Hidden Hearts
HE WOULD PROTECT HER WITH HIS LIFE…Architect Alexandra Golden insisted she didn't need the bodyguard her brother, Jake, had hired. Surely the papers Jake had sent weren't worth killing her for. Anyway, could she trust the handsome stranger? Sure, he was gentle with her and funny, and his I've-got-to-have-you kisses made her knees weak, but he was also arrogant, secretive and very dangerous.Roarke Stone, ex-CIA field officer, had failed to save his fiancée from a terrorist's bomb and had no intention of losing Alexandra to the powerful, deadly men who were pursuing her. He was determined to protect her, but could he protect his own vulnerable heart?
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“Would you please remove your bra?”
“Excuse me?” Alexandra thought she must have heard him wrong. “I thought you asked me to remove my bra.”
“I did.”
While she knew Roarke couldn’t be making a pass at her with them imprisoned in the car’s trunk, she didn’t like the idea of removing her underwear—even in the dark. She had to force a calmness into her tone that she didn’t feel. “Mind telling me why you want me to undress?”
As usual, Mr. Silver Tongue had an answer. “I want to push your bra out the taillight hole and use it as a flag.”
“Couldn’t we use your shirt?”
“Which article of clothing do you think will draw more attention?”
Dear Reader,
This holiday season, deck the halls with some of the most exciting names in romantic suspense: Anne Stuart and Gayle Wilson. These two award-winning authors have returned together to Harlequin Intrigue to reprise their much loved miniseries—CATSPAW and MEN OF MYSTERY—in a special 2-in-1 collection. Night and Day is a guaranteed keeper and the best stocking stuffer around!
Find out what happens when a single-dad secret agent has to protect a beautiful scientist as our MONTANA CONFIDENTIAL series continues with Licensed To Marry by Charlotte Douglas.
The stork is coming down the chimney this year, as Joanna Wayne begins a brand-new series of books set in the sultry South. Look for Another Woman’s Baby this month and more HIDDEN PASSIONS books to come in the near future.
Also available from Harlequin Intrigue is the second title in Susan Kearney’s HIDE AND SEEK trilogy. The search goes on in Hidden Hearts.
Happy holidays from all of us at Harlequin Intrigue.
Sincerely,
Denise O’Sullivan
Associate Senior Editor
Harlequin Intrigue
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Susan Kearney used to set herself on fire four times a day. Now she does something really hot—she writes romantic suspense. While she no longer performs her signature fire dive (she’s taken up figure skating), she never runs out of ideas for characters and plots. A business graduate from the University of Michigan, Susan is working on her fourteenth novel and writes full-time. She resides in a small town outside Tampa, Florida, with her husband and children and a spoiled Boston terrier.
Books by Susan Kearney
HARLEQUIN INTRIGUE
340—TARA’S CHILD
378—A BABY TO LOVE
410—LULLABY DECEPTION
428—SWEET DECEPTION
456—DECEIVING DADDY
478—PRIORITY MALE
552—A NIGHT WITHOUT END
586—CRADLE WILL ROCK*
590—LITTLE BOYS BLUE*
594—LULLABY AND GOODNIGHT*
636—THE HIDDEN YEARS†
640—HIDDEN HEARTS†
CAST OF CHARACTERS
Alexandra Golden—An architect, and a woman with a painful past. As she faces danger and Roarke’s charm, can she find the courage to fall in love?
Roarke Stone—Charming, dangerous and sexy, the ex-CIA rogue is hired as Alexandra’s bodyguard. He’s determined to protect Alexandra, but will he succeed in protecting his heart?
Jake Cockran—The brother Alexandra never met. When Jake sends his sister a package from her biological parents, he inadvertently places her in danger.
Jake and Alexandra’s biological parents—Letters, pictures and diaries—secrets from her mother and cloaked in a mystery that must be solved.
Carleton Jamison—An FBI agent who owes Roarke his life. He’s one of the few men Roarke trusts.
Top Dog—Roarke’s nickname for the bald man who wants Alexandra and her secrets.
Contents
Prologue
Alexandra Golden ignored the niggling worry that had shadowed her for the last two days. Ever since she’d received a package related to her mysterious past, she’d been fighting not to let it ruin her enjoyment of her latest accomplishment—a triumph she’d worked so hard to achieve.
With deep satisfaction and pride, Alexandra leaned over the finished blueprints of her architectural firm’s first skyscraper. The two-hundred-story bank building overlooking the St. John’s River in downtown Jacksonville, Florida, would boast majestic views of several bridges, the thriving waterfront and a good part of the bustling city. Best of all, it would be the first new construction project this decade to be added to Jacksonville’s elegant skyline by a female architect.
As Alexandra smoothed her palm over the graceful lines of the beautiful bank building she would create out of soaring steel, solid concrete and cool-blue glass, she didn’t regret one moment of the hard work she’d done to arrive at this moment. Just mastering the math required to become an architect had almost done her in, but she’d studied harder than many of her colleagues. Then she’d taken risks to establish her own firm, and she had even spread her finances to the limit to go after the Benson Bank project.
Early in her career, she’d made a friend. Charlotte Benson, heir to the Benson financial empire, had supported Alexandra’s firm from the beginning. Charlotte had convinced her mostly male board of directors that a woman architect would help usher in the future, a future where women dropped off their children in day-care centers in the buildings where they worked. A future where women who opened their own businesses and sought financing from a bank would feel welcome. A future where widows could come in for investment counseling and trust their stock portfolios to the competent hands of Benson Securities’s brokers.
