Meet Tawny Weber!
Tawny Weber has been writing sassy, sexy stories for Harlequin Blaze since her first book hit the shelves in 2007. When not obsessing over deadlines, she’s shopping for cute shoes, scrapbooking or hanging out on Facebook and Twitter. Come by and visit her on the web at www.tawnyweber.com
Blurb:
My naughty valentine…
Con artist Gabriel Black just got busted. By a babe. Drool-worthy (and clearly sneaky) FBI agent Danita Cruz is forcing Gabriel to choose between hard time and scamming his own family for an undercover sting. Now he has to present Danita to his family as his girlfriend.
And it’s the perfect opportunity to get wickedly even with her….
But Danita has some tricks of her own, and Gabriel’s control begins slipping away as raw sexual energy takes over. Their sham relationship starts feeling a lot like…well, the real deal. The Big Question is, will overwhelming desire be enough to make a liar go legit?
Lie with me…
Excerpt:
Gabriel grimaced. Then, unable to help himself, he held up one finger to stop the accountant’s pitch.
“Hang on,” he murmured. He rose, his eyes locked on the asshole bullying the pretty blonde. He stepped toward the booth, a charming warning was teetering on the tip of his tongue.
The guy’s beady rat-eyes met Gabriel’s for a brief second before he grabbed a handful of the blonde’s curls and yanked again. “I’m paying you for a good time, I want a good time. You do me, girly. Here. Now,” he growled.
Her quiet cry of pain was eclipsed by the red flush of humiliation warming those alabaster cheeks. She didn’t look toward Gabriel any longer. Instead she whispered something, tried to pull away.
“No party, no pay,” the asshole responded, not whispering.
She was a rental fantasy?
Didn’t matter.
Fury propelled him forward. Before she could cry out again, Gabriel had his hand around the guy’s.
“Oh, no,” the blonde moaned, her fingers reaching and missing as Gabriel yanked the guy to his feet. “Please.”
His fist cocked back, Gabriel made the mistake of looking at her. Those big blue eyes, so sexy and afraid, pleaded. “Please. Let him go.”
His fingers itched. His arm vibrated with the force of his fury. He wanted to plow into the asshole’s face. To make him pay for hurting her. For humiliating her.
It was that last part, the humiliation, that made Gabriel swallow the edgy violence pounding through his system. He glared into the asshole’s beady eyes and gave him a good shake before letting go.
“Out.”
The jerk looked like he was going to say something. He shot the blonde a glare, then opened his mouth. Gabriel flexed his fingers. The guy ran.
“I have to…” Her face on fire as she looked around at all the staring faces, the blonde pressed one hand against those ripe, glossy lips as if holding back a sob, then got to her feet and ran from the room, too.
Torn between ambition and a desperate need to protect, Gabriel wanted to howl with fury. But, really, there was no choice. Barely sparing a glance for his mark and the million he was kissing off, Gabriel followed.
He caught her just outside the hotel, near the garden entrance.
“Hold up,” he demanded, lengthening his stride to catch her before she rounded the corner. How the hell did she move so fast on those heels? Almost running now, Gabriel snagged her arm.
Her gasp was a watery protest. She yanked away, but faced him. “Don’t,” she said, tears pouring from those sultry blue eyes. One of those girl things or the miracle of the paint manufactures, her makeup didn’t budge under all that wet. So instead of looking bruised and messy, she glowed.
Gabriel cursed under his breath. There shouldn’t be anything sexy about a bawling woman.
“You shouldn’t have followed me,” she murmured, brushing the tips of her fingers over her face as if that’d hide her tears. She looked like she wanted to jump out of her own skin, her eyes skipping to the left, then right, before meeting his briefly then dropping somewhere in the vicinity of his shoulder.
She was even sexier close up. Her hair glinted gold and bright in the reflection of the streetlight. Despite her sexy outfit and wild look, she seemed delicate, almost fragile outside.
And still so freaking sexy his mouth watered for just one taste. Of those lips, glistening and full. That skin, so silky and tempting. But most of all, those curves, barely hidden by the barely-there black fabric.
“I don’t rescue damsels then let them run off still distressed,” Gabriel told her with a charming, patient sort of smile.
“Why?” She backed up a step, holding her hands over her breasts as if protecting her modesty. Or herself. “What do you want?”
“I’m not asking for anything,” he assured her.
Skepticism etched on her face, she gave him a long, searching look.
Gabriel tried to look as innocent and harmless as possible. Not an easy task since he’d never been either.
Then she threw herself into his arms.
“Aww, sweetheart, don’t cry,” Gabriel murmured. He wrapped his arm around her slender shoulder and hugged her to him.
Her body fit against his perfectly. For all her delicate looks, she was tall enough to curve her cheek into his throat, her body shaking with sobs as she burrowed closer.
Damsel in distress, he reminded himself as his blood heated. He’d been called a lot of things in his life, but the kind of guy who took advantage of abused, vulnerable women didn’t make the list.
Then she slid a foot along his calf. A foot that was wrapped in those sexy ribbons she probably called shoes.
Gabriel swore he felt his brain stutter. His body, already on high alert, funneled all his blood straight down to his dick. A dick that was only too happy to have her press even closer, so her leather-clad hips made it clear where the party was.
“I needed that money,” she sniffed, looking up at him with the biggest, bluest eyes he’d ever seen. Swimming in tears, the lushly lashed gaze was hypnotic, tugging at his soul. “I can’t make rent without it. I’m already two weeks overdue and going to be kicked out in the morning.”
All she needed was to throw in a sick gramma and an ailing cat. But still, what’s a guy to do?
“Here,” he said, reaching into his pocket, then peeling four hundreds out of his wallet. “This will cover your loss. Now let’s go in and dry your tears. I’ll buy you a drink, then get you a cab ride home.”
She gave a shuddering breath. The kind that pressed those delicate breasts against his chest
“Thank you,” she whispered after a brief hesitation. She gave him a look that was somewhere between gratitude and pure seduction. Gabriel was pretty sure he heard a few of his brain cells explode in tiny little sexual pops. “But I can’t take your money. Not unless you let me thank you. Properly.”
His brain fogged with an edgy, needy passion, Gabriel tried to find the words to tell her he didn’t need thanked.
Before he could, though, she slid her hands, palms flat, up his chest. Smoothing, but not soothing. Heating his skin through the layers of fabric as easily as if he’d been nude.
As she curled her hands around the back of his neck, she leaned in, her breasts amping that heat up to a fiery level.
Gabriel’s hands curved over her leather-slick hips, pulling her closer, tighter.
Her mouth met his. Soft at first, just the brush of those glossy lips. Once, then twice.
Sweet.
She slanted her head to the side. Their lips fit together perfectly. Too perfectly for his comfort, he realized. Shifting, he prepared to pull back. Then she slid her tongue along the seam of his mouth and what was left of his brains spontaneously combusted.
The kiss went wild. Tongues slid over each outer. No soft caress here, it was an intense duel for control. Hot, intense.
Fabulous.
Before Gabriel could take it a little hotter, a little wilder, she pulled back. Her eyes were huge. Passion, and something that looked like a cross between fear and horror, swam in those blue depths.
Then she blinked and looked sultry again.
“That’s just a taste of my thank you,” she purred.
“I’m looking forward to another bite,” he murmured, lowering his head to try her again.
“Put your hands on your head,” a voice barked from behind Gabriel.
He could barely hear through the roaring in his head. Everything he was, everything he had, was focused on the blonde and the sexual tension she was spinning in his body.
“You heard me. Back away, mister,” the voice sounded again.
“What?” His fingers still burning with the feel of her, delicately tempting, Gabriel curled them into her shoulders to shield her from the interruption. The blonde, though, gave a shuddering sigh, then stepped back and made a show of slipping the cash into her bodice.
“Hands on your head.” The voice, male and angry, was doing serious damage to the passion buzzing through his system.
Before Gabriel could decide what to do about it. Hell, before he could reengage his brain, someone grabbed him.
“What the hell…”
The distinct rattle of handcuffs filled the air just before the metal slapped against Gabriel’s wrist.
“You’re under arrest for solicitation.”
“What the…” Gabriel tried to wrench his arm free. But even at six-three, he was no match for the hair gorilla with a badge glaring down at him.
His gaze cut to the blonde.
Her gaze didn’t glow with tears, or passion any longer.
Nope, she just looked satisfied.
Gabriel resisted the urge to cuss.
Because he was damned sure she was the only one of the two of them who’d be feeling any satisfaction tonight.
Buylink: ISBN-10: 0373796706 ♦ ISBN-13: 978-0373796700
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Books-A-Million | eHarlequin | Powell’s
In December of 2011 Tawny launched her Undercover Ops series with SEX, LIES AND MISTLETOE. The second book in the series, SEX, LIES & MIDNIGHT is on shelves in January 2012, quickly followed in February by SEX, LIES & VALENTINES. Be sure to follow Tawny on her Holiday Survival Tour as she celebrates these three books with contests, giveaways and lots of fun. You can read the first chapter of SEX, LIES AND VALENTINES on her website, too! All you have to do is join the Reader Love-Fest!
Blurb:
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