Okay, so maybe I was in a nostalgic mood. I felt drawn to write a contemporary romance but where would I set it? Who would be my characters? How would I twist and turn them so that they would fall in love?
The answers to these questions hearken back to the past: my past--my great uncle’s house on Staten Island. I’d already written a short story using this house as a backdrop (“Grand-mère’s Sainte Bleu”) but now the house itself is almost a character. The tiny vineyard in the back of the house certainly is! Here is what I came up with:
BEWARE OF BILLIONAIRES BRINGING ROSES
Billionaire Elliot Beaumont has a laissez faire
attitude concerning women... or in other words, he takes them and leaves them.
After casually giving one of his American Rose homegrown blooms to his
company’s newest employee, Claressa Lauriano, he then learns his father, the
CEO, wants him to pursue her to obtain her family’s small vineyard. Elliot
assumes she’ll be flattered by his advances, only to learn that she has a
laissez faire policy as well; she wants him to leave her alone. She doesn’t
trust him... and rightfully so. The only way he can think of to get his hands
on the grapes is to arrange to be fake engaged to Claressa. However, the longer
she is his faux fiancée, the more he wants the engagement to be real. Can he
convince his prickly American Rose to take a chance on a billionaire?
BEWARE OF WORKING GIRLS GROWING GRAPES
Claressa Lauriano has been working at her new job
for only a month, but she also tends to her family vineyard on the side. When
she shares a sample of grapes with her office, she comes to the CEO’s
attention... which then means she comes to the company’s Chief Biotechnology
Officer’s attention--playboy, billionaire Elliot Beaumont. Oddly enough, Elliot
suddenly bulldozes his way into her life by becoming fake engaged to her. She
doesn’t trust him or his motives, and why should she? Billionaires and working
girls come from two different worlds. Why is he so insistent that she is meant
to be his?
Can working
girl Claressa Lauriano outwit a not-to-be-trusted billionaire who is determined
to have his way with her?
In print at
Amazon.com
NEVER TRUST A BILLIONAIRE is available at Amazon.com and Smashwords.com, in addition to other internet locations.
Here are some wonderful reviews:
Trust me... this contemporary billionaire romance is 5 stars! In the battle of “Working Girl Vs. Billionaire” who is going to be the winner? Claressa takes care of her grandfather and her younger sister. Quite frankly, she minds her own business. Suddenly, she comes to the attention of the higher ups at Beaumont Industries where she works, and neither her nor Elliot Beaumont’s life will be the same again. I laughed at loud at the scene where Claressa slaps Elliot--much to his surprise. No one ever told this billionaire “no” before. A very satisfying read!--Just Imagine Fanzine
Beware of billionaires offering a single red rose! Claressa unsuspectingly accepts the flower, and ends up fake engaged to billionaire Elliot Beaumont. As she struggles to end this pretend arrangement, Elliot becomes more and more enamored of her. He wants the engagement to be real. Will he win Claressa over? I love how this down-to-earth gal unwittingly lassos in the uber-rich Elliot. That guy never had a chance! Enjoy!--S.G. Reviews
I’m loving your new billionaire romance!--Reader Comment
This book is part of the Romantic Contemporaries line.
Real life tidbit: So, as I mentioned, this Staten Island house is real. On Hope Avenue, with two lions guarding the front entrance, with a vineyard in the back, with an oil painting of an older relative who seems to follow you with his eyes no matter where you walk in the front room. In the excerpt below, it is our billionaire, Elliot Beaumont, who comes across this intriguing portrait and, quite frankly, he gets a little spooked by it!
Sitting in a curved back chair to the right of the door, Elliot had an excellent view out the large bay window and also of the stone fireplace. Hanging over the mantle was an oil painting of a stern older man. Not as old as Federico, but most likely a relation. Perhaps his father, Claressa’s great grandfather.
The man’s dark eyes were the most striking feature. Wherever Elliot walked in the room, the man’s portrait gaze seemed to follow him. A rather whimsical thought, but truthfully, a bit creepy.
As he had noticed, this front room or parlor, wasn’t used much. Perhaps it was a shrine.
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One more thing: at one time I did take the MTA bus over the Verrazzo Narrows Bridge to my job in lower Manhattan. Those were the days!
I hope you enjoy Claressa and Elliot’s story!
Susanne Marie Knight
Read outside the box: award-winning Romance Writing With A Twist!
