Hastings (Brothers in Arms #15)

Hastings loves his job as a secret agent for the Home Office. He always gets to kill the bad guys and save the day. He wakes up after a bout of heavy drinking to find himself naked and abandoned in the country, in the garden of a kind, handsome vicar. Suddenly he’s not so sure that the lonely, violent life he’s living—a life that requires him to deny his feelings and avoid commitment—is the best thing for him after all.

The Reverend Mr. Stephen Matthews has always ministered to his wayward friends and acquaintances with patience and kindness, despite their unusual...

Hastings loves his job as a secret agent for the Home Office. He always gets to kill the bad guys and save the day. He wakes up after a bout of heavy drinking to find himself naked and abandoned in the country, in the garden of a kind, handsome vicar. Suddenly he’s not so sure that the lonely, violent life he’s living—a life that requires him to deny his feelings and avoid commitment—is the best thing for him after all.

The Reverend Mr. Stephen Matthews has always ministered to his wayward friends and acquaintances with patience and kindness, despite their unusual personal relationships. Relationships he accepted but didn’t always understand. Then he finds a naked spy in his garden—a gift from one of those friends—and he wants to indulge the side of his nature he’s always denied: impatient and wicked in the best possible way.

When Madelyn Hyde shows up seeking shelter and protection—sent by the head of the shadowy Home Office agency Hastings works for—she complicates their lives even more. She’s beautiful, mysterious, and so very lonely. Stephen recognizes her loneliness despite the disguise she uses to hide it, and Hastings recognizes it because her hunger and loneliness mirror his own.

Can three people who have lived their lives trying to be what other people demand find the happiness that has eluded them when they drop their masks and show each other the real people underneath?