They'd met once before and the attraction was odd-tattooed Yakuza punk meets leggy California egghead-but electric. Her rescuer is Reno, the Committee's most unpredictable agent. Instead, she's snatched away on the back of a motorcycle, narrowly avoiding a grisly execution attempt mean for her sister and brother-in-law. She's expecting to cry on her sister Summer's shoulder, then spend a couple months blowing off steam in Japan. He is falling in love, but in his line of work, love could get him killed. The action is non stop as the tension builds, plus Takashi is torn whether to kill her or not. Even though Summer tries to stay mentally one step ahead of Takashi, ultimately, she knows he will kill her.

Bodies pile up as Summer and Taksashi are chased across Japan. He must keep her alive long enough to recover the bowl. She's had a copy of the bowl made and its hidden somewhere on she knows. Takashi rescues her, only to try and kill her for the bowl, but Summer is one step ahead of him and the cult. However Summer is kidnapped by a religious cult leader bent of having the relic and taking over the world. Takashi works for a super secret committee and his directive is to kill Summer and recover the bowl for the Japanese.

Especially the woman who is getting dangerously under his skin as the lethal game crosses the Pacific to the remote and beautiful mountains of Japan, where the truth can be as seductive as it is deadly.'

It's a desperate situation and international operative Takashi OBrien has received his directive: everybody is expendable. The priceless relic is about to ignite a global power struggle that must be stopped at all costs. Back Cover: 'Museum curator Summer Hawthorne considered the exquisite ice-blue ceramic bowl given to her by her beloved Japanese nanny a treasure of sentimental value-until somebody tried to kill her for it.

Ice Blue by Anne Stuart