He protected her from thieves while she stole his heart.
From the moment he saw Jennifer Roberts, his instinct was to protect her. But she wanted nothing to do with him.
In fact, the last thing Jennifer wanted to do that Saturday afternoon was call the police. She didn’t trust them. She’d fallen hard for a cop—the exact person every child is told to run to for safety—and he betrayed her and broke her heart. She wouldn’t make that mistake again.
But she has no choice when she discovers her apartment has been broken into and five simple words turn her world upside down: “You called for the police?” When blond-haired, blue-eyed Max Domer arrives he is ready to protect and serve. It is his motto. It will be her downfall.
Max is ready to leave Center City behind, cut all ties and make a fresh start as a detective on the West Coast. There is nothing unusual about the burglary call he catches, except that the woman is stunning and, for some reason, antagonistic toward police. But she’s caught in someone’s crosshairs—her car is stolen, her father dies, and murder comes to her doorstep—and, like it or not, she needs his help.
But while Max is on the trail of a master crime ring, the real thief sets about stealing his heart. And Jennifer, who innocently lets her guard down, learns she can’t judge a man by his uniform. They are polar opposites destined to stand together and fight for their future.
Excerpt
She’d haunted his thoughts in bits and pieces, like a mental jigsaw puzzle. Her flashing green eyes. Her silky underthings. The way her breasts heaved when she turned angry. The dip of
the corners of her mouth in sadness.
He’d shut down out of necessity after his divorce but, over the years, he’d dated other women and even liked some of them. But not enough to devote time to a relationship. Something about Jennifer Roberts caught his fancy in a way no one else had. Not since Elizabeth. But back then, he was young and stupid. He
called the shots now.
He was inclined to apologize to Jennifer one more time for leering and reacting like a teenager when he saw the lingerie in her drawer. He was proud of his profession and she needed to
hear an apology on behalf of his colleagues for whatever it was
that made her detest the police.
He’d lain in the hotel bed last night recalling her tight white top, her short shorts and her pouting mouth. They were lips just begging to be kissed. That was another thing he should apologize
for, thinking those kinds of thoughts. Totally unprofessional.
Perhaps the best way to change her attitude was to solve her
case.
With her carefully crafted sentences and explicit word choices, Rena Koontz writes with precision and elegance. In Thief of the Heart, her writing style grabbed my attention and her characters and her story kept me engaged. I enjoyed the way she brought the heroine and the hero together naturally when the heroine's apartment was burglarized and she needed a policeman to keep her safe. A dedicated police officer, the hunky hero took care of her in every meaning of the phrase. As the danger escalated, the main characters faced it together and found tenderness and strength in each other's arms. Once again, Ms. Koontz has written a well-crafted and steamy story.
I loved him. At age twelve he touched my heart with his music. At age twenty he captured my heart when our eyes met as he sat on a stage and sang Four months later, he fractured my heart with his refusal to allow us to stay together. At age seventy
