By The Hour
Pleasure Principle, 2
Roni Loren
April 25, 2017
From the New York Times bestselling author of Off the Clock comes a story of love, hate, and the fire that ignites when the two collide...
Dr. Elle McCray has a plan. Work hard. Be the best. And do it alone. After her ex-husband’s betrayal, she’s learned being feared is a hell of a lot easier than being humiliated. So when trouble personified, Lane Cannon, dares to flirt with her, she shuts him down cold. Too gorgeous. Too cocky. And his job as The Grove’s sexual surrogate is to sleep with patients. No, thank you.
Former escort Lane Cannon has spent enough years with people looking down on him. Stupid. Trailer trash. Rent boy. He’s heard it all. He’s worked too hard to shed his past to let some haughty doctor cut him down. But something about Elle’s ice queen act has his dominant instincts perking up and his body taking notice. He can’t walk away.
After an evening of verbal sparring turns into a night of steamy hate sex, Lane’s ready for round two. But Elle proposes a business deal. How better to keep things strictly physical than to pay him for his services?
Lane wants her, not her money. But he’ll play along in exchange for one thing—all the control. It’s only supposed to be a dirty little fling between colleagues, but these two are about to learn a lesson in love…by the hour.
My Thoughts:
Can I tell you how much I LOVE Roni Loren's books. Seriously, she's amazing. Yes, I loved By The Hour. Lane is AMAZING. Plus, he has to be when entangling with the Ice Queen. Okay, I was not a fan of Dr. Elle McCray. To put it bluntly, I thought she was a bitch in Off the Clock, and I wouldn't be wrong. However, I did soften a little, because of what happen to her, I mean she was married to dick. Her ex-husband was the absolute worst. I shudder to think what he did; totally heinous. So, I could understand why she would hate men in some ways. That wasn't even the worst part, her sister. Her blood. I would be lying if I wasn't hoping she would throat punch her sister, and she would deserve it, but my wish did not come true. However, everything works out for the best. Again, Roni is amazing. So, I soften to the wicked witch.
Elle doesn't get along with anyone, and she has her valid reason: 1) You can't be hurt if you aren't close to anyone. Pretty simple. However, Lane being Lane decides to challenge her borders. By the way, not so easy. Lane comes with his own set of issues. He's a former gigolo who has become a sex surrogate. Her royal pain in the butt looks down upon Lane for his past. When she learns what he had to do to survive, she feels like crap. Both have baggage, but they do help one another out.
Anyway, By The Hour had it all. I love love-the-hate relationship between Lane and Elle, because it's the only way to get through to Elle. Not only, Lane was able to get through a challenge with Elle's help. In some ways, By The Hour kind of resemble The Wedding Date, but way hotter. If you haven't seen that movie it's pretty good. I even laughed and got a little choked up. Seriously, I thought I was going make through the story without choking up, wrong. Roni got me at the end. Definitely, sentimental. Overall, a pretty good read. The cover is yummy, and Lane and Elle make the story. Who knew I would end up liking her.
Copy provided by author via Author's Pal
Excerpt:
Elle picked up the
phone with intentions of turning the ringer off, but before she could silence
it, there was a sharp knock on her door. The interruption startled her and made
her drop the still ringing phone onto the rug beneath her desk.
“Dammit.” Distracted,
Elle called out for whoever it was to come in and then bent down to grab the
phone and silence it. “If you want to talk to me, leave a freaking voicemail. I
do have a job, you know.”
“I’m aware.”
The deep rumble of a
voice had her head snapping up, and she promptly banged it on the underside of
her desk. “Son of a bitch.”
The ringing that had
stopped with the phone started in her head. She rubbed the sore spot, and sat
up to find Lane standing in her doorway with a white box in his hands and an
unreadable expression.
“You okay?”
The spot on her head
was throbbing but she gave a curt nod, not wanting to give him the
satisfaction. “I’m fine. Why are you here?”
His signature smugness
touched his lips. “Always such a warm welcome from you, McCray. I bet you
worked your way through college as a greeter at Disney World. Am I right?”
“Yep. Wore the ears
and everything,” she said, not missing a beat. “Now answer the question.”
Because the sooner he
did that, the sooner she could get him out of here. Just seeing him leaning
against her doorframe with that lazy, self-satisfied way of his had her mind
replaying the scene from that night in her head. Only the highlight reel, of
course. Not the ugly parts. Not the part where she ended up alone on her living
room floor having a freak out. Her dirty mind was fantastic at editing out the
stuff she was supposed to be focusing on.
He lifted the box. “I
come bearing cupcakes.”
At first, all she
heard was I come. Boy, did he. With sexy grunts and brute force. She
shook the images from her head. God, she turned into a horny teenager when she
was around this guy. Pack the hormones away, Elle. She cleared her
throat. “Cupcakes?”
He opened the box and
revealed eleven cupcakes with hideous bright pink frosting. “These got
delivered to the wrong building on the wrong date, and I’m guessing with the
wrong color, because no one who wasn’t having a pretty, pretty princess
birthday party would choose these. But they were supposed to go to you for your
birthday. Happy late birthday, Elle.”
She kept her
expression smooth, even though hearing someone finally wish her happy birthday
had her throat tightening. She swallowed past the unexpected and unwelcome
emotion. “What happened to the twelfth one?”
He set the box on her
desk and the door closed behind him. “I did a poison test for you. They’re safe
but turn your tongue and teeth colors.”
He stuck out his
fluorescent tongue and then grinned a toothy, pink smile to demonstrate.
She couldn’t stop the
snort that escaped. She pressed her fingers over her mouth, trying not to show
any break in her stone wall.
He waved a hand. “No,
go ahead. I know. So many jokes that can be made. Don’t let your head explode
from not saying one.”
“You should get that
checked.”
He gave another
encouraging flick of his hand. “I know there’s more.”
“Did Miss Piggy at least
buy you a drink before you went down on her?”
He grinned wide.
“Did she taste like
bacon?”
He laughed at that
one, a warm, open sound that he’d never made in her presence. “I knew there was
a sense of humor in there somewhere.” He lifted an eyebrow. “And Miss Piggy
bought me a whole meal, which is more than I can say for the last woman I slept
with.”
She stiffened at that,
and the smile that had slipped out fell away. “Thanks for bringing them by
but—”
“You’re busy. Yeah,
I’m sure you are. And I got that we’re not supposed to talk about it. But look,
here’s the deal. I have a very low tolerance for drama in my life these days.
This”—he pointed a finger back and forth between the two of them—“is drama
neither of us needs. So consider what happened done. I do. Both of us should’ve
known better. We didn’t get along to begin with. A hot night in bed isn’t going
to change that.”
She tipped her chin
up, trying to maintain her cool composure. “No, it’s not.”
He smiled. “Got you to
admit that it was hot.”
“Lane.”
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