Back Cover:
Penny is stuck: her ex-boyfriend Solo Maffeiano owns half her family home, yet she needs to pay off a barrage of debts left by her late father. She has no choice but to agree to Solo's offer: he will pay the debts and restore the dilapidated mansion where they will live - if Penny becomes his wife! She will be his wife, bought and paid for - and he wants a wife in every sense of the word. Their attraction is as strong as ever; their passion is a hundred times more powerful ... Penny discovers she's still in love with Solo - but isn't their marriage just a sham?
Spoiler Warning: All my reviews contain spoilers to some degree
Favourite Scene:
Solo stopped her by grabbing her wrists and pinning them above her head in one strong hand, and throwing a long leg over her slim hips. 'I'm accepting your offer, Penny.' His grey gaze was intent on her furious face. 'So long as I get exclusive rights to your body for as long as I want.'
'My offer... My body!' she gasped.
'Yes.' His eyes didn't leave her face. 'Starting now,' he insisted with silken emphasis.
Another Fav Scene: (surprising... fidelity)
'Ow. Woman, that hurt,' Solo said, his eyes glinting devilishly down into hers. 'But maybe you're right. By then I was so desperate to have you that nothing could have slopped me. Almost four years without a woman is hell on the old libido,' Solo husked, and lowered his head, stealing her mouth again in a kiss like no other they had shared before, a kiss of love and commitment freely given and a promise for the future.
'I...you...Solo...really?' She was filled with awe. 'You didn't...'
'Believe it.' He pressed her back against the sofa, 'I was waiting for you, no one else would do.'
My Review:
The hero and heroine met when he was 34, she was 19 (huge age difference imo). He wanted to marry her and do business with her father. She overheard him talking to another woman and dumped him because of it, pretending she was dating another boy her age. He was furious and left. Four years later, he's brought back into her life because of her father's death. The father sold the hero half her home! She's in quite a pickle, she'll go bankrupt if she can't sell the house with the hero's permission, because of taxes. He manipulates her into marrying him. He wants her badly since he was denied her before and he rushes her into bed (he's pleased but surprised that she was a virgin, but he doesn't feel bad at all about seducing her, he grins). He ties her to him quick as he can with marriage.
This was a hugely passionate read. Made all the better by the surprise fidelity revealed at the end. I felt a little iffy about the couple at first, because when they met she was so young, he had just slept with another woman two days before he met her, and she just seemed too innocent and inexperienced to be his wife. I was glad for the years apart, but it was also nice that the hero didn't just resume his active sex life with ease after meeting the heroine. Too often the hero is too casual about sex, it was a nice surprise (though I know it was unrealistic) that he waited for the heroine to grow up and come to him, so he could snap her up as a woman instead of a girl.
My Rating: 4.5/5 stars, send the author a medal for giving me a faithful hero. I'm marking it a KEEPER for the novelty value of that fidelity. I love books with fidelity, I'm a total sucker for it.
