Every Move You Make. Tori Carrington

      Time was running out…

      Zach glanced down at Mariah’s sleeping face, hearing a silent clock tick off in his head. She’d offered to show him the ropes. He’d agreed to show her how to be sexy. Zach swallowed hard. The only problem was, Mariah would send him into cardiac arrest if she were any sexier.

      He trailed his fingers down over her hip. She shivered in her sleep, bringing a grin to his face as he edged his fingers over her hipbone toward the soft curls between her thighs. Her breathing grew shallower and her thighs opened in sweet invitation.

      Good God, but she was beautiful.

      Now that she was no longer lying against his chest, Zach saw the chance to further Mariah’s sensual education. Still teasing her lightly with his fingers, he trailed gentle kisses down her throat, along her breasts and stomach, and was delighted by her body’s uninhibited response. Feeling her growing restlessness, Zach shifted on the bed and continued his downward path of kisses. He felt supreme satisfaction when he heard Mariah’s breath hitch the moment his mouth touched her, giving her what she’d been unconsciously asking for.

      They might not have much time together. But Zach intended to make every minute count….

      Dear Reader,

      If you’re like us, you read every book in the TRUEBLOOD, TEXAS continuity series. So you can only imagine how tickled we were when we were asked to pick up the reins—along with fellow Blaze authors Vicki Lewis Thompson and Debbi Rawlins—and revisit the Truebloods, this time with a Blaze twist.

      In Every Move You Make, ex-cowhand, now P.I. Mariah Clayborn offers up a striking proposal Indiana Trueblood Zach Letterman is loath to refuse—she’ll teach him about private investigating if he teaches her all the things a man wants in a woman. All too quickly, telling leads to showing, and showing leads to the discovery of a passion so hot it burns them both. Only, their encounters leave Mariah even more confused than ever. Because rather than showing her what a man wants, Zach’s teaching her to take what she wants. And what she wants is…him!

      We hope you enjoy our sizzling addition to the TRUEBLOOD, TEXAS series. We’d love to hear what you think. Write to us at P.O. Box 1271, Toledo, OH 43611, or visit us on the Web at www.toricarrington.com.

      Here’s wishing you love, romance and hot reading!

      Lori & Tony Karayianni

       aka Tori Carrington

      Every Move You Make

      Tori Carrington

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      This one’s for all our Texan friends!

      Contents

      Prologue

      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 13

      Chapter 14

      Chapter 15

      Chapter 16

      Chapter 17

      Epilogue

      Prologue

      WHAT WAS SHE THINKING?

      Jennifer Rodriquez Madison balanced the phone between her chin and shoulder while she wildly wrote notes with one hand and stuffed a cracker into her mouth with the other, trying like crazy to do the work of three people. She was afraid she was not only failing, but failing miserably. She eyed the agitated potential new client talking nonstop in front of her desk, then felt her heart squeeze as she glanced at her crying infant in the portable crib next to her.

      When both Ralph Budnick and Roy Morales of Budnick and Morales Private Investigations retired, Jennifer saw their departure as an opportunity of a lifetime. Of course she’d taken the fact that she was newly married and about to have a baby completely for granted.

      Now that the baby was three months old and Jen was back at the outside office, instead of working in the comfort of her home office, she was terrified that her decision to take on the company alone would be the death of her.

      The cowbell on the front door clanged. Jennifer spared the latest visitor enough of a glance to notice he was tall, gorgeous and about as welcome at that moment as a deadly virus. “If you’re here for an ongoing investigation, or looking to hire us for a new one,” she told him, “I’m going to have to ask you to come back at another time.”

      She blindly found Annie’s pacifier, where it was attached by a length of yarn to the front of her jumpsuit, and popped it into her mouth. Annie instantly spit it out and continued vying for the “most neglected baby of the year” award.

      “So are you going to take my case or not?” the woman in front of her desk asked, tapping red fingernails against an alligator-skin purse Jennifer suspected was real. “A friend of mine recommended your agency to me.” She looked around, disdain written on her well made-up face. “But seeing what I have so far, I can’t imagine why.”

      Jennifer bristled and moved the silent receiver to her other ear, hoping the client she had on hold wouldn’t hang up as she waited out someone else who had put her on hold. She absently realized that the tall stranger who had entered hadn’t left. “You’re right, Mrs. McCabe. Maybe we’re not equipped to handle cases like you’re describing. Have you ever thought of actually asking your husband if he’s being unfaithful?”

      “What kind of question is that?” Mrs. McCabe asked. Her carefully painted face had turned red.

      She shrugged. “I don’t know. A commonsense one? And definitely a step up from hiring an attractive, flirty woman to entrap him at a country club.”

      The woman scoffed.

      The stranger moved out of Jennifer’s eyeshot and almost instantly Annie quieted. Jennifer swiveled to find him hesitantly tickling the fussy infant. He gave Jennifer a sheepish grin that made her blink then began to pull his hand back. With a loud cry, Annie let her thoughts on the matter be known. Jennifer couldn’t blame her daughter. She’d much rather have a great-looking guy tickling her, too.

      “May I?” the stranger asked, indicating he’d like to pick Annie up.

      Let’s see, a choice between earsplitting screams and a happy baby? Jennifer gestured for him to go ahead. She watched as he awkwardly lifted her up and held her at arm’s length, staring at her as curiously as Annie stared back. Jen opened her mouth to tell him to support her head, then the stranger awkwardly but successfully held Annie to his wide chest. He wore a coffee-colored suit that had Northerner written all over it, and he had the type of handsome good looks that would have turned her head before she had stumbled into Ryan’s life for a case she was working on and had her own life turned upside down.

      “Who are you and what do you want?” Jennifer asked him, thinking it a pretty good guess that he hadn’t popped up out of the blue to help her with her unhappy daughter.

      Maybe Ryan was right about what he had said that morning. He’d tried to convince her to keep working out of the house so that they could, um, pursue their personal interests as well as her business