Boozy Bookgasms - Penthouse Panty Pilferer

Episode Date: February 20, 2025

Beautiful Bastard by Christina Lauren   Let's leave HR out of this discussion today! Hang on to your panties ladies, we'll be covering an office romance with no shortage of scandalous scenes in small spaces!   Signature Cocktail: Silk Panty Dropper Ingredients: Vodka, Peach Schnapps, Cranberry Juice, Cherry for garnish   Pour 1.5 oz vodka, .5 oz of peach schnapps and 1 oz of cranberry juice into a mixing glass, stir, strain into a martini glass filled with crushed ice.  Garnish with a fresh cherry and enjoy. 

All right. I'm recording. I'm recording. I'm recording. No. Okay. Ready? Mm-hmm. One, two, three. Why can't you guys clap when I say three? Okay. I thought it was after three. Are I clapping on three? Classic. Buckle up literature fans. We're in for some boozy bookgasms today.

Join three cousins creating a titillating headspace. Amy romance novels collide with strong cocktails. So sit back, sip slow, and enjoy the ride. Hello, Clitterature fans. Welcome back to Boosy Bookgasms. I'm Lynn. I'm Jed. I'm Kim. And we're here today with another great book called Beautiful Bastard. It's a romance novel by Christina Lauren, which is actually a pen name of two authors, which I didn't know when we first started as Christina Hobbs and Lauren Billings. But before we get started, I'd love to know what. What are we drinking tonight? Oh, tonight's drink goes very well with the theme of the book and is one of my absolute favorite go-to drinks at the bar. It can be made as a full drink or a quick shop for a liquid courage for those in a rush. It's called the Silk Panny Dropper.

Oh. It's vodka, peach snobs, cranberry juice, and a red cherry garnish. Yum. Delicious. Very silky. Love it. All right. ladies, so let's go ahead and get into this book. It was a steamy one and really interesting office romance,

which I always really enjoy for some reason. So we started off with our, with our main character, Chloe Mills. She is an intern at this media group. It took me a minute to realize she's an MBA student. So she's age appropriate for you, Jen. She is not a blushing 18 year old. I appreciate that. She is a blushing 22 year old. She is an MBA student. And she has been working at Ryan Media group for a couple of years actually and really trying to kind of like work her way up in the organization and she for her sort of project or MBA sort of last year as her MBA she gets assigned to Bennett who is their the youngest son of the Ryan family who owns Ryan Media Group he had worked abroad for a while and was kind of coming back into the fold at Ryan Media Group to run a part of the company and so he is again the youngest Ryan's son he's sort of known as being like a hard hitter hard

charger, kind of a bit grumpy, but really smart and really the future of the organization. He has a brother and his dad still works at the organization. But she is working for him not as an assistant so much. It's just sort of a, it's like somebody who's just working alongside him to help him do his job, but to learn alongside him. I think she's an assistant, but like not necessarily an executive assistant or admin. I see her the teave of staff. Yeah, she's there to make him look better at his job because she's smart enough to be his number two. Right. Yes.

That's kind of, yes. It kind of presents her as an assistant, but she's not doing assistant work. She's doing like, you know, work at his level and like basically propping him up like in all of these meetings. Although he likes to make her do menial office girl jobs. Yeah. Did he just call me an office girl? But yes, he is this sort of like arrogance, kind of dismissive perfectionist.

She, I think has like some respect for him. She was eager to work for him. But he kind of treats her like gar. garbage in a way. And so she really doesn't like him too. It's a very like interesting dynamic between the two of them at the beginning. But very quickly we get into the storyline. They have to prepare for a meeting. And he asked her to stay late and they need to go over this presentation that they need to give. And they end up meeting in a very large conference room with all glass, like looking, you know, very like a New York skyscraper type conference room. And instead of just meeting in his office where they typically meet, he wants to meet her in

this conference room. And so she goes in to sit down the presentation and all of a sudden he starts touching her leg. And so she's sort of confused. Sure. What's happening? Yeah. As someone who spent a lot of time in HR. I mean, as an HR person, not being a couple, but I got a little nervous when he grabbed at house in the meeting. It's just just the two of them and they've basically hated each other for the last year that She's worked with him, but all of a sudden, he starts feeling her up in the conference room. But she doesn't do anything or say anything. She's into it.

She's kind of shocked. Doesn't stop him. And they basically end up doing a somewhat of a quickie against the glass wall looking out into, like, the big city. And then it ends. And she walks. He says something kind of somewhat. It's pretty hot, though. I mean, like, they're ripping out each other's clothes.

And he tears her blouse off and her buttons. fly everywhere and he ripped her. Yeah, it's that weight thing though, right? They've built up this passion thing between them and it's like, you know what? We're going to get it all out right here. And like he said, Jen, he rips off her expensive blouse. Buttons fly. He steals her panties at this point. He rips them off and puts them in his pocket, I think, right? She doesn't walk out with them. But most importantly, she doesn't let him finish. Yes, that's right. She finishes and then he wants her to finish him off on her knees. And he says like get get on your knees and she's like, thank you.

And she walks out. Yeah. Yeah. I appreciate the offer, but I got what I need here. Yeah, she doesn't, she definitely does not let him get the other upper hand. But you're right. It's this sort of like high, high, low, low. Like he treats her like crap.

They hate each other. But then when they get into these encounters, very high passion. Well, and he, I loved it. this scene because he just thinks he's so hot, right? And he's like, you like it like that? And she's like, I've had better than you hear her inner thoughts going. This is amazing. But she's not going to let him have that. No, she definitely gives him a run for his money. Yeah. No, but that's what he likes about her because she's smart. And she's sort of in like the lead up to this sort of kind of keeps him on his toes anyway. Like she's not intimidated by him. She's there to do a job and to learn as much as she can. But she doesn't

like let him intimidate her. And I think he likes that. But then in the, in the bedroom scenes, she doesn't get any different. Like, she definitely holds him accountable. So she walks out with her button, her blouse unbuttoned, as classy as she can to go home. But obviously now they still have to work together. So she comes back kind of to the office and they find it a little difficult to kind of return back to their normal relationship. It's still a bit fraught, still angsty. But then they keep finding themselves in situations where they are tearing their clothes off. They don't go on dates. The second encounter was really good too because they meet in the stairwell and like he goes off real quick and leaves her high. Yeah, they're one-upping each other, right? But then,

but they aren't dating. They aren't saying that they even really like each other. They basically are like we hate each other, but we can't keep away from each other, right? Yeah, she runs into the stairwell to get away from him. He chases her. They have an encounter. They're There's tons more of this sort of will they, won't they, angstiness. And then they just keep leaving the office and going home and then coming back to the office and having this inxie relationship. I will say there was very little plot beyond the bathroom, the stair room. Well, yeah, we haven't even gotten to the bathroom yet. But we need to go back because the conference, the next day she's supposed to go to this conference.

She goes to the right conference room. And he moved the meeting. The conference. Yeah, he moved the meeting. Because he couldn't stand to be in the room that they just did it in. Yeah. And somebody finds her button and reports it to her and hands it to his brother or something. He was his brother. Yeah. He's there. So I mean, that's when she were like, F you, I'm out of here. Shocking. Well, and he gives her a little shit about it in front of his brothers. They didn't catch on, but she was pissed because she's like, if they had realized what you were talking about, now I look like the office floosy who's trying to sleep my way up the ladder, like, how very dare you? He's like, huh? You know.

just a duck guy. Because he's a man. He's already the boss. Like, what does he care? And she cares a lot. She cares a whole lot. And she's, she's worked with his brother and his dad for years before he came back to the business. So they have a relationship with her. They like her. They put her in this position so that she could grow. And then he's sort of putting that on the line now. But yeah, so there's the stairwell scene. There's another bathroom scene where they keep following each other around. I think there's like an office supply room scene. Like they, They are in a bathroom, dark corner. There's a car.

In a pro yes. Yeah. Tons of. Yeah. Which I'm, I'm here for. Like, I liked the fast burn and the sort of, well, they won't they, the love, hate sort of relationship with them. Yeah. I mean, I think we should say that first scene happens in chapter one.

Yeah. It's pretty quick. It's pretty quick. Yeah. We're not waiting too long to get down to the point of this book. Right. No, totally true. So then, you know, they do.

do start because of this, like he can't stop thinking about her. She's really interested, but doesn't want to ruin her career. But they start to kind of get past this sort of hate sex relationship and start to really realize like they're that he's a human being. He's a vulnerable side, you know, that he really starts learning more about like who she is, why she's always been standoffice, how much she cares about her work. He knows how smart she is. And so really he starts to think like, I want this to be more than a fling. I like her. She's smart. She's intelligent. She's fiery. Like, I want to keep working with her. But it's always a, it's going to fail. So they eventually have to, for her MBA project, keeping honest here, ladies, they have to go to a

conference. Wait, before this. His mom wants to set her up with a family. And what we haven't said is this guy has taken every pair of underwear she owns. Yeah. For each and he keeps her, he puts them in his desk drawer. Yeah. And severs them. And they. And they, They are like a trophy. They're like, yeah, they're like, love or love. Oh, no, but she, she adds it to her. She buys more underwear on your corporate card. Yeah.

As she was like, what the fuck are you doing? I was like, a little insufferable though because like, okay, so she since she gave him the expense report with her underwear and a new shirt because he tore her blouse. As she should. Yeah. And then she runs into him at the underwear store. He can't quit thinking about her, whatever. He passes the store. He goes in. She happens to be there. I think they have sex in the dressing room while they're there.

They do. But the next day, he gives her an expense account at the store. And she gets mad. Yes. And I'm like, what's the difference? It's because she had control the first round and said, no, you're going to pay me for all this stuff. Versus he says, go buy yourself something pretty for me. That's the difference. I can see a difference too. Like she's trying to get, first of all, he ripped her clothes. He owes her more. versus let me get you an expense account in an apartment on Fifth Avenue so I can fuck you anytime I want. Because you're a war. Right.

That's the impression that you, that she got, that she got, obviously. She didn't like it. She was pissed. No, yes. There was the dressing room at the, at the laundry store. Then yes, his mom tries to hook her up with a family friend, asks him to invite her to family dinner. They're already sleeping together.

He's feeling really uncomfortable about this. she goes in, starts meeting the guy the mom wants to work up with. Sorry, let's need it back. Oh. But before dinner, the guy sends her a bunch of roses to work. And she leaves work early and he intercepts the roses, reads the card, throws him in the garbage. It doesn't tell her. Doesn't tell her.

And then he goes to dinner. But he doesn't because, one, he knows her least favorite flower is roses. Two, he's like, fuck this guy. walking in a theater with flowers and romance when I have a glass window and several in a panty areas we can have sex in. And a panty fetish. He's not sure why it's bothering him so much, although the rest of us are. The rest of us know. Like all the readers know. Like, dude, just come on, guys. So they're at the, they're at their family dinner and Bennett's mom is trying to hook her out, Chloe up with the, with the friend. And they're having a nice time.

And Chloe kind of, I mean, she's like, this guy's fine. Like, he's a nice guy. But she's hung up on Bennett too. She finds out, you know, the Bennett through the flowers away. She's now pissed at him. And she kind of runs off to go to the bathroom to, like, excuse herself, like in a kind of a huff. And he goes to follow her to check on her and make sure she's okay. She lets him in.

They have an argument, which with these two then leads to sex. That's their foreplay. That's their foreplay. Exactly. And so then they finished the sex and then run into. to his sister. Sister-in-law. Yeah, sister-in-law.

The brother's wife. Yeah. So the sister-in-law basically catches them and, you know, kind of gives Benitha what, what. And Chloe leaves the house. And so it's this, this whole like set up for the book is just a lot of this, right? Like they fight, they have sex. Something happens. One of them runs off.

They fight. They have sex. Something happens. One of them runs away. But something happened to her dad, right? Yeah. So they, right before the conference that they had to go to. for her MBA, she has to, like, go to this conference and, like, present a paper.

There's papers being presented by these MBA students. And he goes every year as, like, a mentor to this program. And they're kind of in, like, a bit of a fight. But her dad may have had a heart attack. And so she's, you know, freaking out. She has to go back home. And so, you know, she goes to Bennett and says, I need to go check on my dad. And he's like, of course you should.

And she's kind of surprised by, like, how kind of caring is about it. And he's like, yes, you should go to your dad. I'll meet you at the conference. So she goes and takes her over it out. He hadn't had a heart attack. She spends like seven, eight days or something with her dad quite a long time, actually. And then she meets him in the conference for this thing. And there's just the two of them for a, you know, week at this conference. And so it's their opportunity to see, like, does this relationship, is this going to work as a relationship or not? Yeah, but we flipped there. We did a reverse here. He's in the lobby.

And some woman hands him her rule key. And all of the sudden, she's, He's like, what? No. This is my man. Comes over and does the reverse, that jealousy thing. So I think they start to fill all the feels. But they're both not wanting this for different ways. Like they're both trying to fight it.

But we know that's not going to work. That's never going to happen. But I think they do feel like this is their opportunity to like see if it works or not. And they kind of, they have to be careful in front of all of their potential colleagues. There's clients there. But, you know, there's a hotel room. They share a hotel room. They, well, they had separate.

Well, they had separate, but they end up in her hotel room. He ends up kind of moving in. Yeah, he's never even found his yet. He didn't know where to go. Which was next door. Totally. So then they go through the conference. They're, you know, looking at all the works.

And I guess it turned out that she didn't have to present the paper because she was like an extra special MBA student or something. But she's taking notes. She wants to see all the boots. He's kind of seeing this new through her eyes. And I think really appreciating her more as a person and not a sex doll. And then they go to dinner together and they're really like starting to think like this might work. And Chloe's really starting to buy into him as potential love match.

But then this is where the conflict happens. So they, Benet gets sick, right? Like it's food poisoning or something. And he is like down for the count and they have a client meeting that they have to go to. And Chloe was going to go to this client meeting with him as his intern. And he sends her in his place. He says, you know the material front and back. I'm sick. You go take the meeting. Here's what you tell them. You're going to do great. And so she's super nervous. She goes. She goes to the meeting. She does well. They're, you know, they're good to her. And she's like flying on Cloud 9, goes back to the room, tells him how great she thinks she did. He was like, I knew you could do it. And they're happy as little clams. And then they have to go back. to the office. So they check out of the hotel and on the way out of the hotel, Bennett, you asshole, is she's checking the master. And he meets, he's a bastard. He meets the client in the front of the hotel and Chloe, that doesn't sneak up, is walking up and starts hearing them talking.

Basically what happens is the client's like, oh, I'm glad I could finally talk to you, like the real person in charge. And Bennett's like, yeah, it was a good learning opportunity for her. I'm glad I gave her the opportunity. But I recognize that you want to talk to the people. who really know their business and basically diminished everything that she did the day before as he was propping her up to her and then just basically the client like bringing her back down. And she heard all of this and was obviously not pleased about it and was very clear with him that she was not pleased. I felt my face flame with anger and I stumbled back into the hotel lobby, suddenly feeling

like there wasn't enough oxygen anywhere. So then they are, they go back to the office and Chloe's really pissed and she's really starting to say like, you know what, this may not work for me, but she has to complete a project by the end of her MBA session. And she's already been working on this project with Bennett for however long. And she only has, I don't know, let's say, like three months left in her program. And so if she leaves Ryan Media, she's going to have to get another project, a year's worth of work into three months somewhere else. And then. And it's like there's no way that that's going to happen. Like she would never leave and she leaves. She turns in her notice. But I was pretty sure she went to work for this lower company. It was a lower company. It was a smaller company.

It was a lower company, smaller brand. It was like a dog food commercial type situation. Like way beneath her, like what she could do. Right. But I mean, I think the thing is too, like she is an intern. I think she can do really good work. But, you know, she can't rep a multimillion dollar. you know, project. And I think that's where Bennett was coming from. It obviously didn't

handle the right way. So she goes to the dog food company. She puts the project together and she has to present it to the MBA board. But basically Bennett's dad is like you're an idiot. And Benet's brother is like you're an idiot. And he realizes that he loves her and he can't be without her, um, but that he's really fucked up. And so he basically packages her entire work at Ryan Media and like sends it like goes to her right before she has to go on stage with the MBA project and basically says like, I'm an idiot. You're right. Please don't present this. It's beneath you. Please present the work that you did at Ryan Media. It's so much more impressive and you're going to have so much more opportunities if you do that. And she basically said, I'll turn it in and I'm

going to present this project. Like, this is the one I'm working on. I've done this work with this company. And she's, you know, like, says like, I'm going to do what I came here to do. But I'll turn it in and thank you. So she presents the project. She does a very good job on the presentation. Bennett apologizes, acknowledges his mistakes. And they sort of. of like the kind of, it concludes with them basically finding a balance between their love. I didn't see that coming. And they embraced their feelings. And blah, blah, blah.

Long story short, they end up together, of course. As we as everyone, as everyone expects. But I thought that the, the sex and this was really good. It got right, right to the sex right at the beginning. Oh, yeah. The love hate, to me was like really sexy. Like I love a good, like, kind of, you know they're going to do it. but like the banter, the witty banter and the fiery passion and the sort of like hating each other

like while you're screwing is like, I don't know, there's something like really like sexy about that to me. But then I did like, you know, how the plot kind of filled itself out like at the end where they started to really realize who they were as people. He starts really supporting her. There's always going to be conflict in any relationship, book or otherwise. And he sort of learns his lesson and they got together in the end. She forgave him. All right. That was a speedy recap one. I don't know. But see, like, although I thought the sex was very steamy and, and like, it kind of pulled you in, it kind of got monotonous for me. It was like, oh, there's a closet. Let's go ahead and do it now. First yell at me, then take my underwear and then let's have sex. Now, rinse and repeat. Let's go to my house. Okay, the bathroom. Perfect. Argue, yell, take the panties, rinse and rinse and rinse. I guess, I guess why it's like such a fast recap. Like, yeah. I just, I felt like, oh, we forgot about the elevator.

Yeah, like the elevator, the, like any small four by six room was up for grabs, you know, except the car. And I'm like, that's so uncomfortable. Why would you do that? But whatever, parking rooms. And the large conference room. They got the large conference room in there. So they did. Well, that was the biggest room they started in.

Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. They started big and went down there. Smaller. Yeah. I think you're right. And that's why it's kind of quick. I mean, these books are typically like so quick because of that, right? Like you kind of, you know exactly what you're getting into. The sexy scenes are fun. They're enjoyable to read. They're enjoyable to read. But they, but they go pretty quick because it's all leading up to that, you know, inevitable conflict and resolution. I thought it was cute. It was, it felt like the plot was very light.

I mean, there wasn't a lot of it. It was just seen after. It was rinse and repeat. Yeah. But I liked it a lot. I mean, I thought it was cute. Who doesn't enjoy like good office romance, romance, sex? Romance?

Not, or sex. Okay. Yeah. Office sex. They hate sexed each other. They hate a lot of hate sex. Like if you had to count, how many pairs of underwear are you thinking? I think like six.

I mean six or seven. And then she. Because she cut them off when they got to the conference because she's like, I only brought so much laundry. Underwear. Yeah. That's smart. Smart thinking.

You didn't start wearing like girdles or something a little harder. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. She wore garter belts and stockings like like a like a horror out of like a Western. Oh. Oh. Aggressive.

Oh. That is super aggressive. I mean. I still wear thigh eyes. That's the only person of people I know that wear those. No. They sell them at very high end. Do you sell them.

Laundice stores. I have a pair because you wear garter belts with shopping. Yes. I do. And back when we had, you know, where you wore heels to work every day and skirts, I absolutely did. I wear a thigh highs. If I have to wear hose with. I got my hair.

There's thigh highs. I have never owned a pair of thigh highs. Are you? I like them better. There's so much better. You wear a garter belt to hold them off then? No, I do, but I do buy the, I cheat a little bit. They have the thigh highs with sticks.

The rubber. Yeah. That stays up on its own. But sometimes that adhesive will, like, run. I was going to say, I feel like I would roll down. Yeah. They don't usually roll down. It's the adhesive on them will give you like a mark or like, kind of like if you have

a Band-Aid on too long or that, that tape stuff from the hospital. Same thing. So yes, I have done the garter belt thing. I mean, I never gave my panties to any of my executives. A name of your coworkers or, but I mean, to each his own, you know, I'm not judging like some people. I'm not judging. I do love a good, I do love a good office romance. And I think there is, there are the books, right, that are just stringing sex scene to sex scene. And this was one of those. It's just stringing sexting to sexing together. The plot kind of comes a bit more at the end.

You get like a little bit of a story, some conflict, and then, you know, you know the inevitable ending. But there was something to it. There was some, like, texture to the book and to the story that I did enjoy. But you know what I appreciate? I appreciate the fact that in the last couple that we've read that are like this, they always make the female character smarter than the male. It's nice because it's all written by women.

I'm not saying that's reality to all of our male listeners, but get close. But kind of. Totally. Totally. Well, okay, so if we had to rate the book, I would rate this book as a four for what it is. I think it was really well done. It was well written.

It was speedy, but good. The sex was good. Obviously, we have the chili pepper we still have to do. And it made sense. The whole story like means that there was nothing really shocking about it, but well written and a good book. And I would recommend it. I read it this three just because it was pretty late on on plot. And then for chili peppers because it really was. Yeah. It really was spicy. The sex scenes were I didn't think they were boring. I was I thought they were all really hot. And I love the buildup. And like he that and I loved how he was just like I can't. I'm going crazy not touching her. I'm going crazy not having her in my arms. Like, I just loved how much. And I like it when he falls first.

That is like one of my more favorite tropes because then she's in more control. And so I like, I like the way that the sex scenes were written and the romance was written. Yeah, I was a four chili pumper too. What about you, Kim? I would say probably three and a half four on the book. I listened and I read, which always kind of throws off the game, right? because you're in it. You've got one idea, one picture of how they sound, what they look like.

And then you hear them and you're like, maybe not. Maybe they're not as hot as I thought they were. Whatever. So I would go three and a half four. Bice, I would actually go four. I didn't think the sex scenes were boring. I thought they were repetitive. It was the same sex scene.

Just a different venue. Like that was kind of my thing was like, yeah, I mean, it was good the first time. Okay. We'll do it again. Sure, just different green screen. We're fine. So that's what it felt like to me. So four chili pepper, three and a half, four book-wise.

Yeah. I will say this wasn't my favorite audio book because it's, it's, I like duet style where it's a man and woman reading. And they, the man says the man things and the woman says the woman things. And this was all read by a woman, the entire book. She did a great job, but like, it's not my favorite. Yeah. Audio book for romance.

Yeah, when they try and do that low, oh. Yeah. She did good with what she had, you know. Exactly. But I did, like going back to that, I really did like the kind of one-off thought process lines where they would say one thing, but then they would have another line right under it just going, oh, actually it was really hot. This best sex I've ever had.

No, it was okay. You know, I just, I love that banter because that internal banter that they had the book too where they were just both really struggling. And you could hear it and feel it in the verbiage. So pretty well written. She really did make you feel like you were in that. And like you said, Jen, like when he said, like, I just want to touch her. You're like, yes.

Like, you know, you really, she makes you kind of live in the story with this. He was obsessed with her. Do it. Do it. And that's why it's a four to me, like, because even though it was stringing sex scenes together, like, actually the way she wrote it, like, you really did feel like, I think we said in another one of these, like, you want to be in the sex scenes. Like when you read this, when you think about like the steamy, right? And you definitely wanted this guy to want you, right? as the way she wrote it. Depends on the book. Some of the books we've read, I do not want to be in this.

Well, that's what I'm saying. This one, though. I want to be outside. But I don't get that on. Well, that is our book, Beautiful Bastard for this week. Short and sweet, but really good. It looks like a, from the three of us, something you should definitely pick up in your next bookshelf. All right. All right. Well, thanks everyone for joining us. Be sure to check us out on Facebook and Instagram. And you can find links to the podcast and our upcoming books on boosybookgasms.com. We will see you next time. Happy reading. Bye.

Hi. Thanks for tuning in. We hope today's episode was the climax of your day, leaving you breathless and wanting more. Until next time, remember to indulge in the pleasures of life and to keep the passion alive. You can find more tantalizing episodes at boosybookgasms.com. Enjoy the ride and we'll see you soon