Simon Hart had sworn off romantic entanglements forever. But every man had a weakness, and his was the beautiful, beguiling Tira Beck. He thought the bubbly socialite was a shameless flirt with a cavalier attitude about marriage–until he learned she’d secretly saved all her love for him. Against his will, Simon became entranced by her glorious presence, her every gesture tempting him like a … like a sweet, beckoning caress. Still, he knew she wasn’t about to surrender her nights to him casually…unless he became her beloved.
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Oh my God. I loved this. Finally, a DP hero hoisted by his own petard i.e. his own stupid ability to jump to the wrong conclusion. Every. Single. Time. I mean this guy doesn’t get ANYTHING right. Even the other alpha DP dumb-dumbs roll their eyes over his stupidity about the heroine.
The heroine has loved the H for ever. Why? I don’t know. He has had nothing for contempt for her since she married a close friend of his and filed for divorce a month later. Shortly after his friend died in an offshore drilling incident (Texas baby) and it’s all her fault. Let’s ignore the fact that working as an offshore driller is one of THE most dangerous jobs in the world which is why they are paid so well.
“Then, yesterday, I told her how I felt about her careless attitude toward the divorce only a month after she married John, and letting him go off to get himself killed on an oil rig.” His broad shoulders rose and fell defeatedly. “I shouldn’t have said it, but I was angry that she’d tried to make me jealous, as if she thought I might actually feel attracted to her.”
He sighed. “I thought she was so hard that nothing I said would faze her.”
“And I thought I used to be blind,” Corrigan said. Simon glanced at him, scowling.
“What do you mean?”
Corrigan looked at his brother and tried to speak. Finally he just smiled faintly and turned away. “Forget it.”
Duh.
“Dr. Gaines came out. He spotted the two men down the hall and joined them.
“Don’t go back in there,” he told Simon flatly. “She’s too close to the edge already. She doesn’t need you to push her the rest of the way.”
“I didn’t do a damned thing,” Simon shot back, and now he looked dangerous, “except walk in the door!”
Dr. Gaines’s lips thinned. He glanced at Corrigan, who only shrugged and shook his head. “I’m going to try to get her to go to a friend of mine, a therapist. She could use some counseling,” Gaines added.
“She’s not a nutcase,” Simon said, affronted.
Dr. Gaines looked into that cold, unaware face and frowned. “You were state attorney general for four years,” he said. “You’re still a well-known trial lawyer, an intelligent man. How can you be this stupid?”
I don’t know Doc? It’s a mystery to me too.
He learns that she has had crush on him after the so-called suicide attempt. She was actually trying to shoot a mouse like John Wayne did in True Grit, but got drunk on whiskey. Everyone prefers the story that she tried to commit suicide over her unrequited love for the hero which frankly is much more plausible.
The H’s reaction
“Simon’s eyes burned with anguish. “You don’t know what I said to her, though. I accused her of killing John, of being so unconcerned about his happiness that she let him go into a dangerous job that he didn’t have the experience to handle.” His face twisted. “I said that she was shallow and cold and selfish, that I had nothing but contempt for her and that I’d never let a woman like her get close to me….”
His eyes closed. “Dear God, how it must have hurt her to hear that from me.”
Corrigan let out a savage breath. “Why didn’t you just load the gun for her?”
Probably because he didn’t think of it.
Never fear. It’s still all about him.
“Simon rested his forehead against his one hand. He was so drained that he could barely function. It had been the worst day of his life; in some ways, worse than the wreck that had cost him everything.”
Dumb-dumb takes the evil OW that hates the heroine to a party where evil OW is very, very mean. Proving that the evil OW is yet another character who is smarter than the H she does this when he’s not around. The h’s very nice and very cute guy friend, who has his own unrequited love thing going on for his SIL, steps up to the plate.
“Why, you prissy little cat,” Charles said with cold venom, making Jill actually catch her breath in surprise at the unexpected verbal jab.
“Why don’t you go sharpen your claws on the curtains?”
Meow and yeah!!!
The couple finally get to grope and once again….
“At least she hadn’t seen him helpless like this. If she knew how vulnerable he was, she might feel like a little revenge. He couldn’t blame her, but his pride wouldn’t stand it. She might decide to seduce him and then keep him dangling. That would be the cruelest blow of all, when he knew she was Charles Percy’s lover.”
No. She’s not. She’s a virgin, you boob.
“He’d never known an exchange so heated, so erotic. He wanted to do things to and with her that he’d never dreamed of doing to a woman in his life.”
What? Really, what? DP, don’t stop now.
Side note: Only in a Diana Palmer book would people leave a Christmas party BECAUSE the punch was spiked. Smh
They have finally have sex on page 140, but I just know his stupid gene is going to trigger again before it’s all over.
And finally, a wordsmith he is not. Talking about one of his almost but not quite as dense brothers.
“He’s never been in love,” Simon murmured, staring at his feet. “He doesn’t have a clue what it’s like to want someone so bad that it makes you sick.”
You romantic. Forget red roses. Nothing says “I love you” like being compared to vomit.