Brutally Beautiful — Lynne Connolly

Nick Taylor, poetry lecturer, used to be Mick O'Donnell, British gang leader. In search of a new life he's come to New York, and five years later, he's nearly there. Once he has his citizenship, he can start again. He's kept clear of trouble, under the radar except for his visits to burlesque club Bared, and it's there he meets his nemesis. Beautiful, classy, irresistible. Trouble.

Gen has a dead-end job checking citizenship applications but when her boss asks her to check Nick's credentials she finds herself doing a lot more than that. The burlesque club is just the start. Nick is unlike any professor she's ever met. They can't keep their hands off each other, for one thing, even in the university library. Much less in the all-glass room in his apartment. With the rest of New York watching. Maybe. Nick teases her with the total exposure she secretly craves, while always keeping her safe.

But although Nick has left his past behind, he needs to draw on all his resources when Gen finds herself in deep, unexpected, and deadly trouble. He has to reach out to people he wanted to leave behind. It may end his attempt at a clean start, but if he doesn't risk all he's worked for, and perhaps expose himself to the deadly menace still hunting him down after five years, the woman he's grown to love and everything he wants to share with her will die.