Born to be Wilde

What woman doesn't have a bad boy fantasy?

Ex-marine turn security specialist Joel Wilde loves his jet setting dangerous job. It keeps romantic entanglements at arm's length. But then an old military buddy calls in a favor. Deep in gaming debt, Zach mistakenly sets up his sister and her life insurance policy as a possible out. Now she has hit-men on tail and doesn't even know it.

Joel sets out to keep watch on an unsuspecting Lora at her night time job, as a cocktail waitress at The Electric Blue, a Coyote Ugly type bar. His bad boy looks and the fact that he only has eyes for Lora stir up her nearly dead libido. Working two jobs, she has no time for romance. But she can not deny what the darkly attractive leather clad man is doing to her pulse rate.

Determined to keep things platonic, Joel invites Lora for coffee. She figures out he is her troubled brother's comrade and decides to throw caution to the wind. She tries to seduce him on his Harley, but Joel manages to resist, mostly. Even tho she finds this incredibly sweet, it also sparks her desire more. She is bound and determined to get him between the sheets.

Then a warning comings in the shape of two hit men with a very sharp knife. Shaken, Lora turns to Joel for comfort. Realizing that she came very close to dying rattles him. He should not be feeling these emotions for her. Nor should he take her to bed. But he does both.

The passionate night spent together is obliterated when the vagabond brother calls and lets Joel's undercover work out of the bag. Lora is incensed that Joel lied to her. Fulfillig his promise, he whisks her off to a secluded cabin to keep her from harm and sets a tentative plan in motion to erase the threat against her life. Lora thaws to Joel when she realizes he does having feelings for her that he is denying even to himself.

She uses his lust for her as a lure and he can't resist. She employs the erotic skills of her day job as a masseuse. When her brother shows up and Joel tells him of his plan to erase his debt, Zach balks as any addict would. But then he hits rock bottom and has no choice. He accepts help and rehab and the threat which kept Lora and Joel together is gone. And Lora lets him go. She can't keep him if he doesn't want to stay. Ultimately, Joel realizes he can not live without Lora and returns to her.

There is a wonderful romantic sub-plot with Lora's boss and friend Sydney and her daughter's Math Teacher Daniel that threatens to overshadow the main story. It was like a mini book inside the primary one. Those characters were refreshing and a engaging with a spicy plot-line.

While the premise of the book was a little weak (If Joel couldn't offer the money to fix Zach's debts in the first chapter, hows can he do it in the end?), the overall effect was believable. The female aggressor is always a nice change and by, is Sydney a go-getter!!

The sex was spicy but not overly erotic and scattered enough to not be just one long string of bedplay. The emotions were well thought out and true to character. But the shaky plot really bothered me in the end. Zach seems to just deflate and accept the offer of help without much fight. And the fight he did show was not too aggressive. Having read other books by the author, I was a little disappointed. It was good but not her best work.

As part of the series, it did stand alone very very well. You didn't get the sense of a huge back story you missed out on. The sub-plot was almost more creative than the main line and I found myself more interested in them as a whole. This line would have made a fantastic read alone.