Megan is looking for a book that’s haunted her for awhile. There’s virgins! (What, you’re surprised?)
This isn’t a particularly interesting one, so I forgive you if you don’t put it on the blog. It’s just that it was the first romance novel I read (at, like, 12), and it haunts me. Although, I have this horrible feeling I won’t even particularly like it if I ever find it and read it again. I think the hero was tres old skool, which I tend to find repulsive. Well, soft-core old skool is sometimes titillating.
So, it’s a Harlequin from the 70’s (or possibly earlier). It’s the kind that had the one-color cover (usually colors that were also used on refrigerators of the same era, coincidentally), with the inset cover-art on the front. I’m almost positive the cover color was avocado green, but it may have been mustard. The heroine is pictured on the front (of course), and she had short hair cut in a sort of “pixie” style. The hero is lurking in the background, looking all masterful. I think he was the general TD&H. There might have been a palm tree, and/or luxury yacht in the background.
The storyline is thus: She’s his secretary, but he doesn’t notice her existence. Her cousin/sister/some kinda relation is supposed to run away with him on his yacht, but chickens out (or maybe takes her slutty self off with someone else?), so the heroine gets on his yacht instead and hides in a stateroom until they’ve left port.
The cousin/sister/some kinda relation is a morally loose woman who men pant after, while the heroine is a mousy virgin who thinks she’s unattractive. The hero is a jaded, hyper-alpha hottie who thinks women are all bitches after his money. He’s never going to fall in love (again?).
He comes into the stateroom to get some, and he discovers the heroine instead of the slut he expected. He may or may not have sex with her before discovering it, and he may or may not recognize she is his secretary before being told. I’m pretty sure he informs her she will just have to continue filling in for the other chick, instead of returning her to port. He dresses her up in some sexy dresses he happens to have onboard, and they have formal dinners and etc.
They continue on to his private island, and of course he eventually falls in love with her. At one point, she is walking along some kind of widow’s walk, looking out over the view. He may or may not join her. The end.
Think there’s any chance anyone will recognize it?