Title: One Night in Monaco
Series: Billionaires in Disguise: Maxence Prequel
Author: Blair Babylon
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Release Date: August 18, 2020
Blurb
One
night in Monaco, my best friend, Maxence, disappeared from the middle of the
Monte Carlo casino like blowing away a breath of smoke.
I have no idea what Maxence was doing in Monaco that night. Yeah, he loves the Monte Carlo casino—the stage of British spy movies, billionaires, Russian mafia, and roulette.
But too many people in Monaco think he might be a danger to them.
He never should have been there.
But he was.
And so was Simone. She's trouble from our past at boarding school. Her husband is a good friend of some of the people who would be happier if Maxence wasn't around anymore.
They tell me Maxence was here in the casino, and then a few minutes later, he was gone.
Like he dropped off the face of the Earth.
Or like he was dropped off one of Monaco’s cliffs and into the blue Mediterranean Sea, which was just a few feet from where he was standing when he disappeared.
Arthur and I are in Monaco to find Maxence, no matter what it takes.
But we might end up finding his body.
I have no idea what Maxence was doing in Monaco that night. Yeah, he loves the Monte Carlo casino—the stage of British spy movies, billionaires, Russian mafia, and roulette.
But too many people in Monaco think he might be a danger to them.
He never should have been there.
But he was.
And so was Simone. She's trouble from our past at boarding school. Her husband is a good friend of some of the people who would be happier if Maxence wasn't around anymore.
They tell me Maxence was here in the casino, and then a few minutes later, he was gone.
Like he dropped off the face of the Earth.
Or like he was dropped off one of Monaco’s cliffs and into the blue Mediterranean Sea, which was just a few feet from where he was standing when he disappeared.
Arthur and I are in Monaco to find Maxence, no matter what it takes.
But we might end up finding his body.
Purchase Links
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NARRATED BY SHANE EAST, LUCY RIVERS,
JOE ARDEN, EMMA WILDER, JOHN LANE
& MAXINE MITCHELL
Trailer
Excerpt
The Monte
Carlo casino brimmed with beautiful women, and Max loved women. He loved everything
about them, from their finer skin to their soft curves to the sweet scent of
them to the sparkly and beautiful clothes they wore.
The doorway
between two rooms where Maxence was standing was half-blocked by Christmas
trees that towered over his head and the doorway. He’d been careful not to
jiggle the tiny gold-and-glass ornaments that encrusted the tree. The balls and
icicles tinkled alarmingly every time his arm brushed the branches.
Maxence had
just decided to inch closer to the televisions airing the soccer match when his
old high school friend Simone Maina rushed across the opulent casino room and
through the crowd toward him.
Her lithe
figure was a harmonic vibration on a violin string, blurred at the edges of her
slim curves by the lights sparkling on the glass beadwork of her white dress.
As she neared him, the smooth skin between her eyebrows and under her eyes
creased, indicating strain. Her arms reaching for him were slim, dark lines in
the room of round, solid bodies held tightly together to avoid contact.
Maxence set
his whiskey glass on a small table behind himself and drew a breath to ask her
what was wrong.
Simone’s
natural Afro hair was a sleek halo around her thin face. She was reaching out
to Maxence, her fingers nearing the lapels of his tuxedo, and she glanced
behind herself in fear. Black eyeliner and eyeshadow in soft sage and
glittering gold accentuated her sloe-eyed beauty, and she almost looked like an
Egyptian hieroglyphic of a queen.
Rough
abrasions and the darkening plum of bruises covered her slim throat.
Maxence’s
heart fell as rage rose in his body. Her husband, Estebe Fournier, must have
thought people wouldn’t notice the damage to Simone’s dark-bronze skin. Estebe
had always been a bully when they had been at school together, and he’d been
excellent at creating incidents where he could deny his guilt.
About
twenty feet behind her, two men in dark suits pushed through the crowd, their
eyes intent on her form.
Other men
in dark suits—all with the nearly shaved heads and odd bulk of the paramilitary
security profession—converged toward them from another side of the crowd.
Wait—wasn’t that—
Maxence
could have sworn he recognized one of the men. Maybe all private mercenaries
and bodyguards were beginning to look alike to him. Many of his friends
employed dozens of them.
Maxence
opened his hands as Simone rushed into his curtained alcove and whispered near
his shoulder, “Help me.”
Author Bio
"I'm passionate about books and literature. The best books are
intense, enthralling stories that readers can get lost in for days. Books delve
into what it means to be human and connect us to each other. Books allow us to
live all our possible lives. Books open us to loving each other and the world
more. I write intense, deeply imagined romance novels for serious readers
because the world needs more love." ~~Blair Babylon
Blair Babylon is an award-winning, USA Today bestselling author who used
to publish literary fiction. Because professional reviews of her other fiction
usually included the caveat that there was too much deviant sex and too much
interesting plot, she decided to abandon all literary pretensions, let her
freak flag fly, and write hot, sexy, suspenseful romance.
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