All she needed was a
job…
The last thing twenty-four year old grad
student Angie Roberts needs is to worry about her new boss’s father. After all,
she’s never even seen him. He remains sequestered upstairs in a house that
looks like it should be the main feature in an episode of Hoarders. She had no
idea the house was such a dump when she took the job. But she’s concerned about
the safety and health of the old man living under such horrid conditions.
What she got was a mystery…
Despite warnings not to venture upstairs,
she wanders up to the second floor. What she sees is shocking. The man she
finds is a gorgeous, sexy, middle-aged man-- and he's stepping out of the
shower. But something is definitely not right. Why would this wealthy, handsome
man live in a house in such disrepair while his nine-teen year old son resides
in a lavish penthouse? Why does he hide away from society? Why does he come to
her rescue and then run away?
What she discovered was heartbreaking…
Angie learns that forty-four year old
Grayson Whitmore suffers from schizophrenia. Paranoid, he retreats into his own
world.
What she ended up with was a treasure…
Angie is determined to get through to him.
They form a friendship that blazes into an inconceivable love fired with erotic
passion. Angie must now come to Grayson’s rescue because the wicked that has
been perpetrated on him is unconscionable. First, though, she must gain the
trust of a man whose mind does not allow for such a thing.
Nursing Grad student Angie is trying to make ends meet and
as odd as it may seem she answers an ad to clean a house. When she meets with
Charles (he’s such a little sleaze bag if you ask me!) she is told that it is a
hoarders house and that she will be going through his father’s stuff.
The only rule is that she can’t talk to the man that resides
upstairs!! Well that only sparks Angie’s
curiosity but tries her hardest to follow the orders but it gets the best of
her and she just can’t help herself and needs to find out who he is. Grayson is
Charles’ father and is an amazing man who suffers from schizophrenia who has
hidden himself away from the world. He starts to find himself just as curious
about Angie as she is about him.
It has been said that opposites attract and it is no
different for Greyson and Angie. He believes he lost everything when his wife
passed away and Angie is determined to bring him back into the world. They are
equally attracted to each other and slowly they start to develop a beautiful
relationship. Will they get to the happy ending that Angie hopes? Grab a copy
of this book to find out, you won’t be disappointed!
I was on board for this book from the minute I read the
Synopsis…..And wow am I glad I took the trip! This was an amazing story that
touches upon what mental illness can do to a person while at the same time
showing that love can help and save someone from themselves. I loved the way
Lisa wrote these characters and with not having a lot of secondary characters
you really got to know Grayson and Angie, which in my opinion was perfect for a
story of this kind. They are a sizzling hot couple and the drama mixed with the
humor they both have just sucks you in! I’m
hoping that we will see more of these two since I was already looking for more
once I had finished the book.
*** 5 Stars ***
Early Sunday morning, I crawled out of bed in search of Grayson. I
discovered him upstairs in the room with the books. They were piled all around
him as he scratched at something on the floor with an old shovel. The room was
saturated with an early morning chill, so thick I could feel it seeping through
my skin. I hugged my torso, scrubbing my palms up and down my arms. I
approached him hesitantly and asked what he was doing. My heart was in my
throat because I never knew what to expect with Grayson. He stopped and leaned
against the handle, his cloudy gaze finding my face. He was fully dressed. He
must have gotten dressed again after we’d made love earlier.
“Digging,” he acknowledged casually. “Digging a trap.”
I swallowed hard, emotion stacking like bricks in my chest. I shook my
head, my mind grasping for purchase, trying to understand. “A trap for what,
Grayson?”
“Danger. I have to be prepared. I have to protect us.”
I reached out a hand, trying to keep it steady. “You’re safe, Grayson.”
His gaze shifted to my proffered hand, but he didn’t move. He didn’t
believe me. Fear and skepticism drew a roadmap of worry on his face. His jaw
squared and he tightened his lips into a brittle line. I watched his body
uncurl as he grabbed the shovel and silently started scraping at the floor
again. That’s when I saw it. There was a large, jagged crater in the dusty wood
that must have been covered up by the scattered books. It was directly over the
small cracks I’d seen in the ceiling downstairs, the network of spider veins
I’d noticed soon after starting here. I wondered how long he’d been working at
this trap. I could already see exposed beams and fluffy insulation. If he kept
this up, eventually he’d put a hole right through the wood floor.
“Go back to bed, Angie.”
“I’m not going anywhere. I’m staying with you, Grayson,” I said sternly,
plopping myself down on the floor next to him.
He stopped again and stared at me, his blue eyes almost cobalt in the
gray dawn. His hair was a loose mane framing his face, giving him an unruly
look. “You’ll be tired. You haven’t gotten much sleep.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, hurting, thinking of the reason I’d been up most
of the night. We’d held each other, made exquisite love, bathed in a temporary
utopia where I could pretend he was okay.
But Grayson wasn’t
okay, and as I spent more time with him, I realized the extent of his fractured
thoughts. My Grayson was funny and brilliant. My Grayson was tender and
passionate. My Grayson could melt my heart with the tiniest smile. But this
man, too, was my Grayson, a man who was sometimes out of touch with reality,
who lived in the distorted world concocted by his brain. It was a world of
doubt, fear, and distrust.
Lisa Eugene began writing as a way to mentally escape from the hectic
medical world where she has been a practicing nurse for over twenty years.
After publishing her first novel, STRICTLY BUSINESS, she quickly learned that
readers couldn't get enough of the world she created and now she lives out her
wildest fantasies by writing steamy romantic suspense for her fan-favorite
Washington Memorial Hospital series.
When she's not plotting her next dangerous, fast-paced, sexy adventure,
you can find her juggling a full time job, playing soccer mom, or curled up
reading a good romance.
