I wish this author wrote more in the straight Harlequin line instead of the medical line because she always has some unusual plot points and character attributes. Guilty of Love features Alexandra Campbell, in her mid 20s, attractive, who designs, makes and sells her own jewelry and lives with her younger brother, Kenny, in a flat over her shop.
Kenny is a problem. Although he’s 20 years old and has a job, he has little common sense and Alex has shielded him and helped him out of his constant problems. Recently Kenny lost more gambling than he could possibly pay and Alex had to squeak out of her bank business loan to pay his debts. He also got into trouble at his work, Lang’s Engineering, and is generally immature. The story opens in late fall when Alex is tense and worried about her overdue loan and working flat out to prepare for Christmas shoppers.
Plot Synopsis – Click to Skip Spoilers
Kenny’s latest stunt is swiping design plan printouts for Lang’s top secret engine. He panics when he gets home and realizes what he did. Oops. What now? Kenny asks Alex to go with him to the factory, slip in to his boss’s office and return them. Kenny will distract the security guard for her. What could go wrong?
Well, two things go wrong. First Jordan Lang, the boss, comes in as Alex slips out. Second, Jordan knows that someone has sold some engineering designs to his competitor. He knows there is industrial espionage and now he know who did it. Alexandra Campbell is the spy.
Jordan needs a week to get his engine finished. He grabs Alex, forces her into his car and kidnaps her to his remote Wales cottage, intending to hold her for the week he needs. Alex tries to fight, tries to get away but cannot. She does not tell him her name and he calls her Jane as in Jane Doe. They stop at Jordan’s neighbor to exchange the car for a 4-wheel drive car to get up the rough hill track.
The power goes out at the cottage. Jordan goes to fix the generator and gets banged on his head, nearly knocked out. Alex finds him and helps him in the cottage, grabs the keys and drives off. As she walks out the door Jordan yells “I shall find you, Jane. Even if I have to move heaven and earth, I shall find you and make you pay for what you’ve done!” Jordan believes Alex is the spy and attacked him, hit him on the head – he’s not thinking rationally around her.
Jordan does not know who Alex is, has no idea that she is related to Kenny who works for him. Even so she is terrified that he will find her. And he does.
Alex is working when the shop bell rings and someone throws aside the bead curtain that separates her workroom from the store. It’s Jordan.
He threatens Alex. He will go to the police and report her and Kenny to the police for industrial espionage and assault. And if by some miracle Alex gets off then he will do everything he can to ruin her business and her personally. In fact he will ruin her business if he goes to the police since the bank will call her loan.
Jordan offers her a choice. Face ruin or marry him. Design flaws have delayed his engine development and that plus his competitors announcing a nearly identical design have caused his investors to drop out. He needs money and he needs it now. His mother left him enough money to complete his engine but he must be married to receive it. Thus marry Alex.
Jordan makes it clear it would be a short term, paper marriage although he demonstrates that they both are attracted to the other. He kisses Alex, acts seductive, then when she’s enthralled backs off and makes nasty comments about how they could make it a marriage in bed and on paper.
Alex is angry at him and even angrier at herself for responding to his pseudo passion (actually there was nothing pseudo about it although Jordan claims it was). She agrees and the date is set three weeks ahead.
Alex claims her innocence again and gets Jordan to agree that if he finds out that she was not the spy that he will drop the marriage idea. And they can divorce after six months. Jordan agrees with both but insinuates she might decide she likes being married. He’s insulting.
Jordan takes her to a fancy restaurant dinner with many friends to announce their engagement. One guest is James Morgan, Lang’s chief designer and Kenny’s boss. A lady asks Alex how they met and she tells the truth. Jordan saw her at his factory, jumped to conclusions and kidnapped her! Morgan asks the obvious next question, did Jordan realize he was wrong? Alex is saved from answering since the lady jumps in that of course he must have since they are now in love and engaged. Everyone laughs, although Alex doesn’t think Morgan is laughing at all or that he believes it.
Alex quickly finds out that Morgan did not believe it. Jordan takes her to the factory and is called away. Morgan inveigles her into touring the building, starts with his office, insists on showing her the engine plans then he leaves her in his office with the plans. Alex should have walked away but she knows the plans are confidential and starts to fold them up to shove into the file cabinet when Jordan and Morgan come in the office. Morgan denies getting the plans out, denies asking Alex to look at them and of course Jordan assumes she is back to her old espionage tricks.
Jordan is furious and disappointed. and moves the wedding up to a few days ahead. Alex reluctantly marries him and they go to his house in a close by town. He makes a pass at her, insults her some more, then leaves her to go back to work.
One night, after three weeks of steadily increasing sexual tension Alex cannot face going back to his house after she closes her shop. She goes shopping and out for a meal by herself, then back to her flat. She’s in the tub when Jordan rings the doorbell and keeps ringing it. She wraps herself in a towel (apparently no one in Harlequin land owns a bathrobe) and answers the door. Jordan is furious; he was worried she was injured or dead or had left him. They make love.
Next morning both are so happy, Alex decides to go home early on the off chance Jordan also came home. Unfortunately James Morgan is there, full of poison and eager to spill it all over Alex. Turns out that Jordan discovered before they married that it was Morgan, not Alex, who sold company secrets, moreover, Jordan only got half his inheritance. He gets the other half when he has a child.
Horrified Alex tries to dismiss Morgan’s insinuations, but she remembers. She remembers Jordan promised to let her off the marriage if he found the true spy beforehand. He knew she was innocent of his spy charge yet forced her to marry him. She remembers Jordan never said he loved her. Wanted, yes. Loved, no. She remembers that the only thing Jordan seems to care about is his business. He never seemed to care about her. She does not know that Jordan slept with her because of the will, but by now she doesn’t care. She is in love with Jordan and he broke her heart.
Alex lays into Jordan when he gets home; rather than defend himself or claim any love he gets on his high horse. “Lang’s isn’t some little two-bit concern. It’s been in my family for years. It’s part of me and yes, I would do anything to stop it being taken from me.” That seals it for Alex. She starts to walk out the door when Jordan grabs her and tries to seduce her into staying. Now she’s angry on top of hurt. She returns to her flat and shop and tries to stop hurting, stop caring about Jordan.
A few weeks later, just before Christmas, Jordan comes in the store as she’s closing up. She refuses to sell him anything nor will she talk to him. She hits the panic alarm when he refuses to leave, then runs upstairs and packs to go stay with Kenny since she know Jordan will return. Jordan catches her when she leaves the building and tries to compel her towards his car, but stops when she refuses to go with him or listen. Finally he tells her that he simply wants to talk to her, to explain, but if she won’t then he will get out of her life. He walks away, she yells and runs into his arms. (Cue Tchaikovsky.)
They drive into the country and Jordan tries to explain to her. He HAD to have the funds or Lang’s would go bankrupt since he had invested everything into his new project. He didn’t think she would marry him if she didn’t have to (apparently he didn’t think of the handy Harlequin buy-a-wife scenario) so he didn’t tell her he knew she had not spied on him. He loves her. He slept with her because he loved her, it went way beyond sex for both of them; he knows it, she knows it and he won’t let her cheapen it by claiming it was just sex. Jordan realized the company meant nothing compared to Alex. He sold a good chunk to a Japanese firm and put all the inheritance money into a trust fund for any children they might have.
Happy ever after.
Believable Romance
When you read the plot without reading the story the romance seems off kilter. How can Alex love a man as cold as Jordan? As obsessed about his business as Jordan? Who breaks a serious promise as did Jordan? True Jordan is immensely attractive and has a compelling personality. True, we can love people who do not “deserve” our love – in fact does anyone “deserve” another’s love? It’s fairly easy to believe Alex’s love is real.
Can we believe that Jordan turned himself around as he claims? That he truly puts Alex first, ahead of Lang’s? Jordan himself tells Alex that he knows she would find it difficult to believe him, that he repaid the inheritance into the trust fund he set up for any children, that he found investors in order that she can believe him. It’s remarkable and it is believable.
Overall
I liked Guilty of Love the first time I read it, reread and still enjoyed, in fact I liked it even better the second time. I bought a paperback copy and have re-reread and still like it. Sometimes it’s not clear why a book appeals so much, but let’s try.
* Jordan is a jerk at the beginning, suspicious, hard-hearted, almost cruel, accuses Alex of espionage and assault, kidnaps her. Whew.
* Alex fights him and wins, at least temporarily. She escapes and goes back to her jewelry business.
* Jordan tells Alex point blank that she’s doing Kenny more harm than good by easing his way through life. Later Alex realizes that Kenny is growing up now that he’s on his own. I detest entitled brats and it’s good to see Kenny grow up.
* Author Taylor shows, she does not tell.
* I like beautiful hand-made jewelry and drooled over the descriptions of Alex’s pieces.
* The love scene isn’t fade to black but it’s not at all explicit. Jordan promised to make it beautiful for them and he succeeds.
* Alex doesn’t rely solely on Morgan’s claims. Jordan sank his own boat when he refused to talk of love.
* Alex confronts Jordan before walking out. She is completely clear why she is going.
* Alex refuses to allow Jordan to seduce her into staying.
* She wins again (temporarily) when she gets Jordan out of her shop via the alarm.
* Jordan not only claims to love her, he defends his decision to force the marriage because Lang’s is so important, yet he also has now given up significant control in order to demonstrate his love.
4 Stars
I got my paperback copy from Thriftbooks. Amazon has used copies and you can likely find copies on other used book sites and eBay. As of this writing it is available on Archive.org but note they have lately made many books unavailable (I suspect because they are available to buy in paper or in E form).
All Amazon links are paid ads.
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