Book Two
by
Patricia Rice
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Imperfect Rebel
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Page forward and continue your journey
with an excerpt from
REBEL CHARM
The Carolina Magnolia Series
Book Three
Excerpt from
Rebel Charm
The Carolina Magnolia Series
Book Three
by
Patricia Rice
New York Times Bestselling Author
REBEL CHARM
Reviews & Accolades
"A powerful novel with compelling characters and sizzling sensuality... an emotional and very satisfying read."
~Reader to Reader
"Vigorous storytelling combines with intriguing characters in this fast-paced and fascinating read."
~Book Page
"A passionate, often humorous, battle of the sexes... stunning romance..."
~The Romance Reader's Connection
His assistant's lab notebook clipped him on the ear, bounced off his shoulder, and struck the human skeleton hanging from a rack behind him, rattling its bones. TJ McCloud sighed and caught the skeleton stand before it toppled.
"Take your damned bones to bed with you then. That's the only relationship you'll ever know." Leona stalked out of the shabby inner office, disappearing into the even shabbier outer one.
TJ heard the front door slam behind her. As he leaned over to retrieve the scattered pages of the notebook, a gentle clapping broke the silence.
TJ's head jerked up, almost slamming into the counter. Bent over, he could only see a shapely ankle accented by red high-heeled mules. Straightening slowly, he absorbed the magnificent apparition magically appearing in his doorway.
The high heels emphasized the curving perfection of long tanned legs, capped by a tight red miniskirt. Eyes popping, TJ looked higher, to a breathtaking figure that could have graced the pages of Playboy. Aware of his gaze, the genie posed seductively against the institutional green of his office door.
Damn, was he hallucinating? He should have heard her enter.
Hell, her looks should have screamed her entrance. That red spandex top revealed far more than it concealed, even with the silky transparent shirt thrown over it. Removing his glasses, TJ massaged the bridge of his nose.
He was surprised at himself—he never noticed what women wore. Had a covey of angels alighted, he might have noticed they wore a lot of white before returning to work. His ex-fiancée had pointed that out to him on numerous occasions.
TJ raised his gaze from that distracting body, only to be captured by more fascinating phenomena. Whipped-cream-and-lemon-pie-colored curls bobbed from an impossible heap atop a tan face of delicate angles. Slanted green eyes watched him with amusement as she crossed her arms under her bounteous bosom. Her taunting smile and turned-up nose alone could have halted a rampaging grizzly and morphed it into a drooling teddy bear. The rest of her could roll dead men in their graves and kill live ones in the sheer ecstasy of testosterone overdose.
Why did she look familiar? Startled at that reaction, TJ absently polished his glasses while applying his analytical mind to the puzzle.
"I applaud your ability to defy temptation," she purred, swiveling her hips as she moved toward him, watching him through eyes gleaming with interest.
Where had he seen her before? She was beautiful enough to be a movie starlet, but he didn't watch movies, so that couldn't be the answer.
"I don't have time for this," he said aloud, returning his reading glasses to his nose. "Tourist information is down the street." He swung around on his stool, presenting her with his back.
"Did all that youthful energy bouncing out of here wear you out?" she asked with a hint of humor. This close, her subtle cologne drifted temptingly between the sharper odors of ammonia and formaldehyde.
Awareness crept across TJ's skin, irritating him far more than Leona's senseless departure. "This is a private office. I'll thank you to state your business or depart."
"Timid Timothy," she teased. "That much hasn't changed."
She ran a fingernail down his lab coat, and the part of him with no brain reacted instantly. He broke his pencil lead and cursed.
She laughed, a low, knowing chuckle. "Want a hint? Or shall I just fling something at you and flounce out like the last one?"
"Flounce, please," he answered mildly. "Without throwing anything breakable, if you could arrange it."
The sexy vibration of her laugh shot straight to his groin.
"I see the years have taught you flattery and charm," she teased. "I suppose there have been so many women in your life, they all look alike to you these days."
The second statement was as much mockery as the first, although TJ wasn't certain she knew it. He was certifiably charmless, and the only women in his life threw things at him.
Pointed jabs at open wounds didn't improve his humor. "The women I know have more brains than boobs, so their appearance is irrelevant," he replied, reaching for another slide.
"Oh, I'll get even with you for that one, Tim, just see if I don't." Her velvet voice slid into a dangerous undertone.
He couldn't concentrate on the slide under his microscope while inhaling an exotic scent with more mind-bending effect than pure opium. Was there something familiar in that warning? "If you're done threatening me, close the door behind you as you leave."
The air almost buzzed with her reaction, but her reply was bright and cheerful. "Your wish is my command, TJ."
He sensed more than heard her quiet departure. He couldn't know her, he swore. He'd certainly remember anyone that stunningly sexy if he'd met them. "Stunning" and "sexy" were not words to describe the women he'd dated these last years.
Rebel Charm
The Carolina Magnolia Series
Book Three
by
Patricia Rice
~
To purchase
Rebel Charm
from your favorite eBook Retailer,
visit Patricia Rice's eBook Discovery Author Page
www.ebookdiscovery.com/PatriciaRice
~
Discover more with
eBookDiscovery.com
Page forward and complete your journey
with an excerpt from
CAROLINA REBEL
The Carolina Magnolia Series
Book Four
Excerpt from
Carolina Rebel
The Carolina Magnolia Series
Book Four
by
Patricia Rice
New York Times Bestselling Author
CAROLINA REBEL
Reviews & Accolades
"Rice weaves the reader through each character, making them personable and the ending all the more romantic."
~ReaderToReader.com
"...full of warmth, humor and poignancy."
~Jill M. Smith, RT Book Reviews
"Bridge over Troubled Water" hit its last wailing note as Thomas Clayton McCloud sauntered in. He'd apparently taken time to scrub off in a rest room, wetting his long, sun-streaked hair. He wore the ash brown length tied back with a leather thong against his bronzed nape. He'd donned a plaid cotton shirt to cover his bare chest, but with the sleeves ripped off, it didn't do much to disguise his sculpted biceps.
Rory had to bite her tongue to prevent drooling as he slid into the booth across from her, exuding male pheromones. Brains won over brawn any day in her book, but that didn't stop her from appreciating the view when he crossed his sinewy arms on the table. This was the town's computer expert?
He lifted his sunglasses, sliding them into his overlong hair. Up close, Rory could see
that it had an unruly curl to the ends. The sunglasses had partially concealed a broad nose with a slight downward slope instead of the classically handsome one she'd expected. He wasn't Hollywood pretty, but his long-lashed gray eyes could ring her chimes any day.
"There'd better be a good reason for dragging me down here this early in the day." With a gesture at the bartender, he ordered a beer. The boy knew his brand of choice without asking and carried the bottle over still sweating from the cooler.
Sipping the beer, Clay admired the glory of the fullfigured redhead across from him—his fantasy Viking princess sprung to life in Technicolor. She'd twisted strands of her strawberry-blond mane into a knot at the back of her head, but it was too heavy to stay in the pins. One escaped lock curved in a delicate line along her throat, just brushing her red silk shirt. The stiff-collared, no-nonsense shirt didn't bother him, but the gray business suit she wore with it warned he really didn't want to hear what she had to say. He didn't listen to suits these days.
Leaning back against the wooden bench, he took a good chug of beer and waited for her to get past his rudeness. No sense in encouraging whatever maggot had stuck in her craw. Instead, he engaged his mind in admiring the way her luscious lips tightened into a disapproving line.
"I'm Aurora Jenkins," she said with only a hint of the soft drawl of the island inhabitants. "Terry Talbert has put me in charge of developing a budget for the park grant. I have an MBA in finance and grew up here, so I volunteered to help him out for a while."
Raising an eyebrow, Clay continued sipping his beer, waiting for her to come around to what she really wanted.
In the dim light of the bar, her eyes appeared almost violet. They narrowed at his nonresponse.
"I'm developing a budget for the land-planning grant," she continued without voicing an iota of frustration at his stonewalling. "I understand you're overseeing the software development of a program capable of identifying and locating the Bingham heirs. If you haven't pulled your cost figures together yet, I can help you with them."
Clay nearly snorted beer out of his nose. Wiping the smirk off his face with the back of his hand, he leaned forward, bringing them face-to-face across the narrow table. "I do software. I don't do numbers."
"The state requires numbers, Mr. McCloud."
"The state can go screw itself. I'm working for next to nothing and nothing is what they'll get if they don't leave me alone."
"With that attitude, maybe nothing is all you have and all you ever will have, Mr. McCloud. Perhaps I should suggest that the state find a different person to locate the heirs?"
"In my experience, you may suggest to them that the moon is blue, and they'll appoint a committee to study the matter and make a decision sometime in the next century. Don't let me stop you." Flinging a bill on the table, Clay slid out of the booth.
It was a damned shame that great body was wasted on a narrow-minded number cruncher, but he was sticking to simple minds and simple tastes these days—even if Aurora Jenkins' curves could tempt Satan.
"The park is imperative to our future, Mr. McCloud. We need a budget to get the state grant. I'll present you with a suggested budget for your division next week," she called after him.
He almost laughed out loud at that. He should have known any woman willing to tackle that spider-infested tower wouldn't give up easily. Turning, he winked at her in his best obnoxious manner. "You'd be better off hunting for the late mayor's missing fortune than to trust the state."
He walked out, letting the door slam behind him.
Missing fortune, her foot and eye, Rory thought. If she could find a fortune, she'd be out of this town so fast, Clay McCloud's thick head would spin.
Carolina Rebel
The Carolina Magnolia Series
Book Four
by
Patricia Rice
~
To purchase
Carolina Rebel
from your favorite eBook Retailer,
visit Patricia Rice's eBook Discovery Author Page
www.ebookdiscovery.com/PatriciaRice
~
Discover more with
eBookDiscovery.com
With several million books in print and New York Times and USA Today's bestseller lists under her belt, former CPA Patricia Rice is one of romance's hottest authors. Her emotionally-charged contemporary and historical romances have won numerous awards, including the RT Book Reviews Reviewers Choice and Career Achievement Awards. Her books have been honored as Romance Writers of America RITA® finalists in the historical, regency and contemporary categories.
A firm believer in happily-ever-after, Patricia Rice is married to her high school sweetheart and has two children. A native of Kentucky and New York, a past resident of North Carolina, she currently resides in St. Louis, Missouri, and now does accounting only for herself. She is a member of Romance Writers of America, the Authors Guild, and Novelists, Inc.
For further information, visit Patricia's network:
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Table of Contents
Cover
Dedication
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 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Excerpt from IMPERFECT REBEL - The Carolina Magnolia Series, Book 2
Excerpt from REBEL CHARM - The Carolina Magnolia Series, Book 3
Excerpt from CAROLINA REBEL - The Carolina Magnolia Series, Book 4
Meet the Author
Dixie Rebel (The Carolina Magnolia Series, Book 1) Page 34
