Okay book. On her wedding day Melissa found out that her fiance has a mistress and that he invited her to the wedding. Melissa will put up with some things, but infidelity isn't one of them. She runs from the wedding and ends up on a private train car with Quinn Rafferty. She offers him a bargain - she'll marry him and he'll get the benefits of being married to a Corbin.

I have to say that I really didn't like Melissa much. I found her to be immature and ridiculously stubborn. I understood why she ran from her wedding, and had no problem with that. But from the time she met Quinn, she seemed to think only of herself. As the youngest and only girl in her family, she has been somewhat spoiled, but she has also suffered from overprotective brothers. She is determined to stand on her own two feet, in spite of being married to a successful man. Again, no problem with the concept, but her execution was terrible. She is so set on doing things her way that she doesn't think about the effects it will have on Quinn. She is jealous of his female business partner, and shows it in petty ways like flirting with another man. She is very attracted to him, and when they are together the chemistry between them is hot. It doesn't take her long to fall in love with him, but she persists in doing things that she knows will anger him. She gets herself into situations that are dangerous because she is too stubborn to listen when he tells her something.

Quinn was a little better than Melissa but not by much. He is a successful man, with plans for expanding his businesses. He has an on again off again relationship with his business partner Gillian. When he rescues Melissa from the train platform he is immediately attracted to her, but he's a gentleman and behaves himself. He accepts her bargain, but is most interested in getting her into bed with him. When that finally happens he is amazed by the strength of their connection. The thing that bothered me about him is that whenever things started to get wound up between them, instead of talking to her he would use sex to distract her from what he didn't want to deal with. Even when they have admitted their love for each other, they don't talk to each other about what's important. It takes a near tragedy for them to realize what they mean to each other and what they have to do.

There are some interesting secondary stories. Quinn has a secret about his sister Mary that he fears revealing to Melissa because he's afraid of her reaction. Quinn's father is creating trouble because he is a basically nasty man who abused Quinn and his mother. Melissa's ex-fiance is trying to get her back for reasons of his own. Melissa's brothers are dealing with issues in their own lives that are also affecting her. There are a couple of interesting twists that come out involving Quinn's family and Melissa's. ( )