The Safeguarded Heart by Melanie A. Smith
Young real estate entrepreneur Serafina Evans chances her guarded heart to be with a handsome and charming Italian client, but things take a turn when she finds out her company is being sabotaged and her paramour isn’t what he seems. Will her gamble on a mercurial relationship pay off, or will it leave her hurt and closed off from love forever? And will she find out who’s sabotaging her in time to save the company she’s worked so hard to build?
Note: This is a full length novel and the first book in a steamy contemporary romantic suspense series that is intended to be read in order. This book includes mature content, and as such is not recommended for readers under 18 years of age, or those who might be offended by such material.
Warning: count(): Parameter must be an array or an object that implements Countable in /home/102028-77823.cloudwaysapps.com/jqxysxqutc/public_html/wp-content/themes/megashopNEW/inc/theme-functions.php on line 1233
Description
Find more from this author on:
Amazon
Barnes&Noble
Author Site
GoodReads
Facebook
TwitterAbout the author:
Melanie A. Smith is a voracious reader, lifelong writer, and is the author of The Safeguarded Heart Series.
Melanie’s writing began at a young age with short stories and poetry. Having completed a bachelor of science in electrical engineering at the University of California, Los Angeles, and a master’s in business administration at the University of Washington, her writing abilities were mainly utilized for technical documents as a lead engineer for the Boeing Company, where she worked for ten years.
After shifting careers to domestic engineering and property management in 2015, she eventually found a balance where she was able to return to writing fiction.
Melanie is also a Mensan and enjoys reading, cooking, and driving with the windows down and the stereo cranked up loud.
What inspired you to write your book?
I've been writing stories and poems since I was six years old. I took a long break from writing for pleasure after college, but finally decided I wanted to sit down and do what I'd always dreamed of – writing a full length novel. It poured out of me in one month, and I've been writing novels ever since!
Here is a short sample from the book:
Prologue
The threat of imminent death fills my senses, my brain clouded with pain and terror. I can't help but wonder if, knowing where it would lead, I would do anything differently. Knowing myself, likely not. My stubbornness knows no bounds, and my natural ability to persevere is what got me here in the first place.
In any case I know it's pointless to speculate, and this journey has been ten years in the making. And just as it seems like it will end in suffering and horror, so did it start, when I was only nineteen years old and broken to my core. My mind tears through memories, struggling to make sense of it all, taking me back to the time when, the pain of loss fresh once again, I turned to my grandparents. Remembering how they took me in and gave me comfort, wisdom, and direction as I climbed out of my pit of despair to finish my business degree.
My grandfather, especially, gave me so much more. His cheerful, round, and wrinkled face flashes across my memory, and warmth spreads through me, my emotions mixing in a confusing swirl. A wealthy real estate tycoon since well before I was born, Grandpa was also a patient teacher. At his side I learned about the power of cash flow, how to negotiate from a position of strength with the simple ability to say "no" and mean it, and how to build a team that would start me down the same path he had walked more than four decades ago.
I made my fair share of mistakes in those early years, and he was there to see me through them all. Those small defeats had pushed me to grow, to adapt, and at the time had seemed like natural discomforts that I needed to endure to find my way. But looking back at the costs, I lament my thick skin, my acceptance of what "came with the territory."
Because, as the moment of my demise approaches, I realize with startling clarity that the real estate business, with its many facets and complexities, is ultimately about people. It's so easy to forget, amid the drive to succeed, that people's lives are in your hands.
My strength has always been in facts and figures, the bones on which the industry operates and grows. Learning how to handle people was always the most difficult part for me. So I used the same tactic I'd applied to everything else. I compartmentalized, quantified, and planned for it. Emotion and empathy were enemies to reason and logic.
And I realize only now that approach was an illusion. A coping mechanism for my ruined ability to care deeply. To trust. To love. Perhaps the lack of those abilities is what led me here.
But that wasn't something my grandfather could teach me, and I had to learn this lesson myself.
And while my grandfather lived to proudly see me start my own business at twenty-five, I'm suddenly thankful he wasn't here to see me learn this lesson too late.
My gut wrenches at the thought of his disappointment. And at the thought of disappointing my nearly four dozen employees, who helped me build a full-service real estate investing support company. It was a niche I'd long hoped to carve, and it had just begun to bear real fruit.
As if it were a sign, in early February on nearly the anniversary of my grandfather's passing, we acquired two new major clients: The first, a large company looking for centralized property management. The second, another young but rising company that had moved into the Seattle area from San Francisco only a couple of months prior.
But nothing could have prepared me for what came next. For meeting Alessandro Giordano, the company's owner. Unspeakably handsome, with a thick Italian accent and a disarmingly charming demeanor. At least, at first.
As past events continue to spin through my frantic brain, I can't help but try to cling to the memories of those early months. The countless meetings, site visits, and rejected proposals that often brought us head-to-head in heated exchanges about almost everything. He is one of the most challenging people I've ever met. As stubborn and intelligent as he is handsome.
I remember, also, shutting down his flirtations from the start, noticing the appreciative glances from nearly every female in the office, and how frequently he returned them. It was clear from the beginning that he was a man who lusted voraciously after what he wanted and was used to getting it. I overestimated my ability to keep that part of me shut down. Or perhaps I merely underestimated his persistence.
Tears fill my eyes, and I wonder if I'll have another chance to tell him how I feel one last time. And that I forgive him.
Related products
-
Thrones of Desire: Erotic Tales of Swords, Mist and Fire by Mitzi Szereto
Thrones of Desire is a place where lust and legend abound, and adventure, passion and danger entwine. Think mystical lands and creatures, kings and queens, knights and renegades, heroes and villains, warlords, maidens and princesses. Think battles and danger, honor and dishonor, good and evil. Most of all, think hearts filled with passion and secret desire. This is a place where romantic chivalry is alive and well, but so too is romantic wickedness. This is a place where the good do not always win, and the bad are often more captivating and desirable than their altruistic counterparts. In these lush and timeless landscapes, the battle for flesh can be as important as the battle for power. Intrigue, sorcery, revenge, lawlessness, dark secrets and mysterious elixirs; entanglements with supernatural beings — everything is possible in these magical mythical landscapes. Inspired by Game of Thrones these imaginative steamy tales transport the reader to fantastical realms. Featuring a special foreword from legendary fantasy author Piers Anthony.
Close Up and Personal by JS Taylor
Actress and director. The stage is set for passion…
Drama-school graduate Isabella Green wants to be a script-writer. But when she meets famous director James Berkeley, she’s tempted into the glamorous world of acting.
Behind the camera, the mysterious Berkeley commands discipline at all times. But Isabella soon discovers his dominant male tendencies also extend into the dressing room.
Suddenly Isabella is discovering a side of herself she never knew existed. But she is also learning more about the alluring James Berkeley. Is his desperate past something she can help heal? Or will the flames of passion consume them both when the cameras start rolling?
Lights, camera, action…
Close Up and Personal strips down to zero dollars over Christmas – 24th-28th December – get yours free!
Perfect Need – Seven Tales of Love and Passion by Barbara L.B. Storey
Close your eyes.
Fall in love.
Stay there.
~ Rumi
You never know who you’ll fall in love with, or why, or whether it’s a good idea – ask Rowan in A Star, A Stone. A sudden rainstorm – Stormy Weather – or even an exercise class – The Queen of Heaven – can be the spark that creates abandon and exhilarating passion between two lovers. In Dolce, a full-course Italian meal prepared with love whets . . . other appetites.
The stories in Perfect Need explore what love and passion can become, how they can affect two people for a moment, or for a lifetime; when they tumble into a love they never expected; when they decide it’s worth the risk to stay . . . or not.
Fourteen Shades of F*cked Up: an Anthology by ML Rodriguez
Fourteen authors have brought you stories of pain and love.
Struggle and dissonance.
PETITION DENIED by Alyson Hale
DARKNESS CONSUMED by Ariel Marie
EXCITABLE by Brittney Coon
CONSENSUAL by Cristina Slough
F*CKING ADDICTED by J.A. Kerr
FOREVER PROMISES by J.L. Baldwin
A STRANGE AND DISTANT SAFETY by Jennifer Loring
WICKED GAMES by Lilly James
AFFLICTION by Marie Skye
STORY OF US by ML Rodriguez
HER MISTAKE by N. Mills
MISS X by Quinn
KILLER DOM by S. Valentine
ANOTHER LAST GLANCE by Zack Halford
Christmas Blend by Evie Lester @evielester2
A cup of smooth, rich coffee and the joy Christmas—what could be better?
Beth Ross finally pulled her life together, opening a coffee shop in the small Minnesota town where her special Christmas blends have become a local sensation. For Beth, the holidays promise to be a season of fulfillment.
But when handsome, mysterious Chad Parker walks into her shop to place an order on the day after Thanksgiving her carefully constructed world begins to unravel.
The chemistry between them is impossible to deny. But they each have more baggage than Santa’s sleigh and an out-of-control business rivalry that could stop any budding romance in its tracks.
I am a reader of romances and chick lit who decided to try my hand at it. This is my first effort.
With the holidays coming and all the seasonal beverages appearing in the local coffee shops at this time of year, I always begin to get in the holiday mood. I love coffee. And I love a pumpkin spice latte. And, of course, I love Christmas. So I decided to write a short, sweet romance inspired by this special feeling at this special time of year.
Some Like it Geek by C. Jordan
Fall Quiet by Zoe York
To Score or Not to Score by Angela Quarles
One blind date. One case of mistaken identity. One Navy SEAL faced with his high school crush. What could go wrong?
The Adorkable Girl and the Geek (Gone Geek 5) by Sidney Bristol
The Girl Next Door by C. Jordan
Bath Bomb by Clara Leigh (Forbidden Bad Boys)
Recipe for a wild weekend: Take one geeky actor, a video game idol, and cinema’s best known towel model. Add a chocolate-box cottage, a liberal sprinkling of snow… make that lots of snow, and an oversized bathtub.
Result: THREESOME!
In the Spotlight by Ally Decker
Pretending to date a movie star definitely wasn’t on Sylvia Urban’s agenda but a girl has to do what a girl has to do. And after a paparazzo catches them in rather uncompromising position, this is exactly what this girl has to do.
Greg Abrams really needs everything to go right if he wants his new project to get green-lighted, but when the cute Broadway geek almost literally falls into his life, things get complicated really fast.
As the pair grows closer, the ‘pretend’ part of pretend dating gets thrown out of the window, but after they started off as a lie, it’s hard to know what’s real and what’s not.
Play by Olivia Devon
Aaron Eldridge’s passion for his latest virtual reality program skyrockets when he meets a woman who shares his obsession for all things geek. The premier launch of HyperLyfe at Lux, Manhattan’s hottest sex club, would be a perfect opportunity to get Katie Martinez to check out his new toy, and the kinky sex ideas he has in mind.
What if your deepest fantasies could come true?
The problem of getting Rich Quik … part one by S M Mala
When you’re single and in need of hot love, both emotionally and physically, you think your options are limited. It’s just one glimmer of hope that could turn it all around, even if it involves falling back into bed with the trickiest bastard of them all, Richard Hayden-Quik, a man with a reputation of being a stud muffin on Viagra.
It was only six years before Lily spotted Richard, a successful film director, her aim to get Rich Quik – seduced by his looks, charm and the size of his wallet. Even her best friend Dominic knows it won’t be easy especially as Richard’s super bitch PA, Rosana, will do anything to stop Lily getting to her boss.
But she knows he’s a tricky bastard with a checkered past, a long term lover and a best friend who hates her guts. The road to her one true love is littered with female bodies and she’s not sure if she’s a match for a man who thinks monogamy is a type of wood. And she is the last one to realize he has an ulterior motive for being with her.
Lily hopes she can get Richard though life’s sudden shocks, twist and turns have the greatest possibility of making her literally lose everything she loves… all due to the problem of getting Rich Quik.
Coffee Break by Hayet Brach
A girl putting herself on display. An unexpected guest. A couple overwhelmed by desire. Three new tales of love and lust – enticing, enthralling, and exciting.
Includes the stories ‘Coffee Break’, ‘The Guest’ and ‘Something In The Water’.
Reviews
There are no reviews yet.