Because You Love Me ; Journey to My Heart

by Terra Little

  JOURNEY TO MY HEART

  The fiery beauty playing bodyguard to a bank heist witness arouses FBI agent Cooper Talbot’s suspicions...and desire. Independent contractor Olivia Carrington could be concealing her own complicity. But Cooper can’t fight the combustible attraction that leads them into a clandestine romance. Can he put aside his past for a woman in danger? Or is he falling for Olivia at his own peril?

  THE SWEETEST AFFAIR

  Pastry chef Tracee Coleman dreams of opening her own café. But when a chance encounter with a hotel heir literally sends her flying into his arms, her vow to avoid romantic distractions goes up in flames. Tall, strong and sexy, Laurent Martin is as commanding in the boardroom as he is in the bedroom. But will Tracee be able to forgive him when his true business intentions are exposed?

  Terra Little

  and

  Bridget Anderson

  Journey to My Heart & The Sweetest Affair

  Table of Contents

  Journey to My Heart by Terra Little

  The Sweetest Affair by Bridget Anderson

  Excerpt from Love in San Francisco by Shirley Hailstock

  Journey to My Heart

  Terra Little

  “So what do you say, Miss Carrington? Are we cool?” He extended a huge hand to her, palm up.

  “We’re cool,” she said, reluctantly reaching for it.

  “Good. Let’s kiss on it.”

  God, I hope so, she thought just as her palm met his and he used the leverage to bring her skipping toward him. Halfway there, the tip of his tongue peeked out from between his open lips in a silent invitation that she went up on her tiptoes to greedily accept, sinking into his mouth so deeply that she felt his tongue touch the back of her throat. It was the wettest, thirstiest, most invasive kiss that Olivia had ever experienced, so raw and uncivilized that her face flamed with embarrassment even as she gripped his shoulders and let him take her head back on her neck. He gripped her waist possessively and groaned into her mouth, and a rush of liquid pleasure drenched her thong. He glided a hand up her back to press her closer, and she purred.

  Terra Little has been reading romance novels for decades and falling in and out of love with the heroes between the sheets for just as long. When she’s not in the classroom teaching English literature or desperately trying to keep up with her energetic grandson, you can most likely find her tucked away somewhere with her laptop and a dog-eared romance novel. To share feedback, yummy recipes and suggestions for great reads, drop Terra a line at writeterralittle@yahoo.com and visit her online at www.terralittle.net.

  Books by Terra Little

  Harlequin Kimani Romance

  Beneath Southern Skies

  Road to Temptation

  Journey to My Heart

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

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  To the little girl they used to call “Booty-Boo.” Hello there, Sunshine. Long time, no see...

  Dear Reader,

  Just when you thought you’d heard the last of the Carrington twins, Olivia Carrington finds herself next in line for a nip from Cupid’s arrow. Of course, being the independent, carefree sort, both Cupid and Cooper Talbot—the relentless FBI agent from hell...or heaven, depending on how you look at it—have their work cut out for them.

  Never one to be easily intimidated, Olivia is the perfect match for Cooper’s disarming Southern charm. So much so that talking her way out of potential legal problems is a piece of cake. It’s the risk of being talked out of something else that keeps her awake at night.

  Should she or shouldn’t she?

  That’s the million-dollar question, but you’ll have to discover the answer for yourself. First, though, settle in, grab a cool drink and put up your feet. This is one journey that I hope you’ll be glad you took!

  Bon voyage!

  Terra

  Contents

  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

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 1

  The Wi-Fi call was on its fifth attempt to ring through, splitting the calm morning air with one last shrill-sounding, eardrum-scraping melody that finally managed to accomplish the seemingly impossible task of rattling Olivia Carrington’s resting nerves and startling her awake. Up until that very moment, she’d been asleep for exactly three hours, a fact that she planned to remind her caller of as soon as she could think clearly. Cursing viciously under her breath, she kicked her feet loose from a tangle of covers and punched a pillow before turning her head, zeroing in on the culprit—the open MacBook on the nightstand—and reaching out to press a button on the keypad.

  “This had better be good,” she snarled.

  “Don’t worry, it is,” a cheerful feminine voice immediately replied. Triggered by the exchange, the screen flickered to life, giving Olivia an unobstructed view of plump, plum-tinted lips and even white teeth, curved into a gracious smile. After a few seconds, the camera zoomed out and the face belonging to the dazzling smile came into view. Unlike Olivia’s, it was flushed with happiness, perfectly made up and runway ready. “Oh, damn. Did I wake you?”

  “Uh, yeah,” Olivia said, barely restraining herself from adding duh. “So if you’re calling to swoon in secret over some new trick that your husband just learned, that you don’t want him to know that I know about, could I please, please hear about it later?” The last few words came out on a whine as her head sank deeper and deeper back into her pillow and her eyes started drifting closed again.

  “For your information, I’m not calling to talk about Broderick. Although now that you mention it, there was this one incident yesterday—wait a second. You don’t...you’re not...is there a man in bed with you? Is that why you’re in such a hurry to hang up?”

  Olivia’s head popped up from the depths of her down-filled pillow just in time to catch a close-up and grossly distorted view of the other woman’s eyeball as it peered suspiciously into the camera. For a second, she was stunned into speechlessness and could only stare at the screen blankly. The call had come in all the way from the other side of the world—Abu Dhabi, to be exact—where it was probably early evening right now and at least seventy-five degrees in the shade.

  She knew firsthand that it was impossible to visit the tropical oasis and not be both physically and mentally seduced by its balmy breezes and panoramic seascapes, so she didn’t give a thought to envying the other woman’s glowing caramel-brown skin or the lively sparkle in her eyes. Coveting her thick lashes and naturally arched, bushy brows was an exercise in futility as well, since they, along with her dimpled cheeks and the tiny beauty mark in the center of her chin, were birthrights that she’d come by naturally. Neither the surf, sand nor sun was to blame for enhancing the other woman’s good looks. But the perpetual glow of blissful cluelessness in her laughing eyes was something else altogether. Apparently the surf, sand a
nd sun had joined forces to make her delusional.

  The poor thing had only just acquired that annoying trait a little over a year ago, when she’d given up her lifelong membership to the single ladies’ club to elope with her Prince Charming. The problem was that, in the process, she had seemingly forgotten that the rest of the world, and every happily-single-by-choice woman in it, including Olivia, still had to work for a living. And that they required sleep to do it.

  When Olivia found her voice, it roared. “No, I don’t have a man in bed with me, you sex fiend! It just so happens that I was up late, working!” The entire bed shook with the force of her outrage. “Some of us still have to do that, you know!”

  The oversize eye crinkled with humor and then withdrew to normal proportions. Minus the artfully applied makeup, purposely wind-blown hairstyle, and a freckle or two here and there, it was an exact replica of Olivia’s face, right down to the beauty mark in the center of her chin and the secret third dimple in each of their right cheeks. The woman on the other end of the camera was Elise Carrington, her identical twin sister.

  Which, Olivia mentally reasoned, was the only thing keeping her from going through the phone.

  “Wow,” Elise Carrington said. “Someone’s angry.” Clearly not in the least bit put off by Olivia’s hysterical tone, she sat back in her chair and scratched her fingers through a wild mane of curly, bronze-streaked brown hair and shook it loose around her bare shoulders. “Good morning to you, too, sunshine.”

  It was Saturday, barely seven o’clock in the morning, and her first day off in weeks. Olivia was exhausted—not to mention overworked—and hardly in the mood for small talk. As far as she was concerned, she’d seen and heard enough. “Elise Monica Carrington, I swear to God,” she warned as she reached across the mattress for the MacBook’s blinking power switch. “I closed three cases last week and took on two new ones just yesterday, which means that I have work to do and I need sleep to do it. I’m hanging up now. I’ll call you back later.”

  “Wait!” Elise cried just before Olivia would’ve hung up on her. “I have some news that I’m pretty sure you’ll want to hear.”

  Olivia froze. “What is it? Are you pregnant?”

  Elise’s expression turned admonishing. “I’ve asked you to please stop speaking things like that into the universe. It gets less and less funny each time you do, you know.”

  “So that’s a no?”

  “That is most definitely a no. As a matter of fact, my dear, that is a definite hell no.” Elise’s head dropped back to the pillow heavily. “I called to give you a heads-up. Live coverage of the robbery at First Federal Credit Union, there in Clayton, has been streaming all morning. They think it’s connected to a string of heists that have happened across the country over the last several months. Your friend—what’s her name? Shannon something-or-other?—and one of the tellers were both there when it happened.” Elise raised her head, staring at the screen incredulously. “They’ve been detained by the FBI for questioning about their possible involvement.”

  “Oh my God! The last time I talked to Shannon, she’d just been promoted to branch manager and seemed happy. Why the hell would she be involved in a bank heist, of all things? It doesn’t make sense.”

  Elise shrugged. “It does if you recall that I have always said she was a very strange person.”

  “Elise—”

  “What?” The look on Elise’s face was innocence personified. “She’s always been weird and secretive, and you know it. That’s all I’m saying.”

  “She’s my friend.”

  “Which is why I figured you’d want to know. Google it. See for yourself.”

  Olivia leaned forward and pressed a series of buttons on the MacBook’s keyboard to split the screen. She searched the web for up-to-the-minute news about the incident and clicked on the first credible link that popped up in search results. “What in the world?” she wondered aloud, midway through watching the live feed that was plastered across the top of the web page. Police helicopters circled the air above the credit union, and on the ground, a swarm of law enforcement officers and media foot soldiers milled around the building.

  “I can’t imagine what Shannon must be going through right now,” she said just as the coverage shifted to a recap of earlier events and an image of Shannon being escorted off the premises by two somber-looking agents flashed across the screen. She gasped in shock. “Wow!”

  “I know,” Elise said somberly. “She looks terrible, doesn’t she? After all this, her mug shot has to be worse than Nick Nolte’s.”

  An errant giggle bubbled out of Olivia’s mouth. “Only you would notice her looks at a time like this.”

  “Well, it’s certainly something to consider, isn’t it? What are you going to do? And before you answer that question, I would just like to go on record as saying that I think the correct and appropriate answer to that question is, absolutely nothing.”

  “She’s my sorority sister, Elise, and from the looks of things, she’s in serious trouble. The least I can do is make sure she’s okay.” Olivia had been so busy with work that she hadn’t seen or spoken to Shannon Bridgeway in more than a year. But they’d been close in college and had regularly kept in touch over the years. She’d never forgive herself if something terrible happened to Shannon and she hadn’t at least attempted to check on her friend’s well-being. “It won’t hurt to have Eli do a little poking around,” she added, referring to Eli Seamus, the ex-CIA agent who dabbled heavily in private investigations, now that he was retired.

  “Olivia...”

  “Relax. I said a little poking around, and that’s exactly what I meant. Trust me, with everything else going on around here, the last thing I need is more work. I don’t know if you’ve gotten the memo yet, but running a private-investigation agency all by myself is pretty exhausting. Poor Harriet is on the verge of going on strike, and frankly, sis, so am I.” Harriet was Olivia’s part-time office assistant who had been working full-time at an intense pace for the past several months. “But not before I make sure that Shannon is okay,” she declared as her head hit the pillow again and she snuggled in. “After that, I can’t make any guarantees. Thank you for the update. I’ll take it from here. Now can I sleep, please?”

  “I’ll be home soon. I promise.”

  “Yeah, yeah,” Olivia drawled into her pillow. “That’s what you said last month and the month before that. Meanwhile I’m here, sinking deeper and deeper into an abyss of case files and wearing the soles off my Jimmy Choos while I wait. I don’t think I believe you anymore.”

  “That’s cold, Olivia. Really cold. Even for you.”

  “Yeah, well, I’m too sleepy right now to care.” Her gaze landed on the time stamp in a corner of the screen and she sighed long and hard. The downside was that she’d lost several minutes of potential sleep time, but the upside was that if she drifted off in the next couple of minutes, there would still be plenty of time to sleep like the dead before noon rolled around and Eli turned his ringer on. Now if she could just get rid of Chatty Cathy. “Was there something else you wanted?”

  Elise had the nerve to look hurt. “Well...no, I guess not, but—”

  Olivia snuggled inside a mound of pillows and covers. “Okay, well in that case, sis...”

  “Well, damn. Will you at least call me later?”

  “I will. I promise.”

  “Today?”

  “Yes, Elise,” Olivia promised sleepily. “Now, for God’s sake, goodbye.”

  For ten blissful seconds after she pressed the end button, absolute quiet reigned. Grateful for the reprieve, she wrapped her arms and legs around her body pillow, buried her face in the dark, chilly space between it and the mattress and willed herself to drift off to sleep.

  Then, far off in the distance, a lawn mower roared to life.

  “Oh, no...” The sound came closer, or at lea
st Olivia imagined that it did. “Oh, nooo...” Curled into the fetal position now, with a pillow clamped over her head, she tried to block out the noise with sheer willpower. When that didn’t work, she tossed the pillow aside and flopped onto her back in defeat. “Damn you, Elise,” she growled at the vaulted ceiling.

  As hard as it was to begrudge her sister her luxurious new globe-trotting lifestyle, the longer she was away, the more Olivia was tempted to put her foot down and insist that Elise come home immediately. Running Carrington Consulting—the boutique private-investigation agency that they had started together five years ago—solo was becoming more and more chaotic by the day. Even with Elise working a small portion of the firm’s incoming cases remotely, the demand for their services was currently experiencing the kind of spike that made physically sustaining a two-woman operation all by herself nearly impossible. Olivia was all for true love and never-ending honeymoons, but after a year of jet-setting, Elise had to return to the real world sometime, didn’t she?

  Not that she didn’t absolutely adore her brother-in-law, Olivia hastened to remind herself, because she did. How could she not? Broderick Cannon was tall, dark and gorgeous, and he was rich enough to whisk her sister off for an exotic getaway at a moment’s notice, which was always a plus in Olivia’s book. As a former navy SEAL and the CEO of Cannon Corp—an underground securities firm that did most of its work in classified overseas locations—his fearless, larger-than-life personality was the perfect complement to Elise’s reserved, look-before-you-leap demeanor, and his professional expertise had come in handy countless times.

  In more ways than one, theirs was a marriage made in heaven, except that Olivia hadn’t quite counted on Elise practically handing over the reins to Carrington Consulting and disappearing in the process. The idea of hiring a part-time associate was sounding better and better every day. Until now she had purposely avoided thinking about it, but if Elise didn’t come home soon, she just might have to start.