Thief’s Bodyguard follows a man hired to protect a woman who does not want a bodyguard, especially the man she had a one-night stand with. What was the inspiration for the setup of your story?

Roger appeared in book two of my contemporary romance series, The Geek Girl Squad, which is his little sister’s story. By the end of writing that book, I knew the Hunt brothers were going to need their own series. I had established Roger as owning a private security company, so of course my brain went to romantic suspense for this series. The problem, of course, with writing a character who’s super overprotective as well as a workaholic, meant that he would have to meet her at work.

I knew whoever I paired him with would need to be independent. And I wanted to take the good girl/bad boy trope and gender swap it. So I came up with the idea that his love interest was secretly a former thief, and Jenna was born.  This plot was in the works for quite some time, all while I bounced ideas off my husband, who’s a big true crime fan.

What was the inspiration for the love story and the connection the characters have?

I sat down and thought about what would make Roger crack. And pushing him into guarding someone he already knew physically was the answer. Since I’d established who Roger was within his LARP community, I used that setting for the one-night stand. I knew she could easily hide who she was there.

With Jenna, I needed her to let her guard down. So I put them in situations where he could demonstrate his integrity so she would learn to trust him. She’s been on her own for so long without a support system, which makes her independent and feisty, because she’s trying to protect him, too. And ultimately, that’s something they have in common, but don’t realize it until the end.

Both Jenna and Roger have strong personalities, making for entertaining encounters. What scene in the book did you have the most fun writing?

The scene where he confronts her about her identity was really fun to write, because when you corner an animal, they come out snarling. And it developed into some amazing banter. It’s right up there with the scene where Roger wakes up in the warehouse in handcuffs. I giggled way too hard at how frustrated he was with the situation.

Is this the first book in the series? If so, when is the next book coming out and what can your fans expect in the next story?

Yes! Initially I had intended this to be a trilogy and restrict myself to the brothers, but while writing Thief’s Bodyguard, two side characters just slotted themselves into position to further the overarching plot. Book two, Hacker’s Accomplice, releases October 1^st. It’s an interracial romance where the straight-laced Sam and the ex-hacker, Frankie, fall for each other while Hunt Security tries to break into the syndicate and rescue their victims.

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