The cover of the book may be gaggy, but the story is not. MOTM is rather typical of the earlier works of Jayne Ann Krentz, in that her hero is one of the alpha squared types: aggressive, somewhat unreasonable, always right (so he thinks). In the end, he is a real sensitive guy. Okay, I exaggerate a bit, but he falls in love with the heroine and that's what counts! This hero actually cries!

The story begins with Harmony Trent visiting a resort on the Oregon coastline. She came to the resort with Victor Ralston, and his mother and father, to determine if Victor is the man for her. She's figured out that he's not and knows she will have to figure out how to let him know this gently. The first scene opens with Alice, Victor's mother, knocking on Harmony's cabin door, and opening it - to Harmony's surprise because it should be locked. Harmony looks at Alice and sees her staring, shocked, at the bathroom door.

Harmony looks and she, too, is speechless. Lounging in her bathroom doorway, without a shirt, is the owner of the resort, Aaron Fortune. Aaron proceeds to make it clear that, after spending the night with Harmony, that she's with him for the remainder of her stay. Pretty good trick, since Harmony barely knows him. Alice goes off in a huff, glad to drive a wedge between her son and Harmony (the hussy).

Naturally, Harmony is confused but not for long. Aaron lets her know that he's out for revenge, starting with keeping her from getting her hooks into Victor. He doesn't care for Victor, but he does think that Harmony is his brother's old girlfriend, who almost caused his brother's death, and because of that, he's out for revenge on this heartless, shallow hussy.

In spite of Harmony's protestations of innocence, Aaron continues to despise, yet want, her. Harmony decides that it will be worth it to stay at the resort to confront Aaron's brother, clear up the misunderstanding, and then watch Aaron grovel in shame for the way that he treats her.

Let's talk about that. Yes, it's bad. He treats her like a toy, making it clear that she's his short term mistress. He's determined to make her stay uncomfortable, which he does very well. She's determined to stay and make him eat his words and feel ashamed.

Well, by the time the brother arrives, both Aaron and Harmony are more interested in one another than either is comfortable with. When Bro arrives with his new wife (the wife is the girlfriend Harmony is mistaken for), Harmony's moment has come.

Unfortunately, Harmony has come to care too much for Aaron and knows that she needs to leave instead of staying and enjoying the groveling. She's sure that Aaron doesn't love her (the reader naturally strongly suspects otherwise, but as usual, the hero kind of keeps this info hidden even from himself), and wants to get away before she gives herself away. Aaron gets to her first. He apologizes and asks Harmony to marry him to make it up to her (care to guess how well this went over?).

Harmony agrees to hang around as long as she gets to be the boss. He agrees to her terms supposedly because he feels badly for the way he treated her. She pushes the limits of his possessiveness, and anger, deals with scenes with Aaron's old flame and one of his "friends," and finally winds up causing Aaron to lose his temper. He averts to type (the boss), and sets aside their "Harmony is the boss" agreement, just like that! Harmony, convinced that she must leave, does so later that night. On the way home, though, she has second thoughts. She realizes there will be other women for him, no one for her who'll match up to him, no one who she can share with. She knows he won't learn how to love. Well, that does it. She's in tears, knows she loves him and that she'll take the risk of going back to him.

On returning, she finds him on the beach…and he's got tears in his eyes. He thought he had driven her away and realized his love for her. The story ends with them sharing the words they held back from one another, words of mutual love. I liked the story and recommend it.