Lorie L Corbin

The Man He Should Have Been Lorie L Corbin

Jake Marcum is a successful billionaire computer technology genius. His skills have been put to the test all over the United States and all over the world. He's led a bit of a charmed life, going to the University of Southern California on a baseball scholarship, and being drafted into the Major Leagues after college. Baseball paid for his degrees and doctorate, but fifteen years after graduating from high school, Jake still only regrets one decision he made in his life - walking away from his one true love, Annabeth Collins. She was the one girl who challenged him to better himself and he let fear and ego separate them. Annabeth Collins Mickelson has doubts in her life but joining the Navy out of high school certainly wasn't one of them. Her decision to go to the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland cost her the only man she had ever loved up until that point, but it gave her the career she always wanted. Her marriage to a man she hardly knew netted her heartbreak and divorce, but also a beautiful daughter named Oriana. Now, Annabeth is using the very thing that tore Jake from her, her Naval career, to bring him back into her life. Jake has been contracted by the Navy to upgrade the computer systems at the Naval War College in Newport, Rhode Island. This contract puts him back in direct contact with Annabeth. The feelings they both thought were long buried aggressively resurface and the sexual tension is palpable. However, Annabeth's ex-husband threatens to destroy the peace and happiness that Annabeth has found in her post-divorce life, even with the complication of Jake's return to it. Jake is hell-bent and determined to help Annabeth face down this threat, using whatever means necessary, including his own family and their mutual friends to accomplish it. Jake is determined to make up for his mistakes and be the man he should have been to Annabeth and to love Oriana as his own. This is the fourth installment of The Heiress Series which follows the Baines, Marcum, and Harwell families as their live intertwine through the friendship of their daughters and their marriages.