Candace Havens - She Who Dares, Wins

“He’s a scientist who works at the university. I’m supposed to meet him here, but I don’t know what he looks like. I assume he’s an older guy, probably with glasses.” Katie glanced around, searching for the man, hoping maybe she’d catch his eye and he’d introduce himself.

A man turned to face Katie. The only thing she saw was the devastating smile, and his azure eyes. For a moment she couldn’t breathe. Her heart stopped and heat spread through her lower extremities.

He’s freakin’ gorgeous.

“He was around earlier this evening, but I think he may have left.” The man smiled at her again then glanced around the pub. “I don’t see him. Why did you need him?”

Holy hell on a biscuit. If he smiles one more time like that I might have to jump him right here in the middle of the bar.

Katie was no prude, but it had been a long time since her body responded like this to a man, especially one she didn’t know.

If he can do that with a look, imagine what it would be like if he touched me…

Dear Reader,

Have you ever been burned by love so badly that you thought you’d never have another relationship? Most of us have at some point in our lives and that’s what I wanted to explore in She Who Dares, Wins. We have Katie McClure, a private detective who hasn’t had a lot of luck in love. She finds herself falling hard for her client, Professor Macon Douglas, who is a deadly combination of smart, funny and incredibly hot. It’s her job to find out who’s behind the mysterious incidents that have put Mac’s life in danger.

Mac wants Katie, the sexiest bodyguard he’s ever seen, and he doesn’t care what he has to do to get her. His refusal to take the threats against him seriously drives Katie crazy. Can she save his life before it’s too late? Can he convince Katie that he’s worth putting all of her past troubles behind her? You’ll have to wait and see if she takes him up on his dare to love again.

Please email me at candacehavensbook@gmail.com and tell me what you think about the book. You can also find me on twitter.com/candacehavens and MySpace, Facebook and Live Journal. I look forward to hearing from you.

Enjoy!

Candace Havens

www.millsandboon.co.uk

Award-winning author and columnist Candace “Candy” Havens lives in Texas with her mostly understanding husband, two children and two dogs, Scoobie and Gizmo. Candy is a nationally syndicated entertainment columnist for FYI Television. She has interviewed just about everyone in Hollywood from George Clooney and Orlando Bloom to Nicole Kidman and Kate Beckinsale. You can hear Candy weekly on The Big 96.3 in the Dallas–Fort Worth Area. Her popular online writer’s workshop has more than thirteen hundred students and provides free classes to professional and aspiring writers.

I’d like to dedicate this book to Shannon Canard and Rosemary Clement Moore, who are the best friends a girl ever had and share my love for the world of romance.

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

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Epilogue

MACON BLINKED several times as the road blurred before him. “I shouldn’t have had a pint at the pub,” he whispered as he rubbed the bridge of his nose. But one lager didn’t explain the tiredness blanketing him, making it difficult to keep his eyes open.

The dark, curvy road was barely large enough for one car to pass, and for the third time in an hour he wondered about his sanity choosing to drive from London to the country so late at night to visit a greenhouse. The incessant rain didn’t help a damn thing. Macon reached to adjust his glasses but only managed to knock them off his nose.

Oh, hell.

Checking the rearview, he made sure no one was behind him before he reached down to grab the glasses.

Slamming them on his face, he glanced back at the road in time to see lights from an oncoming vehicle flash before him. He had no choice but to swerve.

His car raced over the embankment and into the trees, screeching tires and air bag powder in his eyes the last things he remembered.

KATIE’S STOMACH FLUTTERED with nervous energy as her fist tightened around her cell phone. This happened when she opened a new case. The excitement was heightened by her first transatlantic job for the agency, and the fact that she had no idea what lay ahead. The London taxi zipped away from the curb at Heathrow and into traffic. If she hadn’t been holding the handle she would have been tossed to the other side of the seat.

Eventually they reached the city center and the driver called out, “Piccadilly Square” in an accent so heavy she could barely understand him. She nodded and stared down at her phone. Her boss and best friend at Stonegate Investigative Agency, Mariska, had emailed several files about their new client.

Unfortunately just as she’d been about to download case notes, Katie’s phone had died midflight and she hadn’t been able to recharge it thanks to checking the charger in with her bags. She had no idea what the man looked like, or any other information except where she was supposed to meet him.

And I’m already a half hour late.

The professor had been involved in an incident, which was why Katie was in London. Dr. Douglas, an environmental scientist, claimed he’d been run off the road and into a tree. Paint scrapes on his car were the only proof. While there had been alcohol in his system, it had been minimal. The police were tracking the paint, but they didn’t have the whole story. The dean at the university where the professor worked wanted to keep the matter quiet, so the accident was being treated as a one-time event.

That wasn’t the truth. It was the second time something life-threatening had happened to the professor in the past two weeks.

There had also been some odd phone calls to the dean intimating Douglas should stop his research, and the professor had been mugged the night before the last accident. The dean worried that they were dealing with a radical or worse, a terrorist group, but he didn’t want to involve the police unless absolutely necessary.

“That’s the high court.” The driver interrupted her thoughts. “Fancy place for fancy folk. There is the museum.” The cabbie continued his tour-guide duties and Katie wondered if it would be rude to pay him to stop talking.

Stop it. It’s not his fault you’re having a crappy day.

She glanced out the window so it at least looked as if she were interested, and tried to gather her thoughts.

It seemed from what information Katie had that the dean was concerned about protecting the university’s reputation, rather than the safety of Dr. Douglas. Katie felt a little sorry for the old man.

The professor’s research was classified by the British government, which meant Stonegate couldn’t come up with much in that regard. Even the dean had refused to discuss it on the phone, telling them Katie would need special clearance once she arrived in London.

Whatever the project might be didn’t really matter. Katie’s job was to determine if there was a real threat, eliminate it and look after the dotty professor. This whole thing was a personal favor to the dean, who had been a dear friend of the mother of Katie’s boss and best friend, Mariska.

If Katie had had her way, she would have avoided the trip and sent the case straight to Scotland Yard where it belonged, but the decision wasn’t hers.

The taxi stopped on a brick-lined street in front of a pub straight out of a Dickens tale. Katie glanced at the meter and was shocked to see how much it was. Didn’t matter where in the world you were, cabs were expensive. She tossed some pound notes to the driver and stepped out with her small rolling suitcase and laptop bag.

The Seven Stars, the pub where she was to meet the professor, looked exactly like what she thought an English pub would from the outside—dark wood with brass. It had an old-world feel. Rolling her case through the door, with her laptop bag on her shoulder, she stood there for a moment allowing her eyes to adjust. The smell of beer and food was comforting in a way, and she let herself relax for a few seconds while she surveyed the room.

She was a detective—she should be able to spot one dotty old professor.

It was seven-thirty and the place was crowded with people. She had wanted to meet the professor and the dean at the university, but Dr. Douglas had insisted on the pub. The place did have a familiarity about it, reminding her of her mom and dad’s bar back in the Bronx.

The only things missing were her were nosy, boisterous brothers and her adorable Grandpa Joe behind the bar telling his stories about walking the beat years ago. He was the family member she missed most. GJ, as she called him, was the only sane one in the bunch, and he insisted Katie follow her dreams no matter where they led her.

GJ, a former cop, had been the one to help her get into the academy back in the Bronx. He’d pushed her to be a detective, even when everyone else in her family thought it was a ludicrous idea. They believed she should settle down and have babies with Jay Spiloli.

Ugh. Remembering Jay made her gut churn with nastiness. She’d dated him for a couple of weeks, only to learn he’d been cheating on her the whole time with Missy Ringovitz. The night she found out, she made her brothers lock her in her room so she couldn’t kill Jay. Her only satisfaction came the next day when she saw his face had taken a beating, probably due to her brothers’ fists. Though they would never tell her the truth about it.

It didn’t matter. Having babies with Jay was so not in the cards for her. She’d followed her grandpa’s advice, and three years as a detective had prepared her for this job of a lifetime working at Stonegate, where she traveled the world solving cases.

She glanced around the room, but didn’t see any dotty-looking prof types. Most of the people there were in their mid-thirties and wore three-piece suits. Even the women had donned heels with suits. A bunch of Wall Street types, only she was on the wrong continent.

Bartenders tend to know everything going on in their establishments. I might as well start there.

Katie headed for the intricately carved bar, which wasn’t easy in the crowd with her laptop and suitcase in tow.

“Hey, would you happen to know a Dr. Douglas?” Katie maneuvered her suitcase between the bar stools. The bartender delivered a pint to the man next to her and looked up.

“I know a few, lass. It’s a common name ’round here.”

Well, hell.

“He’s a scientist and works at the university. I’m supposed to meet him here, but I don’t know what he looks like. I assume he’s an older guy, probably with glasses.” She glanced around searching for the man, hoping maybe she’d catch his eye and he’d introduce himself.