An accomplished lawyer and driven single mother, Ellen Callahan isn’t looking for any help. She’s doing just fine on her own. So Ellen’s more than a little peeved when her brother, an international pop star, hires a security guard to protect her from a prying press that will stop at nothing to dig up dirt on him. But when the tanned and toned Caleb Clark shows up at her door, Ellen might just have to plead the fifth.
Back home after a deployment in Iraq and looking for work as a civilian, Caleb signs on as Ellen’s bodyguard. After combat in the hot desert sun, this job should be a breeze. But guarding the willful beauty is harder than he imagined—and Caleb can’t resist the temptation to mix business with pleasure. With their desires growing more undeniable by the day, Ellen and Caleb give in to an evening of steamy passion. But will they ever be able to share more than just a one-night stand?
Ellen Callahan is a divorced single mother who is enjoying being free of her philandering alcoholic husband. She loves her independence and is taking care of her 2 year old just fine all on her own. Her brother Jamie is a famous singer who had recently broken up with his girlfriend, Carly, who lives next door to Ellen. Jamie still cares for Carly, in fact he loves her, so when pictures of her end up on the internet he asks his security people to watch her and his sister and keep them paparazzi free.
Caleb runs Camelot Security and is anxious to do a good job for Jamie’s security company that has contracted him to take care of Carly and Ellen. Carly is ok with the situation and is pretty acquiescent for the most part but Ellen wants nothing to do with any of the security measures that Caleb puts forth. She would like to have him in her bed, however. From the minute that Ellen sees Caleb she’s drawn to him but fights herself…for a day. Caleb at first thinks that it’s ethically wrong to get involved with Ellen while on a job but what better way to watch over her than to be in her bed? Right? Maybe.
Caleb falls hard and fast for Ellen but Ellen just wants casual sex. Caleb has to work at every little inch he gains with Ellen and he’s completely frustrated. Ellen knows she shouldn’t treat Caleb the way she does – like a sex toy with no feelings – but after being controlled by first her mother and then her husband she doesn’t want to get involved in another relationship where someone will ignore her thoughts and feelings. She soon realizes that Caleb’s not like that but it may be too late to get him back after she opens her mouth and says the wrong thing.
This was Caleb and Ellen’s story, for the most part, but it also had a secondary love story going on with Carly and Jamie that I just loved.
Caleb and Ellen got into bed quickly and they both loved it. As I said, Caleb knew almost immediately that he wanted a relationship with Ellen but she’s incredibly prickly about even discussing it. He has to fight her on everything having to do with security measures as well as any questions he may want to ask her about herself in order to get to know her. They finally negotiate (Ellen is a lawyer) and decide that Ellen can ask Caleb anything she wants any time she wants (which she assures him she will never do) but he’s only allowed to ask her one question per orgasm and then he only has an hour afterward to ask it. Even though it pissed me off that Ellen was being so hardheaded I found this pretty amusing. In fact there were quite a few things throughout the book that Ellen did that made me want to knock some sense into her but the way Knox wrote the story I could never stay mad at her for long. Mainly because Caleb would be there to diffuse the situation.
Caleb was such a great hero. I loved his love of his family and his loyalty to them. Yes, he initially wanted to keep Ellen safe because it was his job but he soon did it because that’s the kind of man he was and he wanted to keep her safe because he loved her. He was kind and patient and an all around good guy. For me he was definitely the highlight of this story.
Carly and Jamie had fallen together and in bed quite quickly but then spent four months together that rocked their worlds. When Jamie got pissed over something that Carly wrote on a blog (not even including his name) Jamie yells at Carly and she kicks him out for good. It takes Jamie a while but he realizes that all the fame and fortune isn’t worth anything without Carly. He heads to her house and tries everything he knows to get her to let him in. I loved Jamie’s creativeness in getting Carly to talk to him. They were so cute together – even though they spent most of the book separated.
Overall this was fun and sexy as well as (sometimes) emotional read. I love the way Knox writes down to earth characters that I can relate with, for me that makes her books eminently readable.
Rating: 4 out of 5
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