Alison Kent - Kiss & Tell

“For me Alison Kent’s name on a book means that I am guaranteed to have a story that is realistic, entertaining, compelling and sexy as all get-out.”

—ARomanceReview.com

“Alison Kent has created in her giRL-gEAR series a believable, modern world where men and women behave just a little bit naughtier than they do in real life.”

—AllAboutRomance.com

“An outstanding tale of passion, sensuality and a dark fascination, Ms. Kent’s romance turns up the heat.”

—Romantic Times BOOKreviews on The Sweetest Taboo

“Alison Kent delivers a knockout read.”

—Romantic Times BOOKreviews on All Tied Up

“Alison Kent mesmerizes us with a compelling love story brimming with scorching sensuality and abiding love.”

—Romantic Times BOOKreviews on Call Me

Dear Reader,

I am a pop culture junkie. Not an addict, mind you. Or overly obsessive. I do love hearing who has landed plum movie roles, finding out what television series are canceled or renewed, seeing unexpected guest stars show up on network TV, etc. But I don’t wait for news on celebrity Starbucks sightings, or even care much about the love lives of the stars. Still, I know that’s not the case with everyone.

Funnily enough, I created the character of Caleb McGregor—aka Max Savage—long before stalkarazzi shows were as popular as they now are, but I’m glad I waited until the age of You Tube and TMZ to write his romance with Miranda Kelly, aka Candy Cane. Having one of them dreading the impending bombardment of the media and making the other one an expert at doing the bombarding made the story great fun to write.

I hope you get a kick out of Caleb and Miranda as they kiss and tell, kiss and don’t tell, then don’t kiss and tell some more! You can e-mail me at ak@alisonkent.com to let me know if you do. Stop by my blog at www.alisonkent.com/blog to visit with other readers and lovers of Harlequin Blaze, and to win all sorts of books and fun prizes. I’ll see you again in March 2009, when I’ll be hitting the track for Blaze’s 0—60 miniseries.

All my best,

Alison Kent

TORONTO • NEW YORK • LONDON

AMSTERDAM • PARIS • SYDNEY • HAMBURG

STOCKHOLM • ATHENS • TOKYO • MILAN • MADRID

PRAGUE • WARSAW • BUDAPEST • AUCKLAND

Alison Kent is the author of five sexy books for Harlequin Temptation, including Call Me, which she sold live on CBS 48 Hours, several steamy books for Harlequin Blaze, including The Sweetest Taboo and Kiss & Makeup, both Waldenbooks bestsellers, a number of sizzling books for Kensington Brava, including the Smithson Group series, as well as a handful of fun and sassy stories for other imprints. She is also the author of The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Writing Erotic Romance. Alison lives in a Houston, Texas, suburb with her own romance hero.

HARLEQUIN BLAZE

24—ALL TIED UP

32—NO STRINGS ATTACHED

40—BOUND TO HAPPEN

68—THE SWEETEST TABOO

99—STRIPTEASE

107—WICKED GAMES

120—INDISCREET

197—KISS & MAKEUP

213—RED LETTER NIGHTS

“Luv U Madly”

225—GOES DOWN EASY

287—INFATUATION

To Walt, for TMZ

To Brenda, for Dumbledore

To Helen Kay, for making sure I stayed sane

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

April…

“AN APPELLATE RULING has paved the way for a retrial in the case of Baltimore businessman E. Marshall Gordon. The CEO of EMG Enterprises was the fifth member of the board of directors to face charges of conspiracy to commit fraud related to EMG’s off-the-book partnerships. More on that in our national news segment after the break.

“And coming up in our celebrity beat, we have the latest from Max Savage on Colorado congressman Teddy Eagleton’s recent divorce from his wife of twelve years, and his romantic connection to Ravyn Black, the lead singer of the chart-topping emo band Evermore—”

“Enough, already.” Corinne Sparks reached to flip off the small television set she kept in the back room at Under the Mistletoe, almost knocking over a glass vase of hyacinths and lilies as she did.

Miranda Kelly, Corinne’s employer and owner of the flower shop in the resort town of Mistletoe, Colorado, had been seconds from doing the same thing. Neither one of them enjoyed seeing pieces of their lives on the news, and to be mentioned that way, one on top of the other—first her ex-husband, then Corinne’s estranged daughter—was too much.

“Tell me about it.” Miranda had been intent on using the quiet spring day for bookkeeping, but the specter of her past impinging on her present allowed room for little else in her head. “I left Baltimore so I wouldn’t have to be bombarded by the media’s obsession with everything related to Marshall. I sure don’t want to think about him while I’m paying bills.”

Frowning, Corinne resituated two of the lilies that had slipped in the close call. “I thought you left because the SOB couldn’t keep his zipper zipped.”

Well, there was that, thought Miranda, swiveling on the bar stool she used at the short end of the long L-shaped worktable that served as a desk. “That’s why I divorced him. And seeing his face every time I turn on the news these days reminds me how stupid I was to marry him in the first place.”

“He wasn’t a cheater when you married him,” Corinne reminded her.

“Pfft. He obviously had it in him to be one.” Miranda paused and tapped her pencil on the table’s surface, feeling an unexpected pang of hurt at the memory of Marshall’s infidelity. Logical or not, that pained her more than his criminal acts. “But I can tell you for a fact that the gossip sheets got it wrong. He did not go looking for sex elsewhere because he wasn’t getting any at home.”

“You’re preaching to the gossip-loathing choir here,” Corinne said, setting the finished arrangement in the refrigerated storage case for a late-afternoon delivery. “I know firsthand how much garbage gets printed as truth. Then again, in Brenna’s case, a lot of the garbage is the truth.”

Corinne had been working at the flower shop for five years now, ever since Miranda had moved back to the small Rocky Mountain town where she’d grown up, and bought the business from its retiring owners.

She and Corinne had been good friends long enough for Miranda to know the extent of the conjecture printed about her employee’s daughter, as well as the grief Brenna Sparks—the very same Ravyn Black mentioned in the Max Savage news segment—had caused Corinne. It was enough grief to bring about mother and daughter’s current alienation.

But since the television mention gave Miranda the opening, she took advantage and voiced what had been on her mind. “I’d been wondering when the congressman’s divorce was going to be final.”

“Such a proud moment, too,” Corinne said with a snort, “having to face that your daughter lacks the decency to keep her hands off a married man.”