When it comes to the wolves of Wall Street, Ryan Hamilton is the leader of the pack. But his bravado is all bluff. The bank he works for is up to it’s assets in fraud and shady deals. And thanks to pressure from the NYPD and FBI, Ryan is working as both a trader and a whistleblower. His only respite from the tension is when he parades his latest arm candy at a fancy lingerie shop.

Simone Demarchelier owns Irresistible, crafting custom high-end lingerie. So she’s more than happy that Ryan is spending a fortune on his women. But she senses that behind the hotshot facade there is something more. Something tortured and sad. And when he flies her out to the Hamptons in the shadow of a summer thunderstorm in order to fix one of her designs, she instead finds herself stuck in the opulent home with a distraught Ryan.

Is Simone the one person who can mend Ryan’s heart and soul?

Review

I love Ms Calhoun's writing and the latest books in this series, The Muse (my review), is one of my favourite erotic romances of last year. I somehow ended up reading this series out of order but the separate novels are very loosely connected and they work well as standalone.

Evening Storm is book 4 and very briefly introduces the characters I already met in book 5 and it brings back characters from the previous book which I haven't read yet but this did not prevent me in any way from enjoying Ryan and Simone's romance.

The story is set in the world of luxury - the high-end lingerie designer Simone and the Wall Street shark Ryan come together in an unexpectedly intimate and tender way. It's an angsty story but at the same time a very sexy and intimate one.

The secrets they keep from each other really made things between them difficult. The attraction was there and it was most powerful, yet there was lack of trust and abundance of doubt and misgivings at the beginning. they really did meet at the worst possible time (for him, at least). But it was also the right time, in a way, because he desperately needed Simone's honesty and her down-to-earth, confident and independent attitude. His feelings for her kept him grounded and helped him when his own honesty and desire for justice wavered in the face of the difficulties he was faced with.

Their romance was nothing conventional - he kept bringing other women to her store to buy lingerie for them. he also kept telling her stories about his time with them but they were all meant for her, rather than being a realistic account of his sexual exploits. I found it a bit weird at the beginning but it turned out to be their way of forging connection and intimacy between them. And it was unique and beautiful.

The writing was, as usual, impeccable, very sensual and engaging. Ms Calhoun is a master at exploring the inner world of her characters, their desires and fears and their sexual attractions. A recommended read and series as a whole!