Present Danger by Susan Anderson (Zebra, 1993)

STATS:

Landlord of the building that Aunie Franklin chooses to make her home after leaving her abusive husband. James wants to stay away from any woman with problems and looking to be saved. The moment he meets Aunie he knows she’s in need of a hero, but no matter how hard he tries to stay away, he can’t resist this tiny, big on-attitude Southerner he calls “Magnolia Blossom.”

THE LOOK:

“He had the go-to-hell eyes of someone who’d seen it all and soft, pale blond hair that receded slightly from his high forehead and was pulled straight back into a short ponytail…the style seemed to suit this one’s face, which was all strong planes and angles….His cheekbones were flat and angular, his teeth were white, and slashing lines cut from the corners of those rebel eyes clear into his lean cheeks.”

LEADING LADY:

All her life, Aunie has been coveted for her good looks. Now she wants to prove there’s more to her than that. She’s left her abusive husband, is going back to school, and isn’t afraid of getting her hands dirty. 

One Favorite Scene:

There are tons of sexy love scenes in this book, but one of my favorites is when Aunie and James are pushed to their emotional breaking point:

““What did you call me?” His hands wrapped around her hips and picked her up and stood her on the couch so their eyes were on a more even level.

If he thought she was going to back down, he was crazy. Aunie’s chin jutted toward the ceiling. “A lily-livered…”

“No, after that.” His eyes ran over her from head to foot, taking in everything, missing nothing: her bright eyes, her flushed cheeks, the long, white neck, that T-shirt that had taunted him all afternoon….”Say it to my face.”

“I said it to your face the first time, you big blond baboon. You think you’re a stud, but you’re only a…umm…”

James’s long fingers had tangled in her hair and his mouth cut off her words. He wanted to force her to eat her words, literally, but then he tasted her mouth under his, felt her bare arms wrap around his neck, felt her body plaster itself up against his, and his brain short-circuited, all coherent thought erased.”

BOTTOM LINE:

James and Aunie are complete opposites in background, personality, and physical characteristics. The journey they take before realizing they are meant to be with one another is one of the sexiest and most heart-warming stories I’ve read.

When Aunie is threatened by the return of her ex-husband, James decides he’s going to “take her in hand”—by installing a security system in her apartment and teaching her how to take care of herself. The whole time, he tries to keep his hands off her, afraid that he’s not good enough for her. Aunie has other ideas. She taunts him until he can’t resist her, but when he wakes in the morning to find her covered with hickeys and splotchy red scrapes from his heavy morning beard, he’s sure it proves he’s “a slum-born animal, incapable of the finer graces she no doubt expected from a man.” The beauty of Anderson’s characters is that each one is capable of so much more than they think they are, and it’s through their relationship they discover this.

QUESTION OF THE DAY?

What do you think of hickeys? Tacky or sexy?