âI know exactly what I want, Lena.â
Something in the way Morgan said those words heated her blood. Was she imagining things, or had his voice dropped suggestively lower when heâd made the statement?
âI need to know your likes and dislikes,â Lena said, after a calming, deep breath. âIâd like to ask you some questions,â she said.
âAsk away.â
âAre you interested in a single-story or two-story structure?â
âTwo-story.â
She nodded as she jotted the information down. âHow about a swimming pool?â
âUmm. Do you swim, Lena?â
She looked up, surprised by his question. âYes.â
Morgan nodded. âThen Iâd like a pool and a nice yard. It really doesnât matter how big the living room is as long as the house has a large master bedroom. Thatâs where I plan to spend most of my time.â
Figures, she thought, jotting the information down. Lena couldnât resist the image that suddenly flashed through her mind. It was a vision of a sleeping Morgan, naked and tangled in silken sheetsâ¦
is a die âheartâ romantic who married her childhood sweetheart and still proudly wears the âgoing steadyâ ring he gave her when she was fifteen. Because sheâs always believed in the power of love, Brendaâs stories always have happy endings. In her real-life love story, Brenda and her husband of thirty-three years live in Jacksonville, Florida, and have two sons.
A USA TODAY bestselling author, Brenda divides her time between family, writing and working in management at a major insurance company. You may write Brenda at P.O. Box 28267, Jacksonville, Florida 32226, by e-mail at [email protected] or visit her Web site at www.brendajackson.net.
To Gerald Jackson, Sr.,
my husband, hero and best friend.
To my readers who have been
waiting patiently for Morganâs story.
To my Heavenly Father who gave me the gift to write.
And lead us not into temptationâ¦
âMatthew 6:13
Dear Reader,
For all of those cynics that donât believe in true love, I say, âOf course there is a soul mate out there for everyone, and no one should settle for anything less!â
For example, take the case of Helena (Lena) Spears. I know people like Lena, and Iâm sure you do, too. Lena lovingly takes on the role of primary caretaker for her elderly mother. She never has time for herself, and because of her family obligations, she has dating âchallenges.â After many disappointments, Lena gives up on finding a man who will accept, support and love her.
And although she doesnât know it at first, Morgan Steele is just the man that Lena needsâif only she could open her heart, mind and soul to what he is offering. But never fear, because Morgan is a Steele. And what Morgan wants, Morgan is determined to get.
I hope you enjoy reading how Morgan and Lena work through their issues and discover what is waiting for them beyond temptation.
Brenda Jackson
To Gerald Jackson, Sr., my husband, hero and best friend. To my readers who have been waiting patiently for Morgan's story. To my Heavenly Father who gave me the gift to write.
And lead us not into temptation
Matthew 6:13
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Epilogue
About the Author
âMr. Steele, your two oâclock appointment has arrived.â
Morgan Steeleâs pulse immediately kicked up a notch with his secretaryâs announcement. He inhaled deeply and deliberately cleared his mind of everything except the woman who was about to walk into his office. Helena Spears.
âGive me a few minutes, Linda, before sending her in.â
âYes, sir.â
After clicking off the line he stood and threw the papers heâd been reading into his briefcase before snapping it shut and inwardly telling himself to relax. Getting Helena to his office had been the first hurdle, and he was determined to make it over the rest. He was smart enough to know that if at first you donât succeed you try again, and today he was a man with a more defined plan.
Putting his briefcase aside he found himself glancing toward the door, his pulse kicking up another notch as he remembered the nightâa little more than a year agoâwhen he had first seen her as she walked into that charity ball wearing a very sexy fuchsia-colored dress. There had been something about her entrance that had momentarily taken his breath away, left him awestruck, mesmerized. And moments later when he had gazed into the warmth of her cinnamon-brown eyes, he had felt it. It had happened just the way heâd known it would once he found herâthe perfect woman he had been holding out for all these years.
The only thing that hadnât happened as heâd assumed it would was her acceptance. Lena, as she was known to her family and friends, wasnât seeing things quite his way. Sheâd tried to explain to him, in a nice way and more than once, that she wasnât interested in a man-woman relationship of any kind. She liked her life just the way it was and had no intentions of wasting her time indulging in a meaningless affair. Nor, sheâd gone further on to add, was she interested in a meaningful one, either. She had been there, done that, and sheâd learned a valuable lesson and had no intentions of doing a repeat.