White Hot
Authors: Nina Bruhns
PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF NINA BRUHNS
Winner of the National Readers Choice Award and three-time overall winner of the Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense
RED HEAT
“Bruhns starts off her new series with sizzling suspense. Her characters are sexy and provocative, but that’s not all—they continue to grow on many levels with a story that takes you through page-turning action and suspense. The sexual tension is palpable and when Bruhns’s latest couple gets together, sparks fly.”
—
RT Book Reviews
(4 stars)
“A taut thriller…The freshness in this exhilarating tale is the location and the heroic Russian who is a wonderful, unique protagonist…Readers will relish this tense story as love puts an exclamation-point end to the remnants of the Cold War.”
—
Genre Go Round Reviews
“A great cast of characters and the heated sexual tension between the hero and heroine keeps this romantic suspense story moving…A perfect blend of romance and suspense.”
—
Fresh Fiction
“Nina Bruhns excels at writing romantic suspense with plenty of action and incendiary passion between her main characters.”
—Romance Novel News
A KISS TO KILL
“Greg and Gina are one of the hottest couples I’ve read lately…There’s not one thing I didn’t like about this book. It’s fast paced. It’s got an intriguing and complex story and mystery. It’s got fascinating characters on every page. It’s sexy and sensual and then some.”
—
The Good, The Bad and The Unread
“A thrill ride of fast action and hot sex in the steamy Louisiana bayous, Nina Bruhns’s latest delivers it all!”
—CJ Lyons, bestselling author
IF LOOKS COULD CHILL
“Nonstop, edge-of-your-seat action that never lets you down…The relationship between Marc and Yankee Tara was H-O-T…There was never a moment that I wanted to put it down.”
—
Joyfully Reviewed
“If you like a thrill a minute, you will enjoy
If Looks Could Chill.
The gripping tale is well written and filled with intrigue and passion.”
—
Romance Reviews Today
SHOOT TO THRILL
“Suspense just got a whole lot hotter with Nina Bruhns’s dynamite romantic thriller. A hero to die for and a heroine to cheer for…An awesome, sexy story.”
—Allison Brennan,
New York Times
bestselling author
“[A] fast-paced thriller…Powerful chemistry.”
—
Publishers Weekly
“Sexy, suspenseful, and so gritty you’ll taste the desert sand. A thrill ride from start to finish!”
—Rebecca York,
New York Times
bestselling author
“A provocative, sexy thriller that will get your adrenaline pumping on all levels.”
—Tamar Myers, award-winning author
MORE PRAISE FOR THE NOVELS OF NINA BRUHNS
“Shocking discoveries, revenge, humor, and passion fill the pages…An interesting and exciting story with twists and turns.”
—
Joyfully Reviewed
“[A] delightfully whimsical tale that enchants the reader from beginning to end. Yo ho ho and a bottle of fun!”
—Deborah MacGillivray, award-winning author
“This is one you will definitely not want to miss!”
—
In the Library Reviews
“Nina Bruhns…imbues complex characters with a great sense of setting in a fast-paced suspense story overladen with steamy sex.”
—
The Romance Reader
“Gifted new author Nina Bruhns makes quite a splash in her debut…Ms. Bruhns’s keen eye for vivid, unforgettable scenes and wonderful romantic sensibility bode well for a long and successful career.”
—
RT Book Reviews
(4 stars)
“The kind of story that really gets your adrenaline flowing. It’s action-packed and sizzling hot, with some intensely emotional moments.”
—
Romance Junkies
“Nina Bruhns writes beautifully and poetically and made me a complete believer.”
—
Once Upon A Romance
Berkley Sensation Titles by Nina Bruhns
SHOOT TO THRILL
IF LOOKS COULD CHILL
A KISS TO KILL
RED HEAT
WHITE HOT
WHITE HOT
NINA BRUHNS
BERKLEY SENSATION, NEW YORK
THE BERKLEY PUBLISHING GROUP
Published by the Penguin Group
Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014, USA
Penguin Group (Canada), 90 Eglinton Avenue East, Suite 700, Toronto, Ontario M4P 2Y3, Canada (a division of Pearson Penguin Canada Inc.) • Penguin Books Ltd., 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England • Penguin Group Ireland, 25 St. Stephen’s Green, Dublin 2, Ireland (a division of Penguin Books Ltd.) • Penguin Group (Australia), 250 Camberwell Road, Camberwell, Victoria 3124, Australia (a division of Pearson Australia Group Pty. Ltd.) • Penguin Books India Pvt. Ltd., 11 Community Centre, Panchsheel Park, New Delhi—110 017, India • Penguin Group (NZ), 67 Apollo Drive, Rosedale, Auckland 0632, New Zealand (a division of Pearson New Zealand Ltd.) • Penguin Books (South Africa) (Pty.) Ltd., 24 Sturdee Avenue, Rosebank, Johannesburg 2196, South Africa
Penguin Books Ltd., Registered Offices: 80 Strand, London WC2R 0RL, England
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The publisher does not have any control over and does not assume any responsibility for author or third-party websites or their content.
WHITE HOT
A Berkley Sensation Book / published by arrangement with the author
PUBLISHING HISTORY
Berkley Sensation mass-market edition / August 2012
Copyright © 2012 by Nina Bruhns.
Excerpt from
Blue Forever
by Nina Bruhns copyright © 2013 by Nina Bruhns.
Cover art by Kris Keller.
Cover design by Annette Fiore DeFex.
Interior text design by Laura K. Corless.
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned, or distributed in any printed or electronic form without permission. Please do not participate in or encourage piracy of copyrighted materials in violation of the author’s rights. Purchase only authorized editions.
For information, address: The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
ISBN: 978-1-101-56094-5
BERKLEY SENSATION
®
Berkley Sensation Books are published by The Berkley Publishing Group,
a division of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.,
375 Hudson Street, New York, New York 10014.
BERKLEY SENSATION
®
is a registered trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
The “B” design is a trademark of Penguin Group (USA) Inc.
PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
If you purchased this book without a cover, you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the publisher, and neither the author nor the publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”
ALWAYS LEARNING
PEARSON
This one goes out to all the Hermits,
who are always unfailingly supportive and the
best buds imaginable.
Thanks for all you do,
and for your invaluable friendship, Hermits!
1
DUTCH HARBOR, AMAKNAK ISLAND,
THE ALEUTIANS, ALASKA
JULY
For a man on the run, the fog was both a blessing and a curse. It hid you from your enemies…but it could also turn against you.
For the past week, U.S. Navy Lieutenant Commander Clint Walker had been grateful for the recurring blanket of mist as he’d scrambled to stay two steps ahead of his pursuers, island-hopping his way along the Aleutians toward mainland Alaska. So far he’d managed to evade the tangos hot on his trail—a Chinese black-ops team determined to retrieve the stolen military plans in Clint’s possession…and no doubt kill him for their trouble.
But that would only be the beginning of the trouble for the U.S. Navy—and for the country—should the Chinese succeed in stopping him from delivering those plans.
A severe storm had left Dutch Harbor under a dense shroud of gray that blotted out the pale rays of the midnight sun and cast the surrounding landscape in an eerie, impenetrable glow. It seemed like he’d been jogging through the thick soup for miles, getting nowhere.
As he ran, the hairs on the back of his neck prickled. His grandfather would say it was the breath of the bear. But this was more like the breath of the dragon. Drawing on the lessons Grandfather had taught him during those long-ago summers they’d lived on the land using only the gifts nature had given them, he focused every sense on the danger lurking out there in the mist. Clint even knew the dragon’s name: Xing Guan, commander of the Chinese black-ops team of trained assassins that had been sent to bring back, at any cost, the small data storage card that had been stolen from their navy.