Help A Bitch Out - SOLVED!

HaBO: BM/L and Small Town Girl

You did it! We figured this one out! It is a truth universally acknowledged (by me for certain) that the Bitchery pretty much knows everything, and really, it's true. Scroll down to see the solution for this HaBO - and many thanks!

Susanne is seeking a book and as usual, the account of the plot is just fabulous. Seriously, y’all crack me up.

I have a Help a Bitch Out problem, but I’m not sure if I even qualify… I haven’t read a romance novel in over ten years. I remember bits and pieces of this one story, though, that I really enjoyed when I was in my late teens. I’d love to find it again. Here’s the gist:

There’s this girl who lives with her grandmother in a small town somewhere. They don’t have much money and nan isn’t well. She needs an operation. This business man or lawyer (I can’t be sure) shows up in said small town. Somehow – search me – the girl ends up working for the Man in the Big City as his secretary? Assistant? I don’t know. Anyway, she doesn’t like him much at first (no way!) because he’s this coldhearted (no WAY!) business man/lawyer (BM/L) person. He’s also really INTENSE all the time. Capital letters justified.

Then I remember him doing a deal or something with her help and they go out to celebrate with his friend/brother/business partner, and she gets a bit tipsy, and will you look how she radiates. “And then he kissed her.” And then they fight have some really INTENSE moments and stuff. Also hot secks but they bring out the violence in each other, so remorse and stuff. More intensity has never been on a page. BM/L cries at one point, I’ll have you know. Oh, and nan has her operation and BM/L is really nice and sweet all the sudden. And then he has his friend/brother/business partner come over when he’s not home, I think, so he can check out the girl and give the relationship his blessing.And then it gets all happy and wonderful. *sigh*

That’s ALL I remember. No names, although she could be a Jo and he could be a Ryan… Oh man. Is this as hopeless as I fear? Can you help?

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  1. No help on the book, sorry, but wanted to say that ‘businessman/lawyer’ was so not where my brain went when I saw BM/L in the thread title.  I was totally up for a bisexual male-slash-lesbian HABO, though figured (hoped?) there was probably a third, maybe fourth party in there somewhere.

    Hm… guess I’m in the right place to write that sex scene after all.  LOL.

  2. Jessica, if you write it, I’ll read it.

  3. Ann says:

    Oh, this is driving me nuts!  I remember a similar plot way back in the early nineties.  I was reading my way through those white covered British/Australian goody-two shoes series (and in large print from the library no less) with the big bad man and the genteel little lady.  But there was no sex in those…  Though every thing else sounds very, very familiar—even the friend.  And if I remember correctly, it would have taken place in London…

    Man.  My memory, she’s fading.

  4. ttthomas says:

    I agree with Darlene—-if Jessica writes it, I’ll read that and anything else, but you must tell me: Jessica, who did your website? That is a phenomenally wonderful place. The graphics are terrific and the content intriguing. Buying the book!

    (Sorry, I have nothing to offer on the original question).

  5. Sorry for the HABO hijack!  Darlene and ttt, thanks for the shout out… am pondering how to work this BM/L story 🙂  ttt- my web gods reside at AMDesign.com, and they rock- thanks for the props on the site!  We’ll be doing an overhaul in November/December, getting ready for the second book in the series- so check back around the new year!

  6. Suze says:

    This sounds vaguely familiar.  Was it a category?  Was the small town in the US midwest?  Was the office in an old house that had been converted?

  7. Melissandre says:

    If you want something similar, you might rent Secretary.  It is, perhaps, a little more INTENSE than the intense BM/L, but there is a very similar dynamic between the masochist secretary and the sadist lawyer.  It sounds creepy, but it is actually a great movie with a great message (love comes in many forms; all are acceptable, so long as there’s a previously agreed upon safety word).  Besides, you’ve gotta love Maggie Gyllenhaal.

  8. Susanne says:

    Sarah: Thanks for posting this, even though I remember so little!

    Jessica: Haha! That hadn’t even occurred to me. *facepalm* But let me echo the others: I’d totally read it!

    Suze: It certainly looked like a category. But I can’t remember a series title or publisher name on the cover… All I remember is that it was very small and very short. And, er, blue. I fail. US or UK, I don’t remember. Whether it was an old house I also don’t know, but the office was certainly in his house. Adjoining bedrooms FTW. I have an image of her sitting on the sofa, working. I think she was doing accountancy? Filing? GAWD I can’t remember! 🙁

    Melissandre: Ooooh, more INTENSE? Awesome. I shall check it out! Many thanks for the rec!

  9. Susanne says:

    OMG y’all I found it! I’m so sorry to have pestered you all when it was sitting in my parents’ attic these past 10 years, waiting to move in with me once more. (I’ve only just moved the very last of my stuff out of my folks’ house.)

    Anyway, if anyone’s interested, it’s Fire and Steel by Mary Wibberly (Mills & Boon, 1980). Ooooh! I can’t wait to read it again to see if I still enjoy it.

    Thanks again, all!

    PS. Oh yeah, their names? Arwenna and Garth. GARTH, I’ll have you know. INTENSE GARTH. (Not so much with the Jo and Ryan, it appears…)

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