lorenalee

Freebie on Amazon. And still I feel ripped off.

Emma is a restaurant owner whose lease hasn’t been renewed. Ryker is the rich and handsome – because of course he is – new owner of the venue.

He offers to renew her lease in exchange for sex. What the fuck! Blackmailing people into sex is not hot and/or romantic!

“So, does this mean you’ll extend my lease?”
[…]
“Yes-but in exchange, I want us to get to know each other better. I’ve got several functions I need to attend, and I want you…on my arm and by my side.” And in my bed, under me, around me, any way I can have you, sweetheart. “I’ll also need you to accompany me on my trips overseas.”

But, because he’s rich and handsome, this is a romance story and not a horror story about an obsessed rapist who blackmails his victim into sleeping with him.

Though she’d likely tell him to go fuck himself under normal circumstances, he now had something she desperately wanted. He felt a bit of an ass to use her predicament to his advantage, but he’d already given her more thought than he’d given any other woman, and he certainly wouldn’t be losing sleep over is tactics if it landed her in his bed. Anything to scratch that itch and get her out of his system

What the fuck is this supposed to be? He not only holds her livelihood over her head, but also her dream and her future, to get her to sleep with him! And the worst part, is that he knows that she would normally say no, but he just uses her restaurant to get what he wants anyway. Regardless of what she wants or says.

“Wait…you think I’m going to sleep with you? To keep my restaurant? Have you lost your mind?”
“It’s a simple matte, Ms. Sparrow. These functions usually bore me to tears , and you’ll do a fine job of keeping me entertained. As for the finer details of our arrangement, I don’t think it’ll take long for you to come around.”
[…]
“There’s no way I’m sleeping with you.”
“You say that now, sweetheart. But if it makes you feel any better, then very well…we can table that for now, and revisit that clause in our agreement at a later time.” She’d come around-he’d make damn sure of it.

Is that a threat? Because in these few pages, he has involved himself completely in her life, offered her a solution to all her problems in exchange for sleeping with him, threatened not to help her if she does not and assumed that he can get anything he wants – including sex – regardless of whether she says yes or no. And she fucking does say no!
But that doesn't mean anything to him. Because he thinks that he is entitled to have sex with her. And it's these kinds of books that promote the rape culture we live in.

DNF at 7%