Claudie Thorburn is an aspiring actress working as secretarial support at a hotel; things are going well for her except with regard to acting as she hasn't got a call for an audition in quite some time, but she lives rent free with her sister and French chef brother in law in exchange for working at the family restaurant. Then Ellis Lefevre checks in to the hotel and needs urgent top secretly confidential work done, and because of the flu going around Claudia is the only one to provide it. The work is sooo confidential however that Ellis has to lock her in his suite for lunch (but he buys her a lovely meal from room service) and overnight! and with the hotel's full blessing! He does buy her a some lovely lingerie and another great room service meal to make up for it, but he also makes a pass at her, which she quickly turns down. Claudia thinks nothing of this until the next day when she's told by the hotel that she is fired!
Ellis doesn't have a clue that his jealous non-girlfriend/ex-lover got Claudia fired until he shows up for the family restaurant because he hasn't been able to see her around the hotel and Claudia dumps a vat of soup over his head. He offers her a job with his company so he can see her but she takes this as an offer to be his mistress and turns him down. His brother Stephen sees this and makes Claudia an offer to help their father Quentin who has recently gone blind and resents not being involved in the family business any longer, figuring if she can stand up to Ellis she would be good for his father, who needs a secretary as he is writing his memoirs and cannot see. When Ellis finally realizes she's at his father's estate (cuz all that was done behind his back cuz he isn't really speaking to his father), he thinks she's chosen to have an affair with Stephen over him! Will Ellis and his father reunite? Will Ellis believe Claudia when she says there's nothing between Stephen and her? And what about the fact that Ellis lives in Switzerland?
This book is alright, and I know I've enjoyed it more in the past, but this time it kind of fell flat for me. The main reason being that Claudia's falling in love with Ellis sort of happens out of the blue almost. Sure she enjoyed the kisses he forced on her and sure she thinks of him every once in a while while working for his father, but that wasn't really enough for me. Ellis himself is much more clear - he lusts after Claudia when they meet and is rediculously jealous of Stephen, but even then...I mean they've spent what like a total of 4 days in each other's company when they decide to get married and live HEA (granted it was over a couple of months but still)... And what about Claudia's acting aspirations? She's still determined to keep trying while she works for Quentin, but is she going to be acting in Switzerland now?
