Total pages in book: 99
Estimated words: 94512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 94512 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 473(@200wpm)___ 378(@250wpm)___ 315(@300wpm)
For Officer Dare Barron, there’s only one good thing about bad-boy Brian McKnight getting thrown in the drunk tank again. Being there when Brian’s sister, Liza, strides into the precinct on those long, delectable legs to bail her brother out.
It’s not just the old building’s failing air conditioning making Dare sweat. Liza is a contradiction of proper lady and sexy siren who’s riveted Dare’s attention since high school.
She’s always been oblivious, which is a good thing because she’s way out of his league. Plus, she’s got a huge blind spot where her brother’s concerned, and Dare knows what’s hiding in that void she refuses to see.
When one of those secrets threatens Liza’s safety, Dare doesn’t hesitate to appoint himself her protector. Close proximity awakens Liza’s desire for the sexy cop and fuels the sizzling heat between them, but the bad blood between their families could ruin any chance for love.
Note: Karma is book five of Serendipity series by NYT bestselling author Carly Phillips. Contains a by-the-book cop with some hot off-shift fantasies about the girl of his dreams, and a woman who doesn’t quite mind being looked at like she’s a hot fudge sundae.
*************FULL BOOK START HERE*************
Chapter One
Dare Barron heard the commotion in the police station earlier as his least favorite offender was brought in on a drunk and disorderly charge. Dare had been out on a nuisance call when the man had gone before a judge at the courthouse next door, but he was back now, in the cell downstairs.
Dare glanced at his watch, wondering how long before she came to bail her brother out. Every time McKnight got himself in trouble, his older sister, Liza, was never far behind to clean up his mess. McKnight was a rich bastard who thought his family money entitled him to special privileges.
And Liza… Dare didn’t know what she thought. He only knew he looked forward to seeing her each time she walked through the precinct door.
A damned contrast to how he felt about her brother. Dare wished like hell he’d never heard of Brian McKnight, and those feelings dated back too many years to when a teenage McKnight had thrown a party. Dare, who at fifteen acted like he was much older, had gone, and his life had never been the same. Though Dare knew better than to think he could change the past, everything he’d done since then had been with his own atonement in mind.
But whoever coined the phrase “No sin goes unpunished” had never met Brian McKnight.
Or his sister, Liza.
Dare glanced up from his seat behind his desk to see her stride in like she owned the place. He wasn’t above admitting he’d had a thing for her ever since he was a teenager. She was three years older. Her parents had pulled her and Brian from public school, but Liza had been hard to miss the times she’d come to town with her friends.
She still was. And Dare stared at her now without disguising his interest. She wore a basic black skirt and a turquoise-blue silk blouse. A simple outfit on anyone else. Liza McKnight was anything but simple. The skirt was long enough to be decent but short enough to call attention to her seductively long legs, as did her black patent-leather mile-high heels accented by a delicate bow at the back. All in all, a ladylike yet siren-sexy contradiction.
Her chestnut brown hair hung straight over her shoulders, her bangs not long enough to disguise her golden-brown stare.
She reached his desk, propped both hands on the cold metal surface, and leaned in close. “I want to post bail for my brother.”
Big surprise. Still, Dare shook his head, unable to conceal his disappointment. “Still enabling him, I see.”
She frowned, but the expression only served to showcase her dimples and make her look even sexier. “I don’t see how that’s any of your business.”
She was probably right.
He inhaled her warm, exotic scent. Vanilla, musky, and damned hot. “I’m sure everyone is working to release him as quickly as possible,” Dare said, glad he had the desk to hide exactly what she did to him.
She straightened her posture but still managed to look calm and in control. “He was granted bail over half an hour ago. I can’t imagine what the holdup is. Can you at least get the paperwork started on this end?”
Dare shook his head. “Sorry. I’m not the arresting officer. You’ll have to take a seat and wait to talk to him.”
The waiting area at the far end of the room contained three chairs. She settled into the one across from Dare’s desk, crossing one delectably long leg over the other.
“So what’s he in for this time?” Dare asked, though he already knew. Yet conversation was conversation, and Brian’s record was what they had in common.
“Drunk and disorderly conduct,” she stated without emotion.
Specifically, according to Officer Sam Marsden’s report, her brother had left Joe’s Bar drunk, walked out back to his car—which he shouldn’t have been going anywhere near in his inebriated state—and paused to take a leak, singing at the top of his lungs the entire time.
“In other words, the usual,” Dare said.
She closed her eyes for a brief second. Dark lashes fluttered over her soft skin, giving her a vulnerable look that made him want to pull her into his arms and comfort her.
“It wouldn’t be the usual if Officer Marsden had just driven Brian home and let it go.” Liza pinned him with a questioning look, the vulnerability gone as quickly as it had appeared, making him wonder if he’d imagined the emotion.
Dare shook his head, frustration gnawing at his gut. “So we should just let him break the law?”
“What? Are you guys so hard up for arrests that you can’t find a real criminal to harass?”
He rolled his eyes. “Your brother is a real criminal.” Dare spoke in a soft but realistic tone, almost feeling sorry for her.
She jumped up from her seat, suddenly a flurry of nervous energy, pacing in front of his desk. Her long legs ate up so much space that she took two steps, turned, and started the process again.