Don’t Love, Don’t Lose

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Blurb:

A clean, billionaire, BWWM romance story. IT worker Jasmine’s life mantra has always been to avoid love to prevent heartache. With her coding and hacking skills, she’s self-sufficient and doesn’t see the need for love in her life. That is until she crosses paths with billionaire Anthony Malone, owner of Malone Enterprises.

She and Anthony couldn’t be any more different, yet she can’t help but be drawn to his bad boy charm. But as their professional relationship turns into romance, mere words won’t be enough to earn Jasmine’s trust in Anthony.

He’s got to act on it! But soon they will be blindsided by their enemies. And now Jasmine and Anthony are faced with the destruction of everything that they had built in their relationship… Will they be able to navigate their budding love and conquer all obstacles in their path before it’s too late? Discover now in this clean interracial romance novel by Ellie Etienne.

Chapter 1

“Aunt Della, you didn’t have to do all of this.”

Jasmine Turner grinned at her godmother. This was routine.

“If I didn’t cook for you, you’d be such skin and bones that I’d hardly be able to see you if you stood sideways. That’s food for a week, Jas. If I find that there’s any of that left after that week is done…”

“I know. You will kick my behind.”

“Damn right I will.”

“Mama, my boxes are smaller than Jas’.”

Jasmine’s grin widened as affection for her sister surged through her.

“That’s because I know you’ll be eating lunch at your office cafeteria. I’ve never had to worry about you missing a meal, my girl. You’re eating plenty. The way you like to eat, you should learn to cook for yourself.”

Henrietta Simone made a show of sulking.

“I guess it’s a good thing,” sighed Henrietta, “Jas doesn’t put on weight no matter what she eats.”

“That’s because she doesn’t eat often enough. If you could move back home for a few weeks, I’d fatten you up again, Jas.”

“Mama, you tried to do that for every summer vacation since she was eleven, and it never worked, so I think it’s about time you gave up and made me dessert for the week, too.”

“The cheek of you, Rita,” said Della, and Jasmine decided that it was about time to break it up.

“Rita, didn’t you tell me you were on a diet?”

Henrietta frowned.

“Must you remind me of that right after we had our Sunday roast? Really, Jas. You are getting meaner in your old age. I hear that women get mean past 35.”

“You’ll be 35 in about eleven months, and I’ve had thirteen months to get used to being 35. You’re going to be hit with it, my girl, and you should be glad you have me to help cushion the blow.”

Henrietta laughed and splashed soapy water from the sink at Jasmine.

“I will never be 35. I plan on staying 28 forever.”

Jasmine dried the dishes Henrietta handed her, the routine established a long time ago, working smoothly together.

“Aunt Della, do you have to take that job? I don’t like to think of you working for them.”

Della shrugged as she sat back with her glass of wine. Her girls would take care of the dishes, as they did every Sunday, after she cooked for them. It was her joy to cook for them. If they were in a thirty-mile radius, they came home for Sunday roast. It was harder to pin down her Rita than it was to get Jas. Her Jasmine liked routines, and her home was only seven miles away from Della.

“It’s good money, Jas. I start tomorrow.”

“But Aunt Della, you’ve never worked in real estate before. And Malone is so…”

“Big? That’s good, isn’t it? Won’t lay me off, hopefully, if they keep expanding like they seem to be doing. Buying up everything everywhere, they are.”

“I don’t see that as a particularly good thing, Aunt Della. He sells what he buys off to everybody everywhere, too. Changes everything.”

“Honey, you don’t have to stand guard against all change. Sometimes change is good. Really, sometimes I do worry about you.”

“Nothing to worry about, Mama. I’ve got my eye on her. I’ll make sure she has some fun now and then.”

“With you, I worry that you have too much fun!”

Henrietta grimaced at Jasmine from behind Della’s back.

“Fine, Mama. I’ll have a bleak, joyless existence, and all because you won’t make me dessert.”

Jasmine didn’t interfere. Rita and Della loved their little fights. They bickered all the time. Unlike when Jasmine had been a teenager, she didn’t have to get in the middle. Things had been different then.

She had been different then.

“What?”

Jasmine had been lost in the past. She hadn’t heard her name being called.

“I said, do you want to go and get cheesecake?”

“Cheesecake?”

It was her one great weakness.

“See, Mama, I told you that that would do it. There’s nothing that our Jasmine wouldn’t do for cheesecake.”

Jasmine’s heart melted a little bit, much like cheese. There was nothing like being called theirs to make her feel like the luckiest girl on earth, no matter what else.

“Fine, we’ll go and get cheesecake. But I’m driving.”

“You just had two giant glasses of that wine, and Mama, wine counts. Do you want me to lose my license? I’m not losing my license because you don’t like my driving. I make a living from being a private detective. I’m not going to risk it by letting my mother drive drunk.”

Jasmine finally got in the middle of it.

“There, that’s the last plate. Lunch was incredible, Aunt Della, as always, and I think you deserve cheesecake for making it. And I can drive.”

“You, Jas…”

“Don’t start, Rita. I taught you how to drive and helped you pass that driving test, so don’t even start.”

“Oh, you’re perfectly safe to drive. You had exactly half a glass of wine with the stuffed mushrooms because you’re driving back.”

Jasmine grinned.

“Well, I guess you found the right profession for yourself after all. Meant to be a private detective, aren’t you? The bad guys don’t have a chance. You’re going to be on them, any moment.”

“That is what I worry about. I tell you, Jasmine, I worry about this girl of mine. Why the Lord couldn’t have given me two perfectly reasonable girls, I don’t know, but he gave me one who likes safety and the other who runs so fast in the opposite direction that it’s a wonder to think I raised you both the same way.”

Jasmine laughed and shepherded her sister and the woman who was as close to a mother as she had out of the house and drove them both to get truly excellent cheesecake, because they both deserved the best.

The best of everything.

Jasmine would spend all of her life making sure that they got it.

Anthony Malone wanted to grit his teeth, but nobody would’ve realized that from seeing him. Nobody would’ve had a clue from his voice, either.

“Yes, of course, Mark. Profit is king, as always. I hope your realize that I will remember that.”

He cut the call before Mark Johnson could say anything more. There was no point wasting more time on him. Time was money, and Anthony Malone’s time was worth quite a lot of money.

“Problem?”

He looked up at Jennifer and made himself smile.

“Not a bit of it.”

“I will find out, Anthony.”

Anthony sighed.

Jennifer would find out, of course. Jennifer Anderson found out everything that happened in his holdings and his enterprises because it was her job. She was his right-hand woman.

It was a pity that Anthony had never gotten out of the habit of trying to win Jennifer’s approval in the last twelve years. But then, Jennifer was the closest thing to a mother that Anthony had, and a mother’s approval was the one thing that money couldn’t buy.

If his mother had been alive, her approval might have been very easily bought. Since she was not, there was nothing that could buy it.

Such was life.

Such was the finality of death.

“Somebody tipped him off. Damn it, Jennifer, we have a mole. We have a spy somewhere in here. They knew what our bid would be and they undercut it, just barely, just enough for us to lose the deal.”

Jennifer nodded.

“So we’re not getting the project?”

“We’re not getting the land, the project, or the contract, no. Damn it!”

Anthony pushed off from his chair, got to his feet and walked to the wide glass panels behind him.

He had an excellent view of what he was determined would one day be his empire from there. He already controlled a good part of it. Land, it wouldn’t do you wrong. If you owned the land, you could own what could come from it. And you could control what would come from it.

Both the owning and the controlling were very important to Anthony.