Ex-Ranger Quinn Rafferty is just going through the motions
of life, keeping to himself and occasionally working
finding scum who have skipped on their bail. As a child,
being on his own was a form of survival as he ran from his
abusive mother. The day she died of an overdose was a
blessing because he soon found out he had a twin brother
and a father determined to love him. Unfortunately, love
has never been easy for Quinn and he never lets anyone
close. The one time he fell in love, she died a horrific
death. To this day, he still blames himself for letting it
happen. Even after all these years, his brother is still
trying to break through the walls Quinn has put around his
heart. Then one unexpected look into his new neighbor's
eyes and he knows he is lost.
Sara Davis has too many secrets and being on the run for
the last two years makes it hard to trust anyone. Changing
her appearance, switching cell phones periodically, moving
from crappy place to crappy place and working jobs that pay
cash under the table have made it impossible to get close
to anyone. One day, at the café where she is a waitress, a
friendly woman offers an apartment she has vacant in her
home. The place calls to her as no other, with flowers
blooming, homemade meals in the kitchen and a cozy feeling
of being home and safe. The moment Sara lays eyes on her
sexy neighbor, she is unable to stop herself from getting
just a little closer, that is until her past throws her a
monumental curve.
Quinn's story has wrenching heartache, growing passion and
some surprises you won't even see coming. Definitely a
treasured read!
The national bestselling author of Fragile returns
with a luscious new blend of sex and suspense.
Quinn Rafferty is working as a bounty hunter for a private
detective agency in St. Louis when a new neighbor catches
his eye. He's drawn to her-but he has his own soul to mend
before he can worry about anyone else.
Sarah
McElyea is on the run, but not for the usual reasons a woman
goes on the lam. She has a plan for her future. And as much
as she finds herself attracted to her gruff, tough neighbor,
she can't risk telling him the secrets she's hiding.
But Quinn must get closer to Sarah when she turns
out to be the target of his new missing persons case, and
both Quinn and Sarah will have to expose their true
feelings-as well as their fragile hearts-if their love is to
survive.
Excerpt
He opened the door—
And stopped dead in his tracks as somebody all but fell into
his arms. Somebody…a woman. And not Theresa.
He caught her just above her elbows, automatically steadying
her.
“I’m sorry,” she said, her voice soft and low.
Then she lifted her face and Quinn found himself gazing into
the biggest, brownest eyes he’d ever seen in his life.
Feeling a little dazed, he studied her face while she
stammered out another apology.
Quinn barely heard it.
He was too busy staring at her mouth. A very pretty mouth, a
cupid’s bow mouth slicked with deep, vibrant red. Under his
hands, he could feel silken smooth skin and unable to
resist, he stroked a thumb along her inner arm.
Her skin was soft, soft and warm. He was also pretty sure
she had the creamiest, most flawless skin imaginable. Her
shoulder-length hair was a shade caught between blonde and
brown, nondescript, but for some reason, he found himself
thinking about tangling his fingers in that hair and holding
her head still while he kissed that red-slicked mouth.
Well, hello…he could all but feet his libido kicking up as
he stared at that mouth. Every last one of his senses tuned
in on her—
The way she looked…sex and sin.
The way she smelled…sex and sin.
The way she sounded…sex and sin.
The way she felt…the way she might taste. Sex and sin. He
knew it without a doubt. She’d taste like sex and sin.
His mouth was all but watering.
“Ahhh…excuse me,” she said, tugging against his light hold.
“Uh…yeah.” He uncurled his fingers and let go, although he
hated every second of it.
She immediately backed away, putting a good five feet in
between them and eying him nervously. In that moment, he was
acutely aware of the fact that he hadn’t bothered shaving
that morning, or the morning before. He was also acutely
aware of the wrinkled state of his gray T-shirt and the worn
jeans he wore. He hadn’t gotten into the habit of wearing
the unofficial uniform worn by most of the guys who worked
for Gearing, but he’d swapped out the black T-shirt that
read Bond Enforcement for a plain one. Wearing those
particular shirts outside of work had ended up causing him a
headache or two so when he remembered, he changed out of
them before leaving the office.
She continued to stare at him, her face expressionless and
her eyes measuring. She might have just continued to stare
at him indefinitely if Theresa hadn’t come bustling down the
hall. “Quinn?”
Tearing his eyes away from the unknown woman, he smiled at
his landlord. It no longer seemed so weird to smile at
somebody—as in he didn’t worry his face might crack if he
wasn’t careful. Still, the smile on his face did feel odd.
“Hey, Theresa. I didn’t know you had company.”
She beamed at him. “This isn’t company. This is your new
neighbor. She just moved in to the upstairs apartment.
Sara…I’d like you to meet Quinn Rafferty. Quinn, this is
Sara Davis.”
Sara.
Neighbor.
Staring into Sara’s dark brown eyes, his heart sank just a
little. Great.
Some people collected books.
Some people collected knickknacks.
Some people collected coins.
Theresa collected lost souls, as evidenced by the fact that
he was living in her basement after she’d charmed him into
changing her tire outside Dierburg’s a few months earlier.
The last woman to stay in that apartment had ended up being
a battered woman hiding out from her ex. Before that, it had
been a girl who’d been all of nineteen, with two kids and a
third on the way. When that one had left, she’d ended up
stealing from Theresa and skipping out on the piddling
amount of rent that Theresa had coming.
If Sara Davis was living in Theresa’s upstairs apartment,
that made her pretty much off limits. It didn’t matter that
his dormant sex drive was all of sudden flaring up on him.
The last thing Quinn needed to be around was another lost
soul, not when he still struggled to find his own.
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