No strings attached is easier, until love tangles things.
Privileged playboy Innes Kent has been unmoored since his regular escort quit on him. Though he’s a talented lawyer at a successful firm, without the distractions of a gorgeous man and frequent sex, his mind often wanders in unpleasant directions. For instance, toward his estranged daughter and his many regrets therein.
Charlie is a budding fashion designer, but the need to support his unwell mother has left him scraping to get by. When his cleaning job sends him to a lavish office one desperate night, he’s overwhelmed by the excessive luxury he sees, and when Innes catches him thieving, he’s at the lawyer’s mercy.
But Charlie is just the distraction that Innes needs: a proud and determined scrap of a man who challenges him, annoys him, and attracts him all at once. The perfect choice for a personal assistant who won’t bore him to tears or run screaming from his bad temper. Working together leads to sleeping together, but they’re both too clever to mess up a perfectly good arrangement by getting feelings involved. Aren’t they?
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It’s been a good long while since book 1, Worth It, came out-and with all that’s going on in the world, completely understandable, so I was a bit concerned that I might have forgotten important information prior to reading this one, but no worries. This book is very much a stand-alone in this series.
These two have quite the inauspicious meeting, while Charlie is working as a commercial office cleaner, and Innes stops into his office at 1 in the morning, catching Charlie trying to steal some items. What helped to redeem Charlies’s thievery in the reader’s eyes was knowing that Charlie was working his tail off to support himself and his mother. However, his snark, not normally what you want to do in this situation, earns the respect of Innes. Quickly, Charlie becomes Innes’ assistant, and a better assistant than the exacting man has ever had. They offset each other very well, creating a balance between them that works.
This is a slow to get going romance, in my estimation. And at times, the story dragged, and I found myself skimming, but then was pulled back in by the snappy dialogue. However, once they found their groove, I was all in to see how these two ended up finding their HEA. There were a few unanswered questions here for me, but nothing that changed how I rated the story.
Would recommend, even if you missed book 1.
4 pieces of eye candy