Janet Maple and Dennis Walker make a good team: she is a top-notch white collar crime investigator, and so is he. Both Janet and Dennis are thrown in for a loop when Janet’s treacherous snake of an ex-boyfriend, Alex Kingsley, is appointed as their new boss, and the case that was supposed to be the highlight of their careers is dismissed for lack of evidence.
To make matters worse, Alex is asking Janet to get back together, and the one man she wishes would ask her out sees her as nothing more than a coworker. Janet’s love life soon becomes the least of her worries, as she begins to suspect that Alex’s rekindled interest in her is driven by ulterior motives. She is determined to get to the bottom of things, but she can’t do it alone.
Together, Janet and Dennis team up to solve a tangled white collar crime web that leads to powerful politicians and corporate executives. Armed with their keen instincts and skills, Janet and Dennis are bound to succeed. There is just one glitch: both are attracted to each other, and both refuse to admit it. Will Janet and Dennis solve the biggest case of their careers or will their attraction to each other get in the way?
*Catching the Bad Guy is book two of the Janet Maple Series, but it can easily be read on its own.*
An excerpt
Janet brought the pizza into the living room and saw that Dennis was busy tinkering with a gadget in his hands. “It’s the transmitter for the bug,” Dennis explained.
“Is it working?” Janet asked as she placed the food on the reading table.
Dennis adjusted the controls, and distant human voices erupted from the speaker. “It is now. Can you recognize Muller’s voice?”
Janet recognized Muller’s cocky inflection emanating through the receiver. “Yes, that’s him all right!” she exclaimed, straining her ears to make sense of the conversation that was taking place on the other end of the transmitter.
“Now all we have to do is sit back and wait for the evidence to glide right into our hands.” Dennis took a bite of pizza and chewed it with relish.
Janet resisted the urge to smack the man. “It would also help if we could actually make out what they are saying,” she added pointedly.
“Let them settle in first. They are just shooting the breeze for now.” Dennis took a swallow of his beer. He handed Janet her beer. “Here, let’s toast to success.”
“I don’t want to jinx it.” Janet took the beer bottle from Dennis’s hand and placed it on the table. “And I don’t drink on the job,” she added because that was all it was—a job. Even though it was Saturday night, and a handsome man was sprawled out on her couch, drinking beer, he was nothing more than a colleague. A colleague who also happened to kiss her earlier but, as Dennis had made clear, that too had been part of the job, and Janet had no intention of disappointing him.
“Fine, be boring.” Dennis shrugged, reaching for the beer. “I on the other hand think that there’s nothing wrong with combining business with a little bit of pleasure.”
Maybe it was the tone of Dennis’s voice, or maybe it was the way his lithe, muscular body lay stretched out on Janet’s couch only a few inches away from her, but she felt her face growing hot. Actually, she sensed her entire body temperature rising. This will not do, Janet thought, this will not do at all. There she was, on the brink of closing what could easily turn out to be the biggest case of her career, and all she could think about was the tantalizing scent of Dennis’s cologne and the sexy, although admittedly smug, smile on his face. She forced herself not to think about the glint in his blue eyes, the faint stubble on his cheeks, and the hollow of his throat that, along with a bit of clavicle bone, was peeking through the open collar of his shirt.
About the author
Marie Astor is a die-hard romantic, which is why she loves writing in the contemporary romance genre. She is the author of Janet Maple romantic suspense series: To Catch a Bad Guy and Catching the Bad Guy, contemporary romance novels This Tangled Thing Called Love, Lucky Charm, Smitten at First Sight, and a short story collection, A Dress in a Window. Marie is also the author of young adult fantasy adventure novel, Over the Mountain and Back. Marie’s next novel, book three of the Janet Maple Series, is expected to be released in late fall of 2013.
In her spare time, Marie enjoys being adventurous out-of-doors. She often gets new story ideas while she is hiking up a mountain or trying to avoid bumping into a tree while skiing.
Marie loves hearing from her readers and always answers all of her email personally. Please visit www.marieastor.com to join Marie’s mailing list for updates on contests and new book releases or drop her a line at marie.astor@yahoo.com.
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