Beautiful Secret

Ruby Miller works as an engineer at a large London firm, and she is among its most promising young people. Her colleague Niall Stella heads its urban planning side. He is recently divorced, painfully reserved, and as far as Ruby can tell, has never noticed her.

When Ruby's boss sends her to New York City on an extended business trip, she ends up working alongside Niall all day and sleeping in the same hotel at night. A flirty overnight flight is what finally makes him look at her.

This is an adult contemporary erotic romance with explicit love scenes, set in a workplace. Ruby is outgoing and direct, while Niall is careful and self-deprecating. Most of the tension comes from her coaxing him out of his shell, not from an outside obstacle.

Humour runs through it, alongside real vulnerability on both sides. The month in New York gives them a bubble that London would not, and the book is candid that it is a bubble. The pace is a slow build with a gradual escalation, and the tone is warmer and more emotional than the sharper-edged volumes before it.

It is the fourth numbered novel in the Beautiful Bastard series, published by Gallery Books in April 2015, and it reads fine as a standalone.