Smooth Moves. Carrie Alexander

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      “What did you see?”

      Cathy blushed, coming across a tad too indignant for a woman who was half out of her bra.

      “I saw everything.” Zack’s lips grazed her tilted chin, followed the line of her neck to her delicate collarbone. “I saw these.” He closed both hands over her breasts, kneading until an arousal nearly as hot as his own was radiating from her in shimmering waves. “I saw you.”

      She gave a deep sigh and leaned against him, her body lax. “Kiss me again,” she said, parting her lips and cutting the last string of his control.

      With a groan, he covered her mouth with his and ground his body against hers.

      “I can’t take this,” he said, wrenching away. “Either we go home now or wind up flat on the dirt floor.”

      She glanced down, then lifted her gaze to his. “I guess I’m too practical not to prefer a bed.”

      He pressed his fingertips to her swollen lips. “Then hold that thought,” he said, silently thankful that he still had the Jaguar parked outside.

      Zero to ninety in a matter of seconds sounded almost fast enough….

      Dear Reader,

      Remember your first crush? Maybe it was on Davy Jones or Kevin Bacon or Brad Pitt. And maybe it was on the cutest, most popular boy in the fifth grade….

      Cathy Timmerman remembers her first crush, Zack Brody. And when she returns to the town where they first met, she learns that he’s grown up even better than she’d imagined—in fact, the man is a legendary Romeo! It turns out that a group of Zack’s old girlfriends are looking for a woman to give the “Smooth Operator” a taste of his own medicine. Cathy—no longer the chubby social outcast—finds herself volunteered. But can she really seduce Zack…and then leave him? Especially when he’s even better in person than in her dreams?

      Happy reading!

      Carrie Alexander

      P.S. Please let me know if you liked Zack and Cathy. You can write to me in care of Harlequin or by e-mail at www.tempationauthors.com.

      Books by Carrie Alexander

      HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION

      536—FANCY-FREE

      598—ALL SHOOK UP

      689—BLACK VELVET

      704—A TOUCH OF BLACK VELVET

      720—BLACK VELVET VALENTINES

      HARLEQUIN DUETS

      25—CUSTOM-BUILT COWBOY

      32—COUNTERFEIT COWBOY

      38—KEEPSAKE COWBOY

      Smooth Moves

      Carrie Alexander

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      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

      Prologue

      FOR SUCH AN ordinary middle-American town, Quimby had its share of legends. There was the ghost who haunted the clock tower of the old stone courthouse. There was Eunice LaSalle, the 1962 prom queen who’d gone to Hollywood and costarred in an Elvis beach flick. Reputedly, a monster muskie lived in Mirror Lake and nibbled on the toes—or various other bobbing appendages—of unwary skinny-dippers. And on one unforgettable night in 1985, the Quimby Kingpins had beaten the Buxton Bluejackets with a half-court lob at the buzzer, 53 to 52.

      Then there was Heartbreak.

      Zachary “Heartbreak” Brody, aka The Smooth Operator.

      A man who was a legend in his own time, according to the female half of Quimby’s populace.

      And they would know.

      As it happened, the five women who’d been most seriously “Heartbroken” gathered every Wednesday evening at Cathy Timmerman’s arts and crafts shop. Scarborough Faire—formerly known as Kay’s Krafts—was at 1208 Central Street, Quimby’s version of Main Street, U.S.A. An innocent setting for the chicanery to come. Although, as it would turn out, appearances were decidedly deceiving.

      The weekly meeting of the five women in question was purported to be an informal craft class. Local ladies signed up left and right for Cathy’s other classes, even woodburning and china painting, but the Wednesday-night calligraphers had closed their ranks to the uninitiated. Group therapy hadn’t been their initial intention, yet nearly every week the talk turned to Zack Brody: What he’d done to them, how they still hadn’t recovered, where he was now, whose heart he was currently breaking with his deceptively charming and oh, so smooth and seductive ways.

      Which was not to say that the five women hated the man. Goodness, no.

      It was Zack’s particular skill that he’d left even his jilted bride harboring certain feelings—definitely more than fond—for him. In fact, if the truth be known, several of the women maintained a secret fantasy that someday she would be the one to capture the legendary Lothario’s heart for good. The likelihood that the rest of his perfect male specimen body would be included in the deal was…not unpleasant.

      Be that as it may, there were also times, when the hour grew late and strong ink fumes had gone to their heads, that the five women bandied about a suitable revenge. ’Twas only fair, they said. Heartbreak should have a taste of his own medicine.

      Thus, upon the fateful evening of Heartbreak Brody’s prodigal return to Quimby, a scheme was afoot. A nefarious plot that would turn out to be neither as easy nor as simple as intended. But far more effective.

      And it all began at Cathy Bell Timmerman’s arts and crafts shop….

      1

      “YOU’LL NEVER GUESS,” Gwendolyn Case boomed as she sailed through Scarborough Faire’s aisles toward the long farmhouse table where the rest of the Wednesday-night calligraphers had already taken out their pens and papers. “Guess who’s coming back to Quimby!”

      Cathy