JENNIFER LABRECQUE - Barely Behaving

“Come, Gigi,” Niall called the dog.

Gigi ignored him, squeezing beneath the fencing and launching herself across the neighboring yard like a seven-pound rocket. Just as Niall reached the fence line, Gigi attacked the pair of bare toes hanging over a chaise lounge. The woman screamed and leaped to her feet.

In an instant, Niall’s world tilted on its axis. His neighbor was heart-stopping, blood-pumping naked. He struggled to focus on the woman’s face. It was damn hard.

“Let me guess—you’re my new neighbor and this belongs to you.” She nodded toward Gigi. Her distinctly Southern drawl held more than a note of amusement.

“Uh, yeah. I’m sorry we…uh…interrupted you.”

“No problem—I didn’t want to burn anyway.” Her friendly smile was faintly provocative.

Although totally nude, the woman was calm, cool and collected. He, on the other hand, couldn’t put together a cohesive sentence.

But he did know that he liked the neighborhood already….

Dear Reader,

I first met Tammy Cooper when I wrote my first Temptation novel, Barely Mistaken. Tammy, the heroine’s sister, was a bad girl—bad attitude, bad track record, bad reputation. But the more I got to know Tammy, the more I realized she wasn’t all that bad, just misunderstood. It’s trite, but true. Beneath the rebellious facade beat the heart of a vulnerable woman who deserved to be happy—even if she didn’t think so.

That’s the beauty of writing for Temptation—I got to give Tammy her own happy ending. But not just any man would do. Tammy had already tried that, and it didn’t work. No, Tammy needed a man who would delve deep enough to discover the true woman who hid behind the reputation. And lucky for her, that man moved in just next door….

Things heat up pretty quickly between them, and they learn two valuable lessons. One, that Tammy’s not as bad as she pretends, and two—that Niall is even better than he looks…. I hope you enjoy Barely Behaving. I’d love to hear from you. You can write to me at P.O. Box 801068, Acworth, GA 30101.

Happy reading,

Jennifer LaBrecque

HARLEQUIN TEMPTATION

886—BARELY MISTAKEN

904—BARELY DECENT

HARLEQUIN DUETS

28—ANDREW IN EXCESS

52—KIDS+COPS=CHAOS

64—JINGLE BELL BRIDE

Barely Behaving

Jennifer LaBrecque

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To Jake, forever in our hearts, Advantage and Cleopatra (formerly known as Fair Game). Also to Catherine McGovern and Southeastern Greyhound Adoption (SEGA) for their tireless dedication to saving these magnificent animals.

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

“SEX, MARRIAGE AND MEN don’t mix. I like sex and I like men. But I’m skipping marriage from here on out. And this time I mean it.”

Tammy Lorelei Cooper Williams Schill Brantley tossed her latest divorce decree onto her kitchen’s tiled island. The papers skidded past the miniature tabletop Christmas tree toward her younger sister, Olivia. “And I’m taking back my maiden name. I’m going back to Cooper. I’ve finally figured out who I am.” And by God, she liked the woman she’d come to know.

“I wish you’d let me kick your ex-husbands’ no-good cheating butts.” Olivia’s gray eyes held a blood-thirsty glint.

Tammy laughed and shook her head as she scooped ice into the blender. Her quiet, conservative little sister had a whole other side. Especially now that Olivia was nine weeks pregnant. With her wildly fluctuating hormones, Olivia could shift from butt-kicking mad to uncontrollably weepy in sixty seconds.

“I appreciate the sentiment and I’ve thought about doing it myself a few times, but they’re not worth it. Men are all pretty much the same when you come right down to it. They’re made that way. Which means they’ll take good sex any way they can get it. Even mediocre sex. Hey, just make that readily available sex.”

Or at least that seemed to be the case with her ex-husbands. Tammy dressed sexy and she was an admitted flirt, but she’d taken her wedding vows seriously—she didn’t fool around when she was married and she didn’t fool around with someone else’s spouse. Unfortunately, her ex-husbands hadn’t shared her outlook.

She poured cranberry juice in the blender and tossed in pineapple chunks and a banana. She topped it off with a vitamin and soy packet.

Olivia pulled out two glasses from the cabinet. “Not all men are that way. You married good old boys who thought you should wait at home while they played the field.”

Not pretty, but apropos. “That about sums up Jerry, Allen and Earl.”

“But they’re not all like that. You just haven’t met the right man yet,” Olivia said.

Tammy shook her head. Newlyweds. They always wanted to share the love.

“Personally, I don’t believe in Mr. Right. But I wouldn’t mind a round or two with Mr. Right Now. A year without sex—” Olivia checked her with a raised brow. “Okay. If I have to count the attempted reconciliation quickie with Earl—and I shouldn’t have to because it wasn’t very good—then it’s been ten and a half months. But as of today, I’m no longer a married woman, so when Mr. Right Now comes along, watch out. It’s been so bad lately I’m afraid to be left alone in the produce section.” And she was only partly kidding. Ten and a half months was a long time.

During her separation, she’d been seriously tempted by two men. Earl’s sister’s husband, Tim, was a hottie. Tim had stroked her ego at a time she desperately needed it and offered to stroke other things. Lowell Evans, the town hunk, had also offered his own brand of solace. Hard as it’d been, she’d turned them both down.

“You can talk about Mr. Right Now, but I think you’re an incurable romantic beneath all that cynicism.” Speculation underlaid Olivia’s laugher.

“Nope. Wrong on both counts. I’m a reformed romantic who’s evolved into a realist.” It was almost embarrassing to recall her naive certainty at seventeen that she and Jerry would love one another forever. That had died a swift but painful death when she’d caught him boinking Lilly Lawson. She’d hoped for love ’til death do us part when she’d married Allen. By the time she’d married Earl—she wasn’t proud to admit it, even to herself—there’d been a hint of desperation in her pursuit of true love. “After three matrimonial rounds, I’ve figured out men consider fidelity a mutual fund investment.”

Olivia uttered a compound obscenity Tammy’d never heard her use before. Actually, she didn’t think Olivia knew words like that.

“Did you learn that from Luke?” It was still mind blowing Olivia had married a rebel like Luke Rutledge instead of Luke’s straight-arrow brother, whom she’d dated. Almost as strange as Tammy and Olivia becoming close friends and confidantes after thirty years of uneasy sisterhood.

Olivia smirked and pushed her tortoiseshell glasses more firmly on her nose. “No. I already knew it. But he does encourage me to use it.”

“Well, don’t get all wigged out about my exes. The way I see it, they did me a favor. Who knows if I would’ve even finished massage therapy school and I probably wouldn’t have opened my own business if I’d stayed with Earl.”

Indignation rolled off Olivia. “What a load of rot, telling you he was sleeping around because you were too busy with classes and work.”