This story was an easy read and I liked it okay. However, the author begins the book showcasing the inequality in the hero and heroine’s relationship and over the course of the book, I had my doubts about both the heroine’s and hero’s transformation.

Ben Tyler has just been given demoralizing news. His leukemia is not responding to chemo. He has always felt so in control of his life, but now it is spiraling out of control. Rather than wait to see if the next round does any damage to the out of control cells, he opts for the more risky choice of a stem cell transplant. But even though Anna Summers, his executive assistant, has been caring for him through his illness, he plans to keep his decision a secret from her. He knows she will argue and reason that he needs to wait before taking that drastic step. But when you get down to it, it is nobody’s business but his own, even though he knows that Anna is a little in love with him.

He holds firm to his ethical principles until three days before he enters the hospital for his procedure. That night, thinking of his mortality, he breaks one of his ironclad rules and has sex with Anna.

Anna was aware of Ben’s hard-and-fast rule of keeping personal and professional business separate, but she assumed the role of his primary caregiver when he became ill. She believes that this is a natural progression of their relationship from employee/employer to friends and now lovers. The sex is filled with an immense combustion of need and desire. Afterwards, she is willing to wait for Ben to come to terms with the change in their relationship. Ben is an insular man, who doesn’t deal often with emotions, but she is enraged when she discovers that he is putting his life on the line, without informing her. He states that sleeping with her just happened, but to Anna it was the “most significant moment of her life.” She knows right then that she needs to cut her losses. She arranges for Madeline to be his new assistant and leaves.

Twelve weeks later, Madeline is also leaving, so she and Ben come up with the idea of having a going away party, knowing that Anna will appear. Ben didn’t realize how much he would miss Anna and he wants her back. He is ready to be magnanimous and forgive her for leaving him when he needed her most. And of course he is ready to give Anna her job back.

Anna has her own reason for attending the party. She is three months pregnant with Ben’s child. Oh, she knows that he will immediately try to coerce her into marriage. He is very big on doing the right thing. And even though she wants their child to have a father, she also realizes that it would kill her to live with Ben knowing that he doesn’t love her too.

Ben has to convince Anna that her place is with him, and if that means he has to fake being in love with her, then that is what he will do.

I never really warmed up to Ben. Anna’s child is the only child that Ben will have after the high doses of chemo left him sterile so it is imperative that he convince her to marry him. This fact, combined with his foolish denial of his own feelings for most of the book, caused me to questioned his “Oh, I really love her” moment, even though the situation that prompts this realization is intense.

I had an easier time with Anna’s characterization, although I pitied her in a way. Ben is the type of person who makes up his mind that his way is the right way, and nothing can thwart him. He is extremely high-handed and great at manipulating people to get the results that he wants. Anna is vulnerable to those manipulations because of her love for him and their child. Even though she has Ben jumping through hoops so they can be a family, I still questioned if she could hold her own against him.

There is a secondary plot, possibly setting up a sequel to the next book. I liked the character but not so much the story arc. After leaving Ben, Anna got a job with Mark Sharpe, also another ex-CIA Operative. Mark has come back to Philadelphia in order to establish a relationship with his daughter. He and her mother never married, and now she is dead. His daughter is living with her maternal grandparents, but their health is not good. Since he has been such a fly by night father, his daughter wants nothing to do with him. Of course he and Ben were competitors – well at least he was always trying to best Ben, so he welcomes this opportunity of taking Ben on in his own town, even if they are specializing in different areas.

This book is better than average but I still didn’t feel comfortable saying that you have to read this one.