Amor En Peligro/Love at Risk Book

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.