Stay With Me (A Quaking Heart Novel - Book Two) (Volume 2)

By Janith Hooper

Description:

When Johnnie Williams returns from Montana to orderly city life, he finds his job as a Pinkerton detective no longer sparks his passion like it used to . . . until Rose Marie crosses his path, knee deep in criminal activity. As Johnnie investigates her, a different kind of passion ignites—along with a slew of threats he never saw coming. Rose Marie Swanson goes home to San Francisco with a renewed commitment to the life she has chosen. She has work to do, and must make sure no one interferes. When Johnnie gets in the way, she devises a plan to destroy his intolerable curiosity and dangerous desire to help. His plan is flawed. She doesn’t need his help. Her plan is doomed. He will never give up. Johnnie Williams is done with cowpoking. That happened the moment his best friend married the woman he fancied spending his life with. It’s time to leave Harper Ranch and return to his San Francisco life as a Pinkerton detective, where rounding up the dregs of society is all in a day’s work. There is only one problem with his plan: Rose Marie, the woman who is overtaking his thoughts, his self-control, and his job. With their every encounter, blond belle Rose Marie shaves off a few more rusty pieces from the hinges of his heart while turning his well-ordered life upside down. Rose Marie Swanson is a beauty without equal. Always known as dazzling and tempting, she is sick to her soul of being either one, and fed up with the kind of male attention that daily surrounds her. She has a job to do and can’t afford to let anyone get in her way. Then handsome cowboy Johnnie Williams bulldozes into her life without a speck of personal conquest in his eyes, and Rose Marie is both baffled and relieved. At least he presents one less distraction for her end game. That is, until he turns the tide and starts delving into matters that are not his business, lethal to her agenda, and perilous to his well-being. An inspirational romance of complicated love and intrigue. * * * Johnnie has an aversion to self-absorbed beauties—belles, he calls them—and shows no mercy when telling spoiled bits of fluff like Rose Marie what he thinks. Problem is, his Pinkerton expertise and instincts begin to paint a far different picture of the woman who has suddenly turned his life upside down. When Johnnie leaves Montana to resume his life as a San Francisco Pinkerton detective—known as Bay Cowboy to the locals—his path crosses Rose Marie’s in the worst possible way. After a few weeks of frantic investigation, Johnnie becomes convinced she’s up to her baby blue eyes in the jewelry heists that are plaguing the city. Johnnie vows to get to the bottom of her involvement and save her from herself, no matter the cost. Rose Marie is torn. Her chance encounters with Johnnie have sparked unsettling desires in her, yet she must keep pushing him away to keep him safe. When the invitation comes for Mary’s wedding, Rose Marie is faced with a dilemma: Mary wants her to travel by car to Montana with Johnnie, where she will be forced into close quarters with the man she’s not only exceedingly attracted to, but must somehow keep in the dark about her undertakings in San Francisco. As Johnnie and Rose Marie make their way across four state lines to Harper Ranch, a true connection forms. Barriers come down as they break free of the bonds they have placed on themselves from their painful pasts. They are forced to admit their first impressions of each other have been false, and they find themselves in wildly unfamiliar territory: a chance at abiding love. But on their way back to San Francisco, their professional lives collide head-on, and they are left to pick up the pieces. Just what pieces they choose to pick up will decide their fate. Two worthy souls have a choice: Follow God’s plan and merge two lives into one, or continue to follow their own disenchanting paths and lose a chance at love.