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When She Was Bad... Chapter One | page 1 | page 2 | page 3 | excerpts
(continued...) Cole had to hand it to her. Pepper Rossi had an odd kind of class. For one minute, he’d been sure she was going to cut and run, but she hadn’t. Neither had she caused a scene in front of the beaming Gari, and she hadn’t protested when he’d drawn her out of the airport and helped her into the little convertible he’d rented from the island agency. Pepper Rossi had class. That was one of the things that had drawn him to her in the first place. Damned if he didn’t admire her guts too. The line from Casablanca had nearly made him laugh. But his reaction to seeing her again wasn’t a laughing matter. Even in the blonde wig and the low slung jeans, he’d picked her out of the deplaning passengers. Of course, he’d been looking for her, and her petite build was one clue, the ankle breaking shoes another. Plus, she was one of the few passengers who hadn’t been part of a couple. But even before the rational side of his brain had picked up on all those details, his body had responded to her, heating and hardening the way it always did. Blindfolded, he’d know when she walked into a room, and from the very first, he’d never been able to completely control the effect that she had on him. Even now and even in spite of the fact that she’d helped someone steal that Monet right out from under his nose, he still wanted her. And he had a hunch that her partner in crime was none other than her boyfriend, Evan Atwell. The jealousy that he’d felt whenever he’d seen Pepper in Evan’s company had sharpened, slicing through him like a knife, when he’d figured it out. He’d spent some time puzzling through it, but so far it was the only theory that fit all the pieces. Oh, he didn’t have all the details pinned down quite yet, but greed was a prime motivator, and collecting the insurance at the same time that you sold the Monet to a private collector who didn’t care much about the law was one way to have your cake and eat it too. Once you looked at it, the evidence was all there. Evan had insisted that Pepper handle the security arrangements for the Monet by herself. Then there was the fact that she’d made a move on him the moment he’d walked into the suite. Whatever his intentions had been when he’d come there from the symphony, she’d initiated the kiss. But what had nailed the theory for him was the fact that both Pepper and Evan Atwell had booked airline tickets to an island owned by a French Impressionist collector immediately following the theft. He flicked her a brief glance. She might look innocent, but there wasn’t a doubt in his mind that she was guilty as sin. Pepper Rossi had a reputation for getting herself in trouble, but this was the deepest hole she’d dug yet. And she’d done it for another man. But knowing that didn’t seem to diminish the fact that he still wanted her. Desperately. In the day and a half since he’d last seen her, his desire for her had only grown. He’d had a taste, and similar to Adam’s experience with the apple, he wanted more. And he’d have it just as soon as he straightened the mess she’d gotten herself into. She wanted him too. Whatever her motives for kissing him in the penthouse suite, she hadn’t faked her response. And she wanted him right now. The moment she’d turned to face him in the airport, he’d seen the pulse beating at her throat. He knew that pulse. For six months, he’d seen it quicken every time he was near her, and watching that sign of her response to him, knowing that at least something of what he was feeling was reciprocated had made it almost impossible for him to bide his time and keep his distance. It was going to make it pure hell to resist her now, even temporarily. Easing the car to a stop, Cole turned to study her as he waited for an old man to lead a cow across the road. The disguise was a good one. He’d never seen her wear anything but the most conservative suits and jewelry to the office. He suppressed the urge to reach out and send the gold circles in her ears spinning. With any woman other than Pepper Rossi, he would have been able to develop a strategy. He was good at that. It had been his ticket for survival in the foster care system. With each new family, he studied them, learning as much as he could, and then he developed a strategy for fitting in. Role playing had been key. But he hadn’t yet figured out a strategy for dealing with Pepper Rossi. From the moment he’d first laid eyes on her, he hadn’t been sure of his moves. The last time a woman had made him this wary he’d been fourteen and she’d been sixteen. But even then, he hadn’t taken long to figure it out. Six months hadn’t helped him figure out how to handle Pepper. Partly it was due to the fact that he couldn’t ever quite predict what she would do. Like that kiss. When the cow finally made it to the other side of the road, he eased the car into gear and drove forward. One thing he did know, in a battle, forewarned was forearmed. He was not going to let what he felt for Pepper Rossi interfere with recovering the Monet. The Rossis had done so much for him over the years – “Why are you here?” she asked. He shot her a brief glance as he turned the car onto the narrow road that wound along the coast. She was looking straight ahead, blond hair blowing in the wind, chin lifted, and her hands were clasped tightly in her lap. He’d seen her sit the same way with the exception of the blond wig at meetings with her brothers and at family dinners with her father. She was wound up tight as usual. Not good, because that too was one of the things that drew him to her. He badly wanted to see what would happen when she came unwound. Now that he’d had a sample, he was going to have more. “I’m here to save your pretty little ass,” he said finally. And he’d better remember that. When She Was Bad... will be available in March '06 as the third installment of the 24 Hour Island Fling miniseries. |
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