Publisher's Synopsis
As the Chief Operating Officer of his family's business, Roman Blade is accustomed to being the one in charge and the firstborn son of the Blade clan has developed a reputation as an unfeeling ogre, a notoriety on which he prides himself. But the inflexible self-control he has spent years cultivating suddenly abandons him when he hires Sydney Foster to be his new Executive Assistant.
The spunky redhead drives him to distraction from day one and he soon finds himself falling head over heels in love with her. But their budding romance is tested when he suspects that his younger brother may also be falling for her, and things turn ugly when a secret from her past is abruptly brought out into the open.
Can he find the path that leads to a 'happily-ever-after' with Sydney, or will Roman's jealousy ruin any chance for a future with the woman who breathed new life into his hardened heart?
Roman was likely the most intelligent man that she had ever met, and yet he was totally inept at maneuvering his way around his own neckwear.
She had remained cowering in her chair on the second morning of her new job, terrified out of her mind as she listened from outside the door while her boss swore a blue streak to make the heavens weep. He had bellowed her name a moment later, and wobbly legs had carried her into his stormy presence, at which time he had held out the offending strip of slate-gray cloth and had politely solicited her assistance with his tie. And she had needed to call upon every ounce of her self-control to stop herself from bursting into laughter right there and then.
And it had become a routine since. The bottom drawer of his desk housed an enviable array of expensive 'torture devices', and her first duty each morning was to select one that would match his suit and fix it around his neck. The quiet intimacy of those moments was the thing she had come to look forward to the most each day.
His platinum eyes would be locked on her face throughout, though he never spoke a word until she was through. And yet there was something so wildly sensual about those few short moments of appropriated closeness that the butterflies in her tummy would take to flight throughout. And, on that particular morning, she had been unable to resist the urge any longer.
She had smoothed the tie down the front of his body, all masculine planes and ridges, hard and unyielding, and she had stepped in toward him, lifting herself on her toes to press her mouth against his. His small gasp had whispered into her mouth and her cheeks had been burning with humiliation as reality punched her in the gut. And she had rushed out of his office then like the devil himself was chasing her, not stopping until she was safely locked inside the furthest stall of the washroom inside the gym.
She had apologized, profusely, in spite of his attempts to brush it off, and she had given him her solemn oath that nothing like it would ever happen again. But she wasn't sure that it was a promise she would be able to keep, not if Roman was expecting her to continue with their little routine, not if she had to be so close to him. How would she look up into those platinum eyes, remembering just how amazing his lips had felt against hers, even for that brief instant, and not become overwhelmed by the urge to kiss him again? And maybe more.
