Kalera shivered as she pulled into the hotel car park, her nerves spiking at the vivid mental image of Duncan, his moon-burnished torso arched into a shuddering bow, his fists digging into the mattress, head flung back, sweat glistening on his straining throat, his mouth open on a hoarse cry of violent ecstasy as he spilled himself into her hand. Heat prickled over her breasts as she remembered how quickly his body had veered out of his control, his intellect completely submerged in a rapturous celebration of the senses.

In Bed with the Boss by Susan Napier might sound like a story based on a cliched and tested and tried trope. The story that unfolds however, is nothing that fits into any form of the reader’s preconceived notions. Ms. Napier is famous for writing characters that stands out and delivers stories that were way ahead of the times in which she wrote the books. And this story is no exception to that rule.

The story begins when 27 year old Sunshine Kalera Donovan, who has been working for a period of three years at Labyrinth Technology as 34 year old Duncan Royal’s secretary, submits her resignation. While Duncan refuses to accept her resignation and is shocked within an inch of his life to find out that Kalera was resigning because of her imminent marriage to none other than his bitterest rival, needless to say, Duncan hits the roof.

Kalera’s previous marriage had ended on a tragic note when her husband had died in his prime, leaving her a widow. Duncan had seen it all, comforted her through some of the darkest moments of her life the two years since, and even though Kalera is loath to admit the fact, her awareness of Duncan as a man makes her all too eager to give up her job and rejoin the safety that marriage had offered her once. With Duncan working at every turn to convince Kalera that she is making a mistake and that it is to him that she belongs, Kalera is just as determined to do what she set out to do, until the devastating truth to what she had never known before comes to light.

Duncan and Kalera are two opposites in many ways – Duncan is flashy, driven, ambitious, and hot-blooded. Kalera, having grown up with a set of parents who were all about unconventional and open relationships, abhors frivolity and had found solace in her staid husband who had provided her with stability and also taught her that being sensual in bed can be coupled with faithfulness as well. Kalera lives with her head up in the clouds, unable to see what is right in front of her, and that means that Duncan has his work cut out for him when it comes to convincing her that they indeed belong together.

Duncan was such a wonderful hero. Ms. Napier has done such a splendid job in bringing out the sensuality that oozes out of his very pores, his brash style and energy that he brings to every scene something that the reader is helplessly drawn to. Kalera might wish Duncan to be less everything, just so that she can be spared the sensory overload when it comes to Duncan, but in reality, he is a delight to her every sense, intellectual and physical. The way Duncan takes care of Kalera in all aspects, be it emotionally or physically, and drives her to come out of the cocoon that she basks in and face the ultimate truth – that was the best aspect of this novel.

The most shocking revelations come towards the end and giving that away would mean giving Duncan’s character away – and how he had watched from afar a woman who had owned his heart from the minute she walked through his office door to be interviewed for the position as his assistant.

Loved this to bits and recommend this to anyone who loves romances; the sheer experience of Duncan alone is reason enough to indulge!

Final Verdict: In Bed with the Boss is a testament to Susan Napier’s remarkable talent when it comes to weaving romances with heart and depth that is chock-full of sensuality and goodness of the kind that leaves a lasting impression on the reader.

Favorite Quotes

‘Kalera? What’s wrong?’
Unutterable relief throttled her speech. Nothing was wrong. Not now. In the dim light she could see that Duncan was bare-chested, his broad shoulders gleaming like polished wood, the muscles of his supporting arm bulging in a manner that proclaimed him strong and vigorous and pumping with life. She had never looked at Duncan as a man before and now suddenly there he was—blatantly, inescapably, irrefutably male, a potent symbol of the passion that had been wiped out of her life by a bitter stroke of fate.

‘Oh, yes…that feels so good, so hot…’ she murmured eagerly, pushing her smooth thigh between his legs, twisting her upper body so that her stiff nipples scraped against his chest and her hip angled across the thickening shaft of flesh stirring against his belly. He uttered another tormented groan.
‘No, we can’t do this—’
But even as he spoke his hands were shifting to cage her ribs, his thumbs angling into the crease under her soft breasts, pushing them up into pouting prominence, his thighs clenching around hers, a sheen of perspiration slicking across his skin.

‘Yes, oh, yes…’ Her voice throbbed with relief as he stroked her there too, insinuating his hand between her silky thighs and dipping his fingers into the damp, creamy heat, parting the moist petals and finding the most sensitive spot on her body with a tantalising skill that made her almost burst with unbearable delight.
‘Do you like that, darling?’ he murmured against her dewy breast, moving his invading fingers deeper into her receptive body. ‘Tell me…tell me everything you want and I’ll give it to you…’

‘What have you done? Let me see.’ Duncan wove himself sinuously around the end of his desk and divested her of the weapon. He tossed the papers back down on his desk and turned her hand over and they both looked down at the bead of blood rapidly forming on the pad of her thumb.
‘Here. Let me.’ Expecting him to offer up his handkerchief to dab at the tiny wound, Kalera was stunned speechless when he lifted her hand and put her entire thumb in his mouth, his tongue swirling over the tip as he suckled strongly. She froze, her thoughts turning to chaos. His cheeks hollowed and as she stared into his deep, dark gaze the hot, wet, rhythmic contractions suddenly became shockingly erotic.

‘We were just having a meal,’ she denied.
‘A man and a woman innocently enjoying each other’s company,’ he agreed softly. He had a gift for making a chaste phrase sound ineffably wicked.
His thumb pressed into the tiny indentation in the middle of her chin, tugging minutely on her lower lip. ‘Only it wasn’t entirely innocent, was it, Kalera?’
‘We weren’t doing anything,’ she blurted feverishly.
His eyes grew slumberous. ‘But we wanted to,’ he murmured, his hand moving to cup her smooth cheek, encompassing it from jaw to temple, the heel of his palm curving under the angle of her jaw.

But as his denim-clad thigh thrust between hers and his hands raked open the buttons of her blouse she couldn’t remember why she should care. The mingled scent of their heated bodies was a heady bouquet in her nostrils and went like wine to her head, so that when Duncan broke the endless kiss to curse over a lone snagged button a bubble of husky laughter escaped her throat.
Goaded by the sexy sound, he lost patience and ripped her blouse open, thrusting his hands into the stretch lace cups of her bra and dragging them down to expose her swollen, brown-tipped breasts.

‘I’m glad you wore my sexy little dress,’ he told her softly, propping one hand on the pillar above her golden head. ‘I was afraid you might resist the temptation and swaddle yourself from head to toe in something pretty, but sadly unadventurous.’
A perfect description of her blue dress!
‘I wore this for Stephen,’ she said quickly. ‘Not for you.’
‘You wore it for the man who gave it to you, whoever you might have thought it was—and that’s me,’ he said with satisfaction, hooking a glass of champagne for himself from a passing waiter. ‘I spent ages hunting for exactly the right one…one that would warm your skin and furl your body like a half-opened rose…perfumed, velvety-soft, sensual, and alluring…’

He lifted her right hand and dragged off the glittering diamond ring and threw it onto the floor. Then he placed her bare hand on his thrusting body and crushed her mouth with his and suddenly her dammed emotions were bursting their swollen banks and she was fighting with him for the pleasure, helping him tear off her nightie, arching her breasts to his mouth and lifting her legs to encompass the rock-hard strength of his thighs, guiding him into the silky heat for the physical union that would complete them as two halves of a whole. The intense pleasure spiked at his first thrust, then again, and again, as his hips drove him deep into her central core, and Kalera shuddered, her gasping cry mingling with his answering groan of completion.

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