Mine to Take

by Jackie Ashenden

November 25, 2014 · St. Martin's Paperbacks

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First of all, if you aren’t reading Jackie Ashenden, you should be. Actually, let me clarify. If you like hot alpha heroes who are not douchebags, a high sexual content with some vague D/s themes, and contemporary stories rife with angst, then you should definitely be reading Jackie Ashenden. Taking Him ( A | K | G | AB ) and Having Her ( A | K | G | AB ) are some of my favorite contemporary romances (and feature gaming culture and cosplay BTW).

When I saw that she had a new series out, The Nine Circles series, I one-click bought that shit in record time, and the first book, Mine to Take doesn’t disappoint.

One thing I love about Ashenden is that she gives you angst, then puts more angst on top of it, adds a little hot sex, then adds some WTF angst so you’re like “I don’t know how this is working, but it is, so take my money now, please.”

For example, the hero in Mine to Take is Gabriel Woolf, a construction magnate who also used to be known as Church, the president of the Avenging Angels biker gang in New York. Because he can’t just be a rich dude, nooooo, he has to be a rich dude who used to bust heads as a biker gang president to keep drugs and shit out of his old neighborhood. Somewhere Charlie Hunnam just sat up, and he doesn’t know why.

Also Gabriel belongs to a Top Sekrit Uber Wealthy Angsty Dudes and Dudettes Club called the Nine Circles because OF COURSE HE DOES.

So anyway, Gabriel’s not doing so hot when the book opens. His mother has recently died of cancer and when clearing out her things, he finds a check for a million dollars among her possessions. Gabriel knows that he is a child of rape–his mother was a maid in a hotel and was raped by the hotel owner. He puts two and two together and realizes that the check was pay-off money she never cashed, and that her rapist was Guy Tremain now a big shot hotelier. The whole child of rape angst is a big part of what Gabriel who is he is–he knows that as he aged he began to physically remind his mother of her rapist and it’s something that’s haunted him. He also feels like the “bad seed” and so even though the book features some of the D/s themes I mentioned earlier, he’s adamant that his partners articulate that they are fully into what’s going on.

Gabriel intends to find the man who raped his mother and destroy him, and the way he’s going to get to Tremain is through is hot stepdaughter Honor St. James. Honor runs an investment firm and his currently looking for investors to prop up Tremain’s failing hotel business, so Gabriel pretends to be interested in order to dig up more information on Tremain.

Probably you can see where this is going…. Honor and Gabriel find out they have great chemistry, but just stay really good friends and sometimes play online Scrabble. KIDDING. Honor gives Gabriel a tour of one of the hotels in snowy Vermont and the UST is through the roof:

She could feel his hips against hers, the ridge of his cock pressing between her thighs. Large and hard, just like the rest of him. She found herself looking up into his eyes. They were black as night, a velvet kind of darkness that would wrap her up and drown her in sensuality. In heat…

He’d be rough. Would probably hold her down. And he’d fuck her, make her take him and she’d love it. The ultimate rush…

He gave her another one of those husky laughs. “Looks to me like we’ve got an interesting week ahead of us, hmm?” Then before she was ready–way, way before–he let her go, stepping back and turning toward the door to the bedroom. “Think about my question, Honor,” he said casually as he went ahead and pulled it open. “I want the answer as soon as I’ve finished my shower.”

She couldn’t think. Her brain felt fuzzy, the blood hammering in her veins. How on earth had that happened? “What?” Her voice sounded all thin and breathy. Dammit. “What question?”

“I thought I was clear. But if you want me to repeat it, I will.”

It was a struggle but she managed to pull herself together enough to say, “Oh you mean the question about us fucking?” She was pleased with herself as to how casually she said the word, since she almost never cursed. “I can tell you the answer right now. Never, Mr. Woolf. You and I will never start fucking.”

Gabriel’s smile was that of a predator. “Keep telling yourself that. But you and I both know I could have had you over the arm of that couch not five seconds ago. And you wouldn’t have stopped me.”

She had no answer to that. Because she suspected the bastard was right, she wouldn’t have.

Of course Honor and Gabriel do start fucking, and that presents all kinds of problems. Honor is a buttoned up, in-control type of woman and she doesn’t like that Gabriel definitely makes makes her lose that control no matter how good it feels. Gabriel also starts freaking out at how much he actually likes Honor–SHE MAKES HIM SNUGGLEY GODDAMNIT–given the fact that he’s out to destroy her stepdad.

Honor is very close to Tremain. Her real father killed himself and left the family mired in gambling debt, and Tremain swooped in and saved everyone. She feels beholden to him, which is why she invested all of her money in his failing hotel chain. When Gabriel finds that out, he realizes that by ruining Tremain, he’ll be ruining Honor, too.

And because that’s not enough reason for these two not to work out, Gabriel is also friends with Honor’s brother who has been estranged from the family since he was 16 and has no intention of making contact again, so Honor’s sore about that and Gabriel is also aware he’s smexing his friend’s sister. Like I said, Ashenden’s books are like angst Gobstoppers—there’s always another delicious layer waiting for you.

While I really enjoyed the first 90% of this book, I was a little disappointed at the end.

We don’t get full resolution, which I kind of expected because there’s a larger conflict/villain that carries into the other books in the series.

What bugged me was that

Even with that little hiccup, I immensely enjoyed the start of this series and am looking forward to the rest of the books. If you like sexy biker gang president CEO heroes who are bossy in the bedroom–and let’s be honest, who doesn’t?–then consider picking up Mine to Take.