Format: E-book
Read with: Amazon Kindle
Length: Novel
Genre: Romantic Suspense
Series: Dangerous, Book 2
Publisher: Avon Red
Hero: Nick Ireland
Heroine: Charity Prudence Prewitt
Sensuality: 4.5
Date of Publication: July 1, 2008
Started On: December 9, 2010
Finished On: December 13, 2010

I was going through my reviews the other night when I found that I had not reviewed my favorite Lisa Marie Rice novel from her Dangerous series, the other 2 in the series which I have already read and reviewed before. I remembered Dangerous Secrets to be a novel that made a huge impact on all my senses and that is the main reason why I decided to re-read and do a full review on this one. It has taken me ages to read and review this, not because this book in anyway fell short of my very high expectations (yes, I have high expectations even when I re-read books), but because of certain stuff going on right now I couldn’t find the time that I really, really wanted to indulge in Nick Ireland and savor him to bits! *sigh*

34 year old Nick Ireland aka Nicholas Ames aka Iceman is one of the best undercover agents that the Unit has ever employed, the Unit being a government special task force investigating international organized crime collaborating with terrorists. Nick had never known who his mother was as his mother had abandoned him at an orphanage when he was a baby. Nick had grown up in a bunch of orphanages and sometimes brutal foster homes where his main job had been survival. Though Nick had never known anything tender in his life, he had always been a fierce champion of the underdog, and that is how Nick had ended up befriending his closest friend and billionaire Jack. Tall, with midnight black hair and deep blue eyes Nick has a body which has been honed to perfection to be a lethal killing machine in the 10 years that Nick had served in the military. Nick is known as the Iceman because he is always cool and in control no matter what the circumstance until his legendary cool shatters and dies a brutal death when he invades Charity Prewitt’s life on his newest mission.

Charity Prudence Prewitt is a 28 year old librarian living in the quiet little town of Parker’s Ridge in Vermont. Beautiful with an air of calm serenity and elegance that always surrounds her, Charity had given up the hope of pursuing her dreams to take care of her ailing aunt and uncle who are the only family Charity is left with since her parents had died in a fire 15 years back. Charity had given up hope of ever finding someone who would want to share her life together with her responsibilities towards her aunt and uncle and had resigned herself to turning into an old maid when Nick strolls into her life, seducing her into surrendering her heart, body and soul to him.

Nick’s mission is simple. Seduce information from Charity about her best friend, Vassily Worontzoff, the Russian author of Dry Your Tears in Moscow, a novel considered as one of the classics of the 20th century. However, Vassily is far from the grand old man of literature that everyone thought he was. Vassily is one of the survivors of the Kolyma, the Soviet Union’s cruelest prison camp where prisoners had to work in temperatures as low as -90 degrees Fahrenheit in the gold minefields. Vassily had indeed been the renowned author back then, but the cruelty of the prison system and losing his beloved Katya who had never stood a chance with her beautiful good looks in a place like the Gulag prisons had turned him into the complete opposite of what he had been. Vassily had entered prison as a writer and come out as a monster, now the head of the Russian mafia in America, a man who would do anything to claim Charity as his own as he believes her to be his Katya, reincarnated for them to be together once again.

When Nick strolls into the small quaint library and assumes his role as the suave retired stockbroker and asks Charity out for dinner, the awareness that catches both of them unawares is stunning and ferocious in its intensity. Nick, a man who is so used to always been in control of his emotions and baser nature suddenly finds himself at a loss on how to handle how Charity makes him feel, the need in him to possess Charity as his so strong that nothing on Earth would sway Nick when he saw the danger that Charity was in, making a man who is commitment phobic to the extreme to marry the woman who makes all his senses go haywire – all in a good way.

A week is all that Charity has with her husband before they are married and on the eve of their wedding Charity receives a news that no bride should ever hear, especially on her wedding night. And Nick becomes a force to be reckoned with, as he breaks every rule ever written to protect the woman he loves at all costs, from a man who is nothing short of insane, a man who thinks nothing of it to smuggle radioactive material and sell it to the highest bidder to achieve his nefarious goals in life.

Likes:

1. Holy shiite!! This book packs a whole lot of sensuality that I found myself in a sort of daze all throughout the story. Damn you Nick!! Nick makes it really hard not to make you devour each and every love scene in the book, and surprisingly I found myself wanting more of the same when most of the time too many love scenes in a book just tends to make the story cumbersome. But Ms. Rice pulls it off so well that I couldn’t help but yearn for more and more of Nick and Charity heating up the sheets, the walls and what not! ^_^
2. Nick Ireland. He is just perfect! In each and every way! Though his gentleness and kindheartedness draws you towards him unlike anything else, this doesn’t make him a wimpy hero by any means. His smoldering sensuality, the way his senses all comes alive with Charity, the way he cherishes each and every moment he spends with her, unknowingly yearning for something he had always thought that he should or would never have just makes me endlessly sigh over the guy! God, I wish I could order up a guy like him to turn up on my doorstep! For real! ^_~
3. Charity Prudence Prewitt. Though the prudence bit makes me go LOL, Charity is just the perfect match for Nick in each and every way. I say this because heroines in Ms. Rice’s books are never feminists who constantly need to prove a point to the hero. But rather they are feminine to the core, with an inner strength that stuns you from time to time and manages to lend the story a really charming quality with their elegance and beauty. So needless to say, I fricking loved Charity to bits!
4. The flow of the story. I don’t think I can ever describe how well this story goes down, like a glass of cool water, not too cold, just the right temperature to quench your thirst on a really hot day. That’s how well I perceived this story and I imagine I would read it again somewhere down the line, just to give a treat to all my senses – as a treat to your senses is what  this book is! Pure magic is what Lisa Marie Rice weaves with Nick and Charity.
5. And I loved me the ending! To pieces! ^_^
6. Oh yes, the library smexing! Earned it the A+ grade, yes it did! *wink*

Dislikes: None.

Favorite Quotes

Charity forced herself to sit back, still her nerves, and smile blandly into Nick’s eyes, when – shockingly – what she really wanted to do was climb into his lap, nuzzle her face up against that square jaw, find out with her hands whether he was as hard underneath that elegant suit as she suspected. Place her lips precisely against his throat, where she could see the fine line where his whiskers stopped. Feel his heartbeat against her mouth. Lick that smooth, tan skin.

There was an unnatural hush, as if the entire world were waiting for them to take a leap into the unknown. She lived on a quiet street, it was true, but there were no noises whatsoever. They could have been the last man and woman on earth.
He bent down, slowly. So slowly she could have protested or turned her head if she wanted. The idea never crossed her mind. If anything, Charity lifted herself a little on the balls of her feet, to meet him halfway.
Nick kept his hands by his side, so she did, too, though she had to curl her fingers into her palms to keep from reaching out for him. It seemed as if she’d wanted to touch him all evening, touch that un-businessman-like body hidden underneath the staid business suit.
Their lips met, clung. Charity opened her mouth to him, not thinking about it. Her mouth just opened as her eyes drifted shut. She didn’t want anything to distract herself from the feel of his mouth on hers, hot and soft at the same time. When his tongue touched hers – just a quick stroke – she felt it down to her toes.

She was thinking about that, about the lazy way he’d licked her neck this morning while his thumb rubbed over her nipple, when she saw Nick, appearing suddenly out of the icy mist.
She was staring dreamily out the big library window, thinking of him and for a moment, it was almost like a scene out of a movie.
The big, handsome man, black haired and blue eyed, tall and strong, striding out from the mist. He walked like a gunslinger, loose and lanky, big heavy coat swirling around his legs, looking right and then left, checking out the situation. He was always intensely aware of his surrounding, more like a sentry or a soldier than a businessman.

She took a deep breath and asked the question that was haunting her. “After—afterward.” She swallowed. There was no moisture left in her mouth, her lungs felt empty. It was hard to speak. “Afterward, will I see you again?”
It was painful to humiliate herself like this, but her need to know overrode her embarrassment. If he said no, he was leaving as soon as his job here was over, she’d crumple to the ground. Her knees stiffed, her spine stacked back up. No, no she wouldn’t. Prewitts didn’t fall to the ground. They took what life dealt them, and did the best they could.
It was as if he hadn’t heard her. “You are staying twenty minutes, not a second more. The instant you step outside of Worontzoff’s house, I will be at your side and I’m not leaving you, ever again.”
A low growling noise came from Nick’s throat, the noise a dying, wounded animal would make. He bent down to her, eyes blazing, mouth open. Her own mouth opened, instinctively, helplessly, for his kiss. But he stopped a breath away from her lips, eyes burning into hers. He was panting, his breath hot on her cheek. A trickle of sweat fell down his temple to plop on her neck. It was impossible to think of anyone calling him Iceman. He looked like he was ready to explode into a fireball.
“I came back from the fucking dead for you, Charity, so no, I’m not going anywhere. I’m going to live with you here or in another house; I don’t care. I’ll do something—maybe I’ll run for sheriff. I don’t care about that, either, as long as I’m with you and we can raise our child together. Is that clear?”
She could almost feel the waves of his strong male will beating against her. There was no way she could resist him even if she wanted to. But she didn’t. Living with him for the rest of her life, raising their child together, sounded like heaven. “Yes, very clear,” she whispered. He brought his mouth down to hers again, stopping at the last second, then pulling back. His eyes dropped to her mouth, then rose again.

Recommended for: Fans of Lisa Marie Rice or fans of romantic suspense who love their mystery to come packaged with a high dosage of sensuality. This one makes all your senses reel – all in a good way of course!

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