When a lethal traitor
threatens to derail the top-secret SPEAR agency, A YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY continuesâ¦.
Alex Bok
Tall, virile, potently sexyâlives every moment
as if it were his last.
On a deadly mission to bring down a traitor,
this hard-edged bachelor is reunited with the only woman who had ever truly touched his heart. Would he pay the ultimate price for passionâs sake?
Nora Lowe
She has eyes the color of the pale blue dawn,
long, rippling black hairâand is saving all her love for one unforgettable man.
She didnât know what Alex Bok was doing on her
archeological digâor why danger shadowed his every move. So she engaged in a sweetly seductive game of kiss and tellâ¦.
The man at the helm
Powerful, pragmaticâthe shadowed entity
no one sees.
Jonah had given Agent Bok direct ordersâ
infiltrate the nearby terrorist compound and ensnare the sinister Simon in a deadly trap. But was one of his own about to be neutralized by love?
Dear Reader,
As the Intimate Moments quarter of our yearlong 20>th anniversary promotion draws to a close, we offer you a month so full of reading excitement, youâll hardly know where to start. How about with Night Shield, the newest NIGHT TALES title from New York Times bestselling author Nora Roberts? As always, Nora delivers characters youâll never forget and a plot guaranteed to keep you turning the pages. And donât miss our special NIGHT TALES reissue, also available this month wherever you buy books.
What next? How about Night of No Return, rising star Eileen Wilksâs contribution to our in-line continuity, A YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY? This emotional and suspenseful tale will have you on the edge of your seatâand longing for the next book in the series. As an additional treat this month, we offer you an in-line continuation of our extremely popular out-of-series continuity, 36 HOURS. Bestselling author Susan Mallery kicks things off with Cinderella for a Night. Youâll love this book, along with the three Intimate Moments novelsâand one stand-alone Christmas anthologyâthat follow it.
Rounding out the month, we have a new book from Beverly Bird, one of the authors who helped define Intimate Moments in its very first month of publication. Sheâs joined by Mary McBride and Virginia Kantra, each of whom contributes a top-notch novel to the month.
Next month, look for a special two-in-one volume by Maggie Shayne and Marilyn Pappano, called Who Do You Love? And in November, watch for the debut of our stunning new cover design.
Leslie J. Wainger
Executive Senior Editor
A note from RITA Award Finalist Eileen Wilks,
author of ten novels for Silhouette Books:
Dear Reader,
A YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLYâwow! The name alone was enough to make me excited about being part of this continuity series. I feel privileged indeed to be in the company of so many stellar writers, and I fell hard for the heroesâmen and women bothâwho are the agents of SPEAR. Whatâs not to love? With spies and bad guys, honor faced off against villainy and love pushed to its limits, A YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY promises 12 extraordinary stories about the power and danger of love.
My story, Night of No Return, is set in a land of extremes. Alex Bok is on the trail of terrorists and stolen weapons in the Sinai Desert. He finds more than he bargained for, and his courage is pushed to its limits by the dictates of honorâand by a gutsy heroine who dares him to take the biggest risk of all.
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Epilogue
Southern California, U.S.A., September 7
He didnât want to die.
It was a disconcerting thing for a man like Alex to learn at the age of thirty-four. He sat at one of the wrought-iron tables on the western terrace, dripping with sweat as he watched the southern California sky turn gaudy with sunset over the darkening Pacific Ocean. If the air could have held one dram more of that eye-burning orange, he thought, heâd be able to pluck it like a guitar string.
Color. Life. He drank them both in, relishing the way the muscles in his thighs jumped and the burn in his calves. His heartbeat pleased him. It was almost back to normal, though heâd just finished a five-mile run in the scrubby mountains surrounding the resort. If he wasnât quite at the peak of conditioning yet, he was well enough. His body had done everything heâd asked of it. He was fit again, ready for assignment.
And alive. He was so damned glad to be alive. The depth of his gratitude troubled him because it was rooted in fear, the same fear that shredded his sleep all too often.
He was the only guest on the large flagstone terrace at this hour. The heat was keeping most people inside, or in the pool. A waiter had brought him a glass and a pitcher of ice water when heâd first reached the terrace. The staff here at Condor Mountain Resort and Spa knew him; heâd stayed here before, though never for as long as heâd been here this time.