LSF Publications: spanking fiction ebooks

Property development was a tricky old game. One minute you acquire a decent sized tenement for a few hundred thousand, a quick soft shoe shuffle to do it up, and in a few weeks you have a million quid mortgage on a property worth five times that. The next minute ... well just about anything could happen.

Carolynn Blake had turned this trick two dozen times now, each time racking up her portfolio and each time expanding her debt. At 30 years old she was as confident as they came: a little brunette bundle of energy with cheeky smiling eyes and a cocky demeanour that she carried with an understated authority.

It was a hard won personality, one born out of adversity. At eighteen she had inherited the family mortgage and two much younger sisters. Her university place was suddenly surplus to requirements and she had needed cash quickly.

In twelve years she had built a property empire worth 20 million and had safely got her two sisters into good schools with real futures. The trouble was 15 million of her portfolio was still mortgaged and the market had tanked.

"Consolidate, consolidate, consolidate," John Dacia had told her time and again, but Carolynn had been cocky and over-confident. Now she was paying the price.

John Dacia had been in the business for 25 years and had seen three crashes come and go. He was now one of the richest developers in London. Carolynn had met him early in her career and rather than become a rival he had become a firm friend and something of a mentor.

It was to him that she had decided to visit to see what, if anything could be salvaged. Maybe a loan, maybe he could pick up her most vulnerable stock... maybe something else?

"Are you dead in the water?" the craggy-faced John asked her as he swivelled his office chair to face her. His expression was paternal and concerned, but from the way he fingered his short salt and pepper hair Carolynn knew that he had no quick fix for her.

When he had something up his sleeve John would wink and draw in his cheeks like he was sucking on a mint. The head scratch was his indicator when the news was not good.

"Pretty much." Carolynn made a thin line with her lips before making a grimace.

Whenever she talked to John she would hunker down like a naughty schoolgirl and roll her eyes. When she wanted something she would bounce up and down like a puppy while she pouted and peered up at him from under a low raven-black fringe that all but screened her eyes. This was the way she presented herself now.

"I can throw 100,000 your way at bank rates," he offered. "I wouldn't need any pay back for say..." His eyes flicked back and forth as he calculated. "Eighteen months?"

Carolynn grimaced again and her head sunk lower into her shoulders.