Caught Offside

By Liz Crowe

Ramon Castillo, world famous soccer player and international playboy has been brought low by a career-ending injury. After the humiliation of a shattered leg at the World Cup final, he has spent a year enduring surgeries and painful therapies, the last three months of which are at the Castillo resort in Las Vegas under the watchful eye of his cousin, Jackson Castillo and owner of the Castillo hotel chain. But Ramon’s lack of interest in soccer, women, or in anything besides the blackjack tables has Jackson worried.

Gillian Winter, catering and banquet manager for the MGM Grand Hotel is nurturing her own deep wounds. Her beloved husband has died unexpectedly, leaving her with a young son whose one dream is to meet his hero: Number 17 on the American National Soccer team, Ramon Castillo. When an apparent chance encounter in the lobby of the MGM reveals Ramon's presence in their midst, everyone's lives are changed forever.

Can Madame Eve work her magic and bring true healing to Ramon and Gillian? Or is it too late?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Decadent Publishing
• Release date: Dec 29, 2011
• ISBN: 9781613331811

Liz Crowe

Biography Liz Crowe is a Kentucky native and graduate of the University of Louisville living in Central Illinois. She's spent her time as a three-continent expat trailing spouse, mom of three, real estate agent, brewery owner and bar manager, and is currently a social media consultant and humane society development director, in addition to being an award-winning author. With stories set in the not-so-common worlds of breweries, on the soccer pitch, inside fictional television stations and successful real estate offices, and even in exotic locales like Istanbul, Turkey, her books are compelling and told with a fresh voice. The Liz Crowe backlist has something for any reader seeking complex storylines with humor and complete casts of characters that will delight, at times frustrate, and always linger in the imagination long after the book is finished.

Book preview

Caught Offside

A 1Night Stand Story

Liz Crowe

Smashwords Edition

Copyright © 2011 by Liz Crowe

ISBN: 978-1-61333-181-1

Cover art by LFD Designs

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This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the products of the author’s imagination or used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

All rights reserved. Except for use in any review, the reproduction or utilization of this work, in whole or in part, in any form by any electronic, mechanical or other means now known or hereafter invented, is forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Published by Decadent Publishing Company, LLC

Look for us online at:

www.decadentpublishing.com

Also by Liz Crowe

1Night Stand Stories

Turkish Delights

Blue Cruise

Tulip Princess

~DEDICATION~

For Dominick

Prologue

Jackson Castillo sighed and threw a stack of sales charts on his desk. Turning so his view aimed out over the pink and orange Las Vegas dawn skyline, he sipped his espresso. He enjoyed the few quiet hours he actually had—before the many duties as manager of one of the most exclusive resorts in the world could pin him down.

Worry furrowed his brow. Not with concern about sales figures. In these days of bankrupt and multi-owner group takeovers for long-famous casino resorts, the Castillo chain operated in the black and had no sign of doing otherwise. His concern lay with his cousin, Ramon, who languished in one of the larger suites a few floors below the penthouse office. Although he’d agreed that the final stages of physical rehab could occur there, under his watchful eye, Jackson’s plans for him had been thwarted at every turn by intransigence. He wanted more than anything to be able to take some of the wounded hurt out of his adopted cousin’s eyes, if the stubborn man would simply allow it. He sighed. As if conjured by his thoughts, Madame Evangeline’s name appeared in a text message.

Bonjour, my dear.

Good morning, Madame.

Any luck with our little project?

No. He turned us down yet again yesterday. Although his doctor tells me he’s nearly ninety percent restored to normal, he still limps, claims the pain keeps him from being interested in our offer.

Well, he is your relative. But my unsolicited advice is to keep trying. He needs this. Poor boy.

He is no boy, Madame. Jackson ran a hand down his face. He’s a grown man, used to the spotlight and now that it’s off, he has no idea how to act. But it is not keeping him from gambling too much, in my pit boss’s expert opinion.

Have some sympathy, my dear. Let’s try once more, before it’s too late. He’s leaving us Monday, is he not?

Jackson leaned back in his chair, pondering the dilemma. A simple date, a lovely woman to take his cousin’s mind off his current situation, that’s all Madame proposed. Ironic really, given the kid’s reputation with females in his heyday as an internationally famous soccer star. But Jackson knew his cousin’s heart. He gave too much of it, while all those women wanted was a piece of his fine ass and the spotlight that followed him.

Flipping open his laptop, he mulled over Eve’s insistence that one of her encounters would solve all his wounded friend’s problems. Her enchantments often found a home at the Castillo hotel