She's No Angel (Harlequin Blaze, Band 758) - Softcover

Buch 2 von 3: Sweetheart, South Carolina

Sinclair, Kira

 
9780373797622: She's No Angel (Harlequin Blaze, Band 758)
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0373797621 ISBN 13: 9780373797622
Verlag: Harlequin Blaze, 2013

Inhaltsangabe

Lexi's Diet Tips for Naughty Girls

Chocolatier Lexi Harper shares her secrets for having your cake and eating it—and him—too!

1. When a craving hits, give in! It's amazing what you can do with some melted chocolate and an equally melt-in-your-mouth guy.

2. Just a tiny taste will do…unless it's a taste of architect Brett Newcomb with his icy blue eyes and killer body.

3. Then work it off—big-time! Treat yourself to all the wicked-hot sex you can get. No calories!

So, go for it. After all, too much of a good thing can be sinfully delicious…

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

 Double winner of the National Readers’ Choice Award, Kira Sinclair writes passionate contemporary romances. Her first foray into writing fiction was for a high school English assignment, and not even being forced to read the love story aloud could dampen her enthusiasm...although it did make her blush. She lives in North Alabama with her two amazing daughters and their pet hedgehog. www.KiraSinclair.com  

Auszug. © Genehmigter Nachdruck. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

Chocolate was Lexi Harper's drug of choice. The only thing that could beat the decadent taste of that melted goodness was really stellar sex. Unfortunately, her hips proved that chocolate—even the gourmet stuff—was easier to come by.

Which is probably why she'd opened her own shop. There was something about baked goods that made everyone happy. You couldn't frown with a piece of fudge in your mouth. It was physically impossible.

Well, for everyone except Mrs. Copeland, who could frown no matter what.

"Alexis Harper!"

Sighing, Lexi suppressed a cringe and turned to look at the self-appointed grande dame of Sweetheart, South Carolina.

"I'll be with you in just a moment, Mrs. Copeland," Lexi said in her sweetest voice. Even if it killed her she'd be nice.

Mrs. Copeland pinned Lexi beneath a steely glare that was specifically designed to have her spine snapping straight and Lexi jumping to do her bidding. She was intimately acquainted with the look and had been since the age of ten.

"I've been waiting here for almost fifteen minutes," she barked.

Old habits were hard to break and a residual shudder ran down Lexi's spine. While she was growing up, Mrs. Copeland had been her etiquette instructor. On the third Saturday of every month for eight years, Lexi's mother would ship her off for several dreadful hours where the woman delighted in pointing out every flaw, gaffe or perceived slight.

Who really needed to know the proper way to pour tea or where to sit the governor if he should happen to agree to dinner? Lexi had certainly never run across the need for most of the things that Mrs. Copeland viewed as more important than breathing. And what little she had used would have been covered by human decency and politeness.

After one particularly embarrassing incident involving mustard, a Siamese cat and licorice when she was twelve, Lexi had begged her mom not to send her back. But there were certain things that happened in Sweetheart, and attending Mrs. Copeland's etiquette classes was one of them. Along with the debutante ball.

Just the thought of it sent another shiver of remembered dread down Lexi's spine. God, she'd been such a spastic klutz back then.

"Everyone else has been waiting just as long, Mrs. Copeland. Longer, since they were here before you."

Off to her left, in front of the caramel apple display, Mary Beth Hereford snickered. Lexi didn't know Mary Beth well, but despite that, the two of them shared a knowing glance that immediately bonded them.

Mrs. Copeland's mouth tightened into a hard, unpleasant line. She didn't say anything else, but the unpleasant knot in the pit of Lexi's stomach didn't ease. And it wouldn't until the horrid witch left. Lexi wanted to hate herself for letting the woman get under her skin. Mrs. Copeland couldn't hurt or embarrass her anymore. But logic apparently couldn't trump remembered misery and years of ingrained dread.

Pushing the unpleasantness aside, Lexi focused on the rest of her customers. She cut and boxed a set of chocolate-dipped, rum-soaked caramel apples for Mary Beth. She was hosting Bunco, a dice game, tonight. Mr. Arcella had stopped in for a box of assorted truffles for his wife. It was their twenty-fourth anniversary. Lexi slipped in several of Mrs. Arcella's favorite flavor—champagne—even though he didn't ask for them.

She spent another five minutes answering the questions of a woman she didn't recognize. The woman wanted to know about Lexi's herb-infused aphrodisiac chocolates, which probably meant she was from out of town. The best thing Lexi had ever done was start advertising those on the internet. Customers had been coming out of the woodwork ever since.

The line finally cleared and Mrs. Copeland was up. Turning to the woman, Lexi braced herself for whatever unpleasantness was coming—because it always did. The woman viewed it as her personal crusade to point out everyone else's flaws while simultaneously breaking as many of her precious etiquette rules as humanly possible.

She didn't disappoint. "Aphrodisiac chocolates. That's disgraceful, Alexis Harper."

Lexi bit her tongue and swallowed the automatic response at not only the woman's acerbic tone but at the use of her given name. No one, not even her own mother, called her Alexis anymore. But Mrs. Copeland despised nicknames.

"Heaven only knows what your poor mama thinks about those…" She waved her hand at the artfully sensual display beneath the glass. "…those things."

"Why don't you ask her, Mrs. Copeland?" Lexi suggested, a calm, fake smile curling her lips. She folded her hands on the glass countertop and leaned across as if she were imparting a secret. "Better yet, why don't you ask Daddy at the council meeting tomorrow night? Mama took some home just last week."

Mrs. Copeland's eyes widened and then narrowed dangerously. "Well," she huffed. "I shouldn't be surprised. You always were a hopeless cause, Alexis Harper. My one true disappointment as an educator."

If Mrs. Copeland was an educator then Lexi was a supermodel, something that was so far from the realm of possibility as to be pure fairy tale.

Lexi boxed Mrs. Copeland's selection of iced petit fours and, though it galled her, decorated the thing with her signature red gingham bow.

"At least you've found a way to make a living from your love of sugar," Mrs. Copeland offered with a sharp smirk. "Although I never would have expected you to slim down nearly as much with all this temptation around. Bless your heart, there wasn't a Saturday you came into my class that you didn't have a smear of chocolate somewhere, was there?"

Lexi gritted her teeth and jerked her mouth up into the approximation of a smile. And hoped her eyes weren't glaring daggers the way she feared.

"Yes, ma'am. I'm real lucky."

"Good breeding helps," Mrs. Copeland offered as a parting salvo with a glance up and down that left the unmistakable impression of her opinion. Apparently, in Lexi's case, good breeding wasn't quite enough. Although the old biddy's opinion wasn't exactly a news flash.

When the bell tinkled and the door snicked shut, Lexi slumped tiredly against the edge of the display case. A few moments. That's all she needed, and then she could handle closing up the shop.

"Why didn't you put her in her place?"

The low, smoky voice startled Lexi, and she jerked her spine straight again.

A man she'd never met stood in the far corner leaning against her shelf of prebagged goodies. She'd been so preoccupied that she hadn't noticed him.

"Because it would have been wasted breath, and I try not to waste anything."

His arms were crossed negligently over a wide chest. The line of his body stretched out, long and tempting. Tight jeans clung to thick thighs and Lexi had no doubt that if he turned around she'd get a nice view of a high, round rear. Her body reacted immediately, coming alive at the presence of a virile male in the center of her world. She clamped down on the buzz of female interest.

He was a stranger, and after what had happened a few months ago, she didn't trust strangers.

He studied her with cool blue eyes that had another knot of unease forming in her belly. Lexi didn't like being watched. Nothing good had ever come from being the center of attention. As the mayor's daughter, everyone in town knew her and thought her life was fair game for comment. The perils of living in a small...

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Verlag
Harlequin Blaze
Erscheinungsdatum
2013
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0373797621
ISBN 13 
9780373797622
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
224
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
HarperCollins Publishers Ireland
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