Gabe Maxwell is a powerhouse in the boardroom, a man with a dark past he’s buried under success and power. He’s not a white picket fence and forever kind of guy and he’s definitely not into redheads. That is until one corners him, kisses him and thanks him for waking her up. Right before she walks away and leaves him. She’s gone and he’s obsessed.
Then she walks into his office and back into his life, and he has to have her. It doesn’t matter that she’s the kind of woman you marry. It doesn’t matter that she’s everything he avoids because she’s everything he wants.
Only Abbie isn’t the good girl she seems. She has secrets and a past and soon, she’ll pull Gabe into her bed, her life, and that spells more than obsession. It spells danger.
Pre-Order Book 2, Her Submission, on the Series Website:
https://dirtierduet.weebly.com/
My Review of His Demand
Wow. Just…Wow.
I LOVED His Demand — and I knew I would. Gabe Maxwell has been a sexy, snarky, uber-alpha enigma since we first met him in Lisa’s Dirty Rich series. His story promised to be a little bit dark, a whole lot sexy, and a genuine emotional roller coaste. It checked off all of those boxes and a few more. I know I will read it again, maybe even later tonight.
I admit, I’ve enjoyed every book in the Dirty Rich series. And until today, Reid Maxwell was my go-to bad boy billionaire. But Gabe? He’s breath-taking. Funny. Drop-Dead Sexy. Protective. Secretive. Dangerous. Deeply conflicted. But also amazingly tender, thoughtful, affectionate, and loyal — all attributes he believed himself incapable of. Until Abbie.
This book has its share of frustrating moments – mostly in the push-pull, “Are you in or are you out?” battles with his equally strong, equally secretive, deeply damaged love interest, Abbie. But if ever two people deserved, needed, and were meant for each other, this couple is IT. Their story will capture you, heart and soul. It will – at least in this first installment – leave you with more questions than answers. But it’s totally worth it. And — if that isn’t enough to sell you on His Demand, along comes a dog named Dexter who is so, so perfect for Gabe that he brightens even the darkest moments in this highly suspenseful story.
If you’ve read the other books in this series, you’ll enjoy brief revisits with Grayson and Mia, and Reid and Carrie. Knowing their stories will help you appreciate this one even more – but if you haven’t read them yet, you can start with His Demand and catch up later. Unlike some series spin-offs, this book can stand on its own.
There is a cliff-hanger, but please don’t let that stop you — you need this book, if only for the anticipation that after some harrowing days ahead, Gabe and Abbie will find the healing they both need, and Lisa’s readers will once again be left blissfully satisfied.
Meet Lisa Renee Jones
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT series.
In addition to the success of Lisa’s INSIDE OUT series, she has published many successful titles. The TALL, DARK AND DEADLY series and THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN series, both spent several months on a combination of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling lists. Lisa is also the author of the bestselling WHITE LIES and LILAH LOVE series.
Prior to publishing Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by the Dallas Women’s Magazine. In 1998 Lisa was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine.
I forget everything but him. How can I not? He owns me. That was my fear, but I don’t feel fear now. No fear at all. But there are other emotions, a swell of unnamed emotions overwhelming me. We’re in his territory, his home, the danger and darkness of this night, driving confessions and intimacy to a whole new level. “I’m not just going to fuck you, Harper,” Eric promises. “I’m going to make love to you.”
Love.
I spoke that word to him, so hearing it on his lips shouldn’t send shockwaves through me, but somehow it does. It shouldn’t make my chest expand with fear that I didn’t feel moments before, but it does. I both want him to love me and fear the moment he does. With love comes real pain when he tells me to walk away and gives me a shove when he doesn’t really follow, because he decides the bastard and the princess can’t survive.
My walls erect. I need to protect myself. “What happened to fucking the princess and leaving her behind?”
“We just had this conversation. I’m not leaving you again.”
“And yet you told me to leave.”
“I did,” he says. “But I’m a bastard, remember? And not just any bastard. I’m the one who wants you too damn much now to do what’s right. You run. I’ll run faster. I’ll come for you.”
Heat rushes up my neck. “Fucking me is safe,” I whisper. “Fucking me is—”
“Fucking you is perfect,” he says. “And I will fuck you, Harper. Every way I can think of and every day, but right now, I’m going to show you more than the bastard. I’m going to make love to you.” His lips part mine, his tongue stroking deep, stroking long, exploring, and the demand I’d felt in him when he’d snapped is nowhere to be found. There is just this sultry, sexy, caress of his tongue that seduces me and tears down my walls.
I am his to do with as he pleases. I am his to please or otherwise. I think he really will break my heart. I think he knows it, too, but it’s too late to turn back. We’re on a path together that must be traveled, no matter where it leads.
The Princess, book two of the Filthy Trilogy, releases today– and if you’ve read book one, The Bastard, my guess is you’ve already downloaded and devoured this sexy and suspenseful sequel – and possibly pre-ordered book three, The Empire. And if you’re like me, you’re counting the days until this wild ride concludes, hoping for the happy-ever-after that seems so far out of reach right now.
The Princess picks up on the cliff where Lisa left us at the end of The Bastard, and the intensity ramps up from beginning to end – which, of course, leaves us with yet another mind-bending cliffhanger.
We learn a great deal more about Eric Mitchell, the protagonist, a Harvard-educated attorney, ex-SEAL, intellectual savant, and self-made billionaire employed by his best friend, Grayson Bennett (from Dirty Rich Betrayal). Through Eric’s POV and some flashbacks to his adolescence, we are able to better understand the events in his life that have made him who and what he is, and why he so deeply hates his estranged “family.” We feel the constant push-pull of his fragile relationship with Harper, who is truly the love of his life – but is also a member of the family he’s grown to despise. We also feel the sense of desperation, frustration, and confusion Eric experiences as he tries–in vain–to figure out who his enemies are, and what their agenda might be. Lives are on the line at every turn. The wolf is literally at the door from page one until the end–yet their identities and the roles they play in this complex, emotional thrill-ride remain unknown.
Eric is a well-developed, complex character, reminiscent of another of my favorite heroes–Shane, from Lisa’s Dirty Money series–another compelling story that explores family dynamics, greed, power, deception, and betrayal. But Eric is uniquely unforgettable, from his tattooed sleeves to his endless supply of Rubik’s Cubes. His struggles feel real and relatable. Despite the fact that he’s a brilliant billionaire and the alpha hero ideal we romance lovers crave, he’s defies the stereotype in his own brilliant, rebellious way.
Harper, on the other hand, is less appealing as a character, and I honestly can’t say why I feel that way, other than the fact that she just doesn’t “stand out.” It may be that we don’t know enough about what happened in her life over the six years between her first encounter with Eric and their steamy, conflict-riddled reunion. It may be that she lacks any defining characteristic, or flaw, that makes her Eric’s equal. More often than not, she feels like a stereotype – more a submissive, passive victim than a strong, loyal partner. But her role in the story is so critically important, I expect we will understand her much better by the time it reaches what promises to be a spell-binding conclusion.
One of the things I most enjoy about Lisa’s stories is the way she weaves familiar characters into the fabric of every story. It’s a treat to re-visit Mia and Grayson, the Walker brothers, and their team of security experts – especially Savage, who is one of my all-time favorites. They don’t feel like secondary characters, they feel like friends and family, adding a sense of comfort that contrasts with the unrelenting suspense of the current story. I’ve already spotted a couple of new – and one or two previous – characters that I hope to see again, perhaps in their own standalone or series.
As I closed my e-reader at the end of my Filthy reading marathon (I re-read The Bastard before diving into The Princess) I realized that Lisa has, once again, carefully positioned all of the dominoes, but we can still only see one side of them. The tipping point is coming, the point at which deeply held secrets will be revealed, the villains and their motives will be exposed, and the dominoes will crash in rapid succession.
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT series.
In addition to the success of Lisa’s INSIDE OUT series, she has published many successful titles. The TALL, DARK AND DEADLY series and THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN series, both spent several months on a combination of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling lists. Lisa is also the author of the bestselling WHITE LIES and LILAH LOVE series.
Prior to publishing Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by the Dallas Women’s Magazine. In 1998 Lisa was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur Magazine.
In this lifetime there is one person who will own you, who will know you, who will understand you like no one else could possibly understand you. That person for me is Carrie. I didn’t want to love her. I didn’t want to need her. But now that she’s my world, no one is going to take her from me. Yet the minute I propose, that’s exactly what the universe tries to do. It tries to take her from me.
My father and the many enemies my life as my father’s son has created wants to take her from me.
Reid pulls me close, his fingers tunneling into my hair before he says, “Ever fucked in a limo, baby?” and before I can answer, his mouth closes down on mine and he’s crazy, hot kissing me.
“Well?” Reid challenges, his lips parting mine after a scorching kiss. “Have you ever fucked in a limo?”
“No,” I say, my hand flattening on his really hard and perfect chest, while my sex clenches in denial of my rejection about to follow. “I have not and I’m not starting now. Have you?”
“No,” he says. “Which makes it all the better that I do it with you. The only woman I plan to ever fuck again in this lifetime.” He kisses me and his hand slides under my shirt and over my breast.
“We paid a lot of money for this private limo,” he says. “Let’s enjoy it.”
“We?” I ask, catching his hand under my shirt but it does no good to stop him. His fingers shove down the lace of my bra.
“Yes. We. What’s mine is yours and just to be clear, you’re mine now.” He latches onto my nipple with his fingers and I moan with the sweet friction.
“Reid,” I whisper huskily.
“More, baby?” He rolls me to my back onto the long leather seat and then comes down on top of me. “You want my mouth on your nipple?”
“Stop,” I warn, clenching my thighs to no avail. His big body is separating them, and both of us have a leg dangling off the seat. “We can’t—”
He kisses me again, a deep, drugging kiss, while his hand squeezes my breast, and his thick cock nestles against my sex. I moan and he presses his cheek to mine, his lips at my ear. “I do believe you need my mouth on your nipple right now.”
“Reid,” I hiss, but it’s too late. He’s dragging my shirt up and over my head, tossing it aside and almost immediately his mouth is on one of my nipples, suckling, and licking. “What if—”
He kisses me. “I paid for privacy.”
I push on his chest. “We’re in Japan. How do you know you really paid for privacy?”
“It’s Japan, baby. They respect agreements here, more than Americans.” He kisses me again and his hand slides around my backside, squeezing and lifting me against him. “Maybe I should spank you right here.”
“No!” I say urgently, shoving on his chest again. “Not a chance in hell.”
He laughs low and sexy. “But I can fuck you?”
“Are you really trying to negotiate right now?” I challenge.
“I’m just trying to get inside my future wife.” He strokes a lock of hair from my face, his expression softening, his voice tender now. “Wife, Carrie. I never thought I’d call anyone that. I never thought I’d want anyone like that.”
My heart squeezes. “Husband,” I whisper. “From asshole to husband. I never—”
“You changed me, Carrie. You. Just you. And I need you to know that I will protect you. That I will never hurt you.”
My fingers splay on his cheek and I know he’s thinking of the girlfriend that gave up her life for him. “Reid, you can’t walk around afraid for me. That’s not living.”
“I will protect you,” he promises, his tone guttural, as if I haven’t even spoken, his mouth covering mine in a deep kiss, before he returns to my nipple, this time I don’t fight the pleasure. He needs this right now. Maybe I do, too. I arch into the intimate touch of his lips, his tongue, into the taut pull of his teeth against my nipple. My fingers dive into his blond hair but he moves down my body, his lips on my belly, his tongue flickering into my belly button even as he unsnaps my jeans.
This jolts me and I grab his hand, lifting my head to look at him. “Are you sure we’re safe in here?”
Those beautiful blue eyes of his meet mine. “I promise, baby. No one will interrupt us.”
“You’re sure?”
“I promise and—”
“You never break a promise,” I say, stopping him there. “That’s a very marrying quality, by the way.”
His lips, those brutally sexy lips, curve. “Good to know. Trust me now, Carrie.”
Trust him.
There is a question in his eyes, a roughness to his voice. He proposed, but on the heels of so many opportunities for me to question him. This appeal to “trust him now” isn’t about sex in a limo. It’s about so much more. “I do trust you,” I say, and my voice isn’t a whisper, just a tremble of emotion spoken quite clearly.
He studies me for several long beats and then tugs my jeans down, taking the tiny strip of silk I’m wearing with them, with my shoes following. I barely have time to process just how vulnerable I am before Reid pulls his shirt over his head. “So you know you’re never naked alone, not again. Not ever.”
Emotion wells in my chest and he is already on top of me, kissing me, his cheek pressing to mine as he whispers, “I love you.”
“I love you, too,” I whisper back, only to have him slide down my body again.
About Lisa Renee Jones
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Lisa Renee Jones is the author of the highly acclaimed INSIDE OUT series.
In addition to the success of Lisa’s INSIDE OUT series, she has published many successful titles. The TALL, DARK AND DEADLY series and THE SECRET LIFE OF AMY BENSEN series, both spent several months on a combination of the New York Times and USA Today bestselling lists. Lisa is also the author of the bestselling WHITE LIES and LILAH LOVE series.
Prior to publishing Lisa owned multi-state staffing agency that was recognized many times by The Austin Business Journal and also praised by the Dallas Women’s Magazine. In 1998 Lisa was listed as the #7 growing women owned business in Entrepreneur.