Tori Carrington - You Only Love Once

David took one look toward the door and felt an inexplicable urge to run. Walking toward him was Kelli Hatfield—the same sexy, innocently insatiable, utterly feminine Kelli Hatfield he’d shared a bed with last night. Her face mirrored the shock he felt.

It couldn't…there was no way in hell that this…that she…was his new partner. The reality that this gorgeous woman was actually a cop was enough to send him reeling.

Kelli appeared to regain her bearings before he did. “Officer McCoy,” she said, clearing her throat. Apparently remembering where they were, she thrust her hand—her delicate, talented hand—toward him.

David took it, tempted to pull her into the nearest room where they could have a little talk…and then some. He looked up to find Officer Kowalsky studying them guardedly.

“You two know each other?” he asked.

David looked into Kelli’s eyes. “Yeah,” he said, tempted to add, In the biblical sense.

Dear Reader,

Sexy as sin and impossible to forget—that’s THE MAGNIFICENT MCCOY MEN! First brothers Marc, Mitch and Jake stole our romantic hearts. Now the youngest McCoy, David, is proving he’s just as much a McCoy as his brothers.

In You Only Love Once, maverick cop David McCoy never dreams that the magnificent woman he undresses one night will show up at the precinct in uniform the next morning. Worse, Kelli Hatfield, David’s sexy new partner, is determined to prove herself his equal—on the job and in his bed. Has the precinct Casanova finally met his match?

We’d love to hear what you think of the youngest McCoy. Write to us at: P.O. Box 12271, Toledo, OH 43612, or visit us at the Web site we share with other Temptation authors at www.temptationauthors.com. And be sure to keep an eye out for the next and final book of the series, featuring stubbornly sexy Connor McCoy, available in July.

Here’s wishing you love, romance and many happy endings.

Lori and Tony Karayianni

aka Tori Carrington

www.millsandboon.co.uk

We heartily dedicate this book to romance-friendly booksellers and librarians everywhere, especially Mark Budrock, Dawn Rath, Kathy Andrico, Jim Beard, Chris Champion, Barb Kershner, Sharon Harbaugh, Kathie Freedly, Joan Adis and her lovable staff, Lisa Hamilton, Kristin Fennell, Kery Han, Betty and Fred Shultz and their partners in crime, Joan Selzer, Cathy Bartel, John Cleveland, Colleen Lehmann, Kathy Hendrickson, Heather Osborn, Lori Grassman, Judy and Bob Dewitt, Cy Korte, Michele Patrykus, Gayle Davis, Tracy Marr, Molly Carver, Rosechel Sinio, Bessie Makris, Eileen Masterson, Linda Membel, Donna Leaver, Delores Silva and last but certainly not least, Donita Lawrence.

Although we write the stories and Harlequin publishes them, its each and every one of you who makes sure our books find their way into the readers hands. Thank you doesnt begin to cover it.

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

“YOU’RE LATE.”

David McCoy slid onto a stool next to his brother Connor and shrugged out of his sheepskin coat. He glanced at his bulky black sports watch as he rubbed his hands together to warm them. It was cold even for December in D.C., the kind of cold that inspired the saying, “it’s too cold to snow.” But the bar was pleasantly warm and decked out festively for the holiday season. Green garland laced with red lights hung behind the counter, and hurricane candle centerpieces were placed on tables around the room. He motioned for Joe, the bartender at The Pour House, to bring him a brew when he finished serving a guy down the long length of the oak bar. “Yeah. Lieutenant Kowalsky wanted to have a few words after I knocked off tonight.” He greeted a couple of fellow officers taking their seats a few stools down. “Looks like I get a new partner tomorrow.”

Connor knocked back what remained in his own glass. “Should be interesting.”

“Yeah.” David paid Joe and made a comment on the busyness of the place this early on a Thursday night. Joe shrugged and told him whatever paid the bills.

“What will this be? The third?” Connor asked as Joe took an order down the bar.

David grimaced at his older brother. Connor knew how many partners he’d gone through. He could probably recite their names, and exactly how long it had taken David to scare them off. Connor was good that way. Always the one to remember when one of them had gotten the measles, when their homework had been due and which forms he had to forge so they could participate in school-sponsored road trips. Mostly, his diligence was welcome. There were times, however, when he wished Connor would get a life—preferably, his own.

He had the sinking sensation this was going to be one of those times.

He drank more of his beer than he intended and gritted his teeth at the onset of a cold headache. Of course, in the case of his last partner, Lupe Ramirez, he hadn’t exactly scared her off. In fact, she’d very nearly been killed off. A perp at a twenty-four hour convenience store had taken a potshot at her while he’d been making his way around the back. Lupe was still in rehab, learning how to walk on her reconstructed knee.

“At least the odds are against me getting another female,” he said.

Connor grinned. “You sure about that? If Ramirez filled some sort of gender quota, odds are probably in favor of you getting just that.”

David shook his head adamantly. “No…Kowalsky might not like me very much, but he wouldn’t do that to me again. Uh-uh.”

His brother shrugged. “No skin off my nose who you work with or don’t. I’m just pointing out the possibilities.”

“And I’m telling you the possibility isn’t even remote, not even slim. In fact, the possibility is so remote, it’s an impossibility.”

Connor’s grin grew wider.

“What?”

His brother shook his head. “Did I say anything?”

“No. You didn’t have to. That stupid grin of yours says it all.” David sat up and straightened his denim shirt. “Anyway, at least I do know my partner isn’t fresh from the academy. He’s a transfer from outside. And no matter what you say, he will be a he. I’ve done my duty as far as equality between the sexes goes. Is it too much to ask to be assigned a guy this time around?”

Connor seemed exceedingly interested in the bottles lining the wall behind the bar and took a slow sip of his beer, his grin apparently making it difficult.

David couldn’t resist. He slapped his hand against his older brother’s back, nearly causing him to spew the contents of his mouth all over Joe, who now stood before them putting together a purple concoction on the other side of the counter.

“So tell me, Con, what’s the deal with you? Why did you want to meet here?” He held his hand up. “Wait, don’t tell me, you’re getting married, too, aren’t you?”

Connor’s expression grew darker with each question until he looked a word away from knocking David from his stool.

David held up his hands. “Hey, don’t look at me that way. You’re the one who called me, remember?”

“Yeah, I remember, all right. Though I’m having a hard time recalling why.” He visibly winced. “Married? What on God’s green earth would make you ask that?”

For some reason David had never tried to decipher, he’d always loved getting under Connor’s skin. Maybe because it was so easy. Or perhaps because it was so much fun to watch Connor go from self-righteous know-it-all to a put-up-your-dukes teen in a blink of an eye. Pops had warned him that one day he’d take his banter a little too far and find himself knocked into the middle of next week. But somehow David had always known Connor would never lay a fist on him.