Jen_C’s Reviews > The Billionaire's Heart > Status Update

What the woman you fell in love with really wants is a sexy summer romance that never ends, a thrilling one-night stand that lasts the rest of our natural lives.”
“Ah, is that all?” He smiled and took her into his arms. “Then you’re in luck, my beautiful Ms. Smith, because I’m fairly certain that can be arranged.”

It was the wrong time. In his heart, though, he’d always known that argument was a crock of baloney. Timing didn’t matter. Love wasn’t arranged like a trip, checking weather and flights and prices. It was more like being struck by lightning. Even so, he hadn’t believed he had the right to ask her to join his world, which was just about to be hit by a wrecking ball. Sophie could so easily have been torn apart, too,

“Where’s Millie?” “Next door, I think,” he said. “Apparently Bettina has cable TV, and they’re binge-watching ‘Outlander,’ which I gather is getting pretty steamy, though Millie tried hard to stop Bettina from sharing that.” Sophie didn’t really want to smile, he could tell. But she couldn’t help it. “Oh, dear. I suppose you got an earful, given that they can tell you’re Scottish.”

So he was gone. But where? She’d already checked at the hotel, and they said he wasn’t on property. After that, she didn’t know where to look. She had no earthly idea where else he might have gone. If she couldn’t find him in...about five minutes...she would have no choice. She’d have to leave without saying goodbye.

“How would you like to be treated, Sophie?”
“Like a woman,” she answered simply. “Please, Declan. Tonight, just think of me as a woman.”
His heart stopped briefly, then pounded, hammer hard, as he understood what she was asking for. If she’d been any other woman, he would have kissed her then, and stoked that smoldering fire until both of them were consumed by it. But she wasn’t any other woman. She was Sophie.

By sunset, when Declan parked his battered little, apple green Alpha Romeo Spider outside the villa that housed the Trattoria dei Venti Dolci, Sophie was half in love with him. Okay, she admitted to her common sense, which was still putting up a valiant fight at the back of her mind, maybe it wasn’t love. But it was close.

She couldn’t stand it. Rising on tiptoe, she laid her trembling hands against his chest. How could such a restrained, butterfly kiss take her breath away? How could it be so hot? It was if he teased her with a candle flame, coming close enough to burn her, but lifting again before the fire caught.

He could almost, almost imagine forgiving Mariota, eventually, for cheating. He accepted that humans were flawed and maybe he could have found it in his heart to understand if she’d gotten drunk, or angry, or succumbed to an attack of cold feet, and found herself in bed with someone else. What people DID could be forgiven. What people WERE was a much, much bigger problem.

And just like that, his sour mood lifted. The voice belonged to Sophie. He didn’t ask himself why she should have this effect on him, though it was a legitimate question. His heart was still pretty much scorched earth from the way things had ended with Mariota Fordyce, his ex-fiancée. He knew he wasn’t destined to be a monk forever, but he definitely didn’t want romance in his life anytime soon, either.

Sophie had a girl-next-door snub nose under Shirley Temple yellow curls. But she could pull this off. She had to. Pretending to be a wealthy American tourist for the next two weeks might seem silly to her, but it was everything to Millie.