Hot Blooded

end of time."
    This was an awful lot to take on faith but, as she laid her cheek in her
favorite spot on his shoulder, Mariann thought she might manage.

Seduction Gift
ANGELA KNIGHT
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Chapter 1
    Â« ^ »
    WHEN the Jaguar X-Type blew by Grace Morgan going seventy in a forty-five,
she stared at its receding taillights in disbelief. He'd crossed a double yellow
line to pass her on the two-lane road, a flash of red zipping through the
illumination of her headlights.
    "Oh, rich boy," Grace purred as she reached down to flick the switches for
her patrol car's siren and blue lights, "you have transgressed."
    A feral grin twisting her lips, she hit the gas and grabbed her mike to radio
Tayanita County Dispatch that she was pulling over a speeder. The Ford Crown
Victoria accelerated with a happy roar as it filled with the rapid rise and fall
of the siren. Adrenalin surged through Grace's bloodstream at that police
version of a battle cry, and her heartbeat began to bound.
    What does it say about my love life that the closest I get to sex is
pulling over some guy compensating for the size of his penis
? She curled
her lip.
    The two cars shot through the darkness, weeds and trees blurring to either
side. Just as Grace was starting to think he was actively running from her, the
Jag's speed dropped in surrender.
    If anything, her tension increased as he pulled onto the shoulder. Grace
whipped in after him, parking her car behind and slightly to the left of his in
a position designed to protect her if he opened fire when she got out. The guy
was probably just late for something, but there was always the chance he'd
knocked over a convenience store and thought she was trying to bust him for it.
Ninety-nine percent of traffic stops were mind-numbingly boring, but that one
percent could kill you. Which was why her car's video camera was designed to cut
on automatically when she activated its blue lights.
    Eyeing the speeder's tail, Grace cut off her siren and picked up her mike.
"Tayanita, Bravo 10. I'm out with a red two-door late-model Jaguar, California
tag number Kilo November India Golf Hotel Tango 1." KNIGHT 1.
Uh huh
.
And what was a California rich boy doing all the way out here in the sticks of
South Carolina, anyway?
    She gathered up her pen, hat and ticket pad while the dispatcher started his
computer check to discover whether the car was connected to a crime.
Unfortunately, they wouldn't know the results until Grace was already talking to
the speeder. At which point, things could get dicey in a hurry.
    Senses on high alert, she swung the door open and stepped out onto the
blacktop. A night breeze blew into her face, carrying the bark of a distant dog
and the scent of roadside honeysuckle. The cruiser's cooling engine ticked.
Settling her round-brimmed deputy's hat over her eyes at the regulation angle,
Grace started toward the Jag, her gaze focused on the back of the speeder's
head. Her hand eased to her holster with the automatic wariness instilled by
five years as a cop. Yet despite the danger, some part of her enjoyed the
singing rush of risk, the sharp awareness of her own beating heart.
    But the speeder made no suspicious moves.
    The Jag's powered window slid down with a mechanical hum. Grace's gaze swept
the speeder's lap and the seat beside him. No weapons, nothing suspicious
"License and…" She lifted her eyes to meet his.
    Time seemed to elongate, stretching between one thumping heartbeat and the
next. She knew him, knew that elegantly angular face with its wide cheekbones
and narrow nose, recognized the temptingly curved lips and the devilish arch of
dark brows. Something intensely female heated in Grace's belly as she looked
into sherry eyes that knew far too much about her secret dreams. Dreams the big,
long-fingered hands resting on the Jag's steering wheel were very capable of
fulfilling.
    She found herself wondering what so many others had, men with fear, women
with anticipation:
Is he here for me
? It was a double-edged question,
since he could kill as easily as he could seduce. She'd seen him do it.
    "Hello, Grace," he said.
    Despite the danger, her inner sixteen-year-old gave a happy squeal. She
mentally snarled at it, then stiffened in genuine dismay.
Oh, hell, the
camera
. It was rolling quietly away on the patrol car's dashboard, picking
up every word they spoke through her shoulder mike. And there was no way to turn
it off. "License