The Beauty, The Agent, and the Columnist: "Between the Covers" by Eve Adams

When the SBI contacts her to change the image of the very man whose image she can't forget, Cynthia can't refuse. If she succeeds, not only will she be back in Mac's life, she'll have a permanent job representing the SBI.

Known more for his suspensions than commendations, Mac likes his image just fine and doesn't need a sexy PR Specialist in his life, especially one who still has the power to bring him to his knees. Kevin hates Mac for stealing Cynthia from him back in college.

The reporter has spent his career eagerly reporting on anything that will put the agent in a less than flattering light as payback. When the trio of frenemies turned unlikely lovers take on the ringleader of illegal sex raves plaguing Seattle, wrong assumptions have deadly consequences. The three discover just how dangerous it is working BETWEEN (the) COVERS.

This is the second novel in the Covert Lovers series that has featured an agent of the State Bureau of Investigation in Seattle, Washington, and which brings some interesting characters together. All the characters featured in this novel began as friends in college seven years earlier with both Mac McLane and Kevin Denary being roommates who fell in love with the same woman. Now she is once again in Mac's life as a publicity representative hired by the SBI to "clean up" his image. But he likes his bad boy, Dirty Harry image and he is once again overwhelmed by Cynthia's presence, her sex appeal that has continued to drive him crazy, even in his fantasies and wet dreams, and now in person. Add in the fact that his former roommate and long time newspaper publicity adversary has continued to be a part of Cynthia's life in the seven years since Mac severed his relationship with Cynthia, and you have the foundation of a lot of adversarial encounters as well as some erotic episodes that light up the night.

It has often been said that love and hate are two sides of the same coin, and the friendship between these two men, a friendship that was closer than brotherhood, has become a hate relationship that has grown out of the pain both share because they want Cynthia and believe each man has betrayed the other. Kevin wants to marry her but Cynthia has refused, knowing honestly that her heart also belongs to Mac. Mac severed their love affair and nearly destroyed Cynthia because he was so overwhelmed with his love for her that he was fearful that he would become weak and ineffective at his career. (Why do men seem to equate a deep emotion with weakness?) Yet all three are brought back into each other's lives because of a menace in the person of the Sweetheart of Seattle, a woman who seeks to gain power through distribution of Lust, a drug that is 50 times stronger than Ecstacy and laced with LSD and other substances that literally disables the person ingesting the substance. Mac is determined to restore his career by capturing this woman and dismantling her ring. Kevin wants this "story of a lifetime" and Cynthia is frightened for both her men. It is a story that has, at its core, the proposition that one woman like Cynthia whose love for both men has endured, can be the catalyst that brings even avowed enemies together, especially when they lay to rest that which is causing their upset with one another.

There's lots of hot loving here in the form of a menage a trois, but there is suspense, on-the-edge-of-your-seat kind of suspense and under cover action, and a bit of a look into the underground world of Rave and illegal drug distribution. It is an entertaining read and as a short novel won't take up much time. Having been published in mid-2010 it has been around for awhile, but Eve Adams has a respectable portfolio of work and has been busy with other projects in the meantime. I have read both books in this series and while the first book was more about the underworld of illegal sex clubs, this book deals a good bit less with that world and with the universe of the drug scene. I give it a rating of 3.5 out of 5.