Tempting the Dangerous Tycoon by Elizabeth Lennox
He would never be played for a fool!
Stavros Teresi was furious when he learned that one of his previous mistresses was going to release a tell-all book about him. He had to stop her! And as soon as he met the beautiful, spunky Annie, he had a two-part plan.
What he hadn’t expected was to discover that the gorgeous baker was more than just frosting deep. She was more like a jelly donut – sweet and wonderful, exciting both inside and out. Something about her called to his soul and soothed the angry beast inside of him.
He also hadn’t expected to find out that she’d embezzled over one million dollars from him!
Annie Stevenson prided herself on two things: her creative, crazy donut flavors and her ability to run a kick-butt bakery. Until one day when she realized that she’d been robbed! Now she couldn’t pay the rent on her business space! Her only option is to appeal for a bit more time to resolve this latest crisis.
Meeting Stavros Teresi, the building’s tall, hunky, oh-so-fabulously-scary owner was a shock. And she was even more stunned when he proposed! Yes, it would be a fake marriage. But as she stared up into his challenging eyes, Annie realized that this man needed her. And she…maybe…needed him?
So when he accuses her of stealing from him, her whole world is shattered. Could she find the true culprit? And when she found this person, could she ever forgive Stavros for thinking she could commit such a heinous crime?
- File Name:tempting-the-dangerous-tycoon-by-elizabeth-lennox.epub
- Original Title:Tempting the Dangerous Tycoon (The Book Club 1)
- Creator:Elizabeth Lennox
- Language:en
- Identifier:MOBI-ASIN:B09HKYTG66
- Publisher:Elizabeth Lennox Books, LLC
- Date:2022-01-13T18:30:00+00:00
- File Size:180.130 KB
Table of Content
- 1. Chapter 1
- 2. Chapter 2
- 3. Chapter 3
- 4. Chapter 4
- 5. Chapter 5
- 6. Chapter 7
- 7. Chapter 8
- 8. Chapter 9
- 9. Chapter 10
- 10. Chapter 11
- 11. Chapter 12
- 12. Chapter 13
- 13. Chapter 14
- 14. Chapter 15
- 15. Chapter 16
- 16. Chapter 17
- 17. Chapter 18
- 18. Epilogue.
- 19. Excerpt from “Resisting her Husband”
Tempting the Dangerous Tycoon, Book 1 of The Book Club series, was about Stavros Teresi, a Greek tycoon and CEO of the international company called Teresi Investments and Properties, and Annie Stevenson (although later in the book she was called Ms. Stone), the owner of a local bakery. She was also one of the members of a book club with a few of her other friends (the heroines in the other books in the series). Side Note: Just to clear the air on a particular oddity in the Blurb. It made it sound as if the FMC was one of the MMC's former mistresses, but it also indicated they were newly acquainted. So, which was it? The truth was that the former mistress was a different woman altogether, and Annie was someone he had only recently met. Every Friday morning for the past several months, Stavros would go to the bakery across the street from his business that was owned by Annie, and Every Friday, he would buy the day's special for his executive assistant, along with a cup of coffee. On one such day, Stavros returned to his office and handed the woman the confectionary, only for her to enter his office and inform him that one of his former mistresses was doing a "tell-all" book about what life was like with him, and how fast he went through women. While his secretary suggested his getting/being married would take the sting out of such a publication, Stavros didn't seem interested. But he needed to figure out how to stop such a salacious book from destroying his reputation. At the same time he was experiencing his crisis, Annie was also experiencing one regarding her business. A loan she had been trying to get for her bakery was being denied due to her "lack of assets". When she tried to dispute the claim, the bank informed her that instead of the "over a hundred grand" she thought was in the business account, they only showed she had five thousand dollars. She was then told that someone had made a wire transfer of ninety-six thousand dollars at the beginning of the month...and it wasn't done by her. The bank agreed to look into the issue as well as cover the payroll for a week while they did so. After Annie learned that an employee had somehow managed to embezzle all the money from her business, she had no choice but to inform the building manager that she couldn't cover the month's rent. However, the manager was not in too agreeable of a mood and was giving her a hard time. The disagreement was interrupted by none other than Stavros, not only "The Man" who visited the bakery every Friday morning, but apparently also the owner of the very building her business was located in. Because Annie had dressed up for her meeting with the building manager, Stavros declared her to be just as manipulative as every other woman, and it angered him that she was just like all the other women of his acquaintance". So he took her to his office to hear what she had to say, believing that she was a liar and manipulator, and that "it was best that she was toppled off the pedestal he’d placed her upon. She was normal. She wasn’t the beautiful, innocent, enticing woman that he’d believed. She was simply a manipulative skyla in a pretty dress.". (The Greek word he used was σκύλα, translated as "Skyla" in the story, which meant b*tch in English.) Once in his office, he demanded that she tell him what she was seeking from him. When she informed him she wasn't seeking anything other than time from him, he didn't quite believe her. Once again, Stavros (in his thought process) didn't think too highly of Annie or her business acumen. He felt she didn't have a good handle on what it took to run such an establishment and that she would eventually "run her business into the ground financially". However, sitting on his desk was the "tell-all" book that would destroy his reputation...and it gave him an idea. So he propositioned Annie. He would give her the money she required to purchase new equipment and forego the rent for the following six months. In exchange, she would enter into a marriage of convenience with him, and they would go on a bogus honeymoon together. However, instead of them sharing with each other why they were in need of making the agreement in the first place, they called "a truce. You don’t ask me about my issues, and I won’t ask about yours.”. This set the scene for what was later to become a major problem in their relationship. Because of what her employee had done to her business, Annie was of the mind that men could not be trusted; especially not Stavros. She knew from the fact that he so readily agreed to not share with her why he needed a wife/honeymoon so desperately that he had something to hide. While Stavros thought the wedding would take care of his issue without involving his emotions, he didn't prepare himself for the onslaught of feelings every time he was near or even looked at his new bride. On the flight to their honeymoon destination, Stavros spent some time dealing with business calls while Annie relaxed with a magazine and looking out the window. After his calls were done, they spent some of the trip getting to know each other. Once on the island, Stavros made Annie another offer. Stay with him for a few days and have a "marital fling" with no emotions attached, or return immediately back home without consequences. She chose to stay. Unfortunately for Annie, she realized after returning home that she was in love with her husband...who would refuse to return the sentiment if he knew about it. As for Stavros, he wanted more from her but wasn't certain SHE wanted more from HIM, and he also felt "that he needed to return to the real world". Geez, could these two be any more clueless?? He, who told her he didn't do emotions...wanted emotions from her. In fact, he was upset that he couldn't see any in her when he took her back to her place from the airport. This man wanted his cake and eat it too...but he didn't do emotions?! WTF?! Two weeks later, Stavros was in a snit. He didn't visit Annie's bakery, yet he constantly looked for her out his office window. He was upset she hadn't contacted him in any way, yet he refused to go to her bakery to see her. He didn't make a move to contact her either. He admitted, to himself at least, that he wanted more from her, but was pissed off thinking she wasn't of the same mindset. God, this man was an idiot! But just as quickly as he realized he wanted more from Annie, his executive assistant reported that someone was stealing from his company, and all signs pointed to Annie. Even though his executive assistant tried to stop him, Stavros was determined to confront his estranged wife with what he felt was the ultimate betrayal. When he confronted her with his accusations, she was confused and asked if he was upset because she had paid him back for the equipment he had purchased. It was HIS turn to be confused because he hadn't been aware that she'd done such a thing. But no matter what she said, Stavros was convinced of her guilt. However, he soon was set right by two of his employees and was just as determined to fix things with Annie. This story was definitely OTT with drama, angst, heartache...and stupidity. These two lovebirds were written in such a way that they were made to look like total buffoons. Neither one handled the relationship like mature adults should, but more along the line of emotionally stunted teenagers. However, the author did give them time to grow and develop...somewhat. The plot and storyline weren't all that original, but the way the author worked it out made for some interesting twists and turns. The sad part about it all was the fact that she didn't show what happened to the real embezzler. Oh, the person was named, but nothing was written about what actually happened. There were no consequences for that person. It was one of the many unresolved issues that kept this story from earning a five-star rating. However, I did give it a 3.5-star rating, rounded up to four.