Taming the Playboy

By Catherine Carson

Tori Ingles has something of a reputation for having a sympathetic ear and a soft shoulder to cry on and is asked by her boss, Libby Cameron, to use her skills to comfort and restore the self-esteem her brother Mitchell recently suffered by the defection of his fiancée.
Contrary to being the betrayed fiancé Mitchell Cameron, is in fact, the ultimate playboy and is aware that his sister has once again hatched a plot to bring him to heel.
Tori soon discovers all is not as it seems with Mitchell (Mitch) Cameron and takes him to task but soon finds she has fallen victim to his playboy image……

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lulu.com
• Release date: Mar 6, 2015
• ISBN: 9781326206970

Book preview

Taming the Playboy

Taming the Playboy

By Catherine Carson

Standard Copyright © Catherine Carson 2015

ISBN 978-1-326-20685-7 Paperback

ISBN 978-1-326-20697-0 eBook

Profile of the author

Born in Scotland I now live with my husband in the North West of England.  We have three children who, between them have given us six wonderful grandchildren.

I studied commercial subjects at school and college and spent most of my working life in the offices of various companies, starting as a junior in a local garage typing invoices for car repairs.   I left Scotland and crossed the border to England to marry the man I met whilst on a holiday with my extended family and eventually became a secretary with a beer bottling company leaving six years later when the first of our three children came on the scene. 

Returning to the workforce when our children were young adults I finally untied the apron strings to join the offices of a large wholesale book supplier and embraced the advancement in technology since I had first learned to type on a manual typewriter and take notes in shorthand.

During the years I became something of a letter writer as friends and family lived in many parts of the country and indeed the world.  Often friends and family would tell me…..‘You could write a book’ to which I always replied…..‘But would anyone read it’. 

When my granddaughter asked if I would write a book especially for her I confided in my good friend Lisa Schmidt and she told me to go for it.  That book became the first of many stories which had been lurking in my imagination for a good number of years.

Once started I found the stories simply kept coming and often an overheard conversation or a glimpse from the passenger seat of the car would trigger a likely scenario which my imagination would then elaborate and weave into a story.

My hope is that my writing brings a little pleasure into the life of my readers and allows them to leave the mundane world behind for a few hours as they meet the characters I adore creating.

www.facebook.com/catherinecarsonbooks.uk

www.catherinerenacarson.jimdo.com

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Other Books by this Author

The Mouse in the Library

Family Ties

Overall Construction          

Wounded Wolf

Coffee and Cakes

Memories Rekindled

Wholesale Love

Hope’s Conflict

Estates of the Heart

Sibling Rivalry

Fighting for Custody

White Knight Black Knight

Through the Garden Gate…

Love Lost and Found

Alphabet Bachelors

A Dreamer’s Tale

A Precious Jewel

Footbridge of Solace

Girl Meets Boy

Demolition of the Heart

When Life Gives You Lemons

Return to the Past

Pretence & Reality

Opening a Can of Worms

Fields of Contention

A Heart Encased In Steel

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Tapestry of Love-Bk 1

Twins Exchanged-Bk 2

Highland Feud Bk-3

~~~~~~~

Soil, Seed & Betrayal-Bk 1

Desert Prince, Exiled Princess-Bk 2

Body Language-Bk 3

~~~~~~

An Open Book-Bk 1

Afraid to Love-Bk 2

A Second Chance-Bk 1

Taming the Playboy-Bk 2

~~~~~~

Estranged Husband & Father-Bk 1

Identical Mistake-Bk 2

~~~~~~

Sigh of the Claymore-Bk 1

Beyond Claymore-Bk 2

~~~~~~

Sneaking Into His Heart-Bk 1

Scent of the Heather-Bk 2

Dedication

To my patient friends and family who give me their support unreservedly.  Thank you all.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names.  They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author and all the incidents are pure invention.

Chapter 1

‘Libby I am not interested in meeting anyone no matter how wonderful the man might be.  Anyway if he is so wonderful he probably has any number of ladies waiting to be his dinner partner.’  Tori Ingles had been working as an accounts manager with Cameron Financial Services after graduating from university two years previously.

Libby Thomas was a director in the company, being the daughter of the owner and founders Brogan and Katie Cameron and would soon be the CEO when her father retired.

Her husband Kyle ran a successful art and design agency with several others including Libby’s brother, Mitchell Cameron.  The friends had formed a partnership after meeting at university and deciding they no longer wanted to be cogs in the wheels of a large consortium.

She was aware of Mitchell but had not met him.  He had never, to her knowledge, entered the General Office of Cameron’s but worked three floors above in the office suite occupied by the design partnership.

Libby and Kyle had been married for some five years and had two small children who were looked after by Katie Cameron, allowing Libby to return to her position in the company.

Sitting now in Libby’s office Tori listened as she explained her reasons for asking her employee to attend the dinner party. ‘My brother Mitchell has been finding it difficult since he and his fiancée broke up.  She is a flight attendant and apparently decided she did not want to spend the rest of her life with him and dumped him for a high flyer; literally….she is now with a pilot going on long haul flights and enjoying the breaks in the sun.’

Libby kept her fingers crossed as she told Tori her story.  Her twin brother had never been engaged to anyone, least of all a flight attendant; but his life style had been a bone of contention to his family for some time.

Mitchell had inherited his father’s height and dark swarthy looks with deep chocolate brown eyes and heart stopping smile. He had been popular with the opposite sex since high school and now at thirty-four had become a very eligible bachelor, rarely without a woman on his arm.

‘Oh, dear that is dreadful, the poor man must be devastated.  Okay I will come to your dinner party.’  Tori felt her soft heart go out to the young man who had been so badly treated.

***

Tori Ingles was twenty-four years old and although never considered a raving beauty, her lips seemed always to be hovering on a smile and her hazel eyes held a sparkle which reflected her upbeat disposition. Her rich nut brown hair was pulled severely back from her face into a French pleat which harked back to an earlier age and gave her an old fashioned homely appearance.

At university she had been the roommate who kept everyone’s spirits up with her encouraging smiles when they needed to burn the midnight oil, or a sympathetic ear when their love lives crashed around them. 

There had been times when she would have liked to have been the girl who took chances and lived a little more dangerously, instead of being the average reliable girl who was never noticed until someone needed a constant flow of coffee or a supply of tissues; but her strict upbringing had taken its toll and she became resigned to being the boring Miss Sensible everyone expected her to be.  Destined to marry an equally sensible man and be the mother of the expected two point four children.

Now here she was being invited to her boss’ home filling the roll she had become accustomed to.  The evening had been arranged as an informal gathering of the company directors and their wives prior to the official retirement of Brogan Cameron as CEO and his wife Katie, a silent director.

Katie had opened and run a successful sewing workshop in one of the shopping malls a few years previously but had sold it when Libby had her first child saying she did not want to miss a second of the enjoyment her granddaughter gave her.  When Libby and Kyle had their son two years later Katie became their permanent child minder allowing Libby to pick up her career and prepare to take over from her father as CEO of Cameron Financial Services.

‘Great Tori, I will arrange for you to be picked up at seven-thirty, ready for drinks at eight and dining at eight-thirty.’  Before Tori could ask what dress code was required for the evening Libby dashed off saying she needed to speak to her father about something important.

In her mind’s eye Tori saw the male equivalent of Libby. She knew they were twins and he was a design artist.  He was probably a little taller but with the same hair colouring, with bright blue eyes set in the same heart shaped face as his sister. 

Having thought about this man Tori now found it impossible to concentrate on the clients’ accounts she was supposed to be checking and bringing up to date and in the end she closed her computer and decided to use some of her flexi-time to go home early and prepare for the evening ahead.

Leaving her desk she walked through the maze of stations occupied mostly by young men.  She hated having to walk past them as she knew they called her ‘The Brown Mouse’ because of her tendency to always wear brown trousers or skirts and plain coffee coloured cotton shirt blouses, with a habit of scurrying from the coffee machine to her desk, unlike their sauntering swagger as they discussed the football or rugby match they had watched the previous evening.

She wondered what they would say if they knew she had been invited to the boss’ dinner party.  No doubt they would be highly amused to find out she had only been invited to hold the hand of a man who was having difficulty coming to terms with his broken engagement.

Chapter 2

‘Darling be careful, you know how stubborn Mitchell is.  If he knows you are trying to set him up with this girl he will simply stick his heels in and refuse to even talk to her?’  Katie Cameron was helping Libby ready her children for bed after a day of fun with their grandmother.

‘Mum, he loves these two urchins and it is time he experienced that same love and happiness. He has been avoiding it for far too long.’  Libby was looking adoringly at her four year old daughter Rosy and her two year old brother Eric as she spoke to her mother.

‘Being a loving uncle is one thing Libby, but being a loving husband and father is an entirely different kettle of fish.  Until the right girl comes along he will never settle down and from what you have said this girl is never likely to draw his attention.’  In the back of her mind Katie was reminded of her first meeting with her husband.

Brogan had been what was commonly known as a player, where women were concerned and like a few others in the office he had decided Katie would be the next notch on his bedpost.  When she had made it perfectly clear that was not going to happen he had changed and although they had had their