SWEET SEDUCTION SHADOW by Nicola Claire

SWEET SEDUCTION SHADOW by Nicola Claire
(U.S. link: Sweet Seduction Shadow )
Advanced Reading Copy
To Be Published: July 10th, 2013, Nicola Claire

She feels it again, the tingling between her shoulder blades.....a sure sign someone is on her tail again. Almost to the bus stop, and her ride to yet another place....another identity, but then she is falling, right in the path of a car. Two strong arms yank her out of the way at the last minute, and she smells him first, the man and the cologne from her dreams?

When Ben pulls the redhead off the street in the nick of time, he surely didn't expect her to kick him in the nuts and take off on the bus!! Granted, he is not much of a talker himself, but a simple thanks would've done. Still, she seemed scared of him and that doesn't sit well. He works for ASI, security and investigation specialists, and is in the business of investigating and protecting, not scaring off. Ben can't resist keeping an even closer eye out for the girl.

She likes Abi, she doesn't really want to change again. As Abi she started making friends, she had a good job working for nice people, and a roommate she actually liked. But she has been running for the last five years and she can't afford to let up now or he would find her. She is just so tired of running, of starting over again, of always looking over her shoulder. Her father did what he could to protect her when she was younger, but the compound of a mob syndicate was not the best place to grow up for a young girl. Especially when the head of the syndicate has tried to claim you as his, since you were fifteen. She got away, but for how long?

Ben finds Abi again, trying her best to get as far from Auckland as she can, but she is not happy to see him. She doesn't trust him, but Ben is able to convince her that he is on her side, he will protect her. As limited as Ben is with his verbal communication, he has no problems communicating very clearly and explicitly on a physical level, and Abi is receiving the message very clearly. Once he claims Abi as his, the entire ASI team gets involved. Abi has become a hot commodity against her will, and trust is not an easy thing to come by, or part with. But with Ben solidly at her back, they take on any threat, past or present, and make sure their future is cleared for a new beginning.

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The third fabulous book in the Sweet Seduction series, each an individual story, but with some recurring and familiar characters that centre around the Sweet Seduction coffee shop and chocolaterie as well as the powerful and protective Alpha boys from ASI, Anscombe Security and Investigations.

What is so fantastic about this story is that even though we are dealing with an Alpha male, he is not overbearing or controlling (even if he has to fight it at times), but one who completely respects his woman's abilities, not just within her realm, but within his. And he says the most amazing things for one who 'sucks' at communicating. 

Abi, despite suffering from anxiety attacks, is not ruled by them, nor is she even slowed down by them. She seems to cope with them quite well, considering the constant stress she is under. She too is a great role model of someone who may have grown up under the poorest of circumstances, who may not have always made the best choices, but made them in order to survive and she didn't only survive, she overcame. 

And together Ben and Abi bloom......my favourite Sweet Seduction couple so far!

Two people, who by choice and by circumstance, have avoided forming close personal connections and  lead restrictive, solitary lives, have found in each other an instinctive understanding, a haven, a light, an equal, a homecoming.

An edgy, passionate and stirring read!! Full of heat and thrills, with a kick-ass heroine and an irresistible hero!!