Bigler, North Carolina

Candace Carmichael was just getting used to the lavish life when everything went sour. Now the down-on-her-luck real estate agent is back in Bigler, North Carolina, jobless and illegally rooming with her mother in a swank retirement community. All this makes her wonder why she ever considered her BFF Cheri's invitation to move back home. Life in this small mountain town may not be as glamorous as the one she had in Tampa, but she knows a girl can't be too choosy in this market. Besides, everyone's happy to welcome Candy back-especially one handsome widower named Turner . . .Turner has grown up to be one fine-looking piece of man candy-and looks even tastier in his sheriff's uniform. Maybe that's why she couldn't resist kissing him when he pulled her over for a traffic violation. Even if a relationship was part of Candy's business plan, Turner would be off limits-he still wears his wedding ring, four years after his wife died. If falling in love too fast is a crime, Candy is soon guilty as charged and ready to be fingerprinted. But is she ready to lock away her dreams and hand Turner the keys to her heart?

Ten weeks in a swanky Arizona rehab center and Tanyalee Newberry, AKA Taffy, is ready to give up everything that isn't good for her-her forgery habit, taking (i.e., stealing) things that don't belong to her, and, of course, men. But when her flight home gets rerouted, she finds herself in a hotel room with her smoking-hot travel companion. One night together is all it should have been. But passion is oh-so sweet . . . Special Agent Dante Cabrera has been duped at his own love-'em-and-leave-'em game by this so-called Taffy. To forget she ever existed, Dante buries himself in his work . . . until a case leads him to North Carolina and, impossibly, right back to her. He has no business messing around with this felonious femme fatale, especially one who could be in more danger than she thinks. But Dante also knows there's more to her than great looks and hot nights-a soul-searching woman who wants to amend for her past sins. Is he ready to take their desire to the next level and steal Taffy's heart?