Jayne Castle has some truly interesting, fantasy, scifi romances. Her regular writing name is Jayne Ann Krentz and they are good, not great, but they are all contemporary.

I second Suzanne Brockmann, her stuff is awesome, and usually treats women right, her female characters are rarely stupid, or at least for more than one book, and start out that way as one single, secondary character. Great save by her by the way, grins.

Linda Howard rights some interesting romances, with great tension between her characters, she is too is contemporary, and she is starting to drift into the romance/adventure, mystery thing. Her older stuff is just straight romance, and to tell you the truth the woman knows how to write a sex scene. Maybe that sounds bad, but so many of them bore me when it comes time for some interesting het, but she does not. Her books are steamy, wry grin. Good luck. -SB