You'd kinda think that a Texas Ranger would be a little smarter than your average bear. Unfortunately, a lot of these books featuring some nameless bad guy seem to have law enforcement heroes who seem...careless?

Ok, so 10 years ago, an armed robbery took place at the diner the h worked at. She was the only survivor, and it was mostly due to being grazed - head - and the addlepated robber not checking. I never really understood why he made the owner drive to the middle of nowhere and killed him elsewhere. The h's parents split up due to dear old dad not being able to handle this, the h's mom got a legal name change (and was able to continue being a vet. Huh). And they reinvented themselves.

The owner's remains have been found and our H shows up shortly after the h gets a newspaper and finds this out. He wants her to undergo hypnosis to see if she remembers anything. She comments that she'd always sort of had the impression the killer knew where she was but since she didn't seem to remember anything, he left her alone.

Undergoes hypnosis, remembers a detail or three, goes home. Ok yes; sex does happen shortly after the hypnosis, and he stays the night after taking her home, but he leaves her there. No-one to watch her or anything.

The killer shows up at the office she works in. She recognizes the tattoo but keeps her cool until well after he's left (and her co-worker comes back from break). She quickly calls H and tells him. He collects her and takes her to his mountain hideaway (that everyone at the office knows about). And then he decides to set a trap. Of course, they go to the pond unarmed and without a phone. He goes back to fetch and well...

We never learn the ID of the killer - there was some speculation that his brother worked with the Rangers but it's never clarified. And even when he's suspicious that there might be a leak, he doesn't exactly make much effort to cover his tracks. And why, if you're setting a trap, would you ever be unarmed, let alone without the phone?

Kaylie's mother went to jail when Kaylie was 5. She then went into foster care, moving from home to home until settling in with the Wises. With this family, she belonged, so when the opportunity presented itself, she bought the house. She planned on opening a cafe and making her home there.
Tennessee (Ten) had something happen when he was 16. As a result, his bother went to jail. He blamed himself. As penance, he helps out low-risk parolees by giving them employment. He has no contact with his family, including his bother Dakota and sister Indiana.
Both had Baggage. I understood both, but I wanted to slap Ten. I thought he reaction was ridiculous. Luckily (hey now, it would suck if not!) through his friendship with Kaylie he gets past that. I liked that there was no insta-lust, but a slow build into friendship before falling in love. Kaylie's childhood before the Wises was horrible. I didn't like either of her parents at first, but I gradually learned about one of them. Realizing life threw some shit around, and said shit was dealt with as best as that person could do at that given time. There is a re-connection that was nice to read, if a bit rushed.
Even though the main focus of this book was Kaylie and Ten, Luna also got a lot of page time. It was never explained (at least that I remember) how she knew about Kaylie's parent. Luna also has some big, bad, horrible secret about the accident that killed her best friend and caused her to be bed bound for a period of time. I still don't know and I want to know her secret! So, will be reading book 2.
I think that is the main reason this wasn't quite a 4 for me. I don't anticipate contemporary romances to have unsolved story-lines. I also thought the resolution happened very quickly between Kaylie and parent after the build-up. It works, but was helped along by fire. And that is another little plot-line that didn't have an answer.

“Who hurt you?”Finn asked, his voice pitched low and coming from just behind her.
She kicked at a cloud of bubbly foam. “A friend of my father’s. He said I invited his advances. Told me I’d asked for it with the way I flounced around half undressed.”
“You know you didn’t. No woman asks for a sexual assault.”
She tried to shrug off his words. “He didn’t really hurt me—”
“Of course, he did. If not physically, then emotionally. How old were you?”
“Fourteen. Old enough to know better.”
“Olivia—”
“He was right. About that much, anyway. I’d seen him looking at me. I knew what he was thinking.”She lifted her face, letting the breeze cool her. “But he wasn’t going to have any say in what I wore. I had the right to wear anything I wanted to, damn him, to expose as much of my body as society said was decent. I’d show him. And I did. Until he showed me.”She didn’t move when she sensed Finn coming closer. She didn’t freeze or flinch. She wanted him there. Wanted the comfort he offered when he stood behind her and wrapped her up in his arms. She closed hers on top of his and held him there, sinking into him, needing the support of his body, but needing even more the emotional rock he offered.

Ladies and gentleman, this is a hero. There were so many little but immensely powerful moments from this hero Finn in regards to healing the heroine. Swoon.

This one started off pretty slow with Finn doing some P.I. work and Olivia purposefully crossing paths with him. Then about 20% in, we get a second couple of Judi and Roland/Roman (he is undercover DEA) that share equal time, trading off, with Finn and Olivia. About 40% in this becomes erotica and what a steamy sexy read it is. Both of our couples are far from shy and burn up of the pages with their chemistry. Then about 60% in the story starts to hit some deep emotional tones delving into our characters' childhood issues and how they affect them today and finally the last bit plays out the suspense storyline. This story is a hard one to pinpoint because of all its different components and while it made it different, it also made it uneven. However, the hot sex and little devastating emotional moments more than makeup for the other grouses.

"I danced for you. I led you on.” She paused, swallowed. He felt her throat convulse where his face rested. “I asked for it.”

He lifted his head, looked at her. Something was going on here. Something deeper than he knew how to deal with. Something important that he didn’t understand. “You danced for me because I told you to. If you led me on, I was the one who let you. And you didn’t ask for anything at all except what you wanted.”

******************

Finn captured Olivia’s fingers before she could get away. “I am just a guy remodeling his beach house. But every once in a while, I pull out some crap from the past to see how it’s sitting. If I’ve grown enough so that it doesn’t bother me anymore, or if I still need to work on the fit so it’s not choking me.”

I love little deep moments like these