The Price of Love

Michael Whitaker is a wealthy businessman who had gained a reputation as a womanizing jet setter after a messy divorce and an unhappy affair soured him on love. Following a devastating accident that takes him out of circulation for over a year, he has just gotten back on his feet. He can walk again even though he is still recovering from the final operation to repair his badly damaged knee. His face, rebuilt by skillful surgeons, only vaguely resembles the face he had. Michael is ready to start living again but not quite sure where to begin because he has no interest in his previous superficial lifestyle.


Ann Leland is on her way to break her engagement to a cheating Alex Fuller. She catches Michael's eye as they are crossing the street in opposite directions. Their eyes, meet and sparks fly in a spell of unspoken recognition. Then she is gone. They meet again a short time later when Ann steps in front of his car as she was leaving the painful scene of her breakup.


She is unhurt, though she runs into the car as it stops and falls onto the hood. An angry, shaken Michael jumps out of his car shouting at her. To her horror, she bursts into tears that she had been holding back during her unpleasant encounter with Alex. Not knowing what else to do, Michael puts her in his car and whisks her away to his lavish penthouse. He had recognized her immediately as the pretty woman who had caught his eye on the street.


When she has calmed and dried her tears, Michael takes her back to her car parked in a tiered parking garage. He wants to see her again, but she is reluctant in the wake of her broken engagement. Then as Alex and the other woman are about to cross their path, Michael pulls her into a heated embrace. They're both a little stunned by the powerful attraction that flashes between them. At Michael's insistence, Ann gives him her name and cell phone number. Burned once too many times by love gone bad, Michael is not sure he has the courage to try again. His pushy housekeeper, friend, and confidant tells him his dead parents would want most for him to find a woman to love and have a family.


The Michael realizes he can't get Ann out of his mind; the passion that flared between them was so strong. He decides to use his resources to do a background check and learns she is a budding artist living on a meager inheritance income. She is, he realizes the nice woman she appears to be. He comments ruefully that she will probably run like hell when she learns about his past.


Drawn by the memory of desire she felt in his arms, Ann is willing to get to know him better.
Desire quickly draws them into an intimate physical relationship. Michael feels guilty because he believes he's no longer capable of love. He cares enough for Ann to believe that she deserves the chance to find someone who can love her. Ann calls him a coward and runs for her car so he won't see her tears. Michael is overwhelmed by how much it hurts to do what he thinks is the right thing. By the second week he decides to convince her to marry him citing the fact that they are friends and share a magnificent passion.
 
 Entirely fiction, the setting alternates between Rochester and Wyoming County.  This book is related to my Aledan series in that the heroine is doing artwork for a graphic novel version of The Aledan and it contains a couple quotes from that book.

Available for Kindle at Amazon.com.