Kristin Gabriel - Sheerly Irresistible

“This is a singles club, isn’t it? Don’t people usually buy drinks for each other?” Claire asked.

She had a point, but Mitch wasn’t about to concede. Not when she’d started a brawl within half an hour of her arrival. Not when her antics threatened to distract him from his investigation. Not when he had an almost irresistible urge to kiss her sassy mouth.

Battling his libido, Mitch carried Claire out to the curb and hailed down a cab. Then he loosened his grip, allowing her to slide the rest of the way down his body. Sweet torture.

“Enjoying yourself?” she challenged.

“I like it better when you don’t talk,” he said, his body throbbing.

She narrowed her eyes. “Just try to stop me.”

So he did. Lowering his head, he captured her sassy mouth with his own, figuring she’d pull back at any moment. Only she didn’t.

What the hell was wrong with him? With her?

Stepping back, Mitch managed to hustle her into the cab before he lost total control. But he had the feeling that the fun was just starting….

Dear Reader,

Have you ever taken on a new challenge knowing you were in way over your head? This happens to me more times than I’d like to admit, so it seemed only natural to put my heroine in a similar predicament.

Professor Claire Dellafield is a small-town girl determined to study the power of love in the Big Apple. If only tough guy Mitch Malone would stop standing in her way! But with a little help from a special skirt and a spoiled poodle, Claire makes herself Sheerly Irresistible, and Mitch soon finds himself completely under her spell….

Sheerly Irresistible is the second book in the SINGLE IN THE CITY miniseries, caught right between Heather MacAllister’s Skirting the Issue (August 2002) and Cara Summers’s Short, Sweet and Sexy (October 2002). Don’t miss any of the fun!

Happy reading,

Kristin Gabriel

P.S. I love to hear from readers. You can contact me through my Web site at www. KristinGabriel.com.

HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION

834—DANGEROUSLY IRRESISTIBLE

868—SEDUCED IN SEATTLE

HARLEQUIN DUETS

7—ANNIE, GET YOUR GROOM

25—THE BACHELOR TRAP

27—BACHELOR BY DESIGN

29—BEAUTY AND THE BACHELOR

61—OPERATION BABE-MAGNET

—OPERATION BEAUTY

Sheerly Irresistible

Kristin Gabriel

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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For Heather MacAllister and Cara Summers.

Thanks for making this book so much fun to write!

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

Epilogue

“THAT’S IT,” THE photographer said, looking at her through the camera lens. “Arch your back. There…now pout for me. Think sultry.”

Unfortunately, Claire Dellafield couldn’t think about anything except how ridiculous it was for a cultural anthropologist to be draped across a Dumpster in a back alley in New York City. This was definitely not what she’d imagined doing on her first day in the most exciting city in the world.

Unpeeling herself from the garbage bin, she plucked the collar of the tank top away from her damp cleavage. “Look, I assumed we were just going to take a few simple headshots in front of the nightclub. A publicity photo the university could send out when they release the results of my research project. This,” she motioned to the narrow back alley, “just doesn’t make sense.”

The photographer lowered his camera. “I am Evan Wang. I take direction from no one. You are the model. I’m the artist. You must trust me.”

“I’m not a model,” she clarified, just to make certain Evan hadn’t confused his assignments. “I’m an anthropology professor.”

“Yes, that is a problem,” Evan mused, studying her from a different angle. “But that’s why people call me the miracle worker.”

Claire swallowed a groan, wishing she’d followed her instincts and turned down this research project. But that simply wasn’t a luxury a rookie anthropologist could afford. Not when research grants were so few and far between. So she’d reluctantly agreed when Penleigh College approached her to revisit a study called Strangers in the Night that had made both her father and the college famous twenty-five years ago. No doubt, some would continue to accuse her of riding her father’s coattails.

Sometimes she wondered if they were right.

Claire lifted her long, thick hair off the back of her neck, hoping a cool breeze would find its way into the alley. It had never been this hot in Penleigh, Indiana, the small college town she’d called home her entire life. She had shared a cottage with her father on campus until nine months ago, when he’d passed away after a long battle with kidney disease. Then it seemed as if she’d just stepped into his life—taking over his classes and now, reprising his famous research project.

Thinking of her father made Claire’s throat tighten. Marcus Dellafield had been in this same spot twenty-five years ago. Well, maybe not this exact spot. There had been no sexy pictures to accompany his study on human mating habits at The Jungle, once the most popular singles bar in New York City.

But Professor Dellafield had done more than just collected research all those years ago. He’d adopted Claire as an infant and brought her back with him to Penleigh, raising her as a single father. That’s what had captured the media’s attention—the story of an ivory tower professor who gave a child born out of wedlock a fairy-tale life.

And it had been like a fairy tale. Claire’s father had taken her with him on all his anthropological research trips, showing her the world in the process. She’d been to places like Borneo and Tasmania. Eaten with the Maori of New Zealand. Traveled by riverboat on the Amazon in South America.

And she’d enjoyed every moment of it. So had her father. During the last months of his illness, he’d often told her that he had no regrets. Nothing had been left undone. He’d always lived his life to the very fullest.

Claire planned to do the same. Only life didn’t always cooperate with her. Maybe once she completed this research project, she could begin to live her own dreams, make her own choices.

“I’ve got an idea,” Evan said at last. “Let’s take advantage of your natural innocence. We’ll go for the Mary Richards look.”

“Mary Richards?” Claire echoed in confusion.

“You know,” Evan said, digging into his big, yellow satchel, “from the old Mary Tyler Moore Show. A single girl in the city, ready to turn the world on with her smile.”

“I know who she is,” Claire replied. Unlike most parents, her father had actively encouraged her to watch as many movies and television shows as possible. He believed they were a reflection of the changing mores of modern culture—especially the sitcom reruns—and worthy of study.