I was so excited to finally get Norma and Boyd's story in this fantastically sexy 1001 Dark Nights novella, FALLING UNDER YOU. Check out my review and an excerpt!
Falling Under You (Fixed #4.5), by Laurelin Paige
Publish Date: May 10, 2016
Publisher: Evil Eye Concepts, Inc.
Format: e-ARC, provided by Inkslinger PR
Genre: young adult fantasy
To Buy: Amazon
Rating: 4.5 STARS
(Synopsis) Norma Anders has always prided herself on her intelligence and determination. She climbed out of poverty, put herself through school and is now a chief financial advisor at Pierce Industries. She’s certainly a woman who won’t be topped. Not in business anyway.
But she’s pretty sure she’d like to be topped in the bedroom.
Unfortunately most men see independence and ambition in a woman and they run. Even her dominant boss, Hudson Pierce has turned down her advances, leaving her to fear that she will never find the lover she’s longing for.
Then the most unlikely candidate steps up. Boyd, her much-too-young and oh-so-hot assistant surprises her one night with bold suggestions and an authoritative demeanor he’s never shown her in the office.
It’s a bad idea…such a deliciously bad idea…but when Boyd takes the reins and leads her to sensual bliss she’s never known, the headstrong Norma can’t help but fall under his command.
If you're at all familiar with Laurelin Paige's Fixed series, you should be familiar with Norma Anders. If you've also read Laurelin's Found duet (which is a spin-off of the Fixed series), I don't think there's any way you couldn't be curious about the alpha female, type A CFO of Pierce Industries. And her somewhat untraditional relationship with her assistant Boyd.
The best thing about Falling Under You was that we got to see what is underneath the Norma that we've seen up until now. And believe me - there's SO MUCH we haven't seen. Like, WHOA.
Norma feels responsible for everyone and everything. She has a high pressure important job working for Hudson. She's the oldest of three, and with their parents not in the picture, Norma feels like she needs to take care of her younger sister and brother. She has no time to turn off her brain and certainly no time to find a man who an help her with that.
As it turns out, there's been one under her nose for years.
Boyd - my goodness I love that man. He's so much younger than Norma, but so much older than her at the same time. He seems to know exactly what she needs, when she needs it, and he's willing to give it to her. And, holy smokes, does he ever give it to her good. But, Boyd has very strict rules, which is exactly what Norma needs from him.
Their relationship isn't easy, though, given the "no romantic relationships at work" rule at place at Pierce Industries. The secrecy starts to wear on both of them, and Norma is faced with a choice - her job or her boyfriend.
I loved delving into the Fixed world one more time to get the scoop on Norma and Boyd. Their story was surprisingly emotional and not surprisingly hot as hell. And their story was like the last piece in the Fixed puzzle.
I groaned and threw the covers off of me, heading for the shower. Usually I ran first, and I still planned to, but I needed something to cool the fire in my veins. Hopefully standing under an ice cold stream of water would do the trick.
It didn’t.
I tried running next, opting for ten miles instead of my normal six, thinking maybe I could sweat out the lust like it was a cold. Or was that a fever? Whatever, I came back tired, achy and soaked in perspiration, and the buzz between my legs was stronger than ever.
I was distracted by it through the rest of the morning. Gwen and I caught up on America’s Got Talent before she planned to go to bed for the day—her job at a nightclub kept her on a strange schedule. Afterward, I couldn’t remember a single thing I’d watched, but I could recall with clarity every moment I’d spent with Boyd the night before. That wasn’t a subject I planned on discussing with Gwen, though. So most of my responses to her were nods and grunts. Then she’d gone to sleep, thankfully, except after that I was left alone with the agony of my desire.
The rest of the night was more of the same, and Sunday as well. By Monday morning, I’d run over twenty miles, cleaned my entire house, taken five showers, and not thought about Boyd Barrett about a thousand times. Maybe even two thousand times. And now I had to go to work and face him.
Help me God.
I decided to go in early. That way I could sneak into my office without having to pass him on the way in. It wasn’t until I was in the elevator on my way to my floor that I remembered I also didn’t want to see Hudson. Several years with a clean, respectable work record, and in one evening I’d shattered my reputation with not one, but two, colleagues. The two colleagues who were the most important to me, no less.
Jesus, maybe I did need to quit.
It wasn’t yet seven, but it wouldn’t surprise me if Hudson were already working. Often, he slept in the loft above his office, which made an early appearance more probable than one from Boyd. Anxiety rose in my chest, an odd feeling for me since I was usually composed and calm. As soon as the doors opened, I ducked my head and scurried down the hallway, letting out a sigh of relief when I made it past Hudson’s office without seeing him.
And then gasping sharply when I ran into him, instead, outside my own office.
“Norma, I was hoping you’d be here early. I wondered if I could have a few minutes of your time.”
USA Today and New York Times Bestselling Author Laurelin Paige is a sucker for a good romance and gets giddy anytime there’s kissing, much to the embarrassment of her three daughters. Her husband doesn’t seem to complain, however. When she isn’t reading or writing sexy stories, she’s probably singing, watching Game of Thrones or The Walking Dead, or dreaming of Adam Levine. She's also a proud member of Mensa International though she doesn't do anything with the organization except use it as material for her bio. She is represented by Rebecca Friedman.Learn more about Laurelin --> Website | Facebook | Twitter
