hilarious

Back Cover:

Revenge, passion and an arranged marriage…

Duke Javier Herrera needs a wife in order to inherit his family's banking business. In Grace Beresford, whose father swindled Javier out of millions, Javier can take revenge and a convenient wife.

At first, Javier just wants Grace's body. But this small price she refuses to pay…despite their explosive mutual attraction. How long can Grace remain his wife in name only?   

Favourite Scene: (*cracks up* He tells her she might as well go ahead and knee him!)

‘I don’t hate your touch—that much is obvious—but I hate myself,’ she whispered brokenly.

‘But we’re married!’ Javier said explosively. ‘If you won’t make love with me when you’re my wife, what the hell would you have done if I’d only offered to help your father in return for you becoming my mistress?’

Grace shivered. ‘I would have done anything to save Dad from prison,’ she said honestly. ‘I was even prepared to have sex with you, although it went against everything I believe in, but I’d planned on getting drunk first so that I wouldn’t remember too much about it.’

Javier rolled onto his back and swore savagely in his native tongue. ‘You are so good for my ego, querida. Why don’t you just kick me between the legs and have done with it?’  

     I've been a fan of Jennifer Crusie's for a long time now; as for Bob Mayer, I leapt to fandom with the release of the first collaboration between these two ~ Don't Look Down. In fact, the two books written by this duo are the only books that I actually happily got in hardcover ~ and that's a rarity indeed.
      I've got two of Mayer's Dave Riley books and I'm seriously looking for the rest... but I have to say that they're extremely hard to come across.  The two that I do have I got from his website. 
As funny as Crusie's stories are, Mayer's are serious thrillers, but the two of them combined write killer stories that just cannot be read, at least by me, without a great deal of semi-hysterical laughter and plenty of out-and-out guffawing.  Man, hard to believe that two such diverse authors can write stories that are seamlessly crafted stories and seem to be very much the work of one marvelously talented author.

RATING:
Excellence: Excellent to Outstanding ~ 4.5 stars
Steaminess: Sensual