Kristin Gabriel - Dangerously Irresistible

Just like he was doing now.

“You’re not working for anyone else,” Gus said. “You’re going back to school and learn how to be a teacher, or even better, a nurse. Then maybe you’ll learn how dangerous it is to bite your brother.”

She refused to feel guilty since she hadn’t even broken the skin. “This is the third time Ben and Tate have interfered with one of my cases.”

His nostrils flared. “You don’t have cases! You’re a secretary. You’re supposed to be filing and making coffee, not shopping for a stun gun.”

A blush crept up her cheeks. “You know about that?”

“Yes.” He reached into a desk drawer and pulled out a magazine, tossing it on top of the desk. “I also know about this.”

The flush deepened as she stared at the title. Texas Mail-Order Men. Her friend Shayna Walters had given her a subscription to the magazine as a joke after Maddie had complained that her brothers always scared away any potential suitors. She’d spent more than one lonely Saturday night leafing through the magazine and marking the pages with the best-looking men. She hadn’t intended to actually follow through and send for one—no matter how titillating the prospect of pairing up with a perfect stranger might be.

From the expression on her father’s face, she wisely kept that opinion to herself. Squaring her shoulders, she decided the best defense was a good offense. “Ben and Tate broke into my apartment again, didn’t they? That’s an invasion of privacy. They had no right….”

“They had every right,” Gus interjected, his thick, gray brows crashing together, “especially when I discovered that you were out pursuing another felon. They were looking for some clue to see where you’d gone—only they found this instead.”

Gus opened the magazine to the first dog-eared page and read the caption below the photograph of a half-naked bull rider. “Eight seconds is all you’ll need to know this cowboy is the stud for you.”

He turned to the next dog-eared page. A grinning, naked cowboy held a saddle on his lap, strategically concealing a certain portion of his anatomy. “Let this cowboy take you for the ride of your life.”

“I can explain,” she began, her cheeks hot.

He folded his arms across his burly chest. “I’m waiting.”

“I never had any intention of contacting those men.”

“So why did you mark the pages?”

She couldn’t believe they were sitting here discussing this stupid magazine instead of her career. “It’s not like I’d planned to track them down. Although I could,” she added, tipping up her chin, “if I wanted to. I’m a damn good tracker, Dad. If you’d just give me a chance….”

“Forget it. No daughter of mine is going to associate with the kind of lowlife riffraff who jump bail, especially when you refuse to even carry a gun.”

“I carry pepper spray in case I have any problems. And I’m willing to use a stun gun in an emergency.” She stood up. “Just because I don’t break down doors and wrestle felons to the ground doesn’t mean I can’t do the job.”

He shook his head. “Women don’t belong in this business. Look what happened to Lynette.”

She rolled her eyes. Lynette had once worked as a secretary at the Griffin Bail Enforcement Agency. She’d also broken Gus Griffin’s heart. “Your fiancée ran off with a con artist, Dad, she didn’t die in the line of duty.”

His gaze flicked to the bulletin board on the wall. Straight to the wanted poster of the man who, one year ago, had stolen the woman he’d loved. The only woman he’d ever considered marrying after her mother’s death. But Lynette had dumped him for a man ten years her junior. A man they now knew as the Kissing Bandit. Guilty of fraud and bigamy in three states, the Kissing Bandit had romanced Lynette out of every penny in her savings account, then left her high and dry. He’d been arrested soon after, then jumped bail and disappeared.

Gus Griffin had never forgiven Lynette for jilting him. He’d also vowed to bring the notorious Kissing Bandit to justice. But despite his diligence, the Bandit was still on the loose. And Maddie was still paying the price for Lynette’s weakness.

“Maddie, I’m sorry to say that this magazine is proof that you’re not ready to hire on as a bounty hunter. It shows poor judgment. You’re obviously more interested in romance than recovering fugitives.”

“That’s not fair! Ben and Tate spend every weekend with a different woman, and you never say a word.”

“That’s because Ben and Tate have already proven themselves in the field. They’re not going to let a pretty face distract them at a crucial moment.”

“So give me a chance to prove myself, too. That’s all I ask, Dad. One chance.”

He hesitated, and for one brief moment she let herself hope.

“Madeline…” he began.

She closed her eyes, knowing the answer even before he said it. Her father never used her full name unless he was about to deliver bad news. He’d called her Madeline when he’d told her about her mother’s death in a traffic accident all those years ago. And then again a few months later, when he’d announced that she’d be attending a boarding school in Boston, instead of staying with the family in Chicago.

Madeline had never boded well.

“It’s time to put this silly idea out of your head,” Gus said gruffly. “You’re not going to work for me as a bounty hunter, and you’re not going to work for the competition, either. Everybody in this city knows better than to cross Gus Griffin.”

“Then I’ll open my own business,” she said, mortified to feel her lower lip quiver.

“Nobody in their right mind would ever hire a woman to bring in a fugitive, especially a woman who refuses to carry a gun.” He stood up and awkwardly thrust a tissue in her direction. Gus Griffin could face an armed felon without blinking an eye, but a woman in tears terrified him.

She grabbed the tissue and wiped her nose, aware of the office door closing behind her. She was alone. Again. Despite the tightness in her throat, her eyes were dry and hot. He wouldn’t even give her chance. After all these years, he still wouldn’t let her be part of the family.

She’d grown up trying to knock down the emotional wall that kept her separated from her father and brothers. They loved her and tried to protect her, but they didn’t understand her. And they didn’t want to let her into their world.

She reached across the desk for another tissue, her elbow bumping the magazine onto the floor. With an irritated sigh, she picked it up and scowled at the sexy cowboy who grinned up at her.

“It’s all your fault,” she muttered, though she knew her father would have used any excuse to keep her safely behind a desk instead of out in the field.

She flipped through the magazine, half tempted to place an order just to irritate her father. She knew it was immature and irrational, but so far acting mature and rational hadn’t gotten her very far.

She dropped the magazine into her lap, the pages falling open to the special insert called Grooms-to-Go. She’d never looked at this section before, having no interest in a man desperate enough to advertise himself for marriage. Then she blinked at the picture in front of her. And for one brief, terrifying moment her heart fluttered in her chest.

She held her breath as she looked up at the wanted poster in the center of the bulletin board. The one that had been there for so many months. The one with the picture of the Kissing Bandit. Then she looked back at the magazine.

It was him.

Maddie gulped, trying to breathe normally again. She’d found him. The man her father and brothers had been fruitlessly searching for was right here in black and white. His hair was a little shorter, and dark instead of blond, and he’d shaved off his mustache. But he still had the same square jaw, the same sexy dimple in his chin. She quickly scanned the brief description. Height: Six feet two inches. Hair: Brown. Eyes: Blue. Name: Tanner Blackburn.