What I felt for him was a distracting kind of infatuation.
AN UPTIGHT BRITISH EXECUTIVE. AN ADVENTUROUS AMERICAN NEWBIE. A SEXY INTERNATIONAL SCANDAL IN THE MAKING.
New York Times and #1 internationally bestselling author Christina Lauren’s Beautiful and Wild Seasons series hook up in Beautiful Secret for an erotic intercontinental romp that celebrates the best of both worlds!
When Ruby Miller’s boss announces he’s sending her on an extended business trip to New York City, she’s shocked. As one of the best and brightest young engineers in London, she knows she’s professionally up to the task. The part that’s throwing her is where she’ll be spending a month up close and personal working alongside—and staying in a hotel with—Niall Stella, her firm’s top urban planning executive and The Hottest Man Alive. Despite her ongoing crush, Ruby is certain Niall barely knows she’s alive…until their flirty overnight flight makes him sit up and take notice.
Not one for letting loose and breaking rules, recently divorced Niall would describe himself as hopeless when it comes to women. But even he knows outgoing California-girl Ruby is a breath of fresh air. Once she makes it her mission to help the sexy Brit loosen his tie, there’s no turning back. Thousands of miles from London, it’s easy for the lovers to play pretend. But when the trip is over, will the relationship they’ve built up fall down?
Overview from Goodreads
*COUGH* It's called *COUGH* obsession. *COUGH*
You know whom Ruby reminded me of? That's right. Me. When I was in my fangirling days, AKA my Kpop fangirl days which was like four years ago. When I virtually stalked my idols and tried to find out almost everything about them.
I get that other people deal with their crushes in different ways. I, for one, steal glances at mine, while my best friend avoids hers like plague. Some try to find out facts about their crush, looking for something common and getting to know him without actually talking to him.
But Ruby? God, she was almost like Niall's stalker.
With the facts that she had memorized about Niall, I wouldn't be surprised if she actually ran a background check on him. She knew almost everything about him, from the topography of his crotch, academic background and some about his personal life. She even knew his phone security code, for fuck's sake. That's just so creepy.
Ruby also kept this mental spreadsheet of her interactions with Niall that simultaneously creeped me out and pissed me off.
Number of Times Niall Stella Had Glanced at Me During Thursday Meetings? Twelve. Number of Conversations We’d Had? Four. Number of Either of These Events He Might Actually Remember? Zero.
The Number of Times I’d Seen Niall Stella Sweaty: one.I mentally entered a “one” in the Number of Times Niall Stella Put His Arm Around My Waist and Pulled Me Close column.a giddy check in the Number of Times I’ve Seen Niall Stella’s Bare Forearms columna check mark in the Number of Times Niall Stella Ran My Hands Up His Chest columnNumber of Times Niall Stella . . . Touched My Calf, Tucked My Hair Behind My Ear, Looked Me in the Eye and Asked If I Came.Told Me He Wanted Me to Swallow His Come.Recorded Himself Masturbating to Share with Me.Was About to Kiss Me.Number of Times I Told Niall Stella I Loved Him and He Had Sex with Me to Distract Me from the Fact That He Hadn’t Said It Back: one.Number of Times Niall Stella Ruined Post-Coital Bliss by Bringing Up Sex with His Ex-Wife: also one.Number of Cracks Between Decision Corner and Niall’s Flat (twenty-four) and the Number of Times I Considered Turning Around and Going Home (about eighty)The Number of Times I Have Listened for Niall Stella’s Footfalls: infinite.Number of Times Niall Stella Used My Name When He Said He Loved Me:One, and counting.
Jesus Christ.
Then there's Niall. Where on God's green earth was the Niall Stella I fell in love with in Beautiful Beloved?
I loved Niall in Beautiful Beloved. It was evident in my semi-coherent review that I wrote while I was still experiencing the afterglow of reading about him taking care of a baby. Hot guys who know their way with babies are like viagra to me. So I think you get my point.
What happened? He was full of charm when he visited Sara and Max. And he also managed to win little miss Annabel's heart. So where the heck did all that charm go? All I could see in Beautiful Secret was a guy who kept on comparing his new girl with his ex and was so proper and awkward he reminded me so much of a historical romance hero. Did he get a personality transplant that I didn't know of?
I didn't exactly know what to feel about their relationship. With Ruby's obsession, I was expecting some kind of realization when she finally distinguished the difference between fantasy/crush Niall and real-life Niall. It's like that, right? When you finally interact with the crush who didn't even know you existed, there will always be differences. You'll realize that he wasn't exactly what you expected him to be. Did I see that? Nope.
Their relationship was also very unbalanced. Ruby kept on giving and giving and giving. She was always the one who tried to adjust for Niall, to be understanding with Niall's baggage. It was always her who poured more effort in their relationship.
Also, I didn't find their type of sex or foreplay arousing at all. If you read the previous books in this series and even the Wild Seasons series, each couple have their own kind of sex. Beautiful Bastard was about hate sex, Beautiful Stranger had voyeurism, Sweet Filthy Thing engaged in role-playing. So on and so forth. They were hot and smexy that I wouldn't dare to read it in public. But with Niall and Ruby? All I felt was second-hand embarrassment. Really.
I'm very disappointed this book since Niall's older brother Max's story happened to be my favorite in this series. I expected Niall's to come second but only ended up as my least liked in the series.
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