Ruggedly Handsome Book One: Jason Lord: Ruggedly Handsome

By Amanda J. Rose

Big Bad Jason Lord... That's what they call him around here, anyway. I'm excited about my new office job. I'm looking forward to the pay, the freedom it gives me, and the connections I might make in a city where I hardly know anyone.

What I'm not looking forward to is my billionaire boss Mr. Lord pushing me around each day from sunup until sundown. I think he goes out of his way to make me miserable just so he can have total control over me. Of course, there's a part of me that can't help but respect that. I've always been a shy thing—very much on the reserved side—and I can't help but crave the authority of my much older, much more commandeering boss.

Still, though, I'm not sure how much more of this I can take.

By the time my first week is over, I'm completely tangled up in his web of sin and deceit.

And I'm pretty sure that's exactly where he wants me to be.

A Contemporary Workplace, Plus-sized-Woman-Meets-Mature-Billionaire Romance

• Language: English
• Publisher: Amanda J.Rose
• Release date: Mar 30, 2020
• ISBN: 9781393564201

Amanda J. Rose

AMANDA IS AN author of multiple short contemporary romance novels. Living in Canada with her husband and three children, she is also a Registered Nurse. When Amanda isn’t writing her sweet and spicy romance novellas, she can be found in a busy hospital ward compassionately caring to her patients, or at home playing with her babies. She enjoys romancing her hubby when the kids go to bed. She likes to hear from her readers, and she welcomes suggestions/comments/advice.

Book preview

Chapter One

Week One

HI, ARE YOU Emma Louise? asked the bouncy redhead clacking into the lobby on high heels. She was all curves and bubbly, good nature, her blue eyes gleaming at me in a way that, for some reason, reminded me of a fox.

Yes, that’s me! I said excitedly, hopping up from the bench where I’d waited nervously for the past half hour. I tried to rein in my enthusiasm a bit, feeling like an overeager middle school student being asked to a dance. I brushed a strand of auburn hair back behind my ears and smiled at my host.

I’m Rose, she said, Rose Milan. She reached out a snow-white hand, and I shook it.

Nice to meet you, Rose. I’m Emma, Emma Louise.

She laughed. Yes, we’ve established that.

Oh, right, I said, blushing.

Sorry to have kept you waiting for so long. It’s been a crazy morning. Why don’t you come on up with me, and I’ll show you around?

That sounds terrific! Thank you so much, I said, trailing along after her to the elevator, the flowery scent of her perfume in her wake wafting into my nasal passages.

The elevator car was packed as we slipped in through the doors. Being a bit on the plus-size, I could do little to flatten myself and avoid brushing up against the people crammed around me like sardines inside a can. Rose, meanwhile, stood poised beside me, totally in command of her own space in a way that seemed almost effortless.

How can I learn to be like that? I wondered. Of course, I already knew the answer to that. You can’t learn to do things effortlessly—that’s a complete contradiction. You’re either born that way, or you aren’t. And I, most assuredly, had not been.

You’re a brave, brave woman Emma Louise, Rose said when we were about halfway up our fifty-story ascent, and the elevator had cleared out considerably around us.

Am I? I asked, puzzled by this remark and not a little bit unnerved.

Brave or foolish, she said with a glistening smile that seemed designed to be playful. I mean, they don’t call him Big Bad Jason Lord for nothing.

Oh, I said, trying not to sound surprised. I...I didn’t know they did. I knew a little bit about Jason Lord, of course.

Who didn’t in this city, or throughout the entire Western hemisphere for that matter? I, like so many other people, had seen his photo plastered on the covers of Forbes Magazine, World Finance, Global Banking, and Finance Review, as well as any other financial magazines worth the glossy paper they were printed on.

But Lord’s personality had never been something I’d given much thought to. And now that I thought about it, he had to be at least a little bit commandeering to have arrived at the enviable position he was in today.

Relax, said Rose, placing a ghostly, reassuring hand against my wrist. "I didn’t mean to startle you. Just be prepared for anything with Mr. Lord. And I do mean anything. He will be on the demanding side, and some of the things