Authors: Joanna Blake
Go Big
GO BIG
Joanna Blake
GO BIG OR GO HOME.
That's how I live and how I play. With women and baseball… I'm always the biggest player on the field.
I grew up poor. Dirt poor. I learned early that a fist or a smile could get me out of almost any sticky situation. My swing is what got me out of the sticks for good.
Now I'm in the spotlight, playing in the big leagues, and the club's owner wants me to be their charity spokesperson. It's for a good cause. I just need to deal with the bossy woman who runs the show.
His daughter.
Camille Rivers is the heir to the richest man in America. She's the most stubborn woman I've met in my life. With all her wealth and manners, you would think she'd be a little nicer to her daddy's star player.
Spoiled and prissy, Camille is everything I should stay away from. The problem is, I just can't keep my hands off her.
I think she's playing hard to get because she likes me. She thinks it's because I'm a horse's rear end. Either way, she doesn't complain too much when I'm kissing her.
She's used to getting what she wants. Then again, so am I. And what I want is her.
*GO BIG is a stand alone sports romance with a guaranteed HEA and no cheating! This edition contains bonus materials with exclusive NEW EPILOGUES for a limited time only!*
Note on the contents:
This edition contains bonus materials including the full MAN CANDY trilogy: GRIND, HEAT and DEEP
-
with three brand new exclusive EPILOGUES!
These stories are stand alones with some connecting characters.
Enjoy!
Copyright © 2016 Joanna Blake
For all the friends who invited me to parties over the years. I’m sorry I stayed home and read (not really). I do love you!
Chapters
Chapter Twenty-Three - Jerkily
Chapter Twenty-Seven - Gruffly
Chapter Twenty-Eight - Lustily
Chapter Twenty-Nine - Lovingly
MAN CANDY Trilogy
- THREE bonus books with exclusive new epilogues
Chapter Eighteen - Courageousness
Chapter Twenty Three - Nearness
Chapter Twenty Four - Limitless
Two Months Later - Togetherness
Six (and a half) Months Later - Creation
Chapter Twenty-Four - Heartfree
Chapter Twenty-Six - Matrimony
Exclusive New MAN CANDY epilogues
Bount To Me (Delancy Brothers Trilogy)
- Excerpt
Prologue
Cade
Grease slid over my knuckles as I twisted the wrench as far as it could go. I eased up, knowing that if I pushed it too hard, it might snap. It was easy to do with an old bolt, but it took exceptional strength to do with a new one.
I smiled wearily, wiping my hands on a rag.
I just happened to be exceptionally strong.
That was me. Strong and some said, crazier than a shit house rat. And I should know. Where I'd grown up, we'd actually
had
a shit house.
It was a small shed with a bench built into it. Every few months we had to move it, digging a fresh hole and filling in the last one. In between we sprinkled lime down the hole after each use. It helped, but it sure as shit didn't make it smell like roses.
And it didn't keep the rats away.
I rubbed my ass, remembering the one that had bit me when I was eight years old.
Oh yeah, taking a shit in the middle of a hot July night in the sticks was a treacherous endeavor. Only a poor sonofabitch from the hills would know that. And I fit the bill to a T.
I wiped my face with a fresh rag, looking around the engine room. It was cleaner than most hospitals. That was the best part about this job. I loved how clean it was, compared to how I'd grown up.
That, and the money.
Deep sea oil drilling was hard, dangerous work. It required strength of mind and body along with a good helping of common sense and know how. All of which I had in abundance. I'd spent my life fixing things. That's what you did when you couldn't afford to buy new.
As a result, I could pick and chose my assignments. And I did.
The rig I was working on was state of the art. New enough to be sound but not new enough that some of the glitches hadn't been worked out. I'd made sure of that after my last contract. The one that still kept me up at night, wondering what I could have done to stop the accident.
Oh yeah. I was not going to take a contract on a rig that had a sloppy crew again. One that left work undone until the last possible moment. One that got people killed.
I never made the same mistake twice.
I didn't even turn around as the foreman came in and cleared his throat. The crew was good. That didn't mean I wanted to make best friends with any of them. I'd done that once and lived to regret it.
Every damn day.
"What's up?"
"There's a guy here to see you."
Now I did look over my shoulder. We were in the middle of the South Pacific, almost a hundred miles from the nearest island. People didn't just 'drop by' for shits and giggles.
"A guy?"
"Yep. Flew in on a private helicopter. Says he's from New York City."
Chapter One
Cade
I stepped out onto the tarmac, shielding my eyes with my hand. I had no idea what time it was but the sun was brighter than satan's asshole. I grimaced, shouldering my pack. I'd slept most of the 18-hour flight from the South Pacific, where I was working on a rig.
Was
working.
Past tense.
It was six months since I'd quit playing ball. One season in the minors was enough. One year to play ball. One year of glory.
I'd let myself have that before I went back to focusing on paying the bills. And lord knows, I had a lot of bills.
The oldest of six kids, I was the only one over 18. The only one with an income. I was the legal guardian of all my sisters and brothers. All five of them.
I was from a hillbilly family in the mountains, it sort of went without saying that there were a lot of dang kids.
I'd finished high school and gone right into rigging. Do not pass go. Do not collect one hundred dollars. I'd missed a lot of keggers and women but I didn't have a choice. While some guys my age were in college, I was a welder on deep sea rigs for four years. I'd worked my way up the ladder to senior welder by hard work and determination.
But then an accident killed one of my best friends right in front of me.
My whole attitude towards life had been turned upside down when that pipe blew. The fleeting nature of it. Oil spraying everywhere, catching fire, taking Jones out with it. I had tried to help him - to get close enough to smother the blaze - but it was over too fast.
It was the longest two minutes of my life.
The unfamiliar helplessness. The horror of it all. The rage at the stupidity that had caused it.
One badly soldered joint and a man was gone.
That moment changed everything. My life pretty much flashed in front of my eyes. And I hadn't much liked what I saw.
I'd seen a lot of wasted opportunities. I'd had women by the bucketful. Fights that were legend back home, to this day. Tragedy by way of a dark and dirty home life. Dead dad, drunk absentee mother. An off kilter spinster aunt who'd done her best by us, on next to nothing. But for all that, even I had some high points.
And just about all of those high points had been on the field. I was good at playing ball. Really good. A natural, some said.
But I had money to make, and bills to pay. A whole hell of a lot of bills. I loved those kids like they were my own. Hell, in a way they
were
my own. I was more than a sibling to them. I was practically daddy.
So what the hell was I doing here in Florida?
I grinned, pulling out my sunglasses and holding them in front of my eyes.