Stranger Passing by
Retail-store employee is dismayed that company owner Hero who she met & shared a mutual attraction with the night before is closing down all their stores. She pleads with him to keep her store open & Hero tests her for what lengths he'll take for it. She returns his kisses but stops before it goes any further b/c she's unsure about his intentions. He thinks she's using her wiles on him for her job's sake & is likely two-timing him with her co-employee just like his ex-GF did. How will these 2 handle their dual r/s & trust each other? This Peake book had good sexual tension, emotional involvement, & pacing. The romance & characters were erratic. Hero & heroin often switched back & forth from acting professional to personal with each other. Even their names for each other kept on switching! It got a bit annoying & predictable after awhile. The switch hinged on whether they got what they wanted from each other. For example, heroine acted & talked formally with Hero until He saved her store. She became formal again with him when she lost her store until the time He found her another job. Hero acted aloof & cold with heroine until she succumbed to his kisses. When she puts a stop to their intimacy, he changes from being open & romantic back to aloof & cold. It read like an emotional roller-coaster & showed how conditional their love was for each other.
Limitedly recommended.
