When She Said I Do
In retrospect, Calliope Worthington’s life would have been much simpler if she had just heeded the age-old adage, “Don’t do the crime if you can’t do the time.” In her defense, Calliope was not stealing the pearl necklace. She was simply admiring it while she and her family waited out an unexpected thunderstorm in what seemed to be an abandoned mansion. Unfortunately for Calliope, the mansion’s owner, Ren Porter, doesn’t believe a word she says. Ren thinks Calliope was trying to abscond with the necklace, and he insists that she pay for her attempted theft. Forced into marrying Ren, Calliope can earn back one pearl for each of her new husband’s commands to which she submits. At first Calliope is determined to win back her freedom as quickly as possible, but the more time she spends with her enigmatically cranky husband, the more Calliope finds herself falling for him. Composed of equal measures of whimsical intrigue and scintillatingly sexy love scenes, and graced with an endearingly eccentric cast of characters, Bradley’s latest Beauty and the Beast–inspired romance is a triumph of wit and sensuality. --John Charles