Holiday Bound

Holiday Bound
Beth Kery
Kindle Edition
Published December 1st 2009 by Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
ASIN B002ZFGJV2
Free Read from Amazon.com

The Oedipal Complex has never been so sexy.

Alex Carradine can't believe his father wants to come and visit his ski resort. Could it be that after so many stormy years, -slick Mitch- Carradine wants to offer an olive branch? Maybe the old man is mellowing, settling down with the new lover he's bringing along. Then Alex realizes the acid truth. This is no warm family visit. His father's new conquest is none other than the woman of Alex's sexual fantasies, meant only to dangle tauntingly in front of his face. At least an unexpected blizzard has frozen his father out of the picture entirely.

Angeline Kastakis was looking forward to taking the next step in her relationship with Mitch. Too late, she realizes she's been led into a familial battle zone. Now it's Christmas and she's marooned in a blizzard with an insolent, gorgeous hunk of man whose blazing blue eyes tell her loud and clear he wants her in his bed. Preferably tied to it with a bow. There's no escape in sight. But as Alex stirs her secret longing to be mastered by a man, escape is the last thing on her mind.

Warning: This book contains scenes of sensual submission hot enough to make you sweat in a blizzard.

Four years ago, Alex caught sight of the woman of his dreams. A woman his father, Mitchell, mocked him for wanting, even demeaning Angeline's femininity and appearance in the process. To discover, now, that that very woman has been dating his vile sire for the past two months, Alex is both pained and enraged.

Angeline, smitten by the combination Sean Connery/Richard Gere that is Mitch, is ready to finally let her relationship move on to the next level but when Mitch once again falters in going through with his word, she finds herself alone in a snowstorm with his very sexy and dominant son. A man who is nothing like Mitch described and much older than she'd imagined. She's younger than both of them.

While the Oedipal Complex remark in the blurb had me taking a seriously long pause before downloading this free read, it only took a small number of pages to realize that this story wasn't going to be half as creepy as I'd imagined. In fact, it rocked. Every little thing that came out of Alex's mouth had me rooting for him. Even when he was quite an ass to Angeline when he first rescued her from the storm, I couldn't fault him. Hell, she annoyed me too. As he comes to discover who she really is and makes no excuse for his desire of her, well, that just sealed the deal.

“So. You regret it all, is that it? You want to just pretend like it didn’t happen?” he asked evenly.

“I told you I wanted to talk about it like adults. You’re the one who insists on being such a…a…bullying brute instead!”

“So for clarification sake—talking about us making love last night like adults involves you calling it a crime.”

Pink stained her cheeks. “I shouldn’t have said that. You misunderstood me.”

He raised his hand from the back of the couch and gave a permissive wave. “Go on, then, by all means.

Her usually velvet-like eyes didn’t look so soft at the moment. “It would help if you stopped being so sarcastic, Alex.”

That made his anger bubble up to the surface again. “Excuse me for the weak defense of a sharp tongue. See, the thing of it is, Angeline, I don’t regret it like you do. So it’s not really a picnic to sit here and listen to you tell me how it was all a mistake. If that,” he pointed significantly to the floor where they’d nearly scorched a burn mark in the carpet last night, “was a mistake, I’ll gladly forego
being right for the rest of my life. So don’t sit there and tell me I have to take your rejection of me like a nice little boy.”

It took him a second to take in the shocked expression on her face. It took an additional second for him to realize he no longer sat back casually, but was leaning toward her aggressively.

Had he really just said that as loud as he thought he had? He sighed in frustration and leaned back again. So much for giving her some distance.

“Alex… I’m not rejecting you.”

He peered at her warily, not sure what to make of her softened tone. “What are you trying to do then?”

I found Alex justified in everything he did, felt, and said. His rough exterior gives way to a very vulnerable, romantic guy whose passion in bed makes him great fantasy material. He cuts a tree down for her for goodness sake! Wasn't even asked.

There is lots of bondage but the BDSM is rather light, and the steamy love scenes are guaranteed to warm your blood faster than your favorite cup of cocoa so I'm definitely considering reading this baby again next Christmas. 5 out of 5 stars.