Publisher's Synopsis
Hollywood superstar Conor Fitzpatrick is captivated when he meets a beautiful young woman who looks eerily like the childhood sweetheart he left back in Ireland 13 years ago. But pretty Kiera Donovan is hiding a tragic secret that will change his life-and could prove deadly to them both! The hot, electric pressure of his mouth cut off her feverish words like a samurai's razor-sharp blade. Kiera was absolutely sure, in that first stunned moment, that every single one of her bones was melting like wax. And then she wasn't capable of thinking at all as exquisite pleasure erupted through her nerve endings, and her brain simply dissolved. "Now, you were saying?" His warm breath was feather-light against her cheek. "I was?" She was reeling with shock. "Mmmm. Something about my being a blithering idiot?" He kissed her again, and this time it was a gentle caress that was even more devastating. "You are?" Helplessly she fought to regain her balance. Why was the room tilting at such a strange angle? Then she felt the plush softness of her couch, and her eyes snapped open with a different kind of shock. "Too bloody right you are!" Furiously she shoved his hands away, and struggled to sit up. "Don't you even try it, Conor Fitzpatrick! I'm no meek girl who'll sit home waiting while you gad all about the world with your fancy friends!" Kiera's snappy impudence amused him. "What if I asked you to gad about with me?" That brought back the first panic, and a fresh bout of tears. "Don't even joke about something like that! You don't know me...God help me, Con, you don't know me at all!" "Liam does." A sudden undercurrent of frustration darkened his lyrical voice. "Why don't you tell me what he knows about you, that makes him watch you like a bloody hawk?" She hadn't expected a confrontation here and now. Maybe, after all, it would've been less agonizing to have Liam interrogating her. At least then she wouldn't feel like her heart was splintering into tiny little shards. "You'd hate me if you knew." Her rejoinder was whisper-soft and laced with pain. "Why don't you just tell me, and let me be the judge?" Frustration had him pacing angrily across the room. "If it's money you're after, or some kind of prenuptial agreement..." "What?" That idea was so ludicrous, she almost burst out laughing. "No! Why would I want that? You don't want to get married any more than I do!" "Playing the field?" Scowling, he spun around and glared at her. "Funny, I didn't think you were the type. Who's my competition, then?" "A twelve year old girl!" Exasperation made her snap out the reply before common sense could bite back the words. "She's my niece and she's in danger! I can't make any kind of commitment to anyone else until I know she's safe!" That stopped him dead in his tracks. "What kind of danger?" "That's none of your business." The color drained from her cheeks as she realized how very nearly she'd blurted out the truth. "Oh, so my life is an open book, but I'm not good enough to share in your troubles?" His caustic retort sliced deep into her heart; she swore that she could actually feel the knife gashing into her aching chest. "I can't involve anyone else, Conor. Don't you see, this isn't about you; it's about keeping her safe! If I go back-or if anyone does who has a connection to me-he'll kill her!" "Who?" Conor clamped a tight lid on his churning emotions, and bent down to grip Kiera's icy hands. "Please, Con, don't do this to me! You can't be involved! It's desperately important!" "I'm already involved." It was only when he saw the quick panic on her face that he realized the deeper implication of his own words. "I am involved, aren't I?" Everything inside him seemed to freeze. "How, Kiera? Why me, specifically?" This time it was his voice that was whisper-soft. And then, hard on the heels of his first realization, "You've been afraid of this from the very first moment I saw you