Carole Mortimer was one of the first Romance writers I remember reading, back when I was a young lady. Along with Penny Jordan and Nora Roberts, they were staples on my reading list.
A Touch of Notoriety by Carole Mortimer is a sequel to A Taste of the Forbidden, part of the “Buenos Aires Nights” series. Grace & Cesar from book one are preparing to marry, and her adopted sister, Beth, has accompanied her to Cesar’s estate in Buenos Aires.
The Navarros, Cesar’s parents, are struck by Beth’s resemblance to what could’ve been their daughter who was taken from them at the age of two. After blood tests are done, they confirm that she is indeed the baby they lost so many years ago. However, Beth can’t believe that it’s true. She’s lived her entire life as someone else’s child. Even though her parents died when she was younger and she went to live with a foster family, she still can’t reconcile what she knows with the new ‘family’ that has found her.
Even though it hurts the Navarros, they realize that she has to return to England in order to make sense of things, but they cannot send her alone after having just gotten her back. So they send along their head of security (and best friend to Cesar), Raphael Cordoba.
Beth is frustrated. Not only is she expected to just fall into this family as if they’re her own, but she has this man… this frustratingly irritating man – joining her as she makes her way back home. When she finds out that he’s not only her bodyguard, but will also be trying to find definitive evidence of her heritage, she is incensed. She only agrees to the arrangement so that she can end the tension and make life a little easier on the Navarros, who she cares about even if she’s not their daughter.
She admits to Raphael that the only way she can be completely convinced of her true origins is to see that the ‘real’ Elizabeth Blake died all those years ago. He quickly finds out the truth, and her world is forever changed.
Not just because she is perhaps not who she thinks she is, but because this man who challenges her at every turn has tempted her to shed her innocent past and fall into his bed. Raphael has been attracted to Beth since she walked into Cesar’s childhood home. Her fiery independence has been a thorn in his side, but also drew her to him even more inexplicably. On the night he discusses with her what he finds out about her past, she decides it’s time to act upon their mutual sparks.
He pulls away for many reasons, but the most damning reason is that she can see right through his tough exterior to the boy who had been hurt and estranged from his own family. Until he can make things right in his own world, how can he ask her – while she is struggling with her own issues – to be a part of his life?
This book was very old-school, which is completely NOT a bad thing. Not chaste by any means, but more intense than erotic. A really good story, and an easy way to spend an afternoon.
Book Info
Publication Date: April 23, 2013 | Series: Harlequin Presents (Book 3139)Rules are made to be broken
Beth Blake used to have a perfectly normal life in London until a secret from the past thrusts her into notoriety and she finds herself in Argentina under the watchful eye of a bodyguard. Controlling, insufferable and sinfully sexy to boot, Raphael Cordoba is a thorn in her independent side!
Guarding Beth should be easy for Raphael—as long as he remembers the golden rule: do not touch the client, especially when she’s the sister of your best friend! But feisty Beth requires a particular attentiveness that brings the illicit temptation of her even closer….