Michele Dunaway - Capturing the Cop

Garrett crossed his arms. “Why did you only want one date?”

Olivia shut her eyes. This was so horrible. She’d ruined everything. How could she ever have thought a one-night stand was a good idea? Bad girls had bad ideas.

“The truth,” he demanded.

Her eyes flew open. “I…”

“Did you plan to seduce me?” The question hit like a harsh accusation.

“It seemed the answer to my problem.”

“You mean the virginal Olivia Jacobsen problem?”

It was out there now, what she’d done, and it rang tawdry and crass. Which was exactly how Garrett took it. What could she say? How could she make this better?

The silence stretched. Finally he spoke, each word like a knife.

“Tell me, Olivia. Be honest just this once. How much of you is real—and how much is a lie?”

Dear Reader,

I am delighted to finally bring you Olivia Jacobsen’s story and finish the Jacobsen family saga that I started what seems aeons ago. For Olivia, being a “bad girl” is about as far out of character as this minister’s daughter can get. However, she’s not going to turn thirty-one without a fight, and she plans to liven up her boring life and have some fun, if only for one night. When sexy cop Garrett Krause kisses her breath away, however, she discovers that one night isn’t enough, and she wonders if she can turn one night into forever. But there’s this little matter of some lies she’s told that could ruin everything.

If you’ve ever dreamed of being someone else or pretended to be, if only for a moment, you’ll empathize with Olivia Jacobsen as she struggles to find true love. With some well-meaning meddling from Grandpa Joe, I can promise you the family saga comes to an exciting and satisfying conclusion.

It’s hard to say goodbye to these characters, and I hope you enjoy their story as much as I did creating it. The road to love is often paved with good intentions, but sometimes, as Olivia will find out, you simply need a little faith.

As always, enjoy the romance, and feel free to e-mail me at michele@micheledunaway.com with any feedback.

Michele Dunaway

P.S. Jacobsen characters are also found in Catching the Corporate Playboy (Darci), The Playboy’s Protegee (Harry), and About Last Night…(Shane).

Capturing the Cop

Michele Dunaway

www.millsandboon.co.uk

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To Cornbread, WIL92, whose voice wakes me up each morning—kudos for all you do for our troops and for my hometown of St. Louis.

To Dale Earnhardt, Jr., you’ve given me a reason to discover NASCAR and become a fan. Thanks also to the Warren Brothers for proving that it’s okay to be barely famous. You’ve provided fantastic music to write by. Thanks to all of you for being inspirations.

Special acknowledgment goes to Officer Ed Ucinski, my personal friend, and to O’Fallon Police Department Detective Jimmy Klinger, who graciously answered all my questions regarding the Major Case Squad, of which he is a member. For information on The BackStoppers, please visit www.backstoppers.org.

HARLEQUIN AMERICAN ROMANCE

848—A LITTLE OFFICE ROMANCE

900—TAMING THE TABLOID HEIRESS

921—THE SIMPLY SCANDALOUS PRINCESS

931—CATCHING THE CORPORATE PLAYBOY

963—SWEEPING THE BRIDE AWAY

988—THE PLAYBOY’S PROTÉGÉE

1008—ABOUT LAST NIGHT…

1044—UNWRAPPING MR. WRIGHT

1056—EMERGENCY ENGAGEMENT

1100—LEGALLY TENDER

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Twelve

Chapter Thirteen

Chapter Fourteen

Inside every good girl is a bad girl waiting to get out. Unfortunately for Olivia Jacobsen, she’d been waiting thirty years.

She studied herself in the mirror of the twenty-fifth-floor executive washroom. There was nothing “bad” about her appearance, in as far as she could tell. She had blue eyes. She had straight dark hair, a gift from her deceased Greek mother. Today Olivia had pushed her shoulder-length hair back with a pink plaid headband that matched her pleated plaid skirt.

The saleslady at the upscale boutique had insisted that head-to-toe plaid was the latest fashion, but now Olivia wasn’t so sure.

She scowled at her reflection. Fashion be darned. She came across like a pupil at one of St. Louis’s all-girl Catholic high schools. Olivia Jacobsen—thirty-year-old Miss Goody Two-shoes.

Worse, she was a thirty-year-old virgin Goody Two-shoes, the perfectly behaved daughter of Blake and Sara Jacobsen, world-famous evangelicals with an international ministry rivaling that of Billy Graham.

And she’d grown up hearing exactly what being bad got you.

Olivia puckered her lips, making another disgusted face at herself in the mirror. Being good was boring. Being good meant broken engagements because she’d gotten cold feet—well, that and the fact that kissing her two respective fiancés had been like kissing puppies. Cute and sloppy, but hardly satisfying. Being good also meant having a stepmother who watched your every move and a meddling family that constantly tried to marry you off to someone they deemed appropriate—someone bland and boring.

Being good meant never having a man touch your breasts, never once feeling the leg-clenching desire that Olivia read about in those romance novels her minister parents disapproved of but she devoured.

Just once, Olivia Jacobsen wanted to be bad. She wanted to sin. She shook her body to try to loosen it up. It was a pathetic attempt, and at that moment Olivia decided she couldn’t continue like this. Something drastic would have to be done.

No longer would she be lackluster Olivia Jacobsen, staid and sedate long before her time. That ended now. She reached for her plaid purse and strolled purposefully out of the washroom.

“Marilyn?”

Upon hearing Olivia’s voice, her secretary glanced up.

“I’m going to take the rest of the day off,” Olivia said. “Please reschedule all my appointments.”

If Marilyn seemed surprised that Olivia Jacobsen, vice president of corporate communications for Jacobsen Enterprises and the one with the flawless attendance record for the past five years, was ditching work early, she didn’t let on. “Yes, Ms. Jacobsen,” she replied with a neutral expression.

“I’ll see you tomorrow.” Not even bothering to return to her office, Olivia punched the elevator button and headed down.

Once-bitten, twice-shy DWM, blond-blue 6’3” HWP, 36 seeking a 26-34 HWP S/DWF for Ms. Right. Must understand erratic work shifts, must love kids, quiet family life and cats.

“I THINK YOU SHOULD mention that you’re Mr. August. Or at least a cop. What about ‘hot stuff’? Doesn’t that increase your odds?”

Garrett Krause glared up from the almost illegible handwriting he’d scrawled on a torn-out sheet of white notebook paper. Not only was his partner, Cliff, reading over his shoulder, but he was also laughing at him.