Confirmed bachelor Vince Marino wants nothing more than to win the Clover Park library project and earn partner in his father’s construction company. But a last-minute bid by Sophia Capello, the jaw-dropping daughter of his father’s life-long rival, throws Vince out of the running. Sophia has to get Capello Construction back on track after her father left them near bankruptcy. Except she’s way out of her league in the construction world, which is why she takes a big risk and proposes a partnership with the hotheaded and handsome Vince. After she wins the project. Vince’s cockiness combined with Sophia’s determination forges an alliance filled with explosive and tempting tension. But what will happen when Vince, who doesn’t believe in mixing business with pleasure, discovers Sophia has never truly experienced passion? Will he stick to his rule and protect everything he’s worked so hard for? Or will he find the temptation of showing Sophia what she’s been missing too much? ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ EXCERPT “So tell me more about this fictional rake you get off on,” Vince said as he drove Sophia home. She straightened. “I don’t get off on rakes.” “What gets you off?” She got mad. He could tell by the way she took a few deep breaths, and her lips were practically a flat line. He suppressed a laugh that he knew would just piss her off. “I am not having this conversation with you,” she bit out. It occurred to him that maybe she didn’t get off at all, which was concerning. A beautiful healthy woman like Sophia never experiencing ecstasy. “Did your last boyfriend get you off?” he asked. “Simon?” she asked like he knew all about her ex-boyfriends. “Yeah,” he said just so she’d keep talking. “Not really.” She said it with such sadness that it really started to bug him. Someone like Sophia never feeling passion. It couldn’t be. She was full of fire. It wasn’t healthy not to get that out. “What about the guy before that?” he asked. “Brian?” she asked. Even their names sounded pansy ass. “Yeah.” She hesitated. “Almost.” “Almost?” He let out a huge breath of exasperation. What was wrong with these guys? What was wrong with Sophia that she’d settle for less? “Guy before that.” “Tim?” Another pansy-ass name. He was sensing a pattern here. “Yeah, Tim.” “Not really.” “The rich donor guy?” “Anonymous actor. He, uh, plays for the other team now.” She waved a hand in the air. “So, you know, no.” He bit back a groan. “Sophia.” “I know, but he said he was confused for a while. It wasn’t me.” He pulled over to the side of the road somewhere in Clover Park. “Has any guy ever gotten you off? I’m talking fingers fisting in the sheets, raw, screaming top-of-your-lungs orgasm?” She flushed, but she still answered. “No.” He stared at her. She stared back, a defiant gleam in her eyes, an unquestionable challenge. “You want me to show you?” he asked. The words were out of his mouth before his brain had a chance to kick in. Vince was in trouble. Because he desperately wanted the answer to be yes.