The Italian Boss's Secretary Mistress

The Italian Boss's Secretary Mistress Cathy Williams Grade: B- Sensuality: Warm Yesterday I read my eighth Harlequin Presents from Cathy Williams, my first this year. The book was published in March, and, as with the majority of books I've read by this author, I liked it.

As with all HP's, the title of this one is cringe-worthy, but it differs from the other books by this author that I've read in that the first love scene comes quite late in the story, the upshot of which is that there's a lot of bickering between the hero and heroine, and a lot of lust-thought that has nowhere to go until it finally explodes while on an island with a hurricane raging outside.

Here's a quick synopsis of the book: Rose is the only secretary Gabriel Gessi has ever had who was able to stand toe to toe with him. He's been miserable for the past month until she returned from visiting her sister's family in Australia, and his mood doesn't get any better when she hands him a resignation letter upon her return. She wants to take a business course...but mostly she wants to leave his employ because she secretly loves him and it hurts to much to watch the parade of brainless beauties traipse through his life. She knows from his treatment of them that he's unable to move past "love 'em and leave 'em", and though she's trimmed down and better dressed than she was before her trip to Australia, she's no match for his typical woman.

Gabriel will not allow Rose to leave him. He proposes that his company pay for her continued education, and that she give him a month to train a replacement for the days of the week when she'll be at school or studying. he's grasping at straws, not just because she's such a great secretary, but because since she walked back into his office, he's begun to notice her in a different - sexual - light.

As the book progresses, Gabriel begins to behave more and more like a crazed and jealous lover, even though they've shared not so much as a single kiss. But he knows he gets to her, and even though her assessment of him is sometimes scathing - and she's always arguing with him! - and he decides he must finagle a way for him to act on their mutual attraction.

This is one of Williams' most sensual romances, at least of those I've read. It's not quite up there with one I wrote about in an ATBF column earlier this year, but the frankness with which Gabriel talks to Rose about her body, albeit purple, is erotic nonetheless.

Although readers know that Gabriel loves Rose, he doesn't cop to it until the third to last paragraph. As a result, the book has an abrupt ending that I've never associated with Williams before. The denial these two are in makes for a frustrating read, but I enjoyed watching Gabriel slowly lose his self-control and be brought to his knees by his feelings for Rose.

I've written about Cathy Williams several times in this blog, but I thought I'd create a table of all the titles and grades.

TTFN, Laurie Likes Books

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