Even for my neck of the woods, this winter has been pretty miserable. February was one snow storm right after another, which is hell on my Fibro, but great for a Goodreads reading challenge, I guess. Kids here are probably going to school into July. Even the hardiest farmer, getting a fill-up and coffee from the Kwik Trip, will tell you, “It’s a badun out there.”

So while buried under blankets and cats, drinking hot spiced wine and trying to ignore the ice pellets hitting my window, I looked for a book set somewhere warm. You know, where the sun occasionally makes an appearance.

The Ruthless Gentleman by Louise Bay is a contemporary romance between a super rich businessman hero and the chief stewardess on a luxury superyacht. The entire thing takes place in the sun-soaked Mediterranean.

Pass me an umbrella drink, for I am here for this.

Hayden Wolf is a billionaire businessman, although for the life of me I couldn’t figure out what he actually did. One of his competitors has been sabotaging his deals so he decides to pretend he’s on a luxury vacation while secretly working on buying another company. Because he’s a billionaire hero, he rents a superyacht for a private cruise around the Mediterranean for eight weeks.

The crew are initially confused by their new guest. He spends his nights working, his days sleeping, he has no guests, doesn’t want to drink, and isn’t interested in partying. He’s also demanded that the WiFi be disabled and all cellphones and computers stowed for the full eight weeks.

As chief stewardess, it’s Avery Walker’s job to make sure that Hayden has everything he wants while also managing the rest of the crew. Problem is, Hayden is not the typical superyacht guest, and everyone is a little suspicious of him and also kinda bored.

Avery didn’t set out to be a chief stew; her job pays good money and her rich clients tip well. She sends that money back home to Sacramento to help pay for her partially-paralyzed younger brother’s care.

Since this is an unusual cruise, and since she’s Hayden’s liaison with the crew, Avery spends a lot more time solo with Hayden than she would a normal guest. They talk. Attraction builds. They start to notice how much they have in common, namely skipping fun in the name of work:

I understood that. I’d been working long hours away from home when all my friends from high school had been drowning in Jell-O shots. “Yeah. I never did the college experience thing either.”

“It seems we have that in common–we both take our work a little too seriously,” he said.

Pleasure bloomed in my chest at him acknowledging my job. I did work hard, and I might not make millions but that didn’t mean I wasn’t committed and focused. “Yeah. That hours are long and its nonstop all day.”

“We both probably should have a little more fun.” His eyebrows pulsed suggestively, so different from the intense, focused, private man I saw most of the time. Was he intimating that we have fun together or just generally? If any other guy had said that I would know that they were coming on to me, but Hayden was…different. Interesting. Confusing.

“We have plenty of tequila on board,” I said. “And then there’s always the inflatable banana.”

Hayden let out a roaring laugh and leaned back on the railings. “You were right when you said I wasn’t the banana boat kind of guy. Like you say yourself, you read people well.”

“Sometimes.” Not with you, I thought. I should have excused myself. I should have an excuse about towels or something, but I wanted him to tell me more, to give me more. “You must have some vices even if inflatable bananas aren’t among them.”

“Don’t we all?” He paused, holding my gaze, his tongue daring out to catch a dot of foam [from his coffee] that collected at the edge of his mouth. “Women, for one.”

I nodded slowly. Of course he was a womanizer. I wasn’t even into guys like him and I was completely attracted. My stomach swooped and my breathing echoed off the deck, mixing the hard syllables of what he’d just said. Did he mean to be provocative? It was as if he’d hypnotized me with his stare–I couldn’t look away.

The appeal of The Ruthless Gentleman is two people in an enclosed space who probably shouldn’t bone, but totally want to bone. It’s like the one-bed-left-at-the-motel fanfic trope. And there is a ton of chemistry and sexual tension between Avery and Hayden. When they do get together, it’s pretty damn hot.

I appreciated the forbidden nature of their attraction and the steaminess of the book in general, but I had a hard time walking my brain back from real life. Basically I didn’t think Hayden really ever understood how much Avery had to lose by them having an affair. The problem being, if he really did understand it, they wouldn’t have the affair and there would be no book.

Hayden understands Avery’s job is in jeopardy if she sleeps with him. He doesn’t know about her brother until later in the story, so to be fair he doesn’t realize he’s putting her brother’s medical care at risk by having a relationship with Avery until later on. When Avery worries that she might be fired, he promises that he won’t let that happen…which, yeah, maybe on this cruise, but dude, her entire professional reputation will be stained. This will impact her career pretty much forever.

I was never convinced that he fully understood that just because he could keep her employed with her company due to his relative power and wealth, there wouldn’t be repercussions for her. At the very least she’d be subjected to some pretty awful gossip.

I was also never really sure what the fuck Hayden was doing professionally. From what I could tell, his company bought other companies. And his investors were mad because someone was stealing prospects out from under him. So Hayden’s solution was to work all night on a superyacht with an air-gapped computer and pretend like he was on vacation while he worked a deal.

Except…like, there are a lot of people involved when you buy a company: lawyers, finance people, possibly even regulatory agencies. Usually the CEO, like Hayden, steps in pretty far along in the process and signs some shit that other people have been working for on for a year. At least that’s been my experience. Even confidential deals involve a fuckton of people.

Hayden thinks there might be a leak at his company, so he’s using this deal to flush that person out, but couldn’t he do that from the office?

Also, what does he do with the companies he buys? Does he just acquire them and…then what? What’s his ROI like for God’s sake? Are these struggling companies that he then rehabs? That’s never mentioned. I have so many questions about his business model.

So yeah, The Ruthless Gentleman wasn’t perfect, mostly because I was judging the hero a lot. It works pretty well as a getaway Cinderella fantasy set somewhere lovely and warm and sunny, but I didn’t think Hayden was particularly self-aware and I’m legitimately concerned about the solvency of his company.