Kiss Me While I Sleep by Linda Howard

Efficient and unapologetic, Lily Mansfield is a hired assassin working as a contract agent for the CIA. Her targets are the powerful and corrupt, those who can't be touched by the law. Now Lily is playing a deadly, unauthorized game, seeking her own vengeance, compromising her superiors and endangering her life. Fellow CIA agent Lucas Swain's orders: either bring her in or bring her down. Yet he too is drawn into the game with Lily Mansfield, dancing on a tightrope, trying to avoid a major international incident while battling a tenacious foe dogging their every step. Vigilantly watching her back, Lily doesn't see the lethal peril directly in her path...or that loyalty has a price.

Dare I admit, this is my 1st by her. The story was very good, I thoroughly enjoyed it. It was a terrific twist to have the heroine be an assassin. The story was well thought out, and took enough twists and turns to keep me interested, but wasn't so convoluted that I gave up in frustration. Howard built a tremendous amount of character into Lily. And, even though the surface of Lucas was kept light and fluffy, she let us see inside to know who he was underneath, so that I grew to care about him. Wonderfully written book. But the interaction and dialogue between the H&H is where this book shined.

Lucas is totally into fast cars. At one point, Lily makes him rent a Fiat, prompting this exchange:

"You're such a car snob. A lot of people rent cars with good gas mileage. It's a smart thing to do."

"Unless they have to make a quick getaway...I think I've been emasculated. I probably won't be able to get a hard-on while I'm driving this."

"Don't worry," she soothed. "If you can't, I'll let you get whatever kind of car you want tomorrow."

Like magic, his expression lightened and he started to grin, only to have the grin morph into a grimace of acute pain as he realized the choice she'd just given him. "Ah, shit," he groaned. "That's diabolical. You're going to hell for thinking something that evil."

And here, after a co-conspirator kisses Lily's hand...

"Frenchmen kiss hands. They don't mean anything by it."
"Bullshit. He's a man, isn'y he? He meant smething by it."
"You'd know that from experience?"
"Oh, yeah. Damn Frenchmen kiss everything they can. There's no telling where his lips have been."
"Does that mean I should boil my hand to get rid of the germs?"
"No, but if he kisses you again, I'll boil his lips."

And I loved it when they started to make love in a little sports car and Lily got a cramp in her leg. Hello? Been there, done that.

And near the end, when it looks as though Lucas has killed Lily, the emotion portrayed in his actions and words is so heartfelt. Even though I knew he wouldn't really kill her, she wrote it so well that it really seemed like he did! I thought he was faking her death to steal her away somewhere just the two of them, but then they'd have to be on the run the rest of their lives, and that would suck for him because of his kids. The end wrapped it up much better than the ending I foresaw in my head. That's why Linda Howard gets the big bucks.

I don't know how I've made it so long without reading a Linda Howard, but rest assured this will not be my last. I'm open to any and all suggestions.