Ruined Bundle (Ebook)

Redeem

A ruthless tycoon wants to ruin my company, but I’m not prepared for how badly he wants me.

I’m a self-professed daddy's girl, but now he’s gone and I’m left to run the company that's become my life, my passion. Until I get a visit from a lawyer with demands from a mysterious tycoon. The terms are clear: marry Jacobi Dixon or he'll spill all my dad’s dirty secrets, revealing a past that could tank the company.

So, fine. I’ll marry him. I’ll protect my company. But before I say my vows I’ll run to Cabo San Lucas and get myself good and ruined first.

I don’t know anything about my future husband, just like I don’t know how badly he wants what should've been his in the first place. It's not just my company, it's me.

*Redeem was originally published as the duet Ruined and Redeemed.

Devote

Which is worse? A deadly stalker or a bodyguard with an obsession?

I own my own dance studio, have a thriving competitive ballroom dance career, and am married to a successful financier. Life should be good, but I also have a stalker, and I’m divorcing my cold, ruthless husband. The day I walk out of my Bel Air mansion, leaving only divorce papers behind, my stalker ups his game.

With no resources, thanks to an iron-clad prenup, I have no one to turn to but an aloof and irreverent friend of a friend. Cannon dresses like he shops in a dirty laundry pile. He acts like he doesn’t have time for my frivolous career. And he looks at me like he can’t believe someone hasn’t knocked me off my high horse already.

But it’s not long before I realize Cannon isn’t all he seems. Just like he sees right through my polish to the insecure, naive girl inside, I see him. He’s intense, he’s restrained, he’s devoted, and he has something to hide. Those secrets might not just devastate what’s growing between us…they might get us killed.

Devote was originally published as the duet Devastated and Devoted.

Cherish

I thought I only had a stalker until someone tried to kill me. Now I have two problems. I don’t know who wants me dead. And what do I do with the body?

As an up-and-coming designer in L.A., I’ve gotten used to upsetting people. That’s where my father’s money comes in handy. I can afford to ignore all the right people and focus—because I have a strict time line. But when I anger the wrong person, someone comes after me who isn’t interested in cutting out patterns. Which is what I was doing with sharp scissors when the attack happened. I know how to wield a pair of shears.

Another intruder barrels through the door, but he doesn’t want to hurt me, and he won’t tell me how he knows there was a hit out on me. He says I have to leave. With him. I’ve always stood my ground, but Kase Donovan is bigger, stronger, and more determined. He drags me away from everything I’ve worked for, and I hate to admit—I don't put up much resistance. Staying could cost me my life, and I have to make my career a success or that money Father gave me won’t save me from an old marriage contract. But being with Kase could corrupt me even worse.

*Cherish was originally published as the duet Corrupted and Cherished.

Redeem Chapter 1, Sneak Peek

“So what you’re saying is that if I don’t marry Jacobi Dixon, he’s going to reveal all of my stepmom’s secrets and ruin our company? Do I have the gist of it?” I glare at the prim lawyer across from me.

He’s exactly who I expect a man like Jacobi Dixon to hire. Tailored seersucker suit a few shades darker than powder blue, totally on trend, and a receding hairline that argues that he’s not the thirtysomething he dresses like. Dress for the role you want in life. I guess he left his sleazy middle-aged lawyer outfit at home.

Next to me, Diana weeps. Through Mr. Turlowitz’s whole incredulous spiel outlining how Jacobi Dixon expected me to combine our names in wedded bliss to protect the reputation of my company, one thing stood out. Surprise that The Dick Dixon would think I was close enough to my stepmom to do something insane like marry a stranger to protect her reputation.

He’s absolutely correct.

“Yes, Miss Vanderbeek,” Mr. Turlowitz answers. He doesn’t appear to be taking any joy in delivering the news. What drives a guy like him to work for a man who thinks he can order a woman to marry him?

Crossing my legs under the table, I rest an elbow on the top. I can’t talk without gesturing in all directions with my hands. “How in the world did he find out anyway?”
Cutting my hand through the air, I shake my head. It doesn’t matter. He knows Diana’s past and is using it, poised like a wrecking ball over a neon sign that blinks with my company’s name, Natural Glow.

Turning to the only mother I’ve ever known, I clasp her cold, clammy hand.

“I’m so sorry, London,” she says between sniffles.

“You have nothing to be ashamed about. You were an adult and it was your choice.” She’s never hidden her former career from me.

Diana Vanderbeek’s pre-married life is no one’s business. Once known as Tempest Peaks, it’s been twenty-five years since she had sex on camera on some back lot in L.A. The story goes, I was a newborn, my dad was a harried single father, and Tempest Peaks was in town doing a signing. When she stopped at Target for a new razor—because I guess that was a critical item to forget to pack while on tour—she encountered Dad searching for baby wipes in the wrong aisle.

By the end of that year, she retired Tempest Peaks and tried her hand at the suburban life. But once the company took off, that turned into a gated property and private drivers. None of the money changed how they raised me. She did my hair, painted my toenails, and was in the front row with Dad for every private school performance. When I lost my shit over a guy—which happened too often—she was the shoulder I sobbed on.

Diana was open and honest with me about her past as an amateur porn star, including the money that rolled in with it. Neither she nor Dad acted like it was seedy or anything to be ashamed about. But the implication was there, don’t tell anyone or we will lose everything.

Jacobi fucking Dixon.

The guy needs better things to do than prey on my family’s legacy.

Tears stream down Diana’s face, but her mascara is on point. Unyielding Mascara is a best seller in the Natural Glow makeup line Dad formed when he expanded Natural Glow from natural body creams and lotions to high-quality, earth-friendly makeup. An empire that is now run by me. And Jacobi Dixon thinks he can take over? He thinks he has a right to my heritage?

The old dispute referenced in the contract between my dad and his parents is just that: old. So old I don’t even know what the details are.

How did The Dick Dixon find out about Diana’s past? She disassociated from the name as much as humanly possible. Her hair is no longer platinum blond, but golden brown, colored regularly to keep the gray at bay.
The fake eyelashes are gone, along with the heavy liner and caked-on foundation. After she walked away from her life in front of the camera, she did a factory reset back to her natural glow.

I snort to myself at the play on words. Diana epitomized Natural Glow.

The lawyer eyes me warily and Diana looks at me like I’ve lost my mind. Surely I have, because I will do anything to protect the woman who stepped in to be my mother when my birth mother couldn’t be bothered, even marry a man I’ve never met but whom I despise.

Spearing Mr. Turlowitz with my best boardroom stare, I say, “We tie the knot and he forgets Diana’s past?”

“That is exactly what the terms are, boiled down to their basic nature.” He earns another inch of respect. He doesn’t shy away from the true nature of the situation.

“How can I believe him?”

“It’s all expressed in the contract. Mr. Dixon is a man of his word.”

As if that means much to me when his word burns like poison.

Can I marry a man I don’t know? More importantly, can I hand him the company that my dad built? Natural Glow is what it is today because Dad wanted me and Diana taken care of, like he knew he’d leave this earth well before his time. Now it’s my baby, and while Diana Vanderbeek is my stepmother, this company is just as much hers and just as important to her as it is to me.
With Dad’s death from a heart attack last year, we’ve grown inseparable, which isn’t much different than before. Diana Vanderbeek is my best friend and my maternal support wrapped in one vegan-based package.

Not for the first time I’m grateful Dad was able to look past the bleached hair and the plastic boobs and see what a treasure she is. Of course, the bleached hair and plastic boobs were what attracted him in the first place, but she could’ve been dressed in a burlap sack and still landed any handsome bachelor she wanted.

I wasn’t even bitter she started dipping a toe in the dating pool. I saw how lonely she was after Dad died a year ago. Since I was unceremoniously dumped before Dad died, we’d been quite the pair of heartbroken power suit-wearing women until she took an old friend up on his offer for dinner.

Just like Dad would’ve done, I was taking care of her. “After I marry the douche, then what? I live in L.A. and he stays in his bat cave to harass another woman?”

“Mr. Dixon lives in Malibu.”

Of course he does. If our parents knew each other and I’m a born and raised California girl, then The Dick Dixon must be the same.

Diana squeezes my hand, her delicately manicured nails digging into my palm. “You can’t possibly…”

Yes, I can possibly. Despite the waterproof mascara and the sleek and glistening hair, shampooed and conditioned by our most popular and expensive line of hair products, Diana’s terror shines through. If our brand was sold in stores, then maybe I’d have a chance at saying no. But our line is direct sales. What some accused of being a pyramid scheme is really a way for women and a smattering of men to build their own business out of their homes, while still caring for their family and enjoying their children’s activities.
Natural Glow gives them the freedom to live and look good while doing it.

That’s one of our marketing slogans.

Department stores might shrug it off as a minor controversy or pretend that they didn’t hear they stock products from a company run by a former porn star, but the hard-working moms might think differently and choose not to sell a product linked to the scandalous industry of pornography. More importantly, their clients might not want to purchase from said company. Who’s going to go to a near stranger’s house for a makeover by a line of makeup associated with the adult film industry?

I can’t blame them for that thought process even if I don’t agree with it. With all the sex trafficking and schemes to lure children into the greedy hands of predators out there, I understand the need for diligence. If only future due diligence isn’t now ruining my life.

Mr. Turlowitz clears his throat. “Mr. Dixon said you won’t need to concern yourself with the running of the company once you are married.”

My jaw drops and not even our No. 5 foundation can hide the flash of anger creeping up my face. Jacobi Dixon can’t be much older than me and owns a cybersecurity company. “What does he know about makeup? He expects me to marry him to save my company and then not have a say in it at all?”

The lawyer calmly replies, “He would argue that the company is originally his parents’ and that upon their death, he would’ve been co-owner at the very least.”

“Except my father did all the work and his parents, what? Heard him talking about it and thought it should be theirs? You can’t steal ideas.” I speak slowly like he will suddenly understand how ludicrous this is. But he’s a lawyer. His job is to make reason where there is none and make it fit his client.

And The Dick Dixon would’ve hired a lawyer who’s savvy enough to make my family history sound sordid.

“Mr. Dixon has grounds to argue that more than an idea was stolen. He would be happy to prove the matter in court, but he considers a union between the two families to be a sufficient resolution.”

The Dick Dixon also considered that I would understand the implication. Go to court and he’ll air Diana’s videos. With his technical abilities, he can put her on every screen in America saying “Yes, harder, you big boy, harder.”

“Did you know them, Diana? His parents?”

She shakes her head and sniffles, but can’t look me in the eye. “I faintly recall the name, but Dennis must’ve known them before he met me.” I hate Jacobi Dixon for making her feel ashamed. If he can do something like this, what are his parents like?

As if he read my mind, Mr. Turlowitz says, “Both Mr. and Mrs. Dixon have passed away.”

That dampened only a tiny portion of my anger. Like me, The Dick has lost people close to him. Is that why he’s delusional?

I know next to nothing about him. He’s an enigma. At one time, I looked into hiring his company to tighten up our cybersecurity. While The Dixon Corporation is highly recommended, there’s next to nothing about him online, not even a picture. Maybe that’s supposed to impress me as a future client, that nowadays he can control everything he wants to, but I work in a business that values relationships and nurtures them. I can’t do that with a screen.