I'm sorry, but people do not react that way to seeing hazmat suits. Rather than thinking they were terrorists, people would be stampeding AWAY from the people in the suits because those suits mean 'illness/disease/poison' to the average person. The reaction people have to hazmat suits is not too dissimilar to how people would react to a person in full plague doctor garb back when the Black Plague was rampant. Other than that, so far, this is a good story.
The author needed to have faith in her writing ability to realize she did herself a disservice by including the "bodice ripper" aspects of this book. Just made it seem desperate for readers IMHO.