I looked over at him. “Where am I going to find another job that will pay what I make and let me have the days off I need to finish up?”
“I might have an idea,” he said.
His dark eyes shifted away from mine, and I knew whatever he was thinking was probably a bad idea. I loved my big brother, but he wasn't exactly known for his good ideas. I lifted my face to sky and blew out a breath.
Six damn months. The luck I had sometimes was just ridiculous. Although, looking at it logically, I wasn’t the one who’d technically died for six minutes, so I supposed I was being a bit petty.
“Talk about putting things in perspective,” I muttered.
“If you’re done talking to yourself...”
Glaring at him, I shoved my hair out of my face as the wind snatched at it again. I swore as it whipped across my face. Going to sit back by my brother, I dug through the messenger bag that doubled as a purse and book bag.
“Whatever idea you have probably isn’t the sort of job I want, Vic.”
I ran a brush quickly through the snarls and then separated my heavy hair into two sections. The braided pigtails might look juvenile to some, but it was a style that had been popular for a reason – it worked. Especially for pain-in-the-ass hair like mine.
“Fine.” Vic shrugged. “Don’t listen to me. I guess you can always go to work for the family business.”
I made a face at him, refusing to let the idea even settle in my brain. My family was close, as close as a family could be, really. But there was still tension between Vic and the rest of our brothers. And with Dad.