His Christmas Valentine

This darker Christmas tale with Cinderella vibes is filled with the author's usual bite, spice and fabulous writing. It's an “What If” type of a story; an alternate reality where Tino and Richard didn't meet in the explosion of raw passion and attraction in their famous elevator encounter that happened in “Going down”. The setting of their love story here is different, but equally scorching hot. Richard is still the CEO of Wolfen, but oblivious to the bullying, based on severe homophobia that is spreading throughout the company like a nasty disease, especially in the Marketing department where Tino works. Christmas is a hard time for Richard, time, when he struggles the most with the demons of his past and the mental anguish after losing his only unwavering support - his mother - as well as his son, after divorcing the love of his life. His existence seems joyless and bleak so he chases the painful memories at the bottom of yet another bottle of his favorite brandy and tries to navigate his daily life on autopilot. Christmas is just an annoying hum in the background, time for loud family reunions, annoying festive reminder of how lonely he is; how artificial his surroundings are. Until one of the dancers at his nightclub catches his attention and sparks a surprising interest in his dead, cold heart. The sleeping predator in him wakes up with a shockingly possessive roar. The dancer is Tino - struggling to make ends meet, an executive in the marketing department of Wolfen by day and a dancer by night. Tino's only goal to start dancing in Richard's night club is to find a way to talk to his Untouchable boss and explain about the bullying. But he didn't count a few variables in the equation - the fierce attraction that stole his breath away and obviously- his ability to talk; Richard's unpredictable volatile personality and possessive streak, the exquisite game of seduction that exploded out of control and swept both of them away.
And while I enjoyed the HEA in the story and the incredible, masterfully done erotic undertones heating the pages, my heart preference is the way they met in Going down.