“You put that much testosterone in the same room with just one of the behemoth seven here, and you’ll have an automatic refusal. “Because I’m a woman.” She allowed herself a small smile. “What makes you think you’re the best person for this job, Merinus?” Her father leaned forward, clasping his hands on the table before him, his blue eyes serious, thoughtful as he watched her. From the moment she had seen the picture of the man in question, she had been nervous, panicky, terrified that his enemies would get to him before she could present her father’s offer. Merinus silently admitted to it, and knew she would play hell trying to hide it. Perhaps she was more woman than they knew. She wanted to stand before the man whose picture lay on the table before her and see if his eyes were really that brilliant amber. She wanted to be a journalist she wanted to make a difference. She hated makeup, despised dresses and social functions and she heard often how she was a disappointment to the female race, according to her brothers.

She was twenty-four years old, the youngest child in a family of eight and the only daughter. “I’ve worked hard, Dad, I can do this.” She fought to put the steely determination in her voice that she often heard her oldest brother use. John Tyler was the one to convince, not his moron upstarts. She looked down the long table, directly into her father’s thoughtful expression. Merinus refused to give into his baiting.

“Don’t you think this is a little bit much for you to take on, Squirt?” Caleb, editor-in-chief of the National Forum and her second oldest brother, smirked with an edge of superiority. But in this one instance, she knew she had no other choice.

At five feet five inches, it was damned hard to convince the males of her family, all over six feet, that she was serious about anything. She knew she didn’t present an imposing figure. “This story is mine.” Merinus stared down her family of seven brothers as well as her father, her voice firm, her determination unwavering.

Tempting the Beast by Lora Leigh