The case had only one drawbackâ¦
The sizzling attraction that had hit him the first moment heâd laid eyes on Alonsa. The way sheâd moved, the way sheâd felt in his arms when theyâd two-stepped their way through the sultry country-western ballad. The way she looked now in the chair with her legs curled up under her.
Everything about her turned him on.
But seducing her was not in the rules of engagement. It would make him less effective in finding her daughter, would complicate things until working together would be impossible. Worse, it would be taking advantage of her at her weakest and most vulnerable.
Heâd just have to keep his libido under controlâ¦at least until he found out what happened to her little girl. That would require seeing Alonsa without touching her and going home to cold showers and an empty bed.
And he thought the war zone had been tough.
JOANNA WAYNE was born and raised in Shreveport, Louisiana, and received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from LSU-Shreveport. She moved to New Orleans in 1984, and it was there that she attended her first writing class and joined her first professional writing organization. Her first novel, Deep in the Bayou, was published in 1994. Now, dozens of published books later, Joanna has made a name for herself on the cutting edge of romantic suspense in both series and single-title novels. She has been on the Waldenbooks bestsellers list for romance and has won many industry awards. She is a popular speaker at writing organizations and local community functions, and has taught creative writing at the University of New Orleans Metropolitan College. She currently resides in a small community forty miles north of Houston, Texas, with her husband. Though she still has many family and emotional ties to Louisiana, she loves living in the Lone Star state. You may write Joanna at PO Box 265, Montgomery, Texas 77356, USA.
The moonlit night was made for romance. Alonsa Salatoya stood alone, fighting the salty tears that wet her dark eyes and threatened to make a black sea of her mascara as the newlyweds two-stepped across the portable dance floor. Love was a beautiful thingâwhile it lasted.
The nightâs hostess, Linney Martin, stepped to her side. âDani and Marcus make a beautiful couple, donât they?â
Alonsa nodded. âThey do, and they seem totally in love.â
âYep. They were meant for each other.â
âSomething tells me your infamous matchmaking skills had a hand in getting them together.â
âNot this time. Their relationship sprang from a chance meeting at the Renaissance Festival. Didnât I tell you that story?â
âOnly part of it.â Alonsa had met the bride and groom on a couple of occasions but didnât really qualify as a friend. Yet Linney had practically insisted she attend the affair to celebrate their recent wedding. Perhaps because there were so few magnificent parties such as this in the small, rural town of Dobbin, Texas.
âTheir story is fascinating,â Linney said. âIâll fill you in when we go shopping in Conroe for the fabric to recover those chairs in the guest suite. But speaking of matchmaking, thereâs probably one or two nice cowboys here tonight I could introduce you to.â
That explained the invitation. âI came with a guy,â Alonsa reminded her. âA very charming man.â
âYour boss, who just happens to be gay,â Linney said.
âGay and a magnificent dancer,â Alonsa countered. âIn my book that makes him the perfect escort.â
If you wanted to be exact, she wasnât his guest tonight. Always the businessman, Esteban had invited a new customer named Keidra Shelton in that capacity. Keidra had recently moved to the Woodlands and wanted an extreme makeover for the interior of her house, a cosmopolitan look that captured the spirit of her new state. Esteban had decided Alonsa was the perfect person to create that.
He and Keidra had picked up Alonsa and driven her to the party. The woman had talked too much and asked far too many questions about Alonsaâs personal life and how sheâd come to live in a small, rural town like Dobbin. Other than that, she was nice enough and Alonsa looked forward to the challenge of creating an interior that worked for her.
Linney tossed her head, tinkling the diamond earrings that dangled from her earlobes. âMatchmaking and taking advantage of a good situation is one thing, but those women are taking it a tad too far.â She nodded toward the bar that had been set up in a corner of the sprawling white tent.
Alonsa instantly spotted the women whoâd fueled Linneyâs ire. The object of their lustful attentions was a man in a black tux and cowboy boots. His dark, thick hair had an unruly bent as he leaned his hard, lean body closer to the attractive redhead who was officially Estebanâs guest for the evening.
Alonsa didnât recognize the other two ladies, but one couldnât have been more than eighteen and the other had to be pushing sixty. Keidra was probably in her early thirties. The man had all the bases covered.