Goes Down Easy

Goes Down Easy
Alison Kent

Jack Montgomery is out of his element. The former covert ops hero is now carving out a living as a P.I., specializing in missing persons. Except the trail's gone stone-cold on the Eckhardt kidnapping just as Jack hits sizzling New Orleans. To top it off, some psychic woman is making wild claims–and newspaper headlines–on his case, no less.Perry Brazille knows her aunt can help Jack–Della has solved crimes before with her unexplained visions. Even Perry herself can glimpse the future, and she is afraid that she and the mysterious sexy Jack will be lovers…soon. What Perry can't see is the kind of future that can build on a hot and steamy fling. One that's set against a dangerous situation that's clearly unraveling…

The shower door opened slowly…

Jack watched as Perry stood there, naked and dripping. Her hair hung in wet hanks to the tops of her breasts. It was jet-black, the same color as her big bright eyes.

Her skin on the other hand was lily-white, a delicate porcelain pale, the only color that of the dark cherry centers of her breasts. He’d tasted her, made love to her, had her mouth on him, but there was something about seeing her like this that wound him up hot and tight.

“I want to know something,” she said, backing up when he started toward her.

He climbed into the shower, breathing deeply of the spice and the steam. “What’s that?”

“The case. What are you going to do next?”

It was hard to take her interest in his business seriously when they were both wet and naked. Jack sighed. “Don’t do this, Perry.”

“Don’t do what?”

“Get involved with me…make this into something it’s not.”

She paused. “Then tell me, Jack. What is going on here?”

“It’s just sex, Perry. That’s all.”

Yet they both knew that was a lie.

Dear Reader,

I hope you’ve read the special Blaze anthology Red Letter Nights (Nov. 2005), and the follow-up book by the fabulous Karen Anders, Give Me Fever (Dec. 2005). In February 2006 watch for another sexy story in our New Orleans–set series, Going All Out, this one by the talented Jeanie London.

This month, however, I’m pleased to bring you the story of Jack Montgomery and Perry Brazille. Perry you met in my Red Letter Nights novella, “Luv U Madly.” And Jack first came onto the scene as the bass player for “the deck” in my 1999 Harlequin Temptation novel, Four Men & a Lady.

The reunion story’s opening chapters found Jack onstage fronting for his band, Diamond Jack. Later, at the picnic and ball game, he talked about his days in military service, about seeing enough of the world. Well, this is where I finally learned more about what Jack had seen and where he’d been. I also discovered what he’d done and what he’d suffered.

Goes Down Easy is the story of two people for whom no other love exists. It also wraps up the tales of the final three of my original four men. I hope you enjoy Jack’s adventure and the great romance he shares with his very own Gypsy woman, Perry Brazille. Please visit my Web site at www.alisonkent.com to learn more about what I’m now writing for my favorite line in the world—Harlequin Blaze.

Alison Kent

Goes Down Easy

Alison Kent

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

This one is for the readers whose letters keep me going and whose daily visits to my blog help keep my feet on the ground and my head out of the clouds. You all are the best.

A special acknowledgment goes to Laurie Damron, who graciously took the time to read this story in its initial incarnation and helped me make it better.

Also, thank you to Colleen Collins and Shaun Kauffman for answering my question about P.I. legalities. Any and all gaffes are my own.

Contents

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

1

THE TRAIL went cold in New Orleans the same time as the weather, a double header for which Jack Montgomery wasn’t prepared. Since hired by Cindy Eckhardt to look into the kidnapping of her husband Dayton—chief executive for Eckton Computing and missing since New Year’s Day—he’d reveled in all kinds of heat.

First there was the temperature that had the Gulf Coast in an unseasonably sweaty grip. Next, the series of hot leads that had him hoofin’ it across the state line, from Texas into Louisiana. Finally, the burning in his gut that made him believe this case was going to go down like cream.

But then the tables had turned, flipping him a big fat bird. And now he found himself standing in the middle of Jackson Square, a week into the new year, freezing his ass off and wondering whether he’d be doing better to turn left or right.

It wasn’t that Cindy, the trophy wife nearly thirty years her husband’s junior, didn’t trust the cops or the feds to get the job done, as much as it was her needing to know someone had her back. Especially since Dayton’s heart medication had been found on the ground at the kidnapping scene, and a week into the case the authorities were no closer to a solution than they’d been on day one.

He started walking aimlessly. The sign for Café Eros came into view, reminding him that he was hungry enough to eat a six-foot submarine sandwich. Café Eros, eh? Well, he’d never been one to turn his back on love—even if right now the only affair he was interested in involved his stomach and a whole lot of food.