CLAIMING HIS SECRET SON – Olivia Gates
The Billionaires of Black Castle , Book 4
Harlequin Desire #2387
ISBN: 978-0-373-73400-9
July 2015
Contemporary Series Romance

New York City – Present Day

For years, Richard Graves has done a discreet surveillance of his younger sister, Rose, but one day his attention is drawn to a visitor she has: Isabella Burton. Nine years ago, Richard had infiltrated the organization of a vicious man, with the intention of bringing him down. Richard had used—and become attracted to—the man's wife, Isabella, and they embarked on a fiery four month affair. Richard used Isabella to glean information about her husband, and then ended the affair and eventually destroyed her husband. She had disappeared, but here she is, in New York City, and in the company of his sister.

Isabella has built a new life—and new last name—for herself after she finally escaped her marriage. She's now a doctor and one of her best friends is Rose, another doctor. Isabella thought she had hid herself well, but one night Richard confronts her. She's scared, to say the least, not only because she hasn't seen him in over eight years, but because she also has a son he doesn't know about. Richard is dark and dangerous. Will he expose her true identity? How will he react if he discovers he is her son's father?

Richard is a dark, tortured man with a past that isn't something he's particularly proud of. However, he had to do what he did in order to survive and to protect his family. When Rose was a young child, he helped place her in an adoptive home after the rest of their family died. Their deaths were the responsibility of Isabella's husband, but unknown to the other man, Richard was working to bring him down, and using Isabella as the link to finding out what he could about him. She ultimately became Richard's Achilles heel, but he turned his back on her when she refused to leave her husband.

Soon after, Isabella learned she was pregnant and escaped from the hell she was in, afraid that if her husband (who had a vasectomy years ago) found out she was pregnant he would kill her. She created a new last name and résumé for her and her family and she thought things were going well. Richard's reappearance in her life chills her, because he is the man she gave her heart to, only to have him turn out to not be the man she thought he was. However, their “reunion” is intense and emotional. Almost immediately they're having sex, even as he flat out tells her that he will destroy her new life unless she severs her friendship with Rose. But the passion and desire is still flaming between them, even if they don't want to admit it. Is he the forbidden apple that is going to poison her life?

As CLAIMING HIS SECRET SON opens, Richard is not a likeable character, though if readers had read the prior books in The Billionaires of Black Castle they would understand that the hell the billionaires went through had affected them. Richard has little reason to trust anyone, including Isabella, so it's going to take a lot of them finally getting to know and understand the other before they can trust each other. But they are like fire and gasoline, and there's no mistaking the fiery passion between them. Isabella loves her son, but if Richard plans to use him to hurt her, then she will fight back. It's an emotional battle of wills, but in the end, love just might conquer hell. Grab yourself a copy of the intense and intriguing CLAIMING HIS SECRET SON.

Patti Fischer