Pressure is a hot, enemies-to-lovers romance, contemporary romance written in K. Bromberg’s Driven World Project.
Malik Pierce lives with his family’s high expectations in his head. He does his best to make them proud. Slated as the next CEO for a billion-dollar racing company and on track to become its top strategist, he should be on top of the world, but life has handed him a cheating scandal that won’t be simple to solve.
Sarai Lambert wants a man she can trust to do the right thing, but right now, Malik isn’t that man. Not yet, anyway. She can’t sit back and wait as life passes her by. She has to move on, but when she does, the happy life she thought she’d get in exchange for leaving her hometown is nothing but a dream… until or unless Malik can pull himself together and fix the problems in his life.
Will they find a path forward together or are Malik’s problems too much for either to bear?
“Why do I keep running into her?” I mumbled to myself. Since it was still pretty early and I’m not fond of it still being semi-dark, I approached her to see if she wanted to jog with me.
“We keep meeting like this,” I muttered, surprising her and she jumped back and held her hand to her chest catching her breath.
“Sorry for scaring you,” I said.
“What are you doing here, Malik? Are you following me?” Sarai queried as she looked around the area. I chuckled and shook my head no.
“Out for my morning run.”
“I came out to run and never saw you out here,” Sarai replied. “Usually you’ll catch me on the other side.”
“Ohh,” Sarai said.
“You want to run together?” I asked.
“Uhm…sure,” Sarai said.
She followed alongside me as I started jogging at a slow pace keeping my focus in front of me and debating if I wanted to bring up last night. “What time did you get in last night?” I questioned.
“Pretty much thirty minutes after you left,” Sarai said.
“Who is your boyfriend?”
Sarai chortled. “That didn’t last five minutes in before you got in my business.”
“I like to ask questions.”
“Are you dating Asia?” she questioned, and I was taken aback at her constantly asking me about Asia.
“She told my mom you guys were dating and I’m trying to steal you,” Sarai said.
I stopped jogging, placed my hands across my chest and Sarai shrugged her shoulders like it wasn’t a big deal her cousin was going around and lying about me.
“I’m not interested in Asia.”
“I know, but she’s in her own world and trying to find a rich guy to feed into her delusions,” she said.
“I think it’s time for me and Asia to have another conversation.”
“I can talk with her for you,” Sarai mentioned.
“You’re family and I hate to cause any issues between you two.”
“She’s young. I tried many times to help her out with finding work that fits her personality,” Sarai told me.
“Corporate Cares is a great place to work at and to gain world experience,” I said.
We started running again around the track and a few more people showed up as the sun was rising.
“Yeah, I switch between CD Enterprises and Corporate Cares. Most of the time I work out of my main office in the city,” Sarai stated.
“How did you end up working for Pierce Motors?”
“I forget we never had to deal with each other until the last year or so,”
Sarai remarked. That was true because most of the time I stayed more focused on the team and the business side and less on the celebrity side of things with the drivers.
“Once I started working with Colton and from Ry’s recommendations, I was introduced to Arianna and we hit it off and she asked me to meet with Jackson,” Sarai explained.
“So, who do you think is better, CD Enterprises or Pierce Motors?” I joked.
“Never gonna answer that question,” Sarai replied. I laughed and came upon a bench and stopped to sit down to catch my breath and talk more.
Chiquita Dennie is an Author, Filmmaker, Podcast host, and Entrepreneur. Born in Memphis, TN, and currently a Los Angeles CA native. Her background in film/tv has taught and shaped her passion for writing with her debut romance novel Antonio and Sabrina Struck In Love. Since its debut, fans have embraced the unconventional love story of Sabrina Washington and Antonio De Luca an Amazon Best Seller series.
Warlord Wulf thought nothing could be worse than being tortured and contaminated by the Hive. That was before he’s ordered to transport to Earth and represent The Colony in an unfamiliar horror… a human reality show. The Bachelor Beast is the hottest new program on Earth, but being set up with two dozen clingy females is not his idea of a good time. When his Beast refuses to show the slightest interest in any of the show’s potential mates, he knows he must choose one or die due to his raging mating fever.
His Beast prefers execution to claiming anyone but his true mate. Wulf is resigned to his fate, a one-way trip to Atlan, a prison cell and execution. It is the only honorable thing left to do.
Until one glance, one sweet, feminine scent lingering in the air and his beast rages for a female who is not supposed to be his.
But try telling that to his Beast when his entire body transforms on live television and one simple word thunders from his lips…MINE.
This couldn’t be what I thought it was. This huge, gorgeous alien man was not talking about me. No freaking way.
I took a step backward.
Wulf’s roar made people scream.
I didn’t scream. I couldn’t breathe.
Chet had his dramatic voice back under control. “Ladies and gentlemen, what we are seeing is unprecedented in the history of live television. It appears that the alien, Warlord Wulf, has decided to choose a member of our audience as his mate.”
Wulf spun around and faced Chet. The man turned pale under his thick stage makeup. When Wulf loomed over him, Chet gulped, his Adam’s apple bobbing. Wulf grabbed the microphone out of Chet’s hand and squeezed, crumpling the metal as if it were tinfoil, then dropped it to the orange carpet.
Wulf turned around, ignored Chet entirely and made his way in my direction again.
“Turn the cameras!” the producer hissed.
The one nearest me swung about, and I was about to jump out of the way of its path when Wulf stopped it with his palm. The cameraman retreated to safety, and with one push Wulf toppled the huge machine onto its side. The crash reverberated through the set, but all I heard was a second, “Mine,” coming from Wulf’s lips. The producer screamed at the other cameras to get the shot as Wulf stopped directly before me and… sniffed.
I looked up. Way up. My head was tilted so far back my chin was facing him more than my eyes. My mouth hung open.
“Um… hi.”
“Mate.”
“Uh… no. No, no. No,” I stuttered.
“Mine.”
Taking another deep breath, he growled. Men with handheld cameras surrounded us, absorbing in everything. What was I wearing? God, I had on my white T-shirt with the word sassy in sequins across my chest. It was almost laundry day, and I wore a skirt I’d found in the back of my closet. My hair was up in a sloppy bun, and while I did makeup for a living, I wore none. Holy crap, I was on live TV around the world.
I couldn’t think of that now. An Atlan warlord was looming over me, breathing hard and saying mine.
“Genevieve or Willow are lovely choices for a mate. You should pick one of them,” I said, my voice shaky.
“No. You. Mate.”
My eyes widened and I stared. You could have heard a pin drop on the set… and Wulf’s ragged breathing. “Me?”
Grace Goodwin is a USA Today and international bestselling author of Sci-Fi and Paranormal romance with nearly one million books sold. Grace’s titles are available worldwide in multiple languages in ebook, print and audio formats. Two best friends, one left-brained, the other right-brained, make up the award-winning writing duo that is Grace Goodwin. They are both mothers, escape room enthusiasts, avid readers and intrepid defenders of their preferred beverages. (There may or may not be an ongoing tea vs. coffee war occurring during their daily communications.) Grace loves to hear from readers.
She thought she accidentally slept with her boss… Then she met his twin brother.
Real talk: I slept with my boss. Back before he even was my boss. Back when I had no clue who he was.
Real talk: My boss is an arrogant jerk. I hate him. If we didn’t work so well together, I would have told him exactly where he could shove his pompous attitude a long time ago.
Turns out…my boss has a twin. Identical twin.
Now I know why he’s always acted like our one night together never happened. Why he acted like he’d never met me before when I started working for him.
It wasn’t him that night. It was his brother.
A brother who’s just as gorgeous as my boss and a hell of a lot nicer.
Real talk: I’m kind of…bothered that it wasn’t my boss that night.
But that’s before certain revelations about that night come to light.
“Wow.” My voice is dry as I scoop up all my materials and head for the door. “I mean, really…wow.”
“What?” Ryder snaps, right on my heels.
“Remind me to bring a tape measurer to the next meeting,” I call out as I exit the conference room.
“I don’t need one with that little prick. Emphasis on the little.”
My feet stumble at the temper sharpening his tone. “That man was perfectly polite.”
He’s practically on top of me, mouth grazing my ear, when he says, “There’s no part of you that man didn’t just eye fuck. Since when do you flirt with clients?”
No, the better question is, since when do I get off on my boss battling the green-eyed monster? And devolving into a brutish caveman?
“Who says I was?” I cleverly respond. I drop the stacks of folders in my arms onto my desk with a defiant thud. “Besides, if I have to bat my eyelashes a few times in order to score a huge account like this, what’s the harm?”
I’m bluffing, but I maintain my poker face. He’s right, I never flirt with clients. If I land a new account, I want to know it’s because the client is impressed by the reputation and quality of service TCG is known for. Not because they want to get in my pencil skirt.
Before I can register what’s happening, Ryder has me by the elbow and is dragging me through the office at a brisk, albeit forceful, pace. He stands close enough that my co-workers can’t see anything inappropriate taking place. And the bastard knows I’m not the type to cause a scene.
He pushes through the double doors and punches the button at the elevator bank. When the doors slide open, he shoves me inside. Then we’re enclosed in the cramped space with nothing but our own panting for company. Eyes pinning me in place, he slams his fist onto the emergency stop button, halting the car’s descent.
“You’ve got to be kidding me right now.”
“You are not going to flirt with some schmuck just to get his business,” he seethes. “I’ll fire you before I let that shit happen.”
I huff, hands on my hips. “You won’t fire me. No one can deal with your intolerable ass better than I can.”
His eyes narrow in challenge. “Try me. Take off your clothes in front of a client again and see what fucking happens.”
“Stop acting like I just stood up on that table and gave them a striptease. I took off my damn jacket. Big deal.”
This car gets a lot more claustrophobic when he launches himself across it and cages me against the elevator wall. His hips mount me to it, his arms trap me in on both sides. His lips are white around the edges from pinching them shut so tightly.
“To Baldwin, you might as well have been shaking your ass for singles,” Ryder growls. “Hell, to any man. The mere act of exposing this goddamn top was sexual. It was a deliberate move to provoke me, duchess, and you fucking know it.”
It’s ludicrous how my blood spikes with adrenaline. Nothing has been getting me hotter lately than Ryder being unapologetically direct. And a bit of an asshole. “And why would I want to provoke you?”
His nose nuzzles my jaw. “Good question. Why, indeed? Is it because you like getting a rise out of me?” He gives a sharp thrust of his hips, stealing my breath when I feel his rock-hard erection against my center. “Or because you want to feel something rise?”
Traveler. Reader. Beach-goer. St. Louis Cardinals fan. Pasta-obsessed. North Carolina resident. Sarcastic. Bit of a nerd. Author of the Cruz Brothers, Possession and Politics, and Timid Souls series, Melanie loves all things romance, comedies and suspense in particular because it’s boring to only stick to one sub-genre! From light-hearted comedies to sexy thrillers, she likes to mix it up, but loves her some strong alpha males and sassy heroines.
Go visit Melanie’s website and sign up for her newsletter to stay updated on release dates, teasers, and other details for all of her projects!
