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âBoth the physical and wartime action between the comrades ramp up the excitement in this UNIFORMLY HOT! tale.â
âRT Book Reviews on Coming Up for Air
âA quick pace and easy chemistry make for an engaging read, starring a couple readers will root for.â
âRT Book Reviews on No Going Back
âSexy characters that you just canât help but fall in love with!â
âNight Owl Reviews on Devil in Dress Blues
âThe romance is intense and sure to please.â
âRT Book Reviews on Hot-Blooded
âWonderful, sexy characters and an exciting, innovative story make this a winner! 4½ Stars, Top Pickâ
âRT Book Reviews on Flyboy
Dear Reader,
Iâve always been fascinated by stories about coal miners. Maybe itâs because my great-grandfather lost his dad and his four brothers in a coal-mining disaster. Or maybe itâs because Iâm constantly amazed by the coal minerâs indomitable spirit, courage and resilience. AndâIâll admit itâthereâs something incredibly sexy about a guy whoâs not afraid to get dirty.
Like my heroine, Iâm a little claustrophobic and afraid of the dark, so Iâm truly in awe of the men and women who willingly descend hundreds of feet below the earthâs surface every day, away from the sunlight, in order to support their families. When I decided to write a story about a coal miner, I knew he had to have that same strength and heroic spirit.
Cole Mackinnon is a true hero, willing to put his job, his reputation and his heart on the line for what he believes in. And he believes in Lacey Delaney, the brilliant design engineer who is determined to push him to his breaking point. Sheâs spent most of her life trying to conquer her own fears, but itâs not until she meets Cole that she realizes some of the best things happen in the dark â¦
I hope you enjoy Cole and Laceyâs story!
Happy reading,
Karen Foley
KAREN FOLEY is an incurable romantic. When sheâs not working for the Department of Defense, sheâs writing sexy romances with strong heroes and happy endings. She lives in Massachusetts with her husband and two daughters, an overgrown puppy and two very spoiled cats. Karen enjoys hearing from her readers. You can find out more about her by visiting www.karenefoley. com.
This book is dedicated to my amazing mother.
MORE THAN ANYTHING, Lacey Delaney hated the darkâof being alone in the dark. She wouldnât admit it to anyone, but at twenty-seven years old, she still slept with a bedside light on. It didnât always keep the nightmares at bay, but at least when she woke up, panicked and gasping for breath, she wasnât engulfed in utter blackness. Even now, sitting in the relative safety of her car, she had only to close her eyes to envision her father buried alive in a coal mining disaster so horrific that his body had never been recovered.
Maybe her friend, Julia, was right and she should just find herself a man to keep her so pleasurably occupied at night that sheâd be too sated and tired to dream. Unfortunately, both her job as a design engineer for StarPoint Technologies and her overprotective mother kept her too busy to meet many eligible men. Katherine Delaney gave a whole new meaning to the term helicopter parent. She didnât just hover; she flew fully armed, ready to obliterate any obstacles in Laceyâs path, or to extract her from any danger.
Now here she was ⦠alone, broken down in the middle of nowhere, with darkness pressing in on all sides. If her mother could see her now, sheâd have a complete fit. The thought made Lacey smile. Her mother hadnât wanted Lacey to travel to Kentucky; had urged her to give the assignment to somebody else. Of course, the more her mother insisted that Lacey stay home, the more determined she was to go. Sometimes it felt as if the entire course of her life had been dictated by her motherâs belief that something would happen to Lacey if she wasnât there to protect her.
Lacey understood the genesis of her motherâs anxiety. Sheâd been just eight years old when her father was killed, and her mother lived in fear that something terrible would happen to Lacey, too. That worry hadnât diminished as Lacey grew older; if anything, it had ballooned into an irrational need to cocoon her against all dangers, real or perceived. And for a long time, Lacey had allowed it. But what had once seemed like parental concern for her welfare now felt like micromanagement of her life. More and more, Lacey found herself resenting her motherâs intrusive habits.
She loved her mom, but she wanted to be free, to experience life, and all its pitfalls, on her own terms. She wanted to be taken seriously, and not viewed as someone who needed to be taken care of. Unfortunately, her small stature seemed to bring out a protective instinct in those she worked with, and Lacey was getting a little tired of insisting that she could do things on her own. So when StarPoint Technologies had offered the opportunity to field-test STAR, the new Subterranean Advanced Receiver unit that would become the latest technology in NASAâs arsenal of global positioning systems, Lacey had jumped at it.