Being a father shouldnât feel this risky!
Thereâs not a lot former CIA agent Mark Sharpe hasnât done. Yet suddenly heâs in a world of firstsâfirst time being a father, first time being self-employedâ¦and first time being attracted to his employee. JoJo Hatcher, with her attitude, her tattoos and her investigative talents, tempts him in ways he canât explain. With each day she becomes more irresistible. How is he supposed to function in this messed-up situation?
Then his teenage daughter, Sophie, is threatened. Thereâs only one person he trusts to help him: JoJo. As they work to untangle the mystery, Mark imagines a future together that includes another firstâfamily.
âI can walk right in front of you and youâll never recognize me.â
Mark scoffed at JoJoâs boast. âJoJo, you do realize I was a CIA black-ops analyst in the field for years.â
âAnd years and yearsâ¦â His daughter rolled her eyes.
Okay, maybe he wasnât going to impress Sophie.
âObservation is what I do,â he continued as though Sophie hadnât interrupted. âItâs how I survived. You canât get past me. Especially not with the tattoos.â
JoJo held out her hand. âItâs a bet, then. I do this. I get the job. You win. You get to show off your observation skills to your daughter. The only thing youâre out is a half hour of your time.â
âWe were going to go eatâ¦.â
âAre you kidding me? Iâm not leaving,â Sophie said. âI want to see this.â
JoJo winked at Sophie and his daughter smiled back. Great, he thought. Sheâd known this woman for minutes and they had bonded more tightly than he had with his daughter in months.
Still, heâd play out this little wager. What did he have to lose? It wasnât like JoJo would ever get past him.
Dear Reader,
This is my third story set in the Tyler Group world (One Final Step, October 2012, and An Act of Persuasion, March 2013) and while an author never plays favorites with her books, I have to say this was one of the most satisfying books I have ever written. I fell in love with Mark and Sophie, an absent father and his daughter, who reunited in An Act of Persuasion. When I thought about Markâs story and giving him his happy-ever-after, I really couldnât think about him alone.
It had to be Mark and Sophie and their happy-ever-after. That meant I needed the type of heroine I thought would suit them both. Thatâs when JoJo walked on to the scene.
Sheâs not exactly conventional and she comes with a lot of baggage. But somehow the three of them make this story work. So this isnât a story about Mark and JoJo. This is a story about Mark and JoJo and Sophie and how together they become a family.
I love to hear from readersâthe good, the bad and the uglyâso check out my website, www.stephaniedoyle.net.
Happy reading!
Stephanie Doyle
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Stephanie Doyle, a dedicated romance reader, began to pen her own romantic adventures at age sixteen. She began submitting to Mills & Boon at age eighteen and by twenty-six her first book was published. Fifteen years later, she still loves what she does, as each book is a new adventure. She lives in South Jersey with her cat, Lex, and her two kittens, who have taken over everything. When she isnât thinking about escaping to the beach, sheâs working on her next idea.
For Wanda
Because when I said I could never, ever write Mills & Boon Superromance books, she said letâs not say ever.
PROLOGUE
âI NEED YOU to focus, Josephine.â
She was focusing. She was focusing very hard. She knew that the man in front of her was a police detective. He had brown hair with gray mixed in on the sides. He wore brown leather shoes and khaki pants that were fraying a little around the hem. His badge number was 79134.
Sheâd made herself memorize itâ79134.
âTell me again everything that you saw.â
Why? Sheâd said it all already. It wasnât going to change.
âDo it, JoJo. Tell him again.â Her father paced in the living room, stopping every once in a while at the chair where her mom sat so he could put his hand on her shoulder. It only made her mom cry harder.
âWe were at the mall.â
âThe strip mall on Springfield,â her mother interjected. âItâs where I dropped them off. They were supposed to go shopping, then call me to pick them up. They were supposed to stay there.â
The detective nodded, and turned to JoJo. âBut you decided to leave the mall instead.â
âWe wanted to see a movie. Two boys from our class were supposed to meet us there.â JoJo winced at the sound of her father hissing. âIt wasnât like a date or anything, Dad. They were just friends.â
JoJo and Julia were only fourteen. They had already been told by their parents over and over that they werenât allowed to date until sixteen. Which was so stupid. All the freshman girls in high school already had boyfriends. They were, like, the only single girls in the class.