My Reckless Surrender
Page 35
Not that she would mind lying down with him. If he were a little nicer. And not a Romo, of course. But he was—and her unwitting attraction to him was making her all the more irate.
Her remark earned another handsome scowl, to which he added, “Edna’s not frail or ailing, by the way. So your excuse doesn’t fly.”
Oops. Clearly, he knew the town well enough to know Edna was the only Farris left who might have a granddaughter coming to see her. “Well, that’s not how she tells it,” she argued. “All I know is that she summoned me to help with the apple harvest, so that’s what I’m doing—if you’ll kindly let me go on my way.”
To her surprise, he lowered his chin, appearing suspicious. “You don’t look like much of an orchard worker.”
Who asked you? She bit her tongue for once, though, and tried to regain her composure. In fact, it suddenly hit her that all her powers of persuasion had pretty much gone out the window somewhere along the way. So she gave her head a confident tilt, and in her smoothest voice replied, “My skill set might surprise you.” And…hmm, was that being confident—or flirting?
“And no way I’m letting you off that easy,” he added.
Okay, didn’t matter whether it was confidence or flirtation since, either way, it hadn’t worked. So now she scowled at him. “Come on, Romo, cut me a break.”
When his dark eyebrows rose behind those sunglasses, she realized what she’d just said—but again, she couldn’t let him…win. Since, that quickly, that’s what it felt like with this guy—a matter of winning or losing. Farris vs. Romo. She couldn’t let him get the best of her without at least fighting back.
“I’ve got news for you, Farris,” he practically growled. “Maybe you can argue your way out of tickets up in Chicago, but not in Destiny. You were going twenty over the limit.”
Whoops. Twenty? Really? Still…“Can I be honest with you?” It was time for a new tactic.
“All right,” he said dryly, sounding doubtful already.
But that didn’t stop her from gazing up into that sexy cop-god face, and saying, with true sincerity, “When such a low speed limit is posted on such a wide-open stretch of highway, I don’t actually know how a person can be expected to go so slow. I’m sure you know what I mean—it’s nearly impossible.”
And when he peered down on her, his expression softening a bit, she suspected he was beginning to understand her point—and she found herself wishing she could see his eyes. Were they as gorgeous as the rest of him? What color were they? Brown, maybe? That was when he said to her in a completely patronizing tone, “Let me explain it to you, Farris. You ease. Off. The gas.”
Okay, he was hot as hell—but still a jerk. So she forgot all about his eyes and said, “Romos always were smart-asses.”
“Farrises,” he announced, “set the bar for being smart-asses. Not to mention the fact that they have a long history of not abiding by the law.”
All right, that might be true, but she still rolled her eyes in an exaggerated manner and tried to look deeply insulted. “Can you just give me my ticket now so I can get to Edna’s before she has a heart attack or something?”
Mike Romo seldom stood around arguing with traffic offenders, but something about this woman had gotten under his skin, quick. Maybe the fact that she was a city girl to the bone, made obvious not only by her arrogant attitude but by the stylish haircut that didn’t quite reach her shoulders, the trendy dark jeans she wore, and the sleek-looking scarf hanging loose around her neck. Or maybe it was because she was extremely attractive—blond, slender, the works—and had probably thought that would get her off the hook. Or…maybe it was just because most people didn’t have the nerve to backtalk him when openly breaking the law.
“I could arrest you, you know,” he informed her—mainly because her lack of regard for authority pissed him off. Yet as he heard his own words, something low in his gut warmed, and he realized he could think of a plenty of things to do to her that would be a lot more pleasant than arrest.
SUGAR CREEK: A Destiny Novel
By Toni Blake
ON SALE NOW
FROM AVON BOOKS!
Acknowledgments
As always, I have a lot of people to thank!
Firstly a big thank you to the wonderful people at Avon Books. My great editor May Chen. Her tireless assistant, Amanda Bergeron. The art department who designed this beautiful cover. Everyone in marketing, particularly Pamela Spengler-Jaffe and Christine Maddalena. I’d also like to thank the people at the Australian Avon office, including Shona Martyn, Linda Funnell, Karen-Maree Griffiths, Christine Farmer, and Jordan Weaver. And I’m adding a really heartfelt thank you to my agent, Nancy Yost.
There are two people to whom I owe more gratitude than I can express when it comes to this book. Thank you to Annie West and Christine Wells who are the best critique partners a writer could ask for.
Thank you to all my writing friends, particularly Helen Bianchin, Sophia Nash, Pamela Palmer, the fabulous Romance Bandits, Kandy Shepherd, Cathleen Ross, Nicola Cornick, Kathryn Smith, Keira Soleore, Louisa Cornell, Stephanie Laurens, and Lorraine Heath. Gratitude also goes to Michelle Buonfiglio, Kim Castillo, Marisa O’Neill, and Maria Lokken. You girls always brighten the day for me! Two fellow writers who deserve a special mention are Sharon Archer and Vanessa Barneveld.
I’d also like to thank the many readers who have contacted me to say how much you love the books. I can’t express to you how much your wonderful messages mean to me.
About the Author
Always a voracious reader, ANNA CAMPBELL decided when she was a child that she wanted to be a writer. Once she discovered the wonderful world of romance novels, she knew exactly what she wanted to write. Her first historical romance for Avon Books was the multi-award-winning Claiming the Courtesan, followed by another Regency noir, Untouched, which was featured on several best of the year lists. When she’s not writing passionate, intense stories featuring gorgeous Regency heroes and the women who are their destiny, Anna loves to travel, especially in the United Kingdom, and to listen to all kinds of music. She has settled near the sea on the east coast of Australia, where she’s losing her battle with an overgrown subtropical garden. Anna loves to hear from her readers.
You can contact her through her website at www.annacampbell.info.
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By Anna Campbell
MY RECKLESS SURRENDER
CAPTIVE OF SIN
TEMPT THE DEVIL
UNTOUCHED
CLAIMING THE COURTESAN
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
MY RECKLESS SURRENDER. Copyright © 2010 by Anna Campbell. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Excerpts from Captive of Sin, Tempt the Devil, Untouched, Claiming the Courtesan copyright © 2009, 2007 by Anna Campbell.
Excerpt from Sugar Creek copyright © 2010 by Toni Herzog.
First Avon Books paperback printing: June 2010
EPub Edition © April 2010 ISBN: 978-0-06-199544-6
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