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From Here to Paternity #4
Looking After Dad
Single dad requires protection!
When Lorcan Hunter is threatened by someone opposed to his latest business project, and leggy blonde Jess Pallister presents herself as the person to protect him, Lorcas is more than a little skeptical! But when his little girl is also threatened, Lorcan is forced to trust Jess.
Bright and beautiful Jess soon becomes part of the family, and before he knows it. Lorcan is ready to offer her a permanent assignment so she can watch over them both for life!
Mass Market Paperback
First published April 1, 1997
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Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews
December 1, 2018
Re Looking After Dad - Elizabeth Oldfield's entry in the From Here to Paternity series is a low key but very funny HP outing to Mauritius.
The h is an artist who used to do romance covers, then when she got bored with the repetition and her relationship with her male cover model broke up, she became a bodyguard after her three older brother's coerced her into working for their top notch security company.
The h got to travel the world for a few years and had a good time mostly while doing it, but now her paintings are starting to sell and she wants to make a living with her art. However her brother's have one last request before she leaves the family business fold.
An architect building a huge Mauritius Resort for a wealthy international businessman has received kidnapping threats against him and his daughter and they need protection. The h is running late for the appointment and toting an egg salad sandwich and a bottle of champagne from an unwanted former client when she barely makes the ascending elevator.
After the elevator clears out, leaving the h and a very Celtic looking dark man alone, the champagne explodes as the h was admiring the guy's tie. There is a few verbal bantering moments as the h inadvertently gets salad cream on the guy's jacket, after having soaked him in exploding champagne.
The guy manages to escape the elevator more or less intact and the h takes a moment to find her way to her appointment. When she gets there, she hears a voice deriding the Brunhilde type ladies who are probably body guards with chin hairs and with a sinking sense of dismay, realizes the voice is coming from the elevator guy.
The very nice businessman and his skeevy dilettante son are trying hard to convince the architect that he needs some protection, cause a threatening letter was sent specifically referring to the H's four and half year old daughter. The skeevy son claims it is his father's business rival, but the H is convinced the whole thing is a hoax.
Still the H does take the h to meet his little girl, who is being looked after by the H's mother and the mother assumes that the H and h are interested in each other. There is more bantering with the H and h, but neither is really serious about it and the h decides that she can safely decline to work for the H-not that he is keen to have a bodyguard around anyways.
That changes right before the H and his daughter are to return to the resort complex. The H requests that the h come along and her brother's manage to talk her into it. So we all go off to Mauritius and the airline loses the h's luggage.
She borrows some clothes from the H and then sets about helping the very rambunctious four and half year old make a new BFF and giving the H equal verbal snarky moments as the story progresses.
The h doesn't really consider herself a little kid favorite, but she soon has the bungalow where they are all staying transformed into a colorful home and the little girl soon becomes fiercely devoted.
The H and h acknowledge that they have a burning attraction, but nothing comes of it until the H gets jealous when the skeevy son shows up with his dad. The h has to tell the skeevy son to push off and he threatens that the h will be sorry for it.
Skeevy son also claims that the H's deceased wife was way more in the looks stakes than the h and she was the daughter of a famous Hollywood director, so the H will only be using her as a substitute.
The h and H then get into an argument that leads to Purple Passion Moments and the h really does foil two kids hired by the skeezy son to kidnap her. The skeezy son was behind the original kidnapping threats as a way to get himself put in charge of the resort complex and he gets banished to a hotel porter job by his father.
Then the h learns that the H was far more worried about his sister in law trying to kidnap his daughter, which is why he agreed to hire the h. The H's first wife was the broken child of her philandering movie director father and her dissolute and man chasing mother. The woman seduced the H to get pregnant and then found that she did not have the finances or the inclination to raise a baby.
So the H got the woman to marry him and as long as he supplied cash, the woman left both her child and the H alone, even tho they lived in the same house. Eventually the woman's partying ways led her to a fatal car accident and the woman's sister, who is also married to a big time director, threatened the H that she would kidnap his daughter.
Apparently the sister in law and the H's dead wife were in major competition with each other and the sister in law is infertile. First she demanded custody of the little girl because of the H's job traveling, but the H is a very good dad and refused to let the sister in law take the child.
Then the sister in law hired detectives to try and prove the H was an unfit parent, but the H leads a celibate lifestyle and only works and cares for his daughter, so the woman threatened the H with a kidnapping.
The h is irate that the H did not reveal the full extent of the situation, but they calmly discuss it and things are going along grandly. Then the sister in law and her husband show up and the husband explains that his wife went crazy. He won't condone taking the H's daughter and he put the sister in law in therapy.
The sister in law is over her child obsession now and they only want to be a distant aunt and uncle to the H's daughter. The h makes preparations to leave now that the kidnapping threats are removed, but the H wants the h to live with him.
The h believes it is because the little girl wants the h to be her mother, but after the H chases her down and declares true undying love forever, the h admits she loves him back and we leave the three of them planning the wedding and hugging it up for the big HEA.
This one is very cute and the h and H have some really great back and forth moments. But it is very typical EO and her next to last HP before she moves over to the subscription side of things. There isn't a ton of drama and even the kidnapping moments are pretty casually handled, the h pushes the kidnappers into a closet to corral them and we learn that they weren't serious kidnappers anyway.
If you are looking for a wrecky angstfest or a lot of high drama, you won't find it here. Also, the h and H are very pragmatic and mature, so this may not be your cuppa if you prefer a more volatile HPlandia outing.
The h is an artist who used to do romance covers, then when she got bored with the repetition and her relationship with her male cover model broke up, she became a bodyguard after her three older brother's coerced her into working for their top notch security company.
The h got to travel the world for a few years and had a good time mostly while doing it, but now her paintings are starting to sell and she wants to make a living with her art. However her brother's have one last request before she leaves the family business fold.
An architect building a huge Mauritius Resort for a wealthy international businessman has received kidnapping threats against him and his daughter and they need protection. The h is running late for the appointment and toting an egg salad sandwich and a bottle of champagne from an unwanted former client when she barely makes the ascending elevator.
After the elevator clears out, leaving the h and a very Celtic looking dark man alone, the champagne explodes as the h was admiring the guy's tie. There is a few verbal bantering moments as the h inadvertently gets salad cream on the guy's jacket, after having soaked him in exploding champagne.
The guy manages to escape the elevator more or less intact and the h takes a moment to find her way to her appointment. When she gets there, she hears a voice deriding the Brunhilde type ladies who are probably body guards with chin hairs and with a sinking sense of dismay, realizes the voice is coming from the elevator guy.
The very nice businessman and his skeevy dilettante son are trying hard to convince the architect that he needs some protection, cause a threatening letter was sent specifically referring to the H's four and half year old daughter. The skeevy son claims it is his father's business rival, but the H is convinced the whole thing is a hoax.
Still the H does take the h to meet his little girl, who is being looked after by the H's mother and the mother assumes that the H and h are interested in each other. There is more bantering with the H and h, but neither is really serious about it and the h decides that she can safely decline to work for the H-not that he is keen to have a bodyguard around anyways.
That changes right before the H and his daughter are to return to the resort complex. The H requests that the h come along and her brother's manage to talk her into it. So we all go off to Mauritius and the airline loses the h's luggage.
She borrows some clothes from the H and then sets about helping the very rambunctious four and half year old make a new BFF and giving the H equal verbal snarky moments as the story progresses.
The h doesn't really consider herself a little kid favorite, but she soon has the bungalow where they are all staying transformed into a colorful home and the little girl soon becomes fiercely devoted.
The H and h acknowledge that they have a burning attraction, but nothing comes of it until the H gets jealous when the skeevy son shows up with his dad. The h has to tell the skeevy son to push off and he threatens that the h will be sorry for it.
Skeevy son also claims that the H's deceased wife was way more in the looks stakes than the h and she was the daughter of a famous Hollywood director, so the H will only be using her as a substitute.
The h and H then get into an argument that leads to Purple Passion Moments and the h really does foil two kids hired by the skeezy son to kidnap her. The skeezy son was behind the original kidnapping threats as a way to get himself put in charge of the resort complex and he gets banished to a hotel porter job by his father.
Then the h learns that the H was far more worried about his sister in law trying to kidnap his daughter, which is why he agreed to hire the h. The H's first wife was the broken child of her philandering movie director father and her dissolute and man chasing mother. The woman seduced the H to get pregnant and then found that she did not have the finances or the inclination to raise a baby.
So the H got the woman to marry him and as long as he supplied cash, the woman left both her child and the H alone, even tho they lived in the same house. Eventually the woman's partying ways led her to a fatal car accident and the woman's sister, who is also married to a big time director, threatened the H that she would kidnap his daughter.
Apparently the sister in law and the H's dead wife were in major competition with each other and the sister in law is infertile. First she demanded custody of the little girl because of the H's job traveling, but the H is a very good dad and refused to let the sister in law take the child.
Then the sister in law hired detectives to try and prove the H was an unfit parent, but the H leads a celibate lifestyle and only works and cares for his daughter, so the woman threatened the H with a kidnapping.
The h is irate that the H did not reveal the full extent of the situation, but they calmly discuss it and things are going along grandly. Then the sister in law and her husband show up and the husband explains that his wife went crazy. He won't condone taking the H's daughter and he put the sister in law in therapy.
The sister in law is over her child obsession now and they only want to be a distant aunt and uncle to the H's daughter. The h makes preparations to leave now that the kidnapping threats are removed, but the H wants the h to live with him.
The h believes it is because the little girl wants the h to be her mother, but after the H chases her down and declares true undying love forever, the h admits she loves him back and we leave the three of them planning the wedding and hugging it up for the big HEA.
This one is very cute and the h and H have some really great back and forth moments. But it is very typical EO and her next to last HP before she moves over to the subscription side of things. There isn't a ton of drama and even the kidnapping moments are pretty casually handled, the h pushes the kidnappers into a closet to corral them and we learn that they weren't serious kidnappers anyway.
If you are looking for a wrecky angstfest or a lot of high drama, you won't find it here. Also, the h and H are very pragmatic and mature, so this may not be your cuppa if you prefer a more volatile HPlandia outing.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 1, 2020
Jess Pallister works as a bodyguard for her brother's security agency, and wants to quit, making the switch to her art, but she still agrees to one last job for her brothers and takes a meeting with Mr. Warwick. One the way, she embarasses herself horribly with a surly man in the elevator. When she arrives at the meeting, she learns that her protectee is to be this same-said surly man, Lorcan Hunter and his four year old daughter. Somehow, despite actually turning down the job initially, Jess ends up in Mauritius, where Lorcan is an architect for a hotel, and serving as bodyguard to little Harriet Hunter (most emphatically not her father, which confuses Jess as the threat was to the both of them). The attraction between them is scorching, but any resolution to their unresolved sexual tension is postponed when Jess realizes that Lorcan doesn't trust her. A month of trust-building (off-page) later, and the two are ready to steam up the sheets. But Jess knows this is only temporary, as she's heard that Lorcan is still hung up on his wife and that once the threat to Harriet is resolved, she'll have to leave behind the man she's coming to love.
First off, what an interesting name...Lorcan. I kinda like. As with most of the Elizabeth Oldfield's I've read, the angst factor here is pretty low and you don't have OTT drama or anything. Mature people here. Lorcan manages a bit of gruffness and is pretty good at hiding his feelings, so as Jess continues to think that Lorcan doesn't love her, even as he's throwing out marriage proposals and sexing her up, I could believe her stubborn insistence that he couldn't. I really was convinced that he'd loved his wife, probably because of his complete and total silence about her. And he didn't open up about that until Jess was half way out the door. But a lot of that falling-in-love happened off-page in the month or so after they started sleeping together...you could see the building trust, but the love was harder to pinpoint. And, lacking Lorcan's POV, I did wonder if he wasn't just really enjoying the sex. There were moments where I think I saw the love though. This one definitely gets pretty steamy, which I definitely liked...right in there with standing up shower sex, sitting down shower sex and regular bedroom kind of sex. No beach sex - they agreed it was too gritty.
When we first met little Harriet, I figured she'd be a brat and I'd hate her. She was very well written though, so though she had her bratty moments, she still manages to be likeable...just as many 4 year olds really would be. The kidnapping/threat side of things isn't very much - we learn who the real culprit is, why Lorcan hired her to guard ONLY Harriet and then Jess nearly gets kidnapped herself...but it's not really suspenseful or dramatic. However, at times, I really did doubt Jess's ability to be an effective bodyguard, considering how often she spent with her guard down. She really did feel more like a nanny or live-in help than she did a bodyguard. This was a fun read - I enjoy this author's stories as something of a break from the crazy drama that other HPlandia stories offer.
First off, what an interesting name...Lorcan. I kinda like. As with most of the Elizabeth Oldfield's I've read, the angst factor here is pretty low and you don't have OTT drama or anything. Mature people here. Lorcan manages a bit of gruffness and is pretty good at hiding his feelings, so as Jess continues to think that Lorcan doesn't love her, even as he's throwing out marriage proposals and sexing her up, I could believe her stubborn insistence that he couldn't. I really was convinced that he'd loved his wife, probably because of his complete and total silence about her. And he didn't open up about that until Jess was half way out the door. But a lot of that falling-in-love happened off-page in the month or so after they started sleeping together...you could see the building trust, but the love was harder to pinpoint. And, lacking Lorcan's POV, I did wonder if he wasn't just really enjoying the sex. There were moments where I think I saw the love though. This one definitely gets pretty steamy, which I definitely liked...right in there with standing up shower sex, sitting down shower sex and regular bedroom kind of sex. No beach sex - they agreed it was too gritty.
When we first met little Harriet, I figured she'd be a brat and I'd hate her. She was very well written though, so though she had her bratty moments, she still manages to be likeable...just as many 4 year olds really would be. The kidnapping/threat side of things isn't very much - we learn who the real culprit is, why Lorcan hired her to guard ONLY Harriet and then Jess nearly gets kidnapped herself...but it's not really suspenseful or dramatic. However, at times, I really did doubt Jess's ability to be an effective bodyguard, considering how often she spent with her guard down. She really did feel more like a nanny or live-in help than she did a bodyguard. This was a fun read - I enjoy this author's stories as something of a break from the crazy drama that other HPlandia stories offer.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
October 8, 2021
I don’t like the storyline: she is the bodyguard for him and his daughter. And I don’t like the fact that he already has a daughter by another woman.
And I don’t like that she is a ‘modern’ HP woman: she isn’t a virgin and she is already using birth control. To me a HP book is a fairy tale, so all the modern stuff I can do without. Cinderella didn’t use the pill.
But there’s lots of chemistry and passion between them and it’s well written, so still 3 stars.
And I don’t like that she is a ‘modern’ HP woman: she isn’t a virgin and she is already using birth control. To me a HP book is a fairy tale, so all the modern stuff I can do without. Cinderella didn’t use the pill.
But there’s lots of chemistry and passion between them and it’s well written, so still 3 stars.
May 14, 2015
Didn't even bothered to finish this.
October 25, 2015
Sweet story, but nothing special
Displaying 1 - 5 of 5 reviews