Spotlight & Giveaway: A Thin Disguise by Catherine Bybee

Posted July 7th, 2021 by in Blog, Spotlight / 52 comments

Today, HJ is pleased to share with you Catherine Bybee’s new release: A Thin Disguise

 

Spotlight&Giveaway

 

Hey Sara and all your Junkies!

Okay, okay, okay… Picture this.

FBI Agent and Assassin… only the agent is a dude and the assassin is a chick!
 
A former gun for hire and a federal agent find themselves on the right side of love but the wrong end of a bullet in this Richter installment from New York Times bestselling author Catherine Bybee.

On a fateful night in Las Vegas, FBI agent Leo Grant is working on a critical detail in a high-profile child prostitution trial when a beautiful woman jumps into the path of a bullet meant for him. Little does Leo know that the woman is Olivia, an ex-assassin who is seeking redemption one good deed at a time.

One minute, Olivia is lunging in front of Leo on the Vegas Strip. The next, she’s waking up in the hospital in a haze of pain with no memory of her past, her enemies, or even her own name.

With Olivia suffering from memory loss and completely unaware of the danger she is in, it’s up to Leo and Neil MacBain’s team of operatives to keep her safe. With Olivia and Leo both unaware of her past crimes, the two have little reason to avoid their growing attraction. Slowly her past seeps in through the cracks as she struggles to find the answers of who she is. When the veil is lifted and her dark past is staring her down, Olivia must turn her back on Leo and the love she can never allow herself to have, and race to find her would-be killer.

 

Enjoy an exclusive excerpt from A Thin Disguise 

“What are you thinking?” Leo asked.
“Random thoughts. They keep coming out of nowhere.”
“Memories?”
She shook her head. “Not memories. It’s hard to explain.”
“Try.”
“Like this . . .” She reached behind his back and patted where he held his weapon. Smiled when she confirmed with a touch what she’d figured out earlier that day. “I never saw it, but I knew it was there.”
Leo had stopped to watch her. “I am a federal agent.”
She kept walking. “It’s not knowing that you should have a gun on you, but that you did and where it was. Isaac has his in his cargo pants. Must be strapped in somehow, otherwise it would have been obvious. AJ has his here.” She patted her left flank. “Lars . . .” She stopped, thought of him before he walked off to set sensors. “He’s armed to the teeth. Why would I know that?”
“You’re intuitive?” Leo didn’t sound convinced by his own words.
“It’s more than that. Pam walks up and down the stairs with heavy feet. She’s a small woman, but her footfalls are like an elephant in my ears. Isaac and Lars are better, but Lars favors his right leg. I bet he’s had an injury. And Sasha . . . I never hear her. That woman is stealth. It’s more than intuition. It’s knowledge that’s ingrained.”
“Maybe your other senses are heightened since your memory is missing?”
“You really believe that?”
“You have a better theory?”
“No.” She hadn’t thought that long or hard about it. She’d been spending too much time thinking of the facts as they dropped into her head.
She swatted away a mosquito and considered putting the sweater on if only to ward off any bug bites.
They walked in silence for a few yards. “You don’t have to hide them.”
“Hide what?” Leo asked.
“Your guns. They don’t scare me.”
Leo chewed on that for a few steps. “If we all walked around armed to the teeth, and someone from a neighboring property took notice, questions would come up.”
At first, his explanation made sense, but Neil wouldn’t choose a property with neighbors. At least not neighbors who were actually around.
Another mosquito moved in for blood.
Leo reached over, took her sweater from her hand, and held it out for her to step into. “You’re not the only one who’s intuitive. It’s cooling off, the mosquitos are attacking, but it’s hard to get into the sweater without hurting.”
She accepted his help, eased her left arm in first. “Another week and the mosquitos will die off with the shift in the weather.”
“You think so?” he asked.
“Yeah.”
He pulled the sweater around her, let his hands linger on her arms. “Better?” he asked.
“Your hands are warm.” So were his eyes. Trusting. Like a net at the end of a fall.
There it was, the rapid rise and fall of his chest, his eyes drifting to her lips. How would they taste? How would he taste? A feeling washed over her with the memory of what a kiss felt like, but not the who on the other end.
Then logic knocked on the back side of her brain. “Getting mixed up with your protectors is just as foolish as with your captors,” she whispered. Not that her words stopped her from her next thought about the day’s growth of beard that gave Leo an edge she liked even more than the clean-shaven look he started with every morning.
How would he feel on her skin?
Did he want to find out about her as much as she desired to learn about him?
Leo snapped his eyes away, dropped his hands to his sides. “We should head back.”
Olivia took that as an agreement.
A few steps toward the house and she confronted him. “Are we going to ignore this?” she asked.
“You called it foolish.”
“Am I wrong?”
“No.”
“Yet you volunteered to escort me on my walks.”
He kept his gaze forward. “That makes me a masochist.”
Why did this feel like a challenge? “Are you afraid I might be married?” she asked him.
“Happily married women aren’t walking around Las Vegas without a wedding ring,” he told her.
She glanced down at her left hand. No evidence of atrophy where a ring had lived, no tan lines. “What about an unhappily married woman? Or maybe I have an awful boyfriend.”
He snuck a glance her way.
She pretended not to notice.
“You don’t strike me as a woman who would stay in any relationship she wasn’t happy with. We can’t even get you to stay inside and put your feet up. I don’t see a man controlling your actions.”
Part of her believed everything he said, and something else told her he was wrong.
“If there is a Mr. to my Mrs., he might want to show up soon.”
“Oh?”
Olivia looked over at him, waited until he looked back before she spoke. “I’m starting to have some thoughts on how to spend the time around here.” Without thinking, she licked her lips.
Leo blew out a very audible breath and forced his eyes away. “You’re killing me,” he murmured.
She couldn’t say for sure if this was her normal behavior, but she wasn’t going to deny it felt damn good and familiar. “You’re too easy.”

Excerpt. ©Catherine Bybee. Posted by arrangement with the publisher. All rights reserved.
 
 

Giveaway: 2- $10.00 Amazon Gift Cards

 

To enter Giveaway: Please complete the Rafflecopter form and post a comment to this Q: What did you think of the excerpt spotlighted here? Leave a comment with your thoughts on the book…

 
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Meet the Author:

Catherine is a #1 Wall Street Journal, Amazon, and Indie Reader bestselling author. In addition, her books have also graced The New York Times and USA Today bestsellers lists. In total, she has written thirty-six beloved books that have collectively sold more than 10 million copies and have been translated into more than twenty languages.

Raised in Washington State, Bybee moved to Southern California in the hope of becoming a movie star. After growing bored with waiting tables, she returned to school and became a registered nurse, spending most of her career in urban emergency rooms. She now writes full time and has penned The Not Quite series, The Weekday Brides series, The Most Likely To series, and The First Wives series.

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52 Responses to “Spotlight & Giveaway: A Thin Disguise by Catherine Bybee”

  1. EC

    They definitely have chemistry and that heroine is a femme fatale. Thanks for this wonderful excerpt, HJ!

  2. Sonia

    I enjoyed the excerpt especially because of the memory loss and an ex-assassin 🙂

  5. Audrey Stewart

    I am intrigued by Leo and Olivia’s story. I can’t wait to see if she gets her memory back.

  11. Marcy Meyer

    I enjoyed the banter between the characters. It sounds like a good story.

  17. Glenda M

    Perfect excerpt! It gives enough information to really make me want to read the book!

  20. Diana Tidlund

    Love the chemistry but also love the little things like wrapping her in his sweater , thinking how his day old beard scruff would feel on her skin ( personally love scruff while I hate beards like my husbands so it’s a good thing I love him lol) to even his getting worked up / flustered by her and saying your killing me have had approximately 30 years of hubby getting like that and even embarrassed because I turned him on in public (he says I know how to push his buttons , our friends die laughing because of the way we are together )

  23. SusieQ

    I found it intriguing and will be putting this book on my to be read list.

  25. Karina Angeles

    Love the sexual tension building between Olivia and Leo. Can’t wait to read what happens next!

  31. Amanda

    Why giveaway giftcards? I’d rather have the book signed of course if I’m living lucky especially after an excerpt this author should value themselves more , my sons will find and spend a giftcard

  36. Teresa Williams

    Loved it they have fantastic chemistry. Hope she gets her memory back.

  39. Jeanna Massman

    Olivia and Leo are an interesting couple. I enjoy their interactions.

  40. Anita H.

    This one sounds so intriguing, I’m wondering what happens when they figure out Olivia is a former assassin

  48. Patricia B.

    A good look at her abilities and the questions they raise for both her and the agents. They both realize the unknowns make their relationship difficult, but are having difficulty heeding it. It is a good hook for the book.