Hot Ice

Product Description Reckless Whitney MacAllister possesses all the wealth and beauty every woman dreams of. Streetwise Douglas Lord has the good looks and quick wits to be a success at his chosen profession: larceny.She has the cash and the connections.He has the stolen documents leading to a fabulous hidden fortune.It is a business proposition, pure and simple.But the race to find the treasure, from Manhattan to Madagascar, is only part of the game. For their fierce and dangerous attraction to each other soon threatens to overwhelm them–unless their merciless and shadowy rivals kill them first.From the Paperback edition. Review “You can’t bottle wish fulfillment but Nora Roberts certainly knows how to put it on the page.”—New York Times“Roberts is indeed a word artist, painting her stories and her characters with vitality and verve.”—Los Angeles Daily NewsFrom the Paperback edition. From the Inside Flap Whitney Macallister. reckless and beautiful, she posses all the wealth and beauty every yeoman dreams of. Douglas Lord. His good looks and street smarts have made him a success at his chosen profession-larceny. She has the cash and the connections. He has the stolen documents leading to a fabulous hidden fortune. It is a business proposition, pure and simple. But the race to finds the treasure, from Manhattan to Madagascar, is only part of the game. For their fierce and dangerous attraction to each other soon threatens to overwhelm them--unless their merciless and shadowy rivals kill them first.From the Paperback edition. About the Author Nora Roberts is the author of more than 140 novels, including many #1 New York Times bestsellers. She has won many major awards for her work and is a member of the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. She lives in Maryland. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Chapter 1He was running for his life. And it wasn’t the first time. As he raced by Tiffany’s elegant window display, he hoped it wouldn’t be his last. The night was cool with April rain slick on the streets and sidewalk. There was a breeze that even in Manhattan tasted pleasantly of spring. He was sweating. They were too damn close.Fifth Avenue was quiet, even sedate at this time of night. Streetlights intermittently broke the darkness; traffic was light. It wasn’t the place to lose yourself in a crowd. As he ran by Fifty-third, he considered ducking down into the subway below the Tishman Building, but if they saw him go in, he might not come back out.Doug heard the squeal of tires behind him and whipped around the corner at Cartier’s. He felt the sting in his upper arm, heard the muffled pop of a silenced bullet, but never slackened his pace. Almost at once, he smelled the blood. Now they were getting nasty. And he had the feeling they could do a lot worse.But on Fifty-second Street were people, a group here and there, some walking, some standing. Here, there was noise, raised voices, music. His labored breathing went unnoticed. Quietly he stood behind a redhead who was four or five inches taller than his own six feet, and half again as wide. She was swaying to the music that poured out of her portable stereo. It was like hiding behind a tree in a windstorm. Doug took the opportunity to catch his breath and check his wound. He was bleeding like a pig. With- out giving it a thought, he slipped the striped bandana out of the redhead’s back pocket and wrapped it around his arm. She never stopped swaying he had very light fingers.It was more difficult to kill a man outright when there was a crowd, he decided. Not impossible, just harder. Doug kept his pace slow and faded in and out of the packs of people while he kept his eyes and ears open for the discreet black Lincoln.Near Lexington he saw it pull up a half block away, and he saw the three men in trim dark suits get out. They hadn’t spotted him yet, but it wouldn’t be long. Thinking fast, he scanned the crowd he’d merg