Masters & Mercenaries – New Recruits Series by Lexi Blake – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read

Masters & Mercenaries – New Recruits Series by Lexi Blake – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com Thu, 23 Apr 2026 23:01:18 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 http://www.books2020.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/09/favicon.png Masters & Mercenaries – New Recruits Series by Lexi Blake – Read Books Online Free Ebooks good best novels to read http://www.books2020.com 32 32 Love and Let Spy (Masters & Mercenaries – New Recruits #6) Read Online Lexi Blake http://www.books2020.com/love-and-let-spy-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-6-read-online-lexi-blake Thu, 23 Apr 2026 23:01:18 +0000 https://www.books2020.com/love-and-let-spy-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-6-read-online-lexi-blake Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Erotic Authors: Lexi Blake Series: Masters & Mercenaries - New Recruits Series by Lexi Blake
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Total pages in book: 158
Estimated words: 149641 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 748(@200wpm)___ 599(@250wpm)___ 499(@300wpm)

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Canadian operative Ben Parker met the woman of his dreams while working undercover in Australia. That operation, to take down Emmanuel Huisman, was the singular focus of his life until he met Maggie. Now the hunt for his former childhood friend turned international terrorist often feels like what he does in between chasing the magenta-haired American spy he can’t stop thinking about. She’s the woman of his dreams, when she isn’t being the stuff of his nightmares. Sometimes she is sweet and deliciously responsive to him, and other times she pushes him out of a plane without a parachute.

Kenzie Taggart knew Ben Parker was the one for her the minute she saw him. Unfortunately, he didn’t meet her first. He met her twin sister, Kala, and they had to keep the secret. No one outside of their team knows they’re twins. Everyone believes the operative known as Miss Magenta is one person. Kenzie can’t tell the man she’s falling in love with who she really is, but she also can’t afford to lose him.

When faced with certain death on a joint operation in Nepal, Kenzie reveals the truth about “Maggie” and they spend their last minutes alive in each other’s arms. It was perfect, and then a miraculous rescue leaves them in a difficult situation. Kenzie couldn’t be happier that Ben knows the truth, but so does Huisman. He’s determined to burn down the world, but not before he ruins his old friend and his newfound beloved. As Ben and Kenzie cross the globe in their quest to stop the madman, they might have to choose between saving the world and saving each other

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Prologue

Ben Parker felt the cold press of stone against his face and his gut churned as he forced himself to sit up.

Why was it so dark? Where the hell was he?

Something dripped down his face, and he reached up. Blood. His eyes were starting to adjust to the low light of the…? Cage? Was he in a cage?

His heart raced. His gut knotted. He was better than this. He had to calm the fuck down. He was a damn spy, and he knew panic was the real enemy.

Well, panic and Manny. Fuck. What had happened? Manny had done something. He’d been with… He couldn’t think about her now. He couldn’t think about the look on her face. He’d tried to save them all but the cost…the cost had been more than he could imagine.

Lou. She’d been the cost. He had to think about Lou. Was she here? He had to find a way to get Lou out because he knew exactly how badly things could go for her.

He moved along the floor until he managed to find a corner, his gut wrenching, likely because some asshole used experimental drugs on him. Or it could be plain sedatives, but he doubted it since Manny liked to play. He wouldn’t put anything past him. After all, he’d nearly killed Kenzie’s twin twice. Ben had carried her out one time himself. He’d held her thinking she was Kenzie, held her close and gave her to her family and walked away.

Kenzie.

Kenzie was never going to forgive him. Never. Not if Lou was hurt or if she…

“Benjamin, you don’t seem to be taking to my new drugs,” a silky voice said. It floated through the air, coming at him from seemingly all angles. Like the voice of a cruel god. “Such a shame. It did work, though. How were your dreams? It does contain a bit of a psychotropic. The other patients have described the effects as nightmarish.”

The dreams. They welled inside him, shadows he didn’t want to catch, but they still came. They flooded back, each devastating image.

His head ached at the thought of the shadow world he’d been in.

In his dreams he was in the car again. He was in the accident that took his fiancée when they were in college. It had been the day he’d discovered her affair with the man who was supposed to be his best friend. Ben had been in that car, and he realized the brakes were gone and he was hydroplaning, the rain and thunder forming a soundtrack to what was almost certainly the last moments of his life.

Except this time it wasn’t Deanna in the seat beside him.

This time it was Kenzie Taggart. The love of his freaking life. The woman he’d chased across five continents and given himself to wholly. The one he was planning to marry and have a real life with.

He wished he’d told her.

It was Kenzie’s body that was thrown from the car, that he’d dragged himself through the mud to get to, that he found face down in shallow water, her face ruined by glass and branches and stone. Her beautiful face a mottled mess, but he’d tried. Even as his own body was failing he tried to bring her back.

In the never-ending nightmare of the last few hours, it had been Kenzie who coughed and came back and cursed him. Who told him she hated him and would always hate him.

It was Kenzie who died on the operating table, and her family who wouldn’t even let him see her, wouldn’t let him hold her.

He’d been devastated by Deanna’s death, but it was nothing compared to knowing Kenzie wasn’t in the world. He’d been hollowed out and ready to do whatever it took to find her again.

It had been so real.

“Did you dream about her?” Manny sounded curious, a hint of sympathy in his voice.

Manny was a sociopath. Any sympathy was performative. He was excellent at hiding the fact that he was a monster who wanted to eat the world.

Starting with Ben Parker.

“Where is Lou?” It was the only thing that mattered. Finding Lou. Getting Lou back, because if he didn’t Kenzie would never forgive him. Never.

What had he done?

“Rest assured, Louisa Ward is in good health. For now,” Manny replied. “We’ll see how intransigent she can be before deciding how much influence she’ll require to do the job. Don’t worry. I already have plans in place.”

The bombs. He’d used a couple in the last few months, destroying lives for fun and profit, building his new world order by decimating the current one.

He wanted Lou to build more. He needed her brilliance, and Ben had been the one to give it to him.

He lost Lou. It was his fault, and the family he’d been hoping to be a part of would never have him now.

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Advertisement Spy With Me (Masters & Mercenaries – New Recruits #5) Read Online Lexi Blake http://www.books2020.com/spy-with-me-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-5-read-online-lexi-blake Sun, 12 Oct 2025 20:52:09 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/spy-with-me-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-5-read-online-lexi-blake Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Erotic, Suspense Authors: Lexi Blake Series: Masters & Mercenaries - New Recruits Series by Lexi Blake
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Total pages in book: 146
Estimated words: 136425 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 682(@200wpm)___ 546(@250wpm)___ 455(@300wpm)

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Zach Reed had two objectives when he joined the CIA team led by Ian and Charlotte Taggart. First, he needed to get close to Cooper McKay. Second, he needed to sideline or dismantle their operation. Getting to know Cooper was even better than he expected, but amongst the team he discovered a family he’d always dreamed of and a woman he wanted to spend his life with. Caught between his mission and his friends, his secrets are exposed, and his only choice is to run. He hopes someday he can make it up to the team and the young woman he’s fallen hopelessly in love with.

Devi Taggart thought she finally found the man of her dreams. Spending a long weekend with Zach filled her soul and satisfied all her deepest desires. But dreams turned to nightmares when she discovered he betrayed his team, including her brother. When Zach disappears, Devi swears to turn her back on the man forever. Unfortunately, the real bad guys have figured out she is Zach’s weak spot, which makes her a major target.

With Devi in real danger, Zach takes the situation into his own hands and offers her a place to stay with him. An offer he’s not about to let her refuse. As they navigate a criminal underworld, Zach is committed to showing Devi he’s the right man for her. If only they can survive his family

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Part One

Dallas, TX

Chapter One

Zach Reed loved The Hideout. At first he’d come to the BDSM club because it was part of his job.

Scratch that. He was trying to be honest with himself since he couldn’t be honest with anyone else. He’d come because he wanted to know what made Cooper McKay tick.

His brother.

He was with his brother. The brother he hadn’t known existed for the longest time. The brother he never intended to do more than look up, make sure he was doing okay. He definitely hadn’t meant to become his brother’s military liaison on a CIA team. Hadn’t meant to hang with him at a sex club. Nope. Not on his life plan.

He liked it. It helped that his brother was fairly private about his play.

“Well, I’m surprised Kala’s standing after that kick to the…” Dare Nash settled the vest over his chest and gave his aforementioned brother a pat on the shoulder. “Does she have a piercing there? That’s the rumor. Has anyone checked to make sure she’s okay? You know. Down there.”

Cooper snorted. “She’s fine. Trust me. It’s not the first time she’s taken a hit downstairs. My baby likes to get into fights. Also, maybe don’t tell her I call her my baby. She would take offense.”

His brother was madly in love with Kala Taggart, the single deadliest operative he’d ever worked with. He wouldn’t cross her if he didn’t have to.

He’d started to wonder if they ever needed to know the truth. He’d managed to hide working with Tristan Miles to bring down the infamous Jester.

Who he’d actually killed first, and for his own reasons. He’d sent in an asshole for Tristan to murder and let him think he was in control. Yeah, they didn’t need to know that either.

“At some point you have to make a move, right?” Dare asked. “I can’t imagine being close to Tash and never making a move.”

Oh, Zach could. He’d been rather enchanted by the lovely Tasha Taggart since the minute he met her, but she was on his team and honestly, he never felt like it was the right time to see if she was interested. First she’d had a fiancé, and then she’d needed space. Then she met Dare, and he no longer had any kind of a shot.

He’d come to believe it wasn’t love. It was more like wanting to belong. He might have started all this because his bosses at the CIA wanted shit on Ian Taggart and his unique team, but the truth was Taggart was a better man and better operative and ran a better team than any of those assholes ever could.

Would they cut him loose if he didn’t come through with something? Anything? Would they decide he was on the wrong side now and ship him straight back to the military where he wouldn’t be part of this family he found himself in?

He had to give them something or he was going to get cut, and right as he was finally getting close to his younger brother.

His brother was saying something about Kala needing time, but Zach’s head was on all the balls he was juggling.

Lying about why he was on the team. Lying about who his mother was—well, he hadn’t truly. He simply hadn’t mentioned that she was the elusive bombmaker everyone was hunting. Lying about who Cooper was to him. Lying about what he knew about Huisman.

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Advertisement No More Spies (Masters & Mercenaries – New Recruits #4) Read Online Lexi Blake http://www.books2020.com/no-more-spies-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-4-read-online-lexi-blake Wed, 19 Mar 2025 15:58:24 +0000 http://www.books2020.com/no-more-spies-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-4-read-online-lexi-blake Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Contemporary, Erotic, Suspense Authors: Lexi Blake Series: Masters & Mercenaries - New Recruits Series by Lexi Blake
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Total pages in book: 153
Estimated words: 144571 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 723(@200wpm)___ 578(@250wpm)___ 482(@300wpm)

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Kala Taggart has known she was in love with Cooper McKay since she was a young girl. But her wild-child ways sometimes clashed with Coop’s apple pie, all-American persona. After the worst night of Kala’s life, she decided to give up on having any kind of normalcy. She focused on her future and let the idea of Cooper go.

Cooper knows he screwed up with Kala when they were young, but the adult Cooper is unwilling to let their past rob them of a future. He joins her CIA team not for the thrill of the job but to be close to the woman he’s always loved. He spends night after night with her at the club, trying to fulfill her needs, to prove he doesn’t need some perfect partner. All he needs is her.

When Cooper and Kala are assigned to a mission, they find themselves locked together and forced to face their problems. As the truth of that long-ago night slowly comes to the surface, Cooper has to admit that Kala might be further from him than ever. And all his plans come crashing down as the elusive terrorist they’ve been hunting makes a move no one is expecting, but the real threat might come from within

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Part One

That Night

Chapter One

Kala Taggart forced air into her lungs and tried to relax. Like this was a normal, everyday Saturday night. It was in some ways. She usually did sneak out of the house to spend time with Cooper, but tonight she was doing something different.

Tonight, she was going to make Cooper McKay hers. Her first. Her only because she was going to love Coop for the rest of her life. And she wasn’t going to fake die on him like her mom had, so there would be no need for whatever the hell they did on Saturday nights.

She was pretty sure she knew what they did and it was gross because…parents…but what she was about to do with Cooper would be beautiful.

And it was a nice night for it. There was a full moon illuminating the path from her house to his. Only three blocks separated them, but it was too much. She lived for these nights.

“You’re going to get caught one of these days, and Mom will ground you for life,” her sister had said as she’d climbed out the window. She would give it to her dad. He knew how to lock down a house, but she’d figured out how to screw with the sensor in the window of the bathroom she shared with her sisters, and luckily it was big enough she could wriggle her way out and shimmy down the drain, avoid the cameras, and then she was free.

Honestly, she kind of enjoyed the exercise and was looking forward to the next time her dad redid the system. Getting one over on the old man was truly something to be proud of. She liked a challenge.

Cooper’s house wasn’t much of one. His dad wasn’t as crazy paranoid as hers. It was easy to move around the sparsely placed motion detector lights. She crept around the back of the house, working her way toward the door leading to the kitchen. Cooper always left it open for her. She’d done it at least a hundred times since she realized she didn’t actually have to listen to her parents when they told her to stay home. She had feet and they took her places.

Cooper was her favorite place.

“Hey.”

She nearly started at the sound but managed to play it cool. Coop sat on one of the lawn chairs by the pool everyone joked about. Like hey, do you remember the time we buried our enemies in your pool jokes.

Her parents were weird.

Of course, they might not be joking since her dad used to work for the CIA and her mom counted assassin in her previous professions. “Hey.”

She gave him the smile she only ever had for him. The truth of the matter was she had quite the reputation as a heinous bitch, and she was proud of it, mostly. But not with him. Never with him.

“You’re late,” he said, standing. He was tall and lanky, and she could remember a time when they were the same height, but the last few years had put a foot on him and she hadn’t kept pace. “I was starting to get worried.”

“It took forever to get Travis to go to sleep. Seth pays no attention whatsoever to what’s going on around him, but Travis is more aware,” she admitted. “And somehow he can tell me and Kenz apart.”

Cooper’s brows rose. It was his dumbass-said-what look. “Of course he can. I know you’re twins, but you are unique. I hate it when people pretend they can’t tell you apart. There’s no one quite like you, Kala.”

He was the only one who seemed to see her. Well, everyone saw her. He was the only one who didn’t think she was a bitch who happened to have a saintly sweet twin. Like she and Kenzie were mirror images of each other, but Kala was the evil version. Not to Coop. Coop saw her for who she was. He always had. Ever since they were kids.

It was why she loved him. It was why tonight was going to be their night, and then they would go to the dance together and everyone would know they belonged to each other.

And those mean girls who hung around because Coop was gorgeous and popular and on all the sports ball teams could fuck themselves.

“Hey, I heard something about Kyle and MaeBe,” Cooper said, worry in his tone. “Is that woman back?”

Ah, Julia Ennis. Kyle Hawthorne was her cousin. Technically not by blood since he and his brother David were her Aunt Grace’s sons from her first marriage. But blood didn’t mean a lot in her circles. When Grace had married Sean Taggart, those brothers had become family. Kyle had played with her and her siblings, babysat them, always got them ice cream when they were kids. He’d been gone for a couple of years and everyone pretended like he was in the military doing normal military things, but Kala was excellent at breaking into records and listening when she wasn’t supposed to. She got grounded a lot, and it was her parents’ fault because there wasn’t much to do when she was grounded. Eavesdropping and spying were the only fun times to be had. “Yes. From what I heard this week, she’s been causing all kinds of trouble. She wants to kill MaeBe because she thinks once Mae’s dead, she can, like, move into her place or something. She’s pretty psycho.”

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Advertisement Sweet Little Spies (Masters & Mercenaries – New Recruits #3) Read Online Lexi Blake http://www.books2020.com/sweet-little-spies-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-3-read-online-lexi-blake Sat, 05 Oct 2024 02:32:11 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/sweet-little-spies-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-3-read-online-lexi-blake Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Contemporary, Erotic Authors: Lexi Blake Series: Masters & Mercenaries - New Recruits Series by Lexi Blake
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Total pages in book: 141
Estimated words: 133213 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 666(@200wpm)___ 533(@250wpm)___ 444(@300wpm)

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Since he was a kid, Aidan O’Donnell has known two things about the world. Tristan is his best friend, and Carys is the love of his life. Sharing her with Tristan was oddly easy. They both loved her deeply, and they never cared what anyone else thought. They were a team and everything was wonderful. Until the day it ended.

Carys Taggart has spent the last year and a half of her life living a lie. A lie Tristan forced on them all. She understands that it was meant to protect her and Aidan, but lately when Tristan says he doesn’t love her, it feels more like the truth. The wedding she’s dreamed of has been put off far longer than he promised. When he asks her and Aidan for another delay, she’s ready to move on without him.

Tristan Dean-Miles has a good plan and the best of intentions. Go undercover as a ruthless arms dealer so he can find a deadly bombmaker at the top of the agency’s wanted list. It might be taking longer than expected, but he’s so close he can taste it. Unfortunately, getting this close meant getting in way too deep. He knows he will succeed, but if he can’t convince the love of his life and his best friend that he’s worth the wait, his victory will cost him everything.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

Carys Taggart stared at the man she’d loved since they were children. Well, one of them. The other sat beside her, but he’d done nothing to deserve her death stare.

They sat on the balcony section of one of Dallas’s fine dining establishments, located in an equally luxurious hotel, overlooking the city lights. It was elegant and somewhat private, and she wondered if this was where it all finally ended. At least he’d chosen a beautiful spot to end what had felt like a lifetime love affair.

“It’s not forever.” Tristan Dean-Miles was a gorgeous man with dark hair and green eyes. He was six foot three, and over the last few years had gone from gangly computer geek to muscular soldier.

She missed her computer nerd so damn much. The nerd wouldn’t be leaving her. The hacking-obsessed young man she’d adored wouldn’t be standing in front of her breaking all of his promises. She felt inexplicably weary, and it wasn’t because she was in her final year of medical school. The stress of taking the USMLE was nothing compared to sitting in this restaurant watching the man she thought she’d marry let her down. Again.

“That’s what you said last time.” The other man she loved looked as tired as she did. Aidan O’Donnell. Six foot two, with lean muscle he honed in the gym and by running.

Her life was complicated.

“I know,” Tris replied, a deep patience in his tone. “I’m sorry. I know I did, but things have gotten…complex.”

She’d known they would have trouble when Tristan had announced he was going into the Army instead of grad school. They’d had plans. Plans they’d made when they were stupid kids who thought they could make a relationship like this work.

She sat there in the middle of the fancy restaurant Tristan had likely picked either as an apology for what he’d been planning to say or as a shield so she couldn’t yell at him. Either way, she sat there feeling like a piece of herself had broken off, and she wouldn’t get it back.

Just because Tristan’s parents had made it work didn’t mean they could. Tristan’s unique family had made what they had feel somewhat normal. But there was a reason the world wasn’t full of happy threesomes.

“Complex?” Aidan’s jaw had taken on the hard line she associated with his stubbornness. It always tightened when he was working through a problem he refused to give up on. Even when the “problem” had told them again and again he didn’t want to be solved. “What is that supposed to mean? Tris, we’re supposed to get married in a few months. We agreed when we finished medical school, we would make this thing legal and start our family.”

It was what they’d always dreamed of. At least she and Aidan. They would get through school, marry, and move in together and start their lives. They would do it without shame, and anyone who didn’t like it would be ruthlessly extricated from their group.

“There is nothing I want more, but I have some things I need to do before I can settle down, and it might mean staying away from the two of you for a while.”

“So you did it.” She knew what he wasn’t saying. This had been her fear for months now.

“Did it? Baby, all I’m doing is my job.” Tris looked so reasonable. He looked like a young man from a good family in his well-tailored three-piece suit. Unlike Aidan, Tristan came from money. A lot of it.

Her family did well, too, but not like Tristan’s. Aidan’s was upper middle-class. He hadn’t worried about college or medical school, but he’d eaten his share of ramen noodles and worked some heavy-lifting part-time jobs.

Tristan could have done anything he wanted to. Had any job in the world. He could have taken his place at his father’s side and learned how to run one of the top investigative firms in the world. Miles-Dean, Weston, and Murdoch specialized in locating people who were lost or who didn’t want to be found. The company did well, but it was his parents’ creative endeavors that had made them wealthy beyond their wildest dreams. Between his father’s software innovations and his mom’s best-selling novels, there was little the Dean-Miles family couldn’t afford. Tristan could be here in Dallas with them.

But something else had called to him.

“It’s a job you don’t need,” Aidan pointed out. “Look, I understand you’re enjoying the adrenaline rush of being Army intelligence, but where does it end? You said you wanted to spend the last couple of years working this out of your system. I got it. Medical school is a lot, and you thought we wouldn’t have time for you.”

She would have made time. Even if it had been nothing more than holding him while he slept.

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Advertisement The Bodyguard and the Bombshell (Masters & Mercenaries – New Recruits #2.5) Read Online Lexi Blake http://www.books2020.com/the-bodyguard-and-the-bombshell-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-2-5-read-online-lexi-blake Sat, 31 Aug 2024 08:14:35 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/the-bodyguard-and-the-bombshell-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-2-5-read-online-lexi-blake Genre: Alpha Male, Contemporary Authors: Lexi Blake Series: Masters & Mercenaries - New Recruits Series by Lexi Blake
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Total pages in book: 77
Estimated words: 72647 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 363(@200wpm)___ 291(@250wpm)___ 242(@300wpm)

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From the bestselling author Lexi Blake comes a new story in her Masters and Mercenaries series…

The Bodyguard…
Nate Carter left Australia’s elite SASR unit after a tragic accident. Shattered by the experience, he thought taking a job in the States might be a good way to start over. His father’s former employer, McKay-Taggart, has a position for him in the bodyguard unit. He never imagined himself risking his life for celebrities and the wealthy, but it will do for now. It will also give him a chance to reconnect with old friends, including the girl who’d been like a little sis to him ten years before.
These days, however, his feelings for Daisy O’Donnell are anything but brotherly.

The Bombshell…
Daisy O’Donnell is a girl on a mission, and it does not include falling for one of her brother’s best friends. She has plans, and while chaos always seems to follow her, she’s determined to see this through. Daisy finds herself in need of a bodyguard when a job goes terribly wrong. She’s sure her dad will find someone suitable, but she didn’t expect a big, gloriously masculine Aussie to show up ready to take a bullet for her. Maybe spending some time with Nate Carter won’t be so bad after all.

An explosive match…
Thrown together by danger, Nate and Daisy can’t resist the insane chemistry between them. But when his past and her present collide, they must decide if they can hold it together or go their separate ways forever.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

One Thousand and One Dark Nights

Once upon a time, in the future…

I was a student fascinated with stories and learning.

I studied philosophy, poetry, history, the occult, and

the art and science of love and magic. I had a vast

library at my father’s home and collected thousands

of volumes of fantastic tales.

I learned all about ancient races and bygone

times. About myths and legends and dreams of all

people through the millennium. And the more I read

the stronger my imagination grew until I discovered

that I was able to travel into the stories... to actually

become part of them.

I wish I could say that I listened to my teacher

and respected my gift, as I ought to have. If I had, I

would not be telling you this tale now.

But I was foolhardy and confused, showing off

with bravery.

One afternoon, curious about the myth of the

Arabian Nights, I traveled back to ancient Persia to

see for myself if it was true that every day Shahryar

(Persian: شهريار, “king”) married a new virgin, and then

sent yesterday's wife to be beheaded. It was written

and I had read that by the time he met Scheherazade,

the vizier's daughter, he’d killed one thousand

women.

Something went wrong with my efforts. I arrived

in the midst of the story and somehow exchanged

places with Scheherazade – a phenomena that had

never occurred before and that still to this day, I

cannot explain.

Now I am trapped in that ancient past. I have

taken on Scheherazade’s life and the only way I can

protect myself and stay alive is to do what she did to

protect herself and stay alive.

Every night the King calls for me and listens as I spin tales.

And when the evening ends and dawn breaks, I stop at a

point that leaves him breathless and yearning for more.

And so the King spares my life for one more day, so that

he might hear the rest of my dark tale.

As soon as I finish a story... I begin a new

one... like the one that you, dear reader, have before

you now.

Family Trees

Chapter One

Australia

Nate Carter stood on the big lawn of the house he’d spent his teenaged years in and wondered why it no longer felt like home. It wasn’t like he didn’t love the big ranch house, didn’t have fond memories of riding horses across the rambling station with his sister, Elodie, or spending evenings with his parents watching movies.

His parents weren’t the problem. His sister was still the same obnoxious, loving woman she’d always been.

He was the problem.

“Are you sure you want to do this?” a deep voice asked.

He turned and saw his father standing on the big wraparound porch where he would sit with his sister, swinging and talking about what was going on in their lives.

He’d been home for six months and he made excuse after excuse why he wouldn’t sit there with Elodie. He was busy. There was work to be done.

He never once told her the real reason. He was scared he would sit there and have absolutely nothing to say.

Elodie had known what she wanted to do with her life since she was five years old. He was twenty-six and had no idea where his place was in the world.

Which was why he was changing things up. “Moving to the States or working for Big Tag?”

His father wore his normal uniform of jeans and a T-shirt and looked more like a cowboy than the soldier he’d been in his younger years. Brody Carter was a legend in the security business. He’d gone from Aussie Special Forces to working for an international security company. He’d married a woman he’d met on what he would call an “op” but what Nate kind of thought was really fate. All of his life he’d looked up to this man, and Nate was so worried he was letting him down. “Both, I suppose. You know Damon would love to have you.”

Before they’d moved back to Australia, his family had been based in London. Elodie barely remembered living in the place called The Garden, but Nate did. Nate remembered growing up with Damon Knight’s kids and all the others.

“I need something new.” It was nothing less than the truth. Since he’d left the military, he’d been drifting. Nothing had been able to shake this sense of… He hesitated to use the word ennui. Ennui sounded like something that happened to way smarter people than him.

“Are you sure you’re not following one of the Taggart girls?” His father’s brows had risen. “Because I worry you would be making a mistake, son. Tasha’s getting married and the twins… Well, I don’t know how any man handles those twins of Tag’s.”

Nate laughed. It felt good to laugh. He’d been kind of numb for the last couple of months. “Absolutely not. And I’m not trailing after Lou, either. There is no woman involved in this decision of mine. I’m doing this for me.”

He wasn’t going to mention he’d been thinking a lot about Daisy O’Donnell lately. He wouldn’t pursue her or anything. When they’d been kids, she’d followed him around and he’d known about her crush. He hadn’t minded, though he also hadn’t touched her. It made him wonder what she was up to these days.

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Advertisement Live Love Spy (Masters & Mercenaries – New Recruits #2) Read Online Lexi Blake http://www.books2020.com/live-love-spy-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-2-read-online-lexi-blake Fri, 15 Mar 2024 06:57:42 +0000 http://www.booksnovels.com/live-love-spy-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-2-read-online-lexi-blake Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Erotic, Suspense Authors: Lexi Blake Series: Masters & Mercenaries - New Recruits Series by Lexi Blake
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Total pages in book: 155
Estimated words: 146392 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 732(@200wpm)___ 586(@250wpm)___ 488(@300wpm)

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Life can often be awkward when you are a child genius. For Louisa Ward, that came in the form of meeting her one true love at age 12. TJ Taggart was perfect. But being a year younger and a full year ahead of him in school always made things weird. Working in the CIA has made her into a strong and capable woman. Until she sees TJ. Fifteen years later, she still gets butterflies every time she sees the gorgeous soldier, but she’s tired of waiting and ready to find love, even if it can’t be with him.

Not everyone knows what they want out of life when they are a teenager, but TJ Taggart could always see exactly where he wanted to go. But joining the Army would require a sacrifice. Since meeting Louisa, TJ knew his cousin’s brilliant, oddball friend was the woman he wanted to spend his life with. He couldn’t ask her to live that life with him. She was meant to change the world at some prestigious research job or maybe teach a new generation of geniuses like herself at an Ivy League school. There would be a chance to sweep her off her feet when his time in this dangerous life was done, and their happily ever after could begin.

Before he can make it home on his latest leave, TJ is kidnapped by an unknown adversary. As he waits to die, all he can think of is the time he wasted and how badly he wants to be with Lou. He’s more than a little surprised when his sweet, quiet girl shows up leading a CIA special ops squad to bust him out. Back in Dallas, it’s time to claim the woman of his dreams. He has a plan to win her over, until the adversary who almost killed him returns to finish the job.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Prologue

“Are you sure I can’t kill him?”

TJ Taggart sighed because he should have known it was a bad idea to bring his cousin Kala into this particular scheme of his. It had been suggested by several members of Johnson High School’s senior class that a new “most likely to” category be created just for Kala Taggart. Most Likely to Murder Someone.

Luckily the administration had shut that right down. Probably because, like the rest of the world, they were afraid of Kala. He’d heard some talk about how relieved the entire staff would be when all the Taggarts were off to college and they never had to deal with that military mafia family again.

Their description, not his.

They would be waiting forever. His family was massive, and there always seemed to be a new addition.

“If I thought I could get away with it, I would do it myself,” TJ said under his breath as they both watched the boy in question walk across the quad toward the main building. Unfortunately for him, Kala was the only way to go when it came to taking down an asshole. His sister, Devi, would try to kick the guy in the balls, but Kala understood they needed something truly awful in order to end this thing between Lou and that fuckwad walking across the quad like he owned it.

“I can get away with it,” Kala returned.

“I think Lou’s been through enough without losing her best friend to juvie.” Dennis Sims walked up to a group of soccer bros. Assholes, every one of them. He wasn’t sure why the boys’ soccer team seemed to only recruit jerks he wouldn’t leave alone with a girl for a single second, but there they were.

“I thought you were her best friend.”

An ache went through him. Louisa Ward was…everything. Lou was his whole heart. Sometimes he wished he’d never met her because before he had, he’d never thought he was lonely. Now when she wasn’t around he felt his singularity. “I think she’s my best friend. I don’t know that I’m hers.”

Kala wore her normal uniform of ripped jeans, combat boots, and a leather jacket, even though it wasn’t cold enough for one yet. Her hair was shiny blue, and she sighed in a way that reminded him of his uncle, her dad. This was Uncle Ian’s patented “dumbass said something and now I gotta fix things” sigh. “You could change that. All you have to do is say Lou, let’s get down and dirty. She’s in love with you, TJ.”

She thought she was, and maybe it was true, but she was a grade ahead of him, and Lou Ward was an academic force of nature. She was so fucking smart, and he was…TJ. People got excited when he made a C instead of a D. People praised him for finding out he’d read an actual not-comic-book book. He’d only read it because Lou was reading it. “She’s going to college, and I don’t think she needs to be stuck with a boyfriend who won’t go to college at all.”

“Tell me you’re not still thinking about the Army.” Kala frowned his way. “You’re not dumb. I know I say it all the time, but insults are my love language. You can go to college. You can go, and then if you still feel the need to get your ass shot off at least you’ll be an officer.”

He’d gotten this lecture from more than one person. “I don’t want to. I want to get in, learn some things that will help me get a job when I get out, and start my life. Lou is going in a different direction. She needs way more than I can give her.”

Kala’s head shook. “Your loss, man.”

Yes. It was his loss because he would never be the man who kissed her and touched her and slept beside her. He wouldn’t be the man to smooth back her hair and hold her hand.

But fuck all, neither would Dennis asshole Sims.

His cousin was being something of a hypocrite. “And why do you always give me shit about the Army? You’re planning a whole career at the Agency.”

“Not the same thing. The Agency is cool, and no one will yell at me all day. Well, except Kenzie.” Kenzie Taggart was Kala’s twin, and while they seemed different on the surface, he happened to know they had a lot in common. They both wanted to be spies.

But his Lou would end up at some think tank or working at an elite university. She would be safe in her ivory tower surrounded by people who could keep up with her. She would change the world someday, and he would be so proud of her.

He would still be in her life. That was the important part. He fucked up all of his relationships. He hadn’t kept a girlfriend for more than three months. Lou was too important.

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Advertisement Love the Way You Spy (Masters & Mercenaries – New Recruits #1) Read Online Lexi Blake http://www.books2020.com/love-the-way-you-spy-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-1-read-online-lexi-blake Sat, 23 Sep 2023 20:10:51 +0000 https://www.booksnovels.com/love-the-way-you-spy-masters-mercenaries-new-recruits-1-read-online-lexi-blake Genre: Alpha Male, BDSM, Contemporary, Erotic, Suspense Authors: Lexi Blake Series: Masters & Mercenaries - New Recruits Series by Lexi Blake
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Total pages in book: 148
Estimated words: 139606 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 698(@200wpm)___ 558(@250wpm)___ 465(@300wpm)

<<<<1 2 3 11 21 >148

Tasha Taggart isn’t a spy. That’s her sisters’ job. Tasha’s support role is all about keeping them alive, playing referee when they fight amongst themselves, and soothing the toughest boss in the world. Working for the CIA isn’t as glamorous as she imagined, and she’s more than a little lonely. So when she meets a charming man in a bar the night before they start their latest op, she decides to give in to temptation. The night was perfect until she discovers she’s just slept with the target of their new investigation. Her sisters will never let her hear the end of this. Even worse, she has to explain the situation to her overprotective father, who also happens to be their boss.

Dare Nash knew exactly how his week in Sydney was going to go—attending boring conferences to represent his family’s business interests and eating hotel food alone. Until he falls under the spell of a stunning and mysterious American woman. Something in Tasha’s eyes raises his body temperature every time she looks at him. She’s captivating, and he’s committed to spending every minute he can with her on this trip, even if her two friends seem awfully intense. His father will be arriving in town soon, and he’s excited to introduce him to a woman he could imagine spending the rest of his life with.

When Dare discovers Tash isn’t who she seems, the dream turns into a nightmare. She isn’t the only one who deceived him, and now he’s in the crosshairs of adversaries way out of his league. He can’t trust her, but it might take Tasha and her family to save his life and uncover the truth.

*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************

Chapter One

Tasha Taggart looked over the rowdy bar and wondered for the one hundred and thirtieth time what the hell she was doing. She wasn’t this girl. She wasn’t the girl who stepped into a bar looking to pick up a guy because she needed affirmation.

She wasn’t a girl at all. She was a woman, and she wasn’t looking for affirmation. She was a whole-ass grown woman who ran a CIA team. And that CIA team included her twin siblings who were smart and also terrifying to handle and no one had even died yet. Well, no one who wasn’t supposed to.

She was about to start a mission where she would subsist on takeout and hide in the shadows of whatever safe house the Agency was willing to put her up in, so she deserved some sex. She deserved a night out before she went back to the shadows. Tomorrow the op would start in earnest, and she would spend all her time staring at a computer screen and trying to keep everyone alive. Yes. That was why she was standing here in a slightly disreputable bar in Sydney wondering if her boobs looked good.

“Just so you know, your boobs look great,” a cheery voice said.

She looked at one of her wingmen for the night. Louisa Ward hadn’t taken the same ridiculous care with her appearance that Tasha had. Lou wore jeans and a T-shirt that proclaimed Never Trust an Atom…They Make Up Everything. Her hair was in the same messy bun she always wore, and she hadn’t bothered with her contacts. Her brown eyes were framed by overly large glasses that looked like they could have been worn by Sir Elton John himself.

Such an adorable dweeb and so deeply important to the whole freaking world, though no one really knew it. Lou had left a life of academia to join the team, and she’d already changed the way the Agency worked by adapting tech to fit their needs.

“Of course her boobs look great. Who do you think dressed her? You should have let me dress you, too.”

Sometimes she wished Lou wasn’t so great at tech. The glasses Lou wore were a part of the high-tech communications tool she’d helped create. It allowed the sister who was not there to just keep commenting anyway. Kenzie was stuck at base, so she’d made sure she could keep up via Lou’s glasses and the microphone that would allow them all to hear her. She touched the earpiece her sister had insisted that she wear. “Hey. I thought this was for emergencies only.”

Kenzie’s voice came back over the line. “This is an emergency. I am bored and Coop and Tris are watching something called rugby, and I thought it would be more interesting than it is because I read a thing where sometimes the players shove a finger up the opposing player’s butt to throw them off a little, but you can’t see that. And if it’s happening, then these dudes are seriously excellent at handling butt stuff because their faces do not change. They are like the most experienced subs at The Hideout on butt-stuff night.”

They didn’t actually have one of those. Tash was fairly certain that every night was butt-stuff night at the club a couple of members of the team had formed. It had started in the unattached garage at the rambling house Cooper shared with two of his best friends, and they’d recently pooled enough money to buy a building they were renovating. She loved The Hideout.

“Is she talking about the rugby rumors again?” Kala leaned in, whispering in Tasha’s ear…or rather her earpiece. “You are such a perv. I can’t believe I’m considered the wild one.”

Kala and Kenzie were her sisters. They were fourteen months younger. Perfect twins. If one looked at them, they wouldn’t be able to tell the two apart. Right up until their mouths opened, and then it was righteously clear who was who.

Kenzie was sunshine and puppies and yes, a smidge of sexual perversion—who could blame her—while Kala spoke mostly sarcasm and genuinely enjoyed knife fights. Seriously. Tash had seen her start a couple because the op was taking too long. There was not an ounce of patience in Kala’s bones.

It wasn’t easy being their handler. It was as easy as breathing to be their sister.

Sometimes. Now was not one of them.

“You know I didn’t want any of you to come with me. I’m just getting a drink before we start the op,” she said quietly.

Kala’s brow rose, and for a second she looked so much like their dad it hurt. “Sure you are. That’s why you let Kenz pick your look-at-my-boobs top.”

God, she was so glad her father was hours and hours away sitting on a beach in Loa Mali, probably perving on their mom because that was what he did when he wasn’t running his highly successful security company or working for the CIA.

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