Ulterior Motives

by Laura Leone

She knew that it was wrong. But her heart spoke a different language. . . . Language center director Shelley Baird thought she had just lined up the biggest contract of her career - till her biggest... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0373055315
• ISBN13: 9780373055319
• Release Date: October 1989
• Publisher: Silhouette Books
• Length: 189 Pages
• Weight: 0.26 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Really enjoyable romance from Ms Leone

I'm way late in discovering this terrific author and unfortunately, it seems she is concentrating on her fantasy books written as Laura Resnick in lieu of romances. I had no idea that his book was originally published by Silhouette in 1989. I got my hands on this re-issue from Wildeside Press (and likely paid more than twice the original price for it) and it was worth every penny IMO. Shelley Baird is running the premier language school in Cincinnati and enjoying her success while attending a reception being held by one of her biggest clients. Across the room she sees a gorgeous man with black hair and lively blue eyes and she's instantly interested. When their eyes meet, something just clicks but as he makes his way to her, one of the wait staff spills a sangria all over her! Wow, what a great first impression! Fortunately, he's not scared off and offers to drive her home. He proves to be just as nice and interesting and sexy as she had originally thought. Unfortunately, she learns that he works for her competitor and has a mandate to shake things up and aggressively pursue new business. Bottom line, he's the enemy. Oh why did they have to have such strong chemistry? Ross Tanner is determined to achieve his company's goals but he also really wants to spend time with Shelley. She's sweet, smart and fun but she also sees him as her enemy. She's called a halt to their budding romance much to Ross' frustration. How can he make her see that their work has nothing to do with their relationship? Unfortunately, the success that Ross is able to affect is coming directly at Shelley's expense. What can he possibly do to keep Shelley in his life? I really liked this story. The relationship was romantic and fun, their conflict was real and believable and the resolution made sense. I admired and liked Shelley and Ross was just totally yummy! Though a bit pricey for so short a book (under 150 pages), I highly recommend it and will be looking for more of her backlist. Especially an affordable copy of FEVER DREAMS!

He Came to Take Her Business. Will he Take Her Instead?

Shelly Baird is the director of the Babel Language Center in Cincinnati, Ohio and as the book opens she is at a party hosted by Keene International, an account she dearly wants to get. Across the room she locks eyes with a handsome stranger. Shelly is not the kind of girl to look away first. In fact she's not the kind of girl to look away at all. She's so caught up with the stranger that she bumps a waitress, who spills about a gallon of sangria on her.Quick as a wink the stranger is at her side. He introduces himself as Ross Tanner and offers to drive her home. When she see his Porsche, she wants to ride with the top down, to heck with the cold night air. At her place, sparks fly, but nothing happens. She does however tell him what she does for a living.Later we learn that her competition in the Executive language teaching business in town is the Elite Language Center, run by Charles Winston-Clark, or as Shelly refers to him, Chuck. Chuck, it , has done every underhanded thing he can think of to try and get Shelly's business, from annoying phone calls to spreading innuendos about her around town and still she's beaten the pants off him, business wise.So the boys at Chuck's head office have send a big gun to town to turn their business around. And that gun is none other than Ross Tanner, who wants to both ruin Shelly business, but have a relationship with her at the same time.And there you have the plot in a nutshell. Ms. Leone has written a story that had me thoroughly enthralled. Her characters are more than believable, they're likable and we want to know more about them, and isn't that what makes us read fiction, real to life characters. I'm giving this one five stars, because I just loved it.