Getting impatient for Third Time’s The Charm (The Downey Trilogy #3)?

While we wait for October 31st, I’m reliving some fan-favorite moments from First, I Love You and Second of All. This one from First, I Love You is the spark that started the “maelstrom of unexpected consequences” in the book’s description, ie, when James and Kiki first meet.

“Kicks?” James asked.

“Tommy’s nickname for me. Because I love shoes so much,” she answered with a bite to her tone and a challenge in her face.

Oh, did the little kitten want to play? James thought.

He stepped right in front of her.

“You know, it occurs to me, Katherine, we could be quite useful to each other,” he said, smiling his most ingratiating smile and scanning her head to toe.

Hell, if a woman was going to go out of her way to wear so little, a man might as well enjoy the show, right?

James heard a throat clearing and remembered Ginny was still standing next to them. He turned his gaze from Kiki’s narrowed eyes to raise a questioning eyebrow at his colleague. She looked somewhere between flabbergasted and offended. On whose behalf? James wondered.

“Yes, Agent Sommers?” James asked, as polite as he could muster.

He still hadn’t gotten over her crashing the party on his own home field. True, he was also crashing the party, but again, this was his territory and she was supposed to be back in DC, not sweet-talking Detective Gates into a date. He had clearly underestimated her ambitiousness.

“You were going to show me the restroom, Kiki,” Ginny said pointedly.

Kiki was clearly flustered and unsure. She kept twirling a lock of her curly dark-brown hair and darting glances around the room. James wanted to press his advantage and didn’t appreciate Ginny blocking him, especially since they had made a pretty good tag team just days before. He needed to convince Tommy to get Downey on board or at least to use his connection to gather information, and Kiki was another way to accomplish this, maybe even an entirely different route in. But here was Agent Sommers trying to nip that in the bud. Was this a gender solidarity thing or did she think it was a dead end?

He shrugged his shoulders and walked around Kiki, deliberately stopping right behind her and leaning down so his head was next to her ear.

“It was nice meeting you, Katherine, but I don’t want to miss out on the next Act of this little family drama you created,” he said, smiling with satisfaction when she shivered a bit.

Her hair smelled like piña coladas, and he was surprised she didn’t wear any perfume…

–Copyright 2012, Genevieve Dewey.

 

ICYMI: The Kindle version of First, I Love You is currently ON SALE at Amazon for $.99 (Sale Ends October 7th)!!