LIKE SILK

When prominent Tennessee attorney Collier Smith first meets beautiful Brittany Banks, she is wandering in the rain along a remote highway. Though bruised and beaten, she refuses to be treated at a hospital, so Collier has no choice but to take her with him to his cabin retreat until the rain lets up and he can take Brittany home to her humble trailer. With little verbal communication between them, their physical awareness of each other is a constant presence, and it compels Collier to visit Brittany again several days later even though their association could ruin his career. Collier is in the running for a federal judgeship, but a rich, power-hungry local is determined to see him fail. In addition, his self-absorbed girlfriend, Lana, wants to be engaged—soon. The sexual attraction between Collier and Brittany is palpable, but it is a tenuous foundation for their difficult relationship, which is limited to a couple of dinners together and his sporadic visits to her trailer. Several plot twists will also give readers pause—Brittany's brother, Tommy, is in prison for causing the accident that left Collier's stepbrother a paraplegic, and Brittany's attacker on that rainy night happens to be Collier's nemesis. In the end, it's too much of a stretch to accept these coincidences or to imagine Brittany and Collier's mutual lust giving way to life-altering love. (May)