The Dream Man Series book 2
By Kristen Ashley
Genres:
Erotica, Mystery, Suspense,
Romance, Action & Adventure
****
Teasers
She's about to walk on the wild side . . .
While filling the display case in her bakery, the bell over the door sounds and Tessa O'Hara looks up to see the man of her dreams. Within thirty seconds he asks her out for a beer. But after four months of dating, she discovers he's an undercover DEA agent-and he's investigating her possible role in her ex-husband's drug business. For Tess, this means their relationship is over. Brock disagrees. He's committed to his anti-drug mission, but he's fallen in love with the beautiful woman who's as sweet as her cupcakes-and he'll do anything to win her back. Standing between Tess and Brock are their own exes, one of them a drug lord who's determined to get what he wants. Now as danger threatens, can Brock break the rules he's lived by and let loose his wild side to protect the woman he loves?
Star Rating
Review
Okay, so...Wild Man. This is the second of the four Dream Man books. This is Brock's book. We met Brock briefly in Mystery Man where he was an undercover cop and "guarded" Gwen when she was kidnapped. Kristen Ashley has a tendency to take what seems like a minor character in another book and expand the character in their own books and this is an example of that. This book can absolutely be read as a stand-alone book but I strongly recommend reading the series as a whole and in order; it's just more enjoyable that way. Her books are very reasonably priced (this book is currently $3.99) so it makes reading them all easier.
The heroine of this
book is Tess. Tess is a bit of an older character (in her early 40's) and she
is kind and smart and plays no games. She is at a point in her life where she
knows what's important for her and pursues those things in her life and ignores
the bad, unhealthy crap. She has followed her dream and opened Tess's Cakes
bakery and bakes cakes and cupcakes known for their mountainous swirls of
delicately colored frosting with sprinkles of candy confetti or pixie dust. And
Tess, she's just as sweet as her baked goods. Unfortunately, some of that bad,
unhealthy crap she's eliminated from her life hasn't eliminated her.
Brock is also a bit
older. He's been an undercover cop with the DEA for the past several years and
is ready to make some changes in his life. He wants to get out from the nasty
underbelly of crime in Denver he has been immersed in while investigating his
cases. While undercover, he met Tess. She thought he was Jake. He was Brock. This
revelation did not go over well with Tess but yet Brock couldn't forget about
her. She had wormed her way into his heart and there she remained. Once he's
clear of the case he was investigating, he comes back to Tess and demands she
let him back into her heart and her life. He's ruthless; he knows this is
"his woman" and will not take no as an answer.
...when I reached
for the covers to shove them off, my body moved backwards across the bed and
hit something very, very solid and very, very warm. Oh man. How could I forget? Brock was there. And boy
was he there, his hard, heated body behind me, his strong arm around me, I felt
his lips at the skin of my neck.
"Honey," I whispered, those lips trailed up then I felt teeth
nip my earlobe. A shiver slid through me. Then a rough, sleepy, deep,
"Mornin', baby." Oh my. His
lips slip to behind my ear as his hand at my belly slip up my ribs and I held
my breath until his hand stopped. I let out my breath then held it again when
the backs of his knuckles started stroking feather light at the bottom swell of
my breast. Oh my. I pressed back into him as he pushed into me and his tongue
touched the skin behind my ear at the same time his thumb disengaged and swiped
my breast just under my nipple. At that, a throb pulsed through me. "Brock," I breathed. "Unless
you got an early mornin' emergency cake to bake, sweetness," he growled in
my ear, "our earlier activities are scheduled to commence right about
now." "The White House tends
to give me plenty of advance warning," I quipped breathily. "Fuckin'
fantastic," Brock muttered, rolled me to face him, his hand went in my
hair, twisted gently and tugged back but he didn't have to do that. My arm was
winding around him and my head was dipping back so he could have my mouth. He
took it....
Brock is a bit of a hothead,
speaks his own mind, has a bit of a short fuse when riled, and yet is kind and
tender when dealing with the people he loves. Once Tess gets beyond the whole
Jake vs. Brock situation, they begin to build a relationship to last. Tess
realizes she has truly met her other half...
I found my mouth
whispering "You like me." His head jerked and he asked, "What?" I didn't repeat myself. Instead I said,
"I don't want you to change who you are for me." "Tess -" he started but I shook my
head, sat straighter and interrupted him. "I can layer up so I don't get
cold in your truck and I can deal when you get so pissed you throw a beer
bottle. I don't want you to change for me." His head dropped and he looked at his boots
but not before I saw his eyes close slowly. "You know," I told the
top of his head, it came up and he looked at me, "you walked into my
kitchen a month ago and I didn't want to have one thing to do with you...I knew
somewhere I've never known with another man that you would never let anything
harm me. And wherever that somewhere is, it's deep and it's real and after
nearly a decade of not feeling safe, not for a day, in that moment in my
kitchen I finally did. So now," I gestured to the couch, "here I
am. So if you throw a beer bottle or two
or shout the house down, I'll deal."
His eyes held mine for long moments then his long legs brought him to me
in less than a second. Then I was plucked out of the sofa...Brock
"Slim" Lucas...was kissing me harder than he ever kissed me, sweeter
than he ever kissed me but unfortunately not longer.
Brock is completely
gone, like over the top gone for Tess. It's really refreshing to read a
character who is male who is completely okay with falling head over heels for a
woman and not be afraid to let her know how he feels:
He crossed his
arms on his chest and stated, "Babe, you think I found the woman of my
dreams at forty-five years old and I'm gonna let anything happen to her, think
again. That's a long fuckin' time to wait for what you want. I waited.
I found it. I'm pullin' out all
the stops to take care of it. I know you
feel the same for me so I'm doin' the same to keep me safe for you...
I think Kristen
Ashley's alpha males are one of the biggest draws toward her books. They are strong, they are smart, they are
over the top sexy, they might have been dawgs before meeting their
"woman" but once they do, it's all over for them. They become a one-woman man (or at least once
they figure it out as we will see later in the series). And again, Kristen Ashley women (the ones
that matter in a story at least) always kick ass. Always. And the stories feel
real. Like these women lament they have to clean two houses (their guys and
their own) and this feels pretty real. When there are children involved in her
stories, they are interesting people and not whiny sub-humans. These women have
money problems, they have guy problems, they have car problems, they have
career problems, etc. (although thankfully only a couple of these show up per
book; these women are not living lives of scullery maids either. They just feel
real and are easy to relate to).
I love this series. The
first (Mystery Man and the forth and last, Motorcycle Man) are my two favorites
in this series (and don't even get me started on the Chaos series which is a
off-shoot of this one - I adore that series too)! That is not to say the middle
two books including Wild Man are not worth reading, they absolutely are! I gave my two favorites 5 stars and the two
middle books 4.5 stars...still amazing books!
I just happen to really ADORE the other two and they are on my top
favorites list. Should you decide to read them, I hope you enjoy them all. Including this one - Wild Man!!
Purchase Wild Man Here:
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