Risk It
Rule Breakers # 4
By: Jennifer Chance
Releasing June 2nd, 2015
Loveswept
Risk It
Rule Breakers Series
Jennifer Chance’s Rule Breakers series turns up the heat as a wealthy playboy and a beautiful con artist engage in a high-stakes game of seduction.
As dominating in business as he is in bed, Rand Sterling Winston IV always gets what he wants. And even before he realizes that she’s scammed him into paying triple the cost for her friend’s painting, he wants Dani Michaels. To catch her alone, Rand demands that she personally deliver his purchase. The attraction between them is immediate and electric, and he knows she feels it, too. So when the part-time petty thief rebuffs his advances, he gives her a choice: a night in jail or an evening with him.
Despite her checkered past, Dani has never met someone like Rand: brooding, intense, and oh so tempting. Only a man with a broken soul could make control feel this dangerous. Still, when Rand proposes a no-strings, no-holds-barred affair, Dani’s more than a little intrigued. It’ll be the trickiest con she’s ever run and a chance to indulge her steamiest fantasies—nothing more. But as their encounters grow increasingly intimate, Dani uncovers a vulnerable side to Rand’s steely exterior and opens her heart to the ultimate risk.
One
thing this book isn't and that is predictable! It's intriguing
story that just keeps you wondering where it is heading to next,
before it goes off in an entirely different direction.
Dani
is street wise and a master con-artist. When she impersonates an
assistant at the Palm D'Or Gallery where her friend Erin is
showcasing her art for the first time, Dani decides to use her skills
to deceive Rand Sterling Winston IV into paying three times the value
for a painting. What Dani doesn't count on is the “Golden Boy”
specifically asking for Dani to personally deliver his newest art
acquisition.
Rand
Sterling Winston IV knows he's met his match when he's knowingly
conned by the beautiful woman posing as an assistant at an art
showing he's attending. He's instantly drawn to this woman who
massages his huge ego and decides to play along in her game. When
Dani Michaels shows up at his office with his painting, he is shocked
when she calls his bluff and prefers to be arrested and put in a jail
cell for theft rather than have dinner with him. At that point the
stakes are upped and a new game moves them to an entirely different
level.
The
protagonists begin a dangerous game of oneupmanship, fueled by the
sexually charged chemistry that flows freely between them. Scoring
virtual points against each other is a way to breakdown barriers.
Both protagonists are strong-willed
- each trying to push the other as far as they can before reaching
breaking point.
Only they both have
different end games in play. Leaving
you to wonder if they are capable of having a relationship on equal
playing field? Neither protagonists are who
you think they are as the
layers of their fake facades
are peeled away.
These are two damaged
people from completely different worlds that against
the odds and over time
manage to
somehow gel
and “get” each other.
This is book four in the Rule Changers
Series and the second one I have read. Like the previous book, Risk
It can be read as a standalone.
4
stars
***arc generously received from the
publisher Loveswept via NetGalley***
Dani found herself staring into a
large, graciously appointed reception area that screamed
money, and a whole lot of it.
The oil paintings on the walls glistened in muted silver frames, the
chandelier looked like it had been dusted about fifteen minutes ago,
and the gleaming dark-metal receptionist’s desk—looking
ever-so-slightly like a coffin at a state funeral—blended perfectly
with the charcoal-gray walls and champagne-colored carpet.
The woman sitting behind the desk
appeared to have been purchased out of the same catalog as the rest
of the room. She looked up at Dani without a trace of warmth, then
smiled as if she were passing a kidney stone. “Miss . . . ?”
“Michaels,” Dani said brightly,
holding up the painting as she strode forward. “Are you Ms.
Pearson? I was asked to deliver this to you from the Palm—”
The secretary cut her off with a
raised hand, pressing a button on her desk console. “Mr. Winston
will be with you shortly.”
“That won’t be necessary,”
Dani said. “I can just give it to you.”
The woman flinched as if Dani had
just offered to give her herpes. Instead of answering, she gestured
to the large chairs scattered around the monochromatic space, a
gentlemen’s club for the color-blind. “May I get you anything to
drink?”
“I’m fine, thank you.” Dani’s
phone chose that moment to buzz again.
She set the painting on
the secretary’s enormous desk, then reached into her purse while
tracking Ms. Pearson’s scandalized expression. “This will just
take a moment, I’m sure.”
Between them, one of the lights on
Pearson’s desk console flickered green. Her face unfroze enough to
betray relief. “Mr. Winston is ready to see you. I’ll take you
right in.”
Dani shrugged. Sorry,
Jimmy. Today he was well
back in her line of crazy. He’d have to wait his turn.
Ms. Pearson knocked lightly on the
door, then waited a nanosecond before swiping her keycard. Dani heard
a lock unchink, and lifted her brows in appreciation. Key-locked
security during business hours? They
really must be worried about the barbarians at the gate. She followed
the woman inside, taking in the massive space as she was formally
announced. It was chock-full of carefully spaced furniture,
paintings, and a surprising number of objets d’art, some of them
quite small. And quite expensive-looking. And quite definitely within
easy reach.
Don’t even think about it, she
warned herself. And
yet . . .
“Thank you, Helen. Please get home
safely.” The rich, cultured voice seemed to flip on every nerve
ending in Dani’s body, and she shifted her attention back to her
mark. She’d forgotten how much power the guy’s voice held.
Rand Sterling Winston IV stood at
his desk, but his warning wasn’t lightly made. His entire office
was encased in glass, and the storm had picked up outside, the rain
now battering the glass as the night crowded down. “I’ve ordered
the car brought round,” he said.
Ms. Pearson stiffened primly at
Dani’s side, and Dani sensed her subtle not-glance. That’s
right, Helen. We’re totally going to screw on your desk while
you’re gone. “I’m
not yet finished —”
“It can wait. I’ll be in early
tomorrow.”
The secretary heard the same subtle
command that Dani did. Funny, it didn’t seem to bother the woman so
much. “Of course, Mr. Winston.” She turned to Dani. “Miss
Michaels.”
Dani nodded, holding up her wrapped
package like a peace offering. She’d tried to convince ol’ Helen
to take the painting off her hands back in the Platinum Ballroom. It
wasn’t Dani’s fault that she made the boss man go all weak in the
knees.
Helen didn’t look impressed. She
managed to close the door with a displeased yet still very polite
snick, and Dani looked at Winston, who was now gazing solemnly back
at her. He leaned against his desk and folded his arms.
Dani offered the painting to him.
“Your spoils, Mr. Winston.”
He just smiled.
They stood there a moment more,
assessing each other like circling wolves. Dani felt a bead
of perspiration slip down her
neck, and cycled through her options. If Winston had figured out that
she’d scammed him, it didn’t change anything, she told herself.
His check had cleared, and he’d had days to reverse it. That meant
the con was done, and that she’d won. Even if he’d realized she’d
conned him, she’d still won.
“Please, open it,” he said,
surprising her. He gestured to a small table across the space. “I’d
like to see again what my little impulse purchase has netted me.”
“Of course,” Dani said. He was
playing her, she knew, his gaze heavy as she walked across the room
and set the wrapped painting on the table, frowning at the thickly
taped corners. Before she
could look up, Winston appeared at her side, a slim letter opener in
his hand. “Will this be strong enough?”
“I’m sure.” This close, she
could smell his cologne. Of course he would be wearing cologne. And
not too much of it either, just enough to tickle her senses and make
her even more aware of him. Without his heavy winter coat, and
wearing a sleek black suit, with a silky blue button- down shirt open
at the neck, he seemed even more sensual, more vital, more dangerous
on this cold, wet,
miserable Boston night, with the rain sheeting down like the end of
the world. Dani admired how steady her hands were as she slipped the
letter opener under the package’s edge and knifed through the tape,
her movements quick and efficient. She’d worked with her share of
box cutters, switchblades, and shivs, after all.
Winston apparently noted her
efficiency with a blade as well. “Hmm. It’s Miss Michaels,
correct?”
“Correct.” Deftly, Dani sliced
through the edge of the paper and unwrapped the painting. It had been
reset into a lovely silver and grey frame, the gentility of the rich
wood serving to make the stark sensuality of the figures within its
boundaries even more unsettling. Rand leaned forward, peering at the
painting, and his heat was like a physical presence between them.
Once again, she was struck by how much larger he seemed up close than
he did from a distance, as if his body held more power than it
should, leashed so tightly under control that you didn’t notice it
until it was almost too late. Now, standing next to him, she was
nearly overwhelmed by the man’s intensity. His sharp gaze was
focused on the artwork, true, and yet it seemed to encompass her as
well, even though he wasn’t looking at her. He reached out and
stroked the frame of the painting, and she imagined how that touch
would feel: rich with promise—and threat. Watching those long, cool
fingers, feeling them on her skin, in her hair . . . it was all Dani
could do to hold her ground.
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