Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms

The Professional: Part One- Kresley Cole
Series: The Game Maker #1
Published by: Pocket Books, on 16 December 2013
Genres: Adult, Erotica, Romance
Pages: 120, Format: eARC
Source: ARC Netgalley

He makes the rules . . .
Mafiya enforcer Aleksandr "The Siberian" Sevastyan’s loyalty to his boss is unwavering, until he meets the boss’s long-lost daughter, a curvy, tantalizing redhead who haunts his mind and heats his blood like no other. Ordered to protect her, Sevastyan will do anything to possess her as well—on his own wicked terms.

Rules are made to be broken . . .
PhD student Natalie Porter had barely recovered from her first sight of the breathtakingly gorgeous Sevastyan before the professional hit man whisks her away to Russia, thrusting her into a world of extreme wealth and wanton pleasures. With every day she spends under his protection, she falls deeper under his masterful spell.

Are you ready to play?
Yet all is not as it seems. To remove Natalie from an enemy’s reach, Sevastyan spirits her into hiding. From an opulent palace in Russia to the decadent playgrounds of the mega-wealthy in Paris, the two lovers will discover that even their darkest—and most forbidden—fantasies can come true…

*I received a free ARC of The Professional from Pocket Star via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*

The Professional is a scorching hot short story about Natalie, who has been searching for her biological parents with the help of a private investigator in Russia for the past few years, without letting her adoptive mother know about it at all. A PhD student with several jobs to make ends meet, Natalie is a pretty serious girl, until that one night in a bar, where a dangerous-looking man comes in and sits down not far from her. For the first time ever, her manalyzer isn’t working the way it usually does, and she walks up to him to say hello.

From there on, her life takes on a whirlwind of changes – the guy from the bar surprises her in the bathtub – masturbating while thinking of him. And he has come to take her to see her biological father. He is not asking any questions, he tells her to get her things ready because he’s taking her with him in five minutes! She is not used to taking orders, so she ends up being carried out to his car in only her robe and nothing else! The Professional also brings the reader along for this ride, and the hotness developing quickly between Natalie and Sevastyan is truly jumping off the pages.

The chemistry between Natalie and Sevastyan is amazing! And even if he is a little too domineering for my personal tastes, he certainly made for a great character, and even I have to admit to being intrigued enough by him to also lust after him. Natalie can’t keep her feelings in check at all, though, and Sevastyan’s brooding look as well as the fact that he is deciding absolutely everything makes him all the hotter to her. Very soon, she realizes that her biological father is the head of one of Russia’s mafia families, and Natalie doesn’t know what to think anymore. She still wants to meet him, but at the same time she is scared, away from everything she knows, and on a private plane with only Sevastyan for company.

The Professional is extremely fast paced, it is also a quick read filled with characters I want to get to know better. Natalie is a little too easy to persuade in my opinion, but at the same time, I can understand where she’s coming from. Wanting to meet her biological father, even if he might be a mafia boss shows her determination. Sevastyan is a mulitlayered mystery, and the few things we learn about him are so intriguing it is impossible not to want more. The writing is really good, I flew through The Professional in a very short time, and it was so hot I hardly needed my gloves and my coat when I left the house. The only thing I have to say that isn’t positive is that the ending was rather abrupt, and even if that’s a set-up that made it sure I’ll read the next book, I would have liked to have a few more pages…

If you are looking for an erotic romance that has some action and intrigue as well as well fleshed-out characters, you should get The Professional as soon as you possibly can!

I had an uncanny knack for sizing up males – I was a regular ‘manalyst’. My secret? I always went negative, and the guys, well, they always accommodated.

Another round of tequila shooters arrived, sent by a trio of frat boys a few tables away. We raised our glasses, then dutifully licked, pounded, and sucked. The tequila, not the boys.

There was an aura of ennui about him, but he also seemed hyper-alert. What the hell? My internal manalyzer whirred with confusion. Does not compute!

Yet then he’d acted like a vampire who’d discovered I was a fucking sunbeam.

“If you tease me again, pet, you will not enjoy the consequences.” He left me, shutting the door behind him. Note to self: Tease Sevastyan at earliest opportunity, investigate ‘consequences.’

Jess had an m.o. for dealing with badly behaving males – she called it ABS: Always Be Crazier. I was thinking my m.o. might be kill ‘em with kindness.