Title: The Billionaire’s Virgin
Author: Jackie Ashenden
Publisher/Year: St Martin’s Press 1/10/17
Length: 150 Pages
Series: Billionaire Fairytales #1
Overview
Book #1 in the intensely sexy Billionaire Fairytales by Jackie Ashenden where sometimes dark and tortured, sometimes bad boy and charming, but always dominant and sexy billionaires steal their heroines’ breath away.
Xavier De Santis: Charming. Disgraced. Playboy.
The headlines are always shouting about the excesses of the so-called Prince Charming of the De Santis family. Problem is, Xavier is everything they say he is.
But now he’s gone too far, and he has has been ordered to clean up his image. Volunteering at a homeless shelter, Xavier sees a bright light amidst all the bleakness. An angel whose luminous face and tragic beauty call to him in ways he can’t explain.
Mia: Homeless. Vulnerable. Virgin.
When the shelter Mia calls home closes, she is left with nowhere to go. Nowhere except the luxurious, glorious palace of a home where Xavier De Santis has invited her to stay. This too-handsome billionaire is dark, dangerous…and also too good to be true.
Surely Mia can indulge in her fantasies and escape the hardness of her daily life for just one night?
As one night turns into two, Mia knows that eventually, the magic will end. She can’t keep the beautiful clothes. She can’t keep the soft bed. And most of all, she can’t keep the hard, handsome man who makes her crave his touch with every breath she takes.
Mia doesn’t belong in his world. But as Xavier tempts his rags-to-riches heroine with exquisite pleasure and heady desire, Mia may have no choice but to surrender to him completely.
My Thoughts
I should first start by thanking Netgalley for getting me an ARC of this book since i do love discovering new authors that i’m not familiar with. In this first installment to the series, we first meet Xavier, the youngest son of a business magnate, who has to pay his dues a bit because of a scuffle with the papparazzi. As a result, he’s working at a homeless shelter as a means to get people back in their good graces.
At said homeless shelter, he comes across Mia, who’s there each night (or most) to get a meal and then be back out on her way. There’s a connection that he feels towards her, but he doesn’t know what it is – he feels protective towards her in a way that he’s never felt before, and he doesn’t know what the draw is past that, but he’s intrigued. When she doesn’t show up each night, he begins to worry and when he feels like she’s not cared for enough, he tries to do small things like giving her a new hat.
Being homeless has hardened Mia. Aside from the fact that her mother bailed on her when she was just a few years old and her grandmother beat her and made her feel like she was worthless, being homeless and on her own at least is something she’s done for herself. All she wants is a home of her own and to feel safe but she doesn’t even have the basics in terms of her SSN or her birth certificate to make that happen and that’s the biggest struggle.
One night changes all of that for her though. The shelter is closed, and she doesn’t know where to go since the other shelter alternative has proven to be unsafe for her. That same night, Xavier sees her trying to sort things out and takes it upon himself to bring Mia home with him and into his world.
Where the story goes from there is a bit of a stretch, but i suppose a necessary one. We quickly see a bond grow between them, what started off as no touching quickly changes to be touch as much as you can – giving Mia experiences that she’s never had at all.
We also see Xavier trying to battle himself on this. He blames himself for his mom’s death and we see that her voice constantly pops up in his head as a voice of reason, yet it seems to the reader that the logic there is flawed. And just when we think that things are going to be perfect for them, family gets in the way and crashes things down, and then we see that Xavier leaves – without full explanation, and Mia is on her own again. Will Xavier come back to find her and will he be successful? that’s where this story takes us and you’ll have to read to find out. Enjoy!