Making Him Sweat

Making Him Sweat
Meg Maguire

Making Him SweatRomantic Jenna Wilinski has inherited a rather seedy boxing gym from her estranged father. With it, she can realise her dream and launch an upscale matchmaking business…provided she can take on the very intimidating – and wickedly hot – former pro boxer Mercer Rowley, who stands in her way!

Look what people are saying about this talented new author’s first Blaze

book,Caught on Camera!

“I literally could not stop reading this book.

I ignored my children as they pleaded with me to

serve them food and beverages. I ignored my weenie

dog who was whining to go outside

to do her business. I refused to do the laundry,

pay the bills, or answer the phone.

I inhaled this book from cover to cover.”

—Penelope’s Romance Reviews

“4½ stars. [A] spectacular Blaze debut.”

—RT Book Reviews

“Ms Maguire can sure write a kick-ass love scene.”

—Cheeky Reads

“I loved this story and instantly fell in love

with both characters.”

—Night Owl Reviews

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Wilinski’s Fight Academy, Boston’s shadiest boxing and mixed martial arts gym!

Don’t know much about mixed martial arts? If not, join the club! Jenna, this story’s heroine, doesn’t even know what MMA stands for until she shows up to claim the property she’s inherited from her late, estranged father.

And since you’re holding a Mills & Boon

Blaze

book in your hands, I can only assume you also share Jenna’s love of all things romantic. Making Him Sweat is the first in a series of stories set in the unlikely cross-section where Jenna’s fledgling matchmaking business collides with the realm of her downstairs neighbors—a gritty basement full of battered boxers. It’s all about opposites attracting, and Jenna just might meet her own match in the disreputable gym’s general manager, Mercer. His love of fighting is as foreign to Jenna as her romantic idealism is to him, which made throwing these two into the ring together all the more fun!

I hope you enjoy it! And if you finish this story wanting more, keep an eye out for the next book in the series, when hot-blooded Rich goes head-to-head with Jenna’s pretty new assistant.

Happy reading!

Meg Maguire

About the Author

Before becoming a writer, MEG MAGUIRE worked as a record-store snob, a lousy barista, a decent designer and an over-enthusiastic penguin handler. Now she loves writing sexy, character-driven stories about strong-willed men and women who keep each other on their toes…and bring one another to their knees. Meg lives north of Boston with her husband. When she’s not trapped in her own head, she can be found in the kitchen, the coffee shop or jogging around the nearest duck-filled pond.

Making Him

Sweat

Meg Maguire

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

For Amy, Ruthie and Serena,

with crazy gratitude for your time and input.

You gals rock my socks. Continually.

Also with thanks to the staff of the Wai Kru

mixed martial arts gym in Allston, Massachusetts—

especially Michael, for letting me loiter and ogle, and

pester him with endless questions about the business

of building great fighters.

And of course, thank you to my editor, Brenda,

for liking this premise enough to contract the series,

and for beating my first draft into submission.

I won’t let you down, coach.

1

JENNA’S HEELS CLICKED against the asphalt as she crossed the street. Though they’d proven adorable enough to earn compliments from three different strangers on the ten-minute walk, she’d have to rethink this shoe choice in the future. Boston was made for flats, with its warped old brick sidewalks. Made for flats and for doctors who specialized in ankle injuries.

She survived a final block to reach her destination, a building she’d seen only in photos until this moment. Five stories, a former hosiery factory long since divided and repurposed. She paused to picture a new sign above the entryway, but a river of speed-walkers engulfed her, their brusqueness making it known that 9:00 a.m. downtown was not the time and place for daydreaming.

Leaving the August sunshine behind, she stepped into a cool, wide front corridor, with a worn but handsome hardwood floor and brick walls. She smiled, clutching her purse with cautious hope. With a bit of polishing and some nice light fixtures and greenery, this place could be very stylish indeed.