Naked In Death By JD Robb (AKA Nora Roberts) (Berkeley, 1995) 

STATS:  ”Roarke–no known given name–born 10-06-2023, Dubin, Ireland….Parents unknown.”  Irish billionaire.  Education?  Unknown.  Criminal Record?  No data. 

THE LOOK:   Black hair, blue eyes, 6′2″, 173 pounds.  ”He was almost ridiculously handsome: the narrow, aesthetic face; the slash of cheekbones; and sculpted mouth.  His eyes were blue, but the word was much too simple for the intensity of color or the power in them.” 

LEADING LADY: Eve Dallas, NY police detective hunting ruthless killers.  Tall, willowy brunette with “eyes the color of honeycombs and a mouth made for sex.”  Serious cop of the future.  Battered leather jacket and jacked up, short hair.  Weakness for food and coffee and….Roarke.  

Roarke first meets Eve when she comes to interview him about the murder of an ex-lover.  The moment he saw her, he knew he’d have her, but that was before he knew she was a cop.  He hates cops, but he can’t stay away from Eve anyway.  He plies her with gourmet coffee and in an act of supreme romance, keeps the button that fell of her jacket in his pocket.      

BOTTOM LINE:   In this continuing series, Robb has created two characters so layered and complex.  The first is my favorite, the moment they meet, the book in which Eve first lets down her guard and gives in to passion with Roarke.  Roarke is strong and ruthless and sexy, but his true appeal lies in his utter devotion to Eve and, despite his worry, his ability to let her be the woman and cop she needs to be.   

QUESTION OF THE DAY: Like the gourmet coffee Roarke gives Eve, what “simple” pleasure could a man give you to win you over?

Blade’s Lady by Fiona Brand (Silhouette Intimate Moments, 2000)

Ever since he was sixteen, Blade Lombard has been haunted by the presence of a girl, then a woman, in his dreams. She was not just a voice in his head, but someone real to him. Someone he worried about. When he turns thirty, even though he has not yet met her, she becomes someone he loves and lusts after. One night, he dreams of her in danger and sees a sign to a store he’s never seen before. It turns out the store is real and so is Anna Tarrant.

STATS:

Former military. Hates to lose control. Loves women–”plural”–”but he had never needed any of his sexual partners beyond the act.”

THE LOOK:

“[L]ong hair, black as midnight satin; fierce, dark eyes; the strong chiseled planes and angles of a face that was both grimly handsome and exotically sensual.”

LEADING LADY:

Anna Tarrant is stunned when she wakes, injured, in a ditch only to encounter her dream “knight” whom she doesn’t trust because she can’t trust anyone. She’s on the run, working as a waitress for a jerk who won’t even pay her the money she’s owed, and she can’t count on anyone but herself. However, even though she tries, she can’t escape Blade–her hazy knight has become a powerful force who refuses to let her go.

Forceful Patience:

Blade is intense. Sexy and sexual. Fiercely. When he finds out who Anna is and that she’s in mortal danger, he brings her home. And Anna instantly sees the truth: “His dark gaze was flat with certainty, and for good reason. He was going to have her naked beneath him tonight, and they both knew it.”

BOTTOM LINE:

I LOVE Fiona Brand, in particular her older Intimate Moments. She reminds me a lot of Linda Howard. Blade’s Lady is all about yearning for something that’s just out of reach and then having the courage to grab it when it gets close. Blade is dark and dangerous, but never cruel. He’s a good guy through and through.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Have you ever encountered a situation that represented a dream opportunity but you were initially too scared to act on it? Were you ultimately able to overcome your fear?

Kiss Of The Highlander by Karen Marie Moning (Dell, 2001)

Traveling Scotland on a bus tour full of senior citizens, lonely Gwen Cassidy is mortified when she hears one of them say she just needs a “cherry picker” of a man. Gwen admits she needs a man, but is convinced she’ll settle for one who doesn’t need a strong dose of Viagra to get him going. When she drops her backpack down a ravine and goes after it, she ends up falling into a cavern and literally on top of “a cherry tree chopper-downer,” a sleeping Highland Warrior who has been enchanted by a powerful spell.

STATS:

12th Century Scottish Warrior Drustan MacKeltar is put under a sleeping spell and wakes to find himself being straddled by Gwen Cassidy. Silently, he regards her with “remarkable eyes that glittered like shards of silver and ice, sleepy eyes that banked a touch of amusement and unmistakable masculine male interest.”

Drustan takes his situation in stride, stretching languidly, greeting Gwen with a burly “Good morrow, English,” and then murmurs “kiss me.”

THE LOOK:“The McKeltar was a large man, towering and dark, a mountain of bronzed muscle and sinew, even when flat on his back.”

LEADING LADY:

Gwen is quite reasonably alarmed when she agrees to accompany Drustan out of the cave, only to see him arm himself with dozens of knives and a hefty double-bladed ax. When she asks if they’re real, Drustan cooley replies, “Aye. You can scarce kill a man otherwise.” While Gwen struggles to figure out why Drustan seems so odd, Drustan tries to deal not only with his unexpected journey into the future, but his heart-pounding, blood-roaring attraction to prickly Gwen. Still, it’s telling of Gwen’s character that she can’t leave Drustan helpless and seemingly-addled and offers to help get him “home.”

Immediate Possessiveness
Just one day after finding Drustan, Gwen takes him clothes shopping for appropriate attire. She’s immediately bothered by the saleswoman, who can’t keep her eyes off Drustan.

When he walks out of the dressing room in skin tight jeans, she demands to know what he has stuffed in his pants. Clearly in pain, Drustan replies,

“I doona believe you intended to torture me–nay, I saw other men on the street in such clothing–so I will not take putative measures. However, I think the problem is much the same as my feet,” he informed her.”

“Your feet?” she responded dumbly, her gaze dropping. They were large.

“Aye.” He gestured toward hers. “In your time you bind your feet in constrictive boots, whereas we wear soft, supple leather.”

“Your point?” she managed.

“They have more room to grow,” he said, as if were simpleminded.

When Gwen blushes and falters, Drustan reassures her “Doona let this frighten you, lass. We will fit together well when I make love to you,” he purred.

Falling In Love Twice

In Moning’s wonderful novel, Drustan woos Gwen in the first part, and then Gwen must woo Drustan in the second–only it’s a Drustan who doesn’t know her. The Drustan she made love to in her time accidentally sends her back to his time, alone, and only then does Gwen realize she has the chance to save Drustan and his family. When the Drustan of 12th Century Scotland won’t listen to her and insists on being with another woman, she locks him in his own “garderobe,” and forces him to listen as she, outside the door, tells him about their love story. She tells Drustan about the beautiful words “he” said to her after they made love, and she repeats them. She does not realize their significance, as they are Druid marriage vows. But Drustan does, and he won’t let her take them back–even before he regains his memory or awareness of her in the future.

BOTTOM LINE:

Drustan is a warrior, no doubt about it, but he can purr and coax and tease like there’s no tomorrow. He feels intensely, whether when weeping for his lost family or making fierce love to virginal Gwen. This book has one of my all-time favorite endings. Gwen falls in love twice, and also loses Drustan twice, something that almost kills her, but in the end not even time itself can separate them.

QUESTION OF THE DAY:

Do you ever wish for a “do-over?” If you had a chance, is there a past relationship, romantic or otherwise, that you would approach differently?

JOEL “JJ” HUNTER: WARRIOR

You Only Love Twice by Lori Wilde (Warner Books, 2006)

Comic illustrator Marlie Montague is short, curvy, and shy, but she’s happy living vicariously through her alter-ego, comic-book heroine Angelina Avenger.  But when a UPS man threatens her with a gun, she runs straight to her hunky new neighbor, Navy secret agent Joel Hunter.  Unbeknownst to Marlie, Joel has not only been assigned to watch Marlie, but he’s also the 10-year-old-boy, all grown up, who Marlie used to have a crush on. 

“He was one hundred percent mesomorph.  Lots of lean muscle tissue, hard, sculpted.  She was little Miss Endomorph.  Round and soft and small-boned.  But mentally they were more alike than they’d first assumed.” 

STATS:

Son of the man who killed Marlie’s father, a proclaimed traitor. 

Married and divorced a woman (another secret agent) who was as touch and driven as Joel.  But once he meets Marlie, he’s a “convert to love.  One of the faithful now.  A skeptic no more.”

THE LOOK:

Five o’clock shadow.  Angular jaw.  “[H]is hooded eyes were an intriguing shade of blue-gray-green, like the Gulf of Mexico in turbulent weather.  And like a storm-swept sea, he looked both demanding and resilient.” 

LEADING LADY: 

Marlie is an intriguing combination of shyness and insecurity, but she’s also got a kick-butt, brave, adventurous side, and isn’t afraid to make Joel question his values and beliefs.  She’s able to make Joel realize that his need to be strong is an illusion and gives him a sense of purpose. 

Blending Tender with Torrid

Like Marlie herself, so many of Lori Wilde’s scenes show that Joel is a man with many layers.  He’s the man scarred from his father’s failure to fight for him, leaving him in the custody of his mother and some abusive stepfathers.  He’s a man who doesn’t back down from conflict and who’s turned on by verbal sparring and adventure.  He’s hot and sexual, but tender and insecure as well when something matters to him, like when he nudges Marlie away from her black and white clothes and into a feminine dress of green and pink. 

“She didn’t know what to say.  No man had ever bought her a dress before.

‘Do you like it?’ He sounded anxious, eager for her approval.  His nervousness was as touching as the gift.  “If you don’t like it, I’ll take it back, get you another.”

‘Joel.’ She breathed.

Dazzled, she raised her head.  She couldn’t have been more moved if he’d given her diamonds or rubies.

‘You needed something clean to wear.  Is it too fancy?  It’s too fancy.”  He answered his own question.  ‘I knew I should have gotten you jeans and a T-shirt.”

“No, no.”  She blinked against the mist of happy tears pushing against her eyelids.  ‘It’s perfect.’

He was at his most alluring: dark eyes filled with anticipation, his mouth quirked up at one corner, warm, inviting, sexy.

And she was at her most suggestible.  In a flash of sudden knowledge that almost knocked the breath out of her body. She recognized she was in love with him.

Deeply and irrevocably in love.” 

BOTTOM LINE:

I generally go for the tortured hero who strikes out and has to lose control before he reveals his vulnerability to the heroine.  Although he’s bold and brash, bossy when he needs to be, tough as nails, and has issues he has to overcome, Joel is more at ease with himself and is unable to lash out at Marlie even to protect himself.  He calls Marlie “Ladybug,” confesses that Marlie is “undoing” him, and stays in control enough to protect her.  He’s been burned by love once, but isn’t afraid to welcome it again.

Lori Wilde has a wonderful way with combining humor, suspense, burning hot sex scenes and deep emotion.  I especially like that her books are so layered, both in theme and symbolism.  I’m fortunate to have taken an online critique class with Lori, and she also teaches a class called Romance Writing Secrets.  She’s an amazing teacher and you can find out more info at www.loriwilde.com.

  QUESTION OF THE DAY:

 What do you think of tortured heroes who sometimes treat the heroine cruelly in order to protect themselves?  Does it create a good set up for redemption, or does it turn you off?