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Dangerous Liaisons
Maggie Price
A MATCH MADE IN MURDERA dance marked their first meeting. A slow, sensuous waltz amid wedding revelers, though they'd felt alone…and entirely too intimate. Because homicide sergeant Jake Ford had given up women, and Nicole Taylor knew the darkly handsome, intensely shuttered cop was far from her perfect match.Murder marked their second encounter–the victim, a client of Nicole's dating service. Without doubt, she knew Jake wouldn't be going away. Nor would her blazing desire for this man who'd awakened feelings both reckless and raw. Feelings she saw mirrored in eyes that contained hidden pain. Though her head warned her that Jake was all wrong, why did her heart scream that loving him was so very right?
“Give me a call if you decide you want to try out my services.”
He hesitated for a brief instant, then cupped her hand in his while he flashed a careless grin. “Your services?”
Her throat tightened. Even as her brain told her that retreat would be wise, she allowed her hand to remain in his. Only one other time in her life had a man had such an immediate effect on her. Then she’d gone with emotion, listened to her heart instead of her head, and she’d wound up betrayed and hurt. Desperately hurt.
“My company’s services, of course,” she amended, keeping her voice light. “You might decide you want to meet your perfect match after all.”
He kept his eyes locked with hers while his thumb stroked the inside of her wrist. Her pulse stuttered; then her stomach dropped to her toes.
“I won’t.”
She remained unmoving, her gaze tracking his movements as he walked toward the door while she waited for her pulse to settle. It didn’t.
Dear Reader,
Have you noticed our new look? Starting this month, Intimate Moments has a bigger, more mainstream design—hope you like it! And I hope you like this month’s books, too, starting with Maggie Shayne’s The Brands Who Came for Christmas. This emotional powerhouse of a tale launches Maggie’s new miniseries about the Brand sisters, THE OKLAHOMA ALL-GIRL BRANDS. I hope you love it as much as I do.
A YEAR OF LOVING DANGEROUSLY continues with Hero at Large, a suspenseful—and passionate—tale set on the mean streets of L.A. Robyn Amos brings a master’s touch to the romance of Keshon Gray and Rennie Williams. Doreen Owens Malek returns with a tale of suspense and secrets, Made for Each Other, and believe me…these two are! RITA Award winner Marie Ferrarella continues her popular CHILDFINDERS, INC. miniseries with Hero for Hire, and in January look for her CHILDFINDERS, INC. single title, An Uncommon Hero.
Complete the month with Maggie Price’s Dangerous Liaisons, told with her signature grittiness and sensuality, and Dad in Blue by Shelley Cooper, another of the newer authors we’re so proud to publish.
Then rejoin us next month as the excitement continues—right here in Intimate Moments.
Enjoy!
Leslie J. Wainger
Executive Senior Editor
Dangerous Liaisons
Maggie Price
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To Major Richard Neaves:
Thanks, big brother! If it weren’t for you, I never would
have found my way to the Oklahoma City Police
Department…where I found my Perfect Match.
MAGGIE PRICE
turned to crime at the age of twenty-two. That’s when she went to work at the Oklahoma City Police Department. As a civilian crime analyst, she evaluated suspects’ methods of operation during the commission of robberies and sex crimes, and developed profiles on those suspects. During her tenure at OCPD, Maggie stood in lineups, snagged special assignments to homicide task forces, established procedures for evidence submittal, even posed as the wife of an undercover officer in the investigation of a fortune-teller.
While at OCPD, Maggie stored up enough tales of intrigue, murder and mayhem to keep her at the keyboard for years. The first of those tales won the Romance Writers of America’s prestigious Golden Heart Award for Romantic Suspense.
Maggie invites her readers to contact her at 5208 W. Reno, Suite 350, Oklahoma City, OK 73127-6317.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 1
Jake Ford leaned against the bar, surveilling the blonde while she moved among the wedding guests with the skill of a seasoned pickpocket. Another time, another place, someone working a crowd with such adeptness would have spiked his inner radar to full alert. That wasn’t the case this night. She wasn’t covertly lifting valuables from the well-heeled guests and tonight he wasn’t a cop, only a guest.
She was the groom’s sister. He knew that because his partner, Whitney Shea—Whitney Taylor as of an hour and a half ago—had described her soon-to-be sister-in-law several times. Stunning was the term Whitney had used to sum up Nicole Taylor.
His partner had hit the mark.
Overhead, crystal chandeliers spilled light across the hotel’s mirrored ballroom. Champagne flowed from a fountain that gurgled to a pool at the base of a swan sculptured in ice. A pianist caressed ivory and ebony keys, filling the air with a smoky love song. Jake was aware of the rustle of silk and the murmur of conversations as couples swayed on the dimly lit dance floor, but he kept his attention focused on Nicole Taylor. Smiling, sometimes laughing, she moved with abandon through the sea of some of Oklahoma City’s most elite citizens. She tweaked a gray-haired judge on the chin, hobnobbed with the mayor, chatted up the district attorney. While she mingled, Jake caught more than a few appreciative male gazes aimed her way.
One of those was his own, he acknowledged. Her slinky blue dress had a scooped-out back and a side slit that offered flashes of leg he couldn’t help admire. On occasion, she tucked what he figured was her business card into the breast pocket of a tailored suit coat or slid one into a manicured hand that clutched an evening bag.
He wondered what a woman who looked as if she’d stepped out of a man’s darkest, most seductive dream did for a living.
He studied her profile, his gaze tracing one high, slanting cheekbone, the sweep of jaw that looked as if it had the potential to take on a stubborn slant. Her hair, a mix of blond and gold tones, was pulled back in an intricate braid coiled at the base of her long, elegant neck. Even from a distance he could tell that her eyes were a vivid blue to match her dress. His gaze slid downward to the glossy coral lips that curved into an intimate smile when she eased her card into the breast pocket of a tall, lanky Latino with smooth olive skin and an ebony mustache. From the smoldering look in the man’s dark eyes, Jake figured he was contemplating devouring her in two bites.
Instinct told him she was a woman a man would beg for.
He clenched his jaw as he watched her polished nails skim tantalizingly down the Latino’s lapel. It didn’t please him that the sight of her curved, full lips stirred something dark and elemental inside him.
Something that hadn’t stirred in a long time.
Pulling his gaze away, Jake stared into the glass he clutched. He wished fervently for Scotch instead of the tonic water he’d ordered. But, like a hell of a lot of other things he’d once savored and enjoyed, Scotch was in his past. So were cigarettes. And women.
Especially women.
He closed his eyes. He’d thought he had gotten past the bad dream. Had managed to go a few weeks without waking up in a cold sweat, then staring at the ceiling until dawn, thinking about his wife and daughters. Had actually thought that two months of meeting with the department’s shrink had relegated the claw-infested demon to the murky depths of his subconscious. He’d been wrong. The dream had slammed into him again last night with a double-fisted punch, tormenting him with the haunting memories that had burned into his soul.
He’d lost so much. Too much.
It had been a hell of a lot easier to lock the racking pain deep inside him than it was to face it every day. But after more than a year and a half of drifting through a numb haze, reality had hit him square between the eyes when he’d been charged with the death of a woman he’d been seeing. And seven other murders. After that, he’d had no choice but to finally accept what his life now was.
Accept that his job was all he had left.
Things could be worse, he reminded himself. The insane hours that were a natural part of working Homicide suited him. As long as he was busy wading through blood, gore, paperwork and court appearances, he didn’t have time to think. Time to regret. Time to want what he would never again allow himself to have.
He lifted the glass to his lips, grimaced at the tonic’s sweet tang, then glanced back over his shoulder. He felt a tic of disappointment when he discovered that Nicole Taylor had faded into the crowd and was no longer in sight.
His gaze drifted past the dance floor to a maze of round tables covered in white cloths and topped with centerpieces of velvety red roses. Detectives from OCPD’s Homicide detail had taken over a couple of the tables. Most had brought their spouses or significant others; from all the backslapping going on and the heads thrown back in laughter, it was evident that everyone was having a good time. On any other occasion, Jake would have joined his co-workers, but not tonight. Not at a wedding.
Tonight he preferred solitude.
A bark of nearby laughter caught his attention. The bride and groom, their respective parents, grandparents and siblings had moved a few feet from the bar and now formed a smiling group while a photographer snapped photos. Jake saw the joy that shone in Bill Taylor’s eyes as the assistant D.A. leaned to kiss his bride. Dressed in a slide of pearl-dotted white silk, her auburn hair swept back, Whitney smiled up at her husband, her face a study in joy.
Jake’s mouth curved. Theirs was a perfect match. A solid one. He’d had once-in-a-lifetime happiness like that. A long time ago.
That, he thought, was why he made it a point to avoid weddings. They reminded him of what he’d had…and lost. Still, it hadn’t been a sense of duty that had brought him here tonight. He loved Whitney like a sister, and nothing could have kept him away. But he’d had enough and it was time to go.
Turning back to the bar, he drained his glass. The prospect of climbing on his Harley and running the engine wide open through the still September night eased the tenseness that had settled across his shoulders. Maybe by the time he got home his mind would be void of the memories the evening had stirred.
Maybe the dream would lay dormant tonight.
“Get you another?” the tuxedo-clad bartender asked when Jake sat his empty glass on the bar.
“I’ll pass. One’s my limit when there’s no alcohol involved.”
After stuffing a tip into the snifter on one side of the bar, Jake turned and nearly collided with a sea of white.
“Want to dance, handsome?”
He cocked his head. “Isn’t the bride supposed to hang out with the groom at their wedding?”
“She’s also supposed to dance with her partner,” Whitney stated, her eyes glowing like rich emeralds. “It’s the law.”
“Look, Whit, I’m a little rusty at the social graces. I was about to head—”
“Later.” She snared his hand, tugged him past linen-covered tables loaded with silver trays of sliced meats, breads, fruit and champagne by the bucket. “Dancing is like having sex,” she stated over her shoulder. “You never forget how.”
“Wanna bet?” he muttered, giving thought to the months of self-imposed celibacy he’d endured.
When they reached the dance floor, Whitney turned and gave him a level-eyed look. “Besides, it’s bad luck to make the bride unhappy on her wedding day.”
“Bad luck for whom?”
“You.” She stepped forward, leaving him no choice but to shift into dance position. “If you don’t cooperate, I’ll shoot you in the kneecap.”
He smirked as they moved to the slow beat. “You expect me to believe you’re packing heat under that wedding dress?”
“Trust me, Ford, you don’t want to find out.”
“Guess not.”
Whitney exchanged a few words with a couple who danced by, then stated, “Lieutenant Ryan looks happy.”
Jake followed her gaze to the spot on the dance floor where their boss was locked in an embrace with his wife, A.J., head of the department’s Crime Analysis Unit. “Yeah.”
“Weddings have that effect,” Whitney continued, then sighed. “They remind people of good times.”
“I had that same thought.”
Her gaze flew back to his, her eyes sobering. “Annie,” she said softly. “You were thinking about your and Annie’s wedding.” Her hand tightened on his. “Jake, I’m sorry. I know how much you miss her and the girls.”
He wasn’t surprised Whitney had hit the mark. After all, they’d ridden the streets together, risen through the ranks with equal speed and then wound up partners in Homicide. At one time or another, they’d both been through their own private hell. His had begun two years ago when a bomb exploded on a plane over the Gulf of Mexico, killing his wife and infant twin daughters.
“Yeah, I miss them,” he said quietly. “But I’m hanging in there.”
“You’re sure?”
“Positive.”
The last thing he wanted was his partner worrying about him on her wedding night, so he opted for a change of subject. “You know, Whit, while you’re lazing on some beach in Cancún, I’ll be clearing the Quintero case,” he said, referring to the drive-by shooting that had ended the life of a seven-year-old boy who’d been on the wrong street corner at the wrong time. “When I take down Cárdenas, the glory will all be mine.”
She gave him a bland look. “Dream on. It’d be a stroke of luck to unearth Cárdenas’s girlfriend. Even if you do, you’ll never get her to testify she was in his car, much less that he was the shooter.”
“Such little faith,” Jake chided. “Maybe you ought to stay here and work the case, and I’ll go to Cancún.”
Whitney pretended to consider his suggestion, then shook her head. “I don’t think Bill will go for that.”
“I won’t go for what?” the subject of conversation asked as he glided into view beside them, his sister in his arms.
Jake felt a jolt when Nicole Taylor’s gaze met his. From across the room those sapphire eyes had seemed vibrant. Close up, they were mesmerizing.
Whitney gave her husband a coy smile. “You won’t leave me here and take Jake to Cancún with you. Right?”
Arching a brow, the assistant D.A. glanced down at his sister. “I have no clue what’s going on, but it sounds like I got here just in time. Mind if we switch partners so I can reclaim my wife?”
Nicole’s gaze flicked back to Jake’s face, then her lips curved. “Get lost, big brother.”
