Catching Fire: Educating Ellie (Billionaire Romance Series Book 1) Read online

  Educating Ellie

  Catching Fire Series

  Book One

  T.N King

  Published by Butterfly Publishings, 2017.

  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, places, businesses, and incidents are from the author’s imagination, or they are used fictitiously and are definitely fictionalized. Any trademarks or pictures herein are not authorized by the trademark owners and do not in any way mean the work is sponsored by or associated with the trademark owners. Any trademarks or pictures used are specifically in a descriptive capacity.

  Catching Fire Book One: Educating Ellie

  First Edition. July 13th, 2017

  Copyright © T.N King © Butterfly Publishing

  Content Editor: Leanore Elliott

  Book Design & Formatting: Wicked Muse

  Cover Art Provided By: Emcat Designs

  Published by Butterfly Publishings

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  Also by Butterfly Publishing

  The Midnight Series by NJ Cole

  Midnight Caller

  Midnight Eternal

  Also By NJ Cole

  Yes, Mistress

  Yes, Master

  Second Chances

  Breaking China

  Island Captives

  The Red Velvet Series by Leanore Elliott

  Book One: Double Plush

  Book Two: Hot Blue

  Book Three: Crushed

  Book Four: Hammered

  Book Five: Triple

  Book Six: Laced

  Book Seven: Blazing

  Book Eight: Ripped

  Book Nine: Wild

  Catching Fire Series by T.N King

  Book One: Educating Ellie

  Book Two: New Rules (September 2107)

  Book Three: Perfect Places (December 2017)

  Find T.N King

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  T.N King Website

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  CONTENTS

  Prologue

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Epilogue

  Catching Fire Series

  About T.N King

  PROLOGUE

  The building stood with thick smoke pouring out of the melted windows. A glow emanated from inside. It was a scene that would frighten most. It did frighten Ellie, but she knew she had to do this.

  Shaking her head, she took a deep breath. This had to be the worst idea, Ellie White thought as she made her way back into the burning diner, but she had to save the photo of her dad. She wouldn’t let the only memory she had left of her dead father go up in flames.

  When she wandered through the familiar diner, she felt like she’d entered a foreign war zone as thick, black smoke surrounded her, making the very familiar seem—different. She began to feel light headed. Yes, this was a bad idea. This dizzy feeling quickly became a warning that she needed to turn around and run back outside. But she knew she couldn’t—she just had to try. She just needed to get to the back of the diner where her locker was. The back of the diner, however, was engulfed in flames with smoke and fumes pouring out through the ‘Employee Only’ entrance.

  Ellie looked around as she fought for a breath of clean air. She would have to move on to Plan B, which was to go through the walk-in cooler. It had a back door that would take her straight to her locker. She wasn’t giving up. It was hard to see now with all the smoke, but she felt her way to the walk-in and opened the heavy door. The smoke hadn’t made in there yet, so she inhaled deeply, but kept moving.

  She could see through the small window in the cooler door and saw gray smoke filling the locker room. She took a deep breath in the cooler before making a mad dash towards her locker. It was the first one right outside the door. Luckily, she didn’t keep a lock on it, but when she went to open it, the latch was hot.

  “Owww!” she cried as she burned her thumb.

  It just got so hard to see anything. She felt around for a towel to wrap her hand in, so she could open the door to her locker. Smoke was everywhere, but she found the dirty dish rag hamper in a nearby corner and grabbed the damp rag on top.

  This’ll work. She was coughing non-stop now and her light-headedness had upgraded to dizzy, but she pressed on.

  Rushing back to her locker, she opened the metal door. Her father’s picture was taped to the inside of it. She pulled it off and shoved it inside her uniform shirt. Now, to get back to safety. She tried to go back through the cooler, but forgot that it automatically locked from the other side. Because of the nearby flames, it was too hot to try to go through the regular employee entrance.

  Ellie stood with the dish rag over her face, now she was good and caught. She coughed some more and desperately looked around. She felt faint. Her vision was getting blurry.

  Gotta keep moving.

  Just then, she heard a loud crash as part of the wall that separated the back part of the diner from the front came crumbling down. Daylight streamed in through the cloud of debris and smoke. It looked like an opening from a burning hell to the open day of heaven. Swiftly, she made her way towards it, but started gagging. Yes, she could make it—just a minute or two and she would be out. Her mind suddenly fogged, as she couldn’t breathe. She fell to the floor and crawled. She could see the exit now.

  Just a little further.

  Coughing again, she thought about how odd it was that she felt so sleepy all of a sudden. Her eyes closed, but she forced them open again. Stay awake! She was only a few meters away from the door but she felt so weak. She laid her head down and smelled the burning ash on the floor. Get up! But she just couldn’t move.

  Raising her bleary gaze up to the door one last time, Ellie saw a tall dark figure rushing towards her. Daylight streamed around the silhouette moving towards her in the smoke thickened air. A glow emanated around the form producing almost a perfect halo of light as an outline

  Is it an angel? It must be.

  She’d almost made it but now, she knew she might see her dad sooner than she planned.

  If he isn’t and angel—he is now like me, someone else with—a bad i-d-e-aaaa…

  CHAPTER ONE

  Ellie blinked and slowly opened her eyes. A dark shadow hovered over her causing the bright sunlight that shone from behind to appear like a halo around the dark figure. The angel! She gasped as air rushed into her lungs.

  “Are you okay?”

  Her mind seemed all fuzzy but slowly, she began to notice the sights and sounds around her.

  The diner that she worked at was on fire and firefighters battled the blaze. Passersby stood and watched the flames th
at licked at the sides of the old Liberty Bell Diner. They occasionally pointed at her—everything echoed loud and chaotic from around her.

  She felt awake and aware, but was unable to move. Then she remembered she had gone into the burning diner. It was dark and hot in there, but she didn’t remember getting out.

  As her eyes focused better, she realized she was in the arms of a stranger who asked again, “Are you all right?”

  There was a lingering cough in her chest. As feeling came back into her limbs, she tried to sit up. The stranger let her use him to steady herself as she sat up and managed to choke out, “Yeah—I’m fine.”

  “That was a close one,” he said. “I was on my way to a meeting when I saw you run into a burning building.” He chuckled. “I’m not even gonna ask why you ran back into a burning building, but I’m glad I got to you in time.”

  She adjusted her eyes on the voice that spoke and took in the dark stranger as the sunlight subsided behind him. Thick, dark, hair framed a slightly tanned, masculine face with a prominent nose and deep set, bright grey eyes. He was gorgeous. Greek God gorgeous. And she was still in his arms. Yes, the angel. Now, it all came back to her. Jumbled thoughts swirled around in her still slightly dazed head. Had he given her CPR? Oh, my god! Were his perfectly chiseled lips on hers while she was passed out? Nervously, she tried to squeeze her hands shut, realizing too late that they were gripping his very muscular arms.

  Embarrassed, Ellie exclaimed, “Oh, god, that’s your arm!”

  He grinned, causing a dimple to appear in his cheek. “That’s okay. You must still be in shock. You got a pretty hefty dose of methane while you were in there.”

  “Methane,” she repeated absentmindedly, still caught up in the sexy dimple.

  “Yeah. Looks like there was a leak. Seems to be what caused the fire. An old building, I’m guessing. Probably hasn’t been updated in a while. Someone should probably look into that.”

  He seemed so knowledgeable, and she felt so stupid all of a sudden. She put a hand up to her forehead and shook her head. “Well, that really was a bad idea.”

  Still wearing that smile, he nodded. “We all have them, sometimes.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” She tried to smile up at him.

  After a brief pause he added, “I’m Morgan.” He offered her his hand. “Morgan Hunt.”

  Ellie peered up at his smile and a perfect row of pearly whites caught her eye as she took his hand in hers. “Ellie White,” she said hesitantly.

  He held her gaze, exuding a confidence that Ellie had never felt coming from a person before. It was fascinating, but she couldn’t get caught up in that right now.

  After a few more seconds, he asked, “So, can I take you anywhere? Do you need to go to the hospital? You were passed out when I found you.”

  “I’m fine.” She waved the suggestion off with her hand. She couldn’t afford a trip to the emergency room without insurance, but he didn’t need to know this.

  She looked at him again, finding it hard to ignore those beautiful grey eyes that drew her in, but the last thing she needed was for him to think she was a dazed simpleton, so she volunteered her reason for going back into the building, “I had to get this,” she said and produced the picture of her dead father. “It’s the only picture I have of him. He’s my dad. He died last year and I—I keep it in my locker.” Realizing that now, she was possibly offering too much information, she shook her head and shrugged. “It comforts me. That’s why I went back in. I’m not an idiot or anything.”

  Morgan stared at the picture and nodded. “I would never think that. I lost my dad too, a while back. I just meant that I didn’t really care why you went back in to the fire. I only cared that I got to you in time.”

  His voice sounded so smooth and deep, and it actually resonated in her chest. He seemed like a really nice guy—like his concern was genuine. This was a good thing, right? Of course, it was. He had pulled her from a burning building. He offered her his award winning smile, again, and she smiled back.

  Just then, a paramedic tapped her on her shoulder. “Ma’am, do you need any assistance?”

  She glanced at Morgan before shaking her head. “No, I think we’re good.”

  The paramedic shrugged, then moved on to other potential victims.

  Morgan gave her an approving look. “Here, let me help you up.” He stood and pulled her up to her feet, then dusted off his expensive looking suit.

  Once on her feet, Ellie dusted herself off too, and saw how tall he was. Her gaze started at muscular thighs encased in very well tailored material, probably Armani or something like that. Then her wide eyes rose up to a trim waist and a broad chest to wide shoulders. Finally, her startled gaze landed on his almost perfect face. “Wow.”

  “Excuse me?” He stared at her with a slight smile.

  Ellie knew she had to think quickly. It wouldn’t do to ogle your rescuer or tell him how hot he was. She couldn’t believe she said that aloud. Pointing to the diner she said, “It looks like they got it.”

  He turned to look. “Oh, yeah. It sure does.”

  Glad that her save worked, she added, “I worked there, but it looks like I’ll have some time off, now.”

  Morgan chuckled. “Well, we all can use a little time off, right? I’m so busy all the time going to meetings and making deals that sometimes, I forget to relax.”

  “Business deals?”

  “Yeah. I’m actually the CEO of the Hunt Group. It’s a subsidiary of the illustrious Hunt Industries. Maybe you’ve heard of it?”

  Ellie didn’t keep up with Wall Street or big business. She was too busy working all the time, but not wanting to sound like a moron she nodded and said, “Oh, yes, of course.”

  “Oh, good. Well, I’m actually here in Philadelphia on business from Lake Placid. I could take more time off if I wanted to, but, you know how it is.”

  “Yeah.” No she didn’t. For the past three years, Ellie had barely been able to squeak out a living while working at the diner that now had smoke pouring out of the gaping hole on the side. Taking a vacation at this point in her life would not be a good thing. She had bills to pay. But none of this wasn’t Morgan’s problem. He’d been kind enough—and brave enough—to save her. She didn’t need to throw a guilt trip his way. She’d figure something out. She always did.

  “Okay, well, I’ve got this meeting to get to. Are you sure you’re okay?” he asked giving her a last look over.

  “Yeah. Great,” Ellie replied. “I’m gonna start enjoying my time off, right now.” She forced a fake smile and hoped it convinced him to believe she wasn’t going to spend these next few days or however long it took to fix the diner, worried about her financial situation.

  Morgan smiled and flashed a perfect set of white teeth. “Maybe I’ll see you around sometime.”

  If only that were true, but unless he planned on eating at a diner anytime soon, she doubted she’d ever see him again. A guy like him probably only ever ate meals prepared by a private chef. She smiled again though, and played along, “Yeah. Absolutely.”

  After a lingering gaze, he finally waved goodbye and walked back to his amazing sports car. Of course, it was like the latest model, and the brightest grey, just like his eyes.

  Ellie stood there waving goodbye with a bright smile on her probably soot covered face thinking how she would love to be in his arms again. It’d been the safest she’d felt in a long time. She watched him get in and drive off, until his car was just a little dot on the horizon.

  Finally, after watching her good looking angel disappear, Ellie turned back towards the now burnt and soggy diner. “Now what?” She sighed. Taking a step forward, her shoe kicked something. Bending down to pick it up, she saw that it was a fancy black cell phone. It wasn’t hers. All she could afford was an old, outdated, slide phone. She picked it up and turned it on. It was one of those smart phones that required unlocking with some swipe pattern.

  Oh, my god, I bet this is his phone.


  After trying several intricate swipe patterns, she simply slid her thumb to the side thinking the easiest pattern of all would never work, but it did. A Hunt Group logo was the background. She really didn’t have to pry too much more, she knew it was Morgan’s phone. She smiled. Now she had a reason to see hot and very fine Morgan again. It might even take her mind off of her worries, who knows?

  Morgan

  Morgan arrived at his business meeting a few minutes late, but no worries. He had enough charisma and charm to smooth things over with his clients. He calmly entered the Lacroix Restaurant and had the maître d’ show him to the table where the Yamato group sat looking over the menu.

  “Yamato-san,” he said and bowed upon reaching the table where his Japanese clients patiently waited.

  The two serious looking men in black suits immediately stood and bowed as well.

  “Ah, Hunt-san,” said Mr. Yamato. “I was just telling Hitori-san about American issue with time. You do not seem to have regard for it.” He forced a laugh.

  Ouch. Morgan winced, but replied, “Yes, we can lose track of time sometimes. However, it is American protocol to stop and help when we see a burning building. My apologies for being late, gentlemen, but I had to go into a burning building to save a young lady.”

  A beautiful young lady who’s phone number I should have gotten.

  He dusted off some left-over soot from his suit jacket to prove that his excuse was legitimate to the Japanese businessmen and to remind himself of what an idiot he could be sometimes. Great looking girl, grateful for the rescue? He didn’t even think to cash in on it. He’d get back to that later.

  Mr. Yamato’s and his partner’s eyes rounded.

  “Ah. Well, perhaps we should start the meeting,” Mr. Hitori said and gestured to the chairs.