He was supposed to seduce her with his charm and his good looks. She saw through him in a way he never expected.Tony McIntire has spent his life sliding by on his appearance. His laser blue eyes and washboard abs have been the key to winning the attention of any woman he set his sights on. He thought Mila Samuels, a simple music school teacher, would be easy to win over. But once he meets her, he … win over. But once he meets her, he realizes that Mila doesn’t care about the man he is on the outside, only the man he is on the inside.
Mila Samuels lost her eyesight when she was a child. She’s lived her life on the run and hiding from a man who took her from her family, tortured her and held her captive. She’s never had time for love, and doesn’t expect it when she rescues Tony from the clutches of a terrible woman who only wants to use him. Mila immediately sees the man inside, the one who matters, and finds herself falling for him despite the danger involved in letting her guard down around him.
They both have secrets. They both have a mysterious past. Will their beautiful and unexpected love survive when the truth finally comes out?
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Great story and great characters!
This is yet another Cybill Cain book that I could give six stars to, but since I can’t, I’ll pretend there are tails on the stars I can give. This is what I call a “character story”. This book is about Tony, a man we’ve met in the previous Chimera Club books, but we really didn’t know. After you read this, you will know what Tony is made of and be cheering him on. And this is a story about Mila, a blind schoolteacher who is the woman Tony is to be investigating when he arrives in Oklahoma (Oklahoma you say??!!?!).
You’ll fall in love with Tony the second he decides to ride his motorcycle to his first day at work as a maintenance worker at the school where Mila teaches. Why? Because in Tony’s mind, he is ONLY the image he projects. Without that, he feels that he has nothing to offer anyone. And today, that first day of work, he wants to WOW Mila with the pecs and gluts, and a snug Tshirt, and gorgeous hair. And driving his SUV just doesn’t give him that “Les yeux de l’amour” (the look of love) that he needs to sweep her off her feet, seduce her, and get the information he’s seeking. In fact, he plans on all of this happening immediately upon primping in front of her. Heh Heh Heh. Best laid plans and all that – cause when he meets her, he discovers all his primping is for nothing – oops, circumstances force him to rely on what’s INSIDE instead of the outside. Oh damn, he’s thinking. With my beautiful self, what am I? Boy is he wrong.
This is an incredible love story. The interaction between Tony and Mila will make you smile, laugh, and sigh. Regardless of what you feel at the beginning of the book, these two are made for each other. Perfect together in every way. Mila has learned throughout her life to “see” things inside a person that they themselves may not have discovered yet. Thus Tony is thrown into a situation where he has to rely on something other than his “gorgeous bad boy” image. And to watch him cope is beauty in and of itself. Tony has that certain something that matches Mila’s certain something perfectly. That je ne sais quoi that can’t be described until you feel it. And no, I have no idea why this book brings out the few phrases in French that I’ve remembered over the years, but it has.
You will enjoy reading this book. Because it is Cybill Cain, the steam rolls off the Kindle. Because it is Cybill Cain, the characters have so much chemistry between them, it is like being locked up with Mr. Wizard during a science experiment. And because you love romance or you wouldn’t be reading this book, rest assured that Cybill Cain is single handedly putting the ROMANCE back into the Erotic Romance category of reading. And I, for one, am damn glad someone noticed that its been absent lately. I love romance and I love love, but especially I love the chemistry between two lovers as they discover each other and their bond.
Thank you Cybill. This is one hell of a book.
Finally!! Tony’s story! *heart eyes* (I’m pretty sure I’ll say that same thing when Thomas’s story comes out, because OMH, that man!)
Tony & Mila’s relationship starts out as a job, but that only lasts until about 3.2 seconds after they meet. Their story is sweet and HOT and full of action. They truly SEE each other, to the heart of each other, and it’s a beautiful thing to witness! : )
Finally, we get Tony’s story, and what a story it is! If you haven’t read any of the other books in this series, Tony is an security employee of James Draven whose immediate supervisor is Draven’s right-hand man, Thomas Meenan. We got to know Tony in the previous books and found he thought he was in love with the woman who ends up married to Draven. Tony is big, strong, beautiful and cocky, all of which hides his tender heart, so his unrequited love certainly earned my sympathies. Needless to say, between that and the ongoing issues these characters have with the bad guy, Constantine, I was more than ready for this book.
Meenan gives Tony an assignment to get close to Mila Samuels, a music teacher who appears to have distant ties to Sergei Sokolov, a man threatening to release a crippling computer virus on the world who slipped through the fingers of Tony and his fellow operatives. Tony gets a custodial job at the school where Mila teaches, taking extra care with his appearance, the thing he uses to his advantage most often with the opposite sex, only to discover that Mila lost her sight when she was six years old. Time for a Plan B, but Tony didn’t account for the intense chemistry and soul-deep connection he and Mila would have from the very start.
There is so much that happens in this book, but if you haven’t read the other books, the author does a good job of providing critical information so you get the big picture. The suspense, intrigue, drama and convoluted connections are shocking and intense, so it’s a story that will easily grab your attention as it takes you on a wild ride. This, along with a mean girl subplot, offers a little humor and plenty of “holy carp!” moments. And while the book doesn’t really end with a cliffhanger, the epilogue certainly whets the appetite for more. Who am I kidding? I still want to find a way to sneak into the author’s computer and start reading the next book NOW! All I can say is that things are about to get really interesting and Meenan better watch his back.
I would be remiss to not discuss the relationship between Tony and Mila, because, as fantastic as all the drama and suspense is, this is the place where the author really excels. She gives enigmatic hints about the main characters’ growth, change and self-actualization that is to come, but every interaction between Mila and Tony has an emotional component that keeps building, getting deeper and stronger with each scene. It’s as complex as it is subtle, and I have yet to be able to break it down and identify the steps of the process, but the end product is something that grabs the reader, gripping her heart, imprinting her soul and making her live every emotion these two characters experience. If this is erotic romance, then give me more, because this is so far beyond physical intimacy. It’s the soul deep connection between two people, the finally finding “the one,” and two people becoming so much more together than they ever were alone. It perfectly illustrates that “it” we’re all really looking for in a relationship, and it speaks to the reader’s heart so softly and gently that it’s deafening.
If you haven’t read Cybill Cain, you’re missing out on some of the best emotive literature out there. Her books will leave their mark on you and her characters will forever live in your heart. I can’t urge you strongly enough to grab this book! This is one that will stay with you, and you’ll find yourself hungry for more from this series.
*I reviewed this book freely and voluntarily, having made no commitment to provide a review and receiving no compensation of any kind from any source for this review.