Wealthy businessman Gabriel Bishop rules the boardroom with the same determination and ruthlessness that made him a rock star on the rugby field. He knows what he wants, and he’ll go after it no-holds-barred.
And what he wants is Charlotte Baird.
Charlotte knows she’s a mouse. Emotionally scarred and painfully shy, she just wants to do her job and remain as invisible as possible. But the new CEO—a brilliant, broad-shouldered T-Rex of a man who growls and storms through the office, leaving carnage in his wake—clearly has other plans. Plans that may be equal parts business and bedroom.
If Charlotte intends to survive this battle of wits and hearts, the mouse will have to learn to wrangle the T-Rex. Game on.
*** {3.5 stars} ***
This can be read as a standalone, you don’t really need to have read the first 2 to understand the story of Gabriel and Charlotte. Charlotte is Molly’s best friend, who we met in the first Rock Kiss series book, but the stories don’t link enough to leave you feeling like you missed anything.
I liked this story, liked it… didn’t love it. For me it was slow starting and (I hate to say it) but seemed a “little been there done that”. Nothing jumped out at me as “special” or outwardly exciting. Controlling Alpha business man hires a quiet “mousy” assistant. They each bring something out in each other and their relationship grows from there. There is some drama for both of them that they must overcome, and Charlotte has some really horrible experiences from her past to overcome. There are some really funny moments in the book, and while I did enjoy the characters, I am not in love with either of them.
EXCERPT
Charlotte arrived at work at seven thirty the next morning
to find Gabriel Bishop’s office door open, but no carnivorous predator inside.
A fresh suit was hanging on the back of his door, however, which meant he’d
been in already.
Deciding to catch up on e-mails that had come in overnight
from international suppliers as well as stores involved in a stock take, she
was typing a reply when a sweaty Gabriel arrived fifteen minutes later. He was
dressed in black running shorts and a faded University of Auckland T-shirt that
was currently sticking to his body.
She’d known he was in shape, but now she realized none of
it was an illusion created by his well-cut suits. Okay, she’d already known
that, but seeing his muscled body in the flesh was a whole different ball game.
He was built like a tank, hard and powerful.
Each of his thighs was thicker than both of hers put
together, his biceps toned, his shoulders appearing even wider than usual.
Everything about him was big.
Civilized clothing didn’t make him look better, she realized—it toned down his
intense masculinity. Out of his suits, with the ink on the upper part of his
left arm exposed, as well as that on his opposing thigh and…
Her skin hot and lower body clenching, she just nodded in
response to his “Good morning.”
Disappearing into his office, he returned with his suit
pants and a fresh shirt slung over his arm, along with a sports bag. “Push the
meeting with Sales to nine, will you, Ms. Baird? I need to talk to HR about
something before then.”
“Yes, sir,” Charlotte said almost soundlessly, but he was
already gone, heading toward the employee shower one floor down.
The thigh tattoo went all the way around, the design
intricate.
Heart rate a rapid stutter, Charlotte got up after he
disappeared and decided to go grab him a coffee. He’d bought her one yesterday
after all. She was just being nice. “Oh, shut up, Charlotte,” she muttered once
she was in the elevator, and slumped her face into an upraised hand.
The truth was she was running away. Only for a few minutes,
but that’s what this was: strategic retreat. Gabriel Bishop was overwhelming.
Once, before she’d ever met him and under the influence of cocktails, she’d
told Molly she wanted to rip off his shirt and sink her teeth into his pecs.
That desire hadn’t waned even now that she knew he was a
T-Rex. Of course, the desire was all strictly in her imagination. The idea of
actually handling him in real life? So impossible as to be laughable.
Charlie-mouse was not about to play with a predator who could eat her alive and
not even notice the bones. The good news was that she could admire him in
relative safety—there was no chance in hell he’d ever notice her as a woman.
Getting the coffee from a nearby café, she took it back
upstairs. He was in his office when she entered, the striped dark gray of his
tie hanging around his neck and his damp hair roughly combed. The scent of
clean, fresh soap over warm skin permeated the office. Shooting her a smile
that turned him from gorgeous to flat-out devastating, he flipped up the collar
of his white shirt to get the tie in place. “Thank you, Ms. Baird.”
Nodding, Charlotte escaped, though she really wanted to stay. She’d never
realized how erotic it was to watch a man dress until this precise moment. And
she shouldn’t be having these thoughts about her boss—especially since she
couldn’t keep from quivering like a rabbit in his presence. Sometimes she just annoyed herself.
“Get to work,” she muttered and knuckled down.
Gabriel was fine for the first hour, but then he began
barking orders even a six-armed woman with a split personality would have had
trouble handling.
Finally, pushed to the edge, Charlotte snapped. “I’m going
as fast as I can!” she yelled when he asked her for something a minute after
he’d asked her to complete another task.
He scowled and held out a file. “This is a priority.”
Grabbing it from his hand, she said, “Fine,” and slapped
it down on her desk.
It was over an hour later that he disappeared for ten
minutes. When he returned, it was to put a small bakery box on her desk. “I
think you need something to sweeten your mood today, Ms. Baird.”
What she needed
was for the T-Rex who was her boss to stop snarling and growling, she thought
as he returned to his office. Not opening the box until her curiosity had
almost killed her, she found it held a slice of decadent chocolate cake with a
white-chocolate ganache topped with curls of both white and milk chocolate. “I
cannot be bribed with cake,” she muttered, eating a bite nonetheless.
NEW YORK
TIMES AND USA Today bestselling author of the Psy-Changeling and Guild Hunter
series Nalini Singh usually writes about hot shapeshifters and dangerous
angels. This time around, she decided to write about hot and wickedly tempting
rock stars (and one gorgeous ex-rugby player). If you’re seeing a theme here,
you’re not wrong.
Nalini lives and works in beautiful New
Zealand, and is passionate about writing. If you’d like to explore her other
books, you can find lots of excerpts on her website. Slave to Sensation is the first book in the Psy-Changeling series, while Angels’ Blood is the first book in the Guild Hunter series. Also, don't
forget to swing by the site to check out the special behind-the-scenes page for the Rock Kiss series,
complete with photos of many of the locations used in the books.
