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Blushing Books
Category:
Romance
Publisher: Blushing Publications
ISBN-10: 9781609681
Type: Fiction
Pages: 102
Copyright: Feb 20, 2013
Price: $3.95 (eBook)
Can a romance therapist burned out on romance find happiness with a cowboy burned out on romance therapists?
Valentine is a romance therapist burned out on the whole idea of romance. She needs a break from dating GQ fashioned stockbrokers and men whose lives revolve around their over-priced cars, high-tech apartments, and their belief that they're super studs in bed. She needs time away from a therapy partnership that no longer makes her happy. Right now, nothing makes her happy. She needs a Calgon-take-me-away escape from all of it, and remembers how a recent client invited Valentine to her wedding in Maui. What better place for an escape? No pushy men to deal with. No pressures from her partners. Just time alone in paradise!
Sometimes paradise has its problems, too. Especially when her client's cowboy rat older brother shows up, and Valentine wants to throttle him for his past overbearing ways toward his sister! Sam isn't too thrilled to see the dipstick counselor who mucked up his adoring baby sister either. The interfering woman keeps right on butting her nose into his business, making him strongly feel the need to apply his hand to her sweet little bottom! Only touching her makes them both want so much more!
Excerpt
What she needed was a big cupid dartboard on her office wall and a few darts. Then she could toss the darts at some strategic places. The vision almost made Valentine Hart smile. Romance, patooi! If she was really, really lucky she would never receive another overly mushy card that professed how wonderful or how beautiful she was. Never sit through another candlelight dinner for two. She would never endure having another handsome man seduce her with sweet talk, and then attempt to make her “see the stars” as he had his way with her body.
She sat back in her big leather executive chair, swiveled it to look out the window of her corner office, and tried to force the memory of the night before far from her mind. Not possible. It had just been too awful. The blind date from hell, even if that was a bit cliché. Such a shame, too. At first glance of the GQ fashioned stockbroker she’d had such hopes for the evening. Hopes that were dashed almost from the moment he sat down across from her in her favorite, very romantic little Italian restaurant. It would be a long, long time before she’d feel up to going there again.
Squeezing her eyes shut, she shook her head and shoulder-length hair dusted her shoulders. The effort didn’t get rid of the memory, but it did make her slightly dizzy. Or maybe she was dizzy and light-headed from lack of sleep lately. Or from frustration. Why did the men she dated forget all about her being a highly skilled professional and only see her blonde hair, only think of her as ditzy? Why couldn’t men see past her unfortunate perfect Barbie doll figure? Weren’t there any men—make that available men—out there who thought with more than their cock? Men whose blood actually flowed all the way to their brain and could make conversation. Decent conversation, that is. More than about their flashy, over-priced car or their high-tech apartment with a playboy’s dream bedroom. More than about their amazing skills between the sheets.
She heaved a disappointed sigh and looked again out at the sky burdened with thick gray clouds holding the promise of another depressing winter day. Perfect. She was already depressed about the whole issue of romance. Okay, she had to admit that never wanting any of those romantic things again was a bit dramatic. Normally, she liked all of that. Really liked all of that. But she hadn’t had much luck with any of it, beginning with her failed marriage.
Feeling a headache coming on, she swiveled her chair back around to face her desk, and the reality of her daily world. Her appointment schedule covered the monitor. Not a blank hourly space for the next month. Business was booming, which should make her feel great. Unfortunately, as a momentarily romantically challenged partner in a romance therapy business, she felt stressed instead. She couldn’t handle clients right now. Couldn’t find a way to offer up advice to improve a relationship, or to suggest intimate little rendezvous ideas. She couldn’t face another hopeful couple seeking romantic bliss. She needed a vacation. Now!
That made her glance down at the wedding invitation from a sweet young couple she’d counseled the last couple of months. Shelby Thompson had absolutely blossomed during the sessions, had come completely out of the passion-suppressed state she’d been in due to having been raised by a stuffy, strict, domineering older brother. He wouldn’t even leave his precious ranch to go to the wedding in Maui. Boy, if she could get her hands on the man…
It was time to get away, time to calm down, and time to figure out her life. Maybe even come to grips with her momentary sexual-orientation confusion. Made only more confusing when her next mental image was of a darkly tanned, muscled, male luau dancer. Then an image of a cowboy sitting atop a powerful horse, the cowboy’s well-defined chest was shirtless. She was a bare chest lover. Well, a nice taut butt was pretty intriguing also.
What was she thinking! That cowboy looked suspiciously like the photo Shelby had shown her of the doesn’t-have-a-clue-how-to-raise-a-sister older brother. She forced away the image.
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