Joy Parsons

My company and protecting its legacy are all that matters. I will do whatever it takes to prevent anyone from taking it over. Especially one Jared Barnes. It doesn’t matter that he awoke something in me that I thought was long buried. Or that I imagine kissing him more than I should. He won’t win. I won’t let him. No matter the cost.

Meet Layla Brown, a fiercely independent and intelligent young woman who is living her dream as an employee of the New York City Public Library. And Nicodemus Murphy, a brooding and enigmatic billionaire who has hidden from life and the woman he loves for years, his childhood friend, Layla. When a scandal threatens to ruin Nic’s career, he and Layla are forced to see each other again. Old wounds and unrequited love come to the surface, causing the friends to comfort their past and embark on a love neither thought was possible.

I had a good life, a meaningful life, full of order and purpose. The last thing I needed was a stalker ruining it all. I certainly didn’t need the nuisance of having a bodyguard. Not in the form of the man who broke my heart six years ago. Now he’s in my space, in my life, and turning my world upside down. I fell for him once and it almost destroyed me. There is no way I’m going to fall for him again.

I didn't mean to star in a sex tape, okay? It was just one of those unexplainable things. Like Stonehenge, Police Academy 2, and morning glory clouds. It just happened. Now, my ball-busting father is sentencing me to six months of celibacy, sobriety, and morbid boredom under the roof of Boston's nerdiest girl alive, Sailor Brennan. The virginal archer is supposed to babysit my ass while I learn to take my place in Royal Pipelines, my family's oil company. Little does she know, that's not the only pipe I'll be laying....

My company, my life’s work, everything I’ve accomplished is on the line. I need to get married and fast. It will be easy to consider it a business arrangement. One that will be lucrative for both my assistant, Mika, and myself. I won’t think about how this takes away the whole problem of dating an employee. But it doesn’t take away my desire to make her mine.