Dark Light by Jayne Castle

When reporter Sierra McIntyre goes to interview Crystal City's new Guild Boss, John Fontana, she comes to the interview already prejudiced against the Ghost Hunter's Guild. Sierra is a friend to many ex-Hunters, burned out by being exposed to way too many jobs at the guild's behest. Because most Ghost Hunters don't plan for the future, many of them are destitute and living on the street. Some of those are addicted to a new drug dubbed "Ghost Juice". Sierra blames the guild for not taking care of the Hunters better and she suspects that the Guild is behind the sale of Ghost Juice, said to come from a secret alien temple discovered in a jungle that has been discovered in the tunnels under Crystal City. But since the jungle has hardly been explored very well, just about anything could be hiding in it.

Unbeknownst to any but her family, Sierra has a psychic talent of intuition and is able to "feel" things that are usually right on the money. And now she feels a sudden and unwanted attraction to John Fontana...

John feels it too, and offers Sierra the deal of a lifetime: almost unlimited access to the guild and some of its many secrets. But with it comes a price: a marriage of convenience to John Fontana. She agrees, and adds in a few stipulations of her own: that the Guild take better care of the burned-out ex-Hunters, and that he investigate the disappearances of some of the same Hunters who were her friends. And, of course, her dust bunny, Elvis, is part of the deal. John agrees immediately, and they are quickly married in a ceremony at City Hall attended by her best friends. But soon after, another ex-Hunter, Jake Tanner, also goes missing, and his records have mysteriously disappeared from the guild records.

It looks to John as though Sierra might be on to something, even though he is reluctant to admit that anything from the rag that she works for might be true. But when his house is firebombed by the Reapers, a motorcycle gang that seems to be able to project Ultraviolet Ghost light, he and Sierra are forced to spend time in the catacombs, where her claustrophobia is put to the ultimate test.

Their marriage has another effect as well: it emboldens members of John's family to seek out Sierra, hoping she can convince John to lend or give them the money they need to keep their business alive. But as John is a literal bastard, a situation that happens extremely rarely on Harmony, he was mistreated by his father's Covenant Marriage wife even though she reluctantly took him into the family and raised him along with her own sons. When his father died, he left John his business, but John wanted nothing more to do with the family. He turned it down and walked away forever. Now, the business is failing, and the family needs to convince Sierra to make him lend them the money.

Sierra agrees to try, but John has gone down into the Jungle to find the missing ex-hunters. And when the guards in the temple are caught, he isn't able to find all the conspirators behind the whole drug-smuggling business in the first place. Who has the last Ultraviolet Ghost Light Generator? And can they find it before Sierra is injured or killed in the catacombs?

I've always enjoyed the Harmony stories that Jayne Castle writes, and this one is no exception. The sudden proposal of marriage between John and Sierra, her acceptance, and the antics of her Dust Bunny pet, Elvis, enlivened the main plot considerably. Of course, the immense attraction both main characters feel for each other presages the fact that they are made for each other and will end up staying married after giving into their lust for each other along the way.

Of course, the book also has an intriguing mystery mixed in with the romance plot, and this one is a doozy, with Drug Smuggling, possible aliens (who actually turn out to be humans in motorcycle helmets sheathed in the Ultraviolet Ghost Light generator; this is revealed quite early in the book, so I don't consider it a spoiler), and of course, a hidden conspiracy in the heart of the Hunter's Guild. Add to that a broodingly sexy hero, a heroine with a hidden talent and lots of moxie, and you've got a winner in my book. (But the cover has a guy whose hairstyle makes him look like he's barely escaped from a 70's disco, and let's not forget the requisite "shirt unbuttoned and half-open to reveal his amazingly ripped chest" look. A look that never appears in the novel, as far as I can tell. Isn't there some other way to telegraph that the hero is sexy? Honestly!)