Morgan's Chase 1 (Power Play)

By Lucy St. John

NOW FREE FOR A LIMITED TIME TO CELEBRATE THE SERIES FINALE!

THE CHASE IS ON FOR LOVE, MONEY AND THE PERFECT WORK-LIFE-FAMILY BALANCE FOR THIS FAST-RISING PROFESSIONAL WOMAN WITH NEEDS

Introducing author Lucy St. John and her hard-charging heroine, Morgan Chase. When it comes to romance, lust, laughs and life -- she's all business!

Now Available as an Unabridged
Audiobook from Audible.com.

Who is author Lucy St. John?

Lucy St. John is the super-secret Nom de Plume of a major league, highly successful female executive. She sticks to what she knows in creating her brand-new, breakthrough romantic series, "Morgan's Chase." All the juicy details are ripped right from Lucy's own high-climbing corporate life.

St. John's fast-paced, evocative - and, yes, controversial -- narrative chronicles both the corporate boardroom battles and the behind-the-scenes bedroom tumbles of a fast-charging female executive out to shatter the glass ceiling. In doing so, St. John's passionate prose is as authentic as it is addictive. Once you begin following Morgan's Chase, you won't be able to stop.

Who is heroine Morgan Chase?

She's a sexy white-collar business executive with blue-collar roots, a bio that closely resembles that of her anonymous author. Morgan's professional life is taking off, just as her personal life is bottoming out. Stung by a messy divorce from her Fortune 500 Ex, Morgan is twice shy, but increasingly needy -- and wanting. When a revolutionary project she's been shepherding finally hits the big time, Morgan realizes she has no one special with whom to celebrate.

This doesn't mean Morgan lacks men in her life. In fact, there's too much testosterone in her orbit. Problem is, Morgan has a difficult time choosing, and there are both pleasures and pitfalls attached to each of Morgan's would-be men.

Hence, the chase.

It's a wild, sexy, thrilling, funny -- and touching ride -- whether inside the boardroom, or the bedroom. For Morgan Chase, both venues are now her playing fields. And she's determined to win!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lucy St. John
• Release date: Aug 30, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301969968

Lucy St. John

Lucy St. John is the super-secret Nom de Plume of a major league, highly successful female executive. She sticks to what she knows in creating her brand new, breakthrough romantic series, "Morgan's Chase." All the juicy details are ripped right from Lucy's own fast-climbing corporate life.St. John's superheated, highly evocative - and, yes, controversial -- narrative chronicles both the corporate boardroom battles and the behind-the-scenes bedroom tumbles of a corporate climbing female executive out to shatter the glass ceiling. In doing so, St. John's passionate prose is as authentic as it is addictive. Once you begin following Morgan's Chase, you won't be able to stop.Dear Reader,All of my fiction springs from the realities we women face every day in the push-and-pull of our professional and personal lives. So you know as well I that as hard as we work, as much as we try, life shows us that the forces of fate are for more powerful than all of our personal and professional struggles, combined.That's why all along the way, shocking events put Morgan's chase in perspective. At times, we find Morgan as an unlikely loser on both sides of her ongoing chase for balance in her personal and professional life. Her family is thrown for a loss, and so too is her love-life.The blows comes so fast and so furious, Morgan is pushed back on her heels like we've never seen her. There are dark times. But Morgan and her allies eventually pick themselves up and respond. And when they do, there's a new-found fury and purpose to their actions.Morgan hits her stride. She makes all the right moves in both her professional and personal lives. It appears she is on the cusp of achieving everything she ever dreamed - and more. At long last, after many false starts, she's about to reach a new level of intimacy in her romantic relationship with ex-Navy SEAL Travis Walker.Is the elusive finish line for Morgan's chase finally in sight?I welcome you to enjoy the deepest, richest, most exciting and satisfying Morgan's Chase installments yet. Indeed, it has all been leading up to this. And every character, every situation comes alive and plays a part in the wholly unexpected outcome.I just know you're going to love it!Yours,Lucy

Book preview

MORGAN’S CHASE

Power Play

By

Lucy St. John

Professionally Edited Second Edition

Smashwords Edition

©Copyright 2013 by Lucy St. John

Chapter 1

Morgan Chase always suspected that professional success brought with it a certain amount of sexual satisfaction. It had certainly worked for her mega-rich, super-successful ex-husband, Brock Ballentine. She guessed this from the way he puffed on those enormous Cubans with such self-satisfied smugness. Certainly, a man’s cigar was proxy for his penis.

Now, she knew it for certain.

There she was, commanding the oak-paneled boardroom of Tech Teachers Ltd., having brought the firm’s breakthrough education project in on time and on budget. Morgan’s entire team gazed up at her with respect and admiration. Her male personal assistant -- a decade younger with the dark features, hair and body of a Greek god -- was by her side, as well. His smoky, brooding eyes were locked on her.

Even the company’s executive vice president – Morgan’s boss – Hal Linden was rapt by her commanding presentation, the final internal unveiling before her breakthrough project would be unfurled before the Pennsylvania Department of Education.

There was no doubt. She, Morgan Chase, had reached the pinnacle. The blue-collar born, Wharton-educated daughter of a humble Pittsburgh firefighter was now setting the world ablaze. And it thrilled her, even as she stood at the center of the boardroom and aced her carefully crafted presentation. The hair on the back of her neck prickled. Her sculpted cheeks flushed with just the right amount of pride. And, yes, an electric charge buzzed beneath her Victoria’s Secret thong.

Morgan Chase was feeling it – that mythic business boner that the Big Boys like her ex-husband and Hal Linden had tried to keep all to themselves. But she had it now. She earned it. And, by damned, she would keep it erect.

What we have created, what we will bring to market, ladies and gentlemen, will do nothing less than revolutionize public education, Morgan Chase annunciated with perfect diction that had long ago been sanitized of her Western Pennsylvanian accent.

As she spoke, her assistant, Darren Spencer, cycled through the fully animated three-dimensional samples of the digitized teaching tools that would make books, notes, tests and even teachers completely obsolete.

In the age of the Internet, the smartphone and the personal computer tablet, where digitized bits command our children’s attention for hours on end, the classroom teacher is as outdated, quaint and financially unwise as 1950s television, Morgan sang on, her voice a perfect mix of confidence, enthusiasm and competence. We are harnessing the undisputed hypnotic power of the video game and turning it into an undeniable force of light, knowledge and education. We are making it a teaching tool that won’t be seen as a chore to our children. It will be sought out by them as an immersive, mind-altering, game-changing fountain of knowledge. These tools harness digital technology to conjure first-hand experience and hands-on education that can transport our children to the ends of the earth, the depths of history, the halls of science, and the pantheon of business. Not to instill a mindless mush of facts, dates, places and people, but to engrain, instill and inspire real emotion, experience, experimentation and imagination. And our young people will come to this vast oasis of education, not because a class schedule tells them to, or a bell rings or a teacher stands before them. But because their very neurons and nerve endings will crave it. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you the precious fruits of your long and loyal labors. I give you my dream that each one of you has toiled tirelessly to make a workable reality. I give you Project Renaissance.

With that, the video presentation reached a crescendo in which characters from history, science, math, economics and various other disciplines came together as if to underscore the 360-degree education that was now at the click of a mouse or the jerk of a joystick, all courtesy of Project Renaissance and Morgan Chase. As music swelled, the iconic characters surrounded an empty classroom seat. This symbolized the space waiting for each and every school student across Pennsylvania and beyond. All that stood in the way of their access to this limitless knowledge served up in this addictive new way was an unprecedented $890 million upfront commitment by state education secretary David Dillon. Morgan would be meeting with Dillon in just two days to tie up this remaining detail. With her team breaking into spontaneous applause, Morgan had no doubt that she would secure the contract, instantly legitimizing Project Renaissance as a nationwide teaching tool capable of nothing less than revolutionizing public education, as we knew it.

Right on cue, the swelling music ended, the boardroom lights came up and the entire boardroom stood and continued its admiring applause. All eyes were locked on Morgan. She had done it. And everyone in that room knew it.

Thank you, she said, shouting over her team’s enthusiastic applause. But you’re applauding yourselves. You, each of you, did this. You took a pipedream and turned it into reality. And by the end of the week, we will take the product that each one of you created and turn it into a multi-billion-dollar licensed property that will be sought after by each and every school district in this country. So I salute you. All of you.

I second that, executive vice president Hal Linden echoed in his rich baritone.

Morgan was both surprised and appreciative that Linden, who headed the company’s heretofore-stodgy education and textbook division, had permitted her to get through her entire presentation without so much as a peep. Perhaps, this was because Linden knew he had bucked against the project from the start. And now that it would mint the company as a national player, he soon would be deferring to Morgan, rather than directing her. After bringing in Project Renaissance, Morgan was in line to head up her own division – Interactive Education Technologies. It would be spun off from Linden’s Education Division. And with Morgan installed as its executive vice president, she would control the company’s biggest revenue-generating sector. And then Linden would be lucky to be Morgan’s co-equal, let alone her boss.

What a fantastic job. All of you, Linden continued. The one-time college quarterback’s handsome face was relaxed into his most gracious grin. All of you taught this old textbook salesman a thing or two about the future of education, I must say. But none more so than Morgan, here.

Linden turned and looked admiringly at Morgan.

You did it, he said, dipping his head in a show of deference. You had the vision – one I admit I did not see – and you executed it. It’s the greatest display of product innovation, team-building and institutional transformation that I’ve ever had the pleasure of witnessing in the corporate world. You should be proud. And you will be rewarded. All of you will, but none more so than your leader, mentor and friend, Morgan Chase.

With that, the applause swelled again, and Linden leaned over and hugged Morgan, then planted a fatherly kiss on her reddened cheek.

She didn’t expect this. To be sure, she had long fantasized of the flirty, dismissive Hal Linden kissing up to her one day. But the sharp break and sudden reversal of their roles was too abrupt, even for her.

Thank you, Hal, she said, somewhat embarrassed and, yes, even feeling a bit sorry for old, gimpy Linden. After all, he had always been a straight shooter with her. He was upfront about his skepticism. Yet, he had never tried to sabotage her project -- or her authority. And now that the tables had turned, he would not stand in the way of her rightful ascendancy in the company.

All right, everyone, Morgan announced, trying to regain a measure of control over the situation. We don’t have that contract signed yet. I want each of you to write a one-page review of the presentation so I can tweak it for the secretary. We meet in two days. This was our pat on the back, but that meeting is our defining moment. It’s when Project Renaissance becomes the new reality of public education. So let’s go people.

Morgan would not have to speak twice. Her team knew and respected her boundaries. They began packing up their laptops and iPads, each of them pausing to shake Morgan’s hand or hug her on the way out of the boardroom. In a matter of minutes, the only people remaining in the room were Morgan, her assistant Darren and Hal Linden, who had crashed back into his swivel chair. His audience gone, Linden’s grin had wilted to a frown, and he appeared decidedly less powerful slumped in his chair.

How do you think it went? Morgan