Quote-Tastic: The Devil Made Her Buy It

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Soft Sounds of Pleasure by Eden Connor


"Mrs. Walker! What a surprise! How’s Charlie?"

Lila's head snapped up, and her heart simply stopped. There, behind the register, about to help fold and bag her new lingerie while Lila's salesperson rang up the purchases, stood a former girlfriend of Charlie's.

"As far as I know, he's fine, Ashley. Thanks," she managed to respond. Her heart raced as if she'd been caught stealing the lingerie. Her cheeks burned. Ashley held up the first lacy item before wrapping it carefully in tissue paper. "A gift for my niece," was the first thing that popped into her head to say.

To her relief, Ashley replied she wished her aunt had Lila's taste, and they kept chatting about Charlie and incidents Lila recalled from the time when her son and this pretty young woman had been a couple. She paid and reached to accept the pink and white bag, thinking to make a graceful exit.

"Do you remember the time I begged Charlie into going to my family reunion?" Ashley asked, handing Lila the bag.

Charlie had come home suggesting several different strains of insanity ran through Ashley's family tree. "I remember," Lila said with a chuckle.

Ashley gave Lila a knowing grin. "I'd swear he told my grandmother under stringent cross-examination, he had no female cousins."

Lila looked at the older clerk in exasperation, embarrassed to have been caught lying about such a silly thing. "Okay, I'm busted, but please tell me you have to sign some sort of confidentiality agreement to work here."

"We sure do, sweetie," the older clerk replied. "And I'll make sure Ashley here reads hers again."

Ashley's laughter was unrepentant. She hurried around the counter to give Lila a hug. "I couldn't resist. Charlie always swore he never caught you in a fib." As the young girl squeezed Lila tightly, she whispered, "Good for you, Lila. After what you went through with Charlie's dad, I hope he's a real stud."

Lila held her tongue and finally made it out of the store. Had absolutely everyone speculated about her sex life, or lack of one, once Pete had been paralyzed? Humiliation made her angry. Anger made her defiant. Defiance led her to try on a short, hot pink dress made for a woman twenty years younger that caught her eye in another store window. The Devil made her buy it, and his minions pointed out the matching sandals were on sale, too.

I got this as a free book from the Coffee Time Romance Ebook Store newsletter. It was only as I was mid-read that I realized that I was reading another older woman/younger man book.  I just finished listening to the audiobook version of The Redhead Series by Alice Clayton where the female protagonist was 9 years older than the male. In this book, Lila was 12 years older than Colton, 41 to his 29. Recently there was a post on Facebook discussing a guest post where an author had made her heroine younger by many years in the face of an editors criticism. I can't imagine this story working nearly as well as it did if it weren't for Lila's life experiences, that she could only have gotten through time.  This was a seriously sexy read and I enjoyed it immensely, giving it 4 stars.

When Colton De Marco stumbles onto his fantasy woman sunbathing in the nude, he can’t turn down the chance to make a decade of fantasies about Lila Walker come true.

Lila’s gorgeous, younger mechanic is a welcome distraction from her unpaid bills, her ogre-in-law, and her hurt over those who’ve turned away. Lila can handle their friends-with-benefits arrangement, but when Colton pressures her to attend his nephew’s baseball games, she knows the entire town will be talking. After all, her husband’s only been dead nine months. What’s a lonely widow to do when Colton won’t take no for an answer? Give the town something to talk about, of course.

Little does she know, Colton’s planning to throw a curve ball she won’t see coming.

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