My Guilty Pleasure

Ever gone to a dive bar to blow off some steam, only to end up picking up the man who will tomorrow be your boss? That's exactly what happens to rebellious socialite Josephine Winfield. She's smart enough to recognize it before she ends up in bed with him, but that doesn't keep the two of them from climbing in bed anyway. The fling will burn itself out eventually, right? Now these two lawyers are addicted to the pleasures of each other's company after hours, but it can't go any further; he's her boss, and that's a lawsuit waiting to happen. So what's a girl to do if she thinks she might be falling in love? Certainly not risk it all on a Martini Dare... Although the premise sounds a little ridiculous, Denton makes it work well in My Guilty Pleasure. The characters are not as well fleshed out as in My Wildest Ride (Harlequin Blaze), but the sex is hot, the tensions between them are believable, and the final resolution is suitably clever.

As a member of a Boston Brahmin family, Joey Winfield knows that means behaving in public with a certain degree of decorum way above the middle class. Thus when the attorney needs to kick off her shoes and be bad to the bone, she needs to go where no one will recognize her. Her choice for escapism fun is a roadhouse dive where she expects to meet no one from her family's social circle. To her shock her new boss of less than three days Sebastian Stanhope is at the joint. The former Miami lawyer and his upper crust subordinate are attracted to one another even before she sips a Martini and dares the dissolute. They agree to share intimacy until he shows up at work which will end their guilty pleasure. The hours fly by, but once they work together on a case in which their opinions differ, Joey knows she has fallen in love with her boss, but hides it from Sebastian as he does likewise. Although the rationale for the pair to condone the sex before he becomes her superior seems weak, fans will appreciate the latest Martini Dares romance (see MY FRONT PAGE SCANDAL by Carrie Alexander and MY SECRET LIFE by Lori Wilde). Joey and Sebastian are likable characters who are in love, but see no way of informing their beloved without causing professional harm. Series fans will enjoy this entertaining Bostonian drama in the bedroom and the office. Harriet Klausner