Nothing about our interactions is comfortable, yet he comforts me as no one can.

Years ago I gave up on love. Shackled with past traumas and driven to succeed professionally, I keep a tight rein on my desires and ignore my needs. But when I collide with a magnetic Scotsman at a sex club, my carefully balanced world begins to totter. He seeks legal representation, and my boss insists I oblige. He wants me, and my body urges me to comply. Yet he’s off limits in every way. For one, I’m his lawyer, and he’s my client. For another, we’re searching for the woman he loved—possibly still loves. What’s more, he’s a heartthrob, completely out of my league. And most disturbingly, he makes me crave things I’ve never dared to imagine, subduing me with one word, one flick of a brow. The more he wears down my defenses, the more I suspect the real hurdles keeping me from love are my own fears. Can I conquer them before they undo me?

She’s in my bloodstream; I breathe her in like oxygen.

Brushing past a hawthorn bud on the branch, I pluck her and make her mine. Sweet, fierce, and passionate, she opens up into a flower under my ministrations. Yet at every turn she needs me to seize control and confiscate her will. She doubts herself, doubts love, and doubts men. I plan on shattering her walls and teaching her to listen to her body. But my past dogs me, refusing to let me enjoy my sweet bud in peace. Once forced to serve traffickers, I now vow to bring down the remnants of their organization. I’m bound to search for a woman I promised to protect who’s suspected of murder and other crimes. Some say I’m trying to run with the hare and hunt with the hounds. As one woman draws me toward my future and the other pulls me toward my past, I have to confront the wrongs I’ve committed head-on. Can I beat the odds and claim my forbidden love?

Amazon: https://a.co/d/fFQs5Ow <https://a.co/d/fFQs5Ow

A former academic, I took up writing romance recently and quite by accident. In early 2022 the right elements conjoined—my love of villains, my taste for high comedy, and my pull towards strong women. Now I can’t stop cooking up plots and drawing new characters. Though I write mostly dark romance, I invariably weave plenty of reality into the fantasy. My preference for lone wolves, quirky characters, and intense plot results in what my reader and author friends call romance with teeth. I live in Berkeley, California with my dachshund-Chihuahua, Pooh-bah. When I’m not writing, I love traveling, cooking, playing piano, and cycling in the nearby hills.

Find me on my website: https://kathleenhaley1.wixsite.com/my-site-2

or on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/kathleenlotthaley/