Book Two in the Stolen Series
Release Date: Summer 2009

Antiquities dealer Peter Kauffman walked a fine line between clean and corrupt for years. Until, that is, he met the one woman who changed his life - Egyptologist Katherine Meyer. Their love affair burned white-hot in Egypt, until the day Pete’s lies and half-truths caught up with him. Then their relationship imploded, and Kat was lost for good.

Six years later, Pete finds himself in the middle of a war he never planned for. And the one woman he thought he’d lost years before is suddenly back. The lies this time aren’t just his though. And the only way for either one to find the truth is to work together Can they trust each other? Old sparks ignite. And a killer is on the loose. But the biggest threat for both of them is a heat each thought was stolen long ago…

◊ ◊ ◊

Excerpted from STOLEN HEAT

“Hey,” Pete rasped. He cleared his throat, ready to tear off someone’s head if he didn’t get the hell out of here and back to his suite at the Waldorf pronto. There was an Alka-Seltzer there with his name on it. “What the hell is going—”

The figure on the couch across the room sat bolt upright, blinked several times and stared at him with big, brown, stunned eyes.

And suddenly he couldn’t remember just what he’d wanted to know in the first place.

“Oh, shit,” he whispered.

The blood rushed from his head and went due south, leaving him lightheaded and shaky.

No way this was happening. He was still drunk. That was the only explanation. He was tripped out on some seriously bad champagne and hallucinating because this wasn’t real. He wasn’t staring at Katherine Meyer alive and in the flesh because she was dead.

The woman rose slowly from the couch. And all Pete could do was stare as she rubbed her hands against her thighs and took a cautious step toward him.

It looked like Kat. A variation anyway. This woman’s hair was nearly black and cut short as a boy’s. Kat’s hair had always been long and a deep mocha color. But the face – Holy Hell – the  face was the same. The same wide doe eyes, the same pouty lips, the same dark mole on the upper right side of her mouth.

“Pete. Oh. You startled me. I…Are you okay?”

It sounded like her, too. Good God.

He reached out and caught the door handle for support before his legs gave out. A thousand questions fired off in his brain, and though he tried to form words, he couldn’t get his lips to work.

Hallucinating. You’re hallucinating, man. That’s the only explanation.

“I…” She started to speak again, then closed her mouth quickly at what he knew had to be his stunned expression. But when she sank her top teeth into her bottom lip the way Kat always had when she’d been shy or uncertain about something, reality came crashing in on him.

She squared her shoulders and lifted her chin. “I guess you’re ready to chat. I think it’s safe to say you look a little surprised.”

Surprised?

No-fucking-way.