Longing and Lies

Longing and Lies
Donna Hill

With her sensual looks and free-spirited ways, Ashley Temple is the perfect agent for The Ladies Cartel, a secret crime-fighting organization. But her latest assignment—breaking up an illegal baby trafficking ring—is more than a job. It's personal.The stakes go sky-high when she teams up with FBI operative Elliot Morgan, a man so deep under cover he's off the radar. Life in the field is nothing compared to the adrenaline rush of passion and pleasure Elliot feels with Ashley. And when they pose as a happily married couple to stake out a suspicious adoption center, he knows he's in deeper than he's ever been.He can't risk falling for her—the danger's too great. But how can Elliot let Ashley go, when this sweet, sultry lady takes him beyond the point of no return?

“After you,” Elliot said as they left Jasmine’s office

Ashley looked up at him and caught the half grin on his lips. She brushed past him. “Don’t play the gentleman for my benefit,” she snapped.

“Still testy,” he murmured as he followed her up the stairs to the first floor exit.

She stopped in her tracks and spun around, nearly colliding into hard-muscled chest. The heady scent of his cologne clouded her thoughts. For a moment she forgot her retort, then her good sense returned. “Look, the less we have to say to each other the better. Just do your job and I’ll do mine. How’s that?” She didn’t wait for a response but turned and strutted out, leaving the door swinging on its hinges.

Elliot stepped outside and watched her as she walked down the street with her head high, looking neither left nor right. He leaned against the fence, took out his pack of cigarettes and stuck one in his mouth. He lit the tip and watched a curl of smoke float into the air. He’d been in enemy territory before.

Ashley Temple would be a walk in the park.

DONNA HILL

began writing novels in 1987. Since then she has published more than forty titles, which include full-length novels and novellas. She easily moves from romance to erotica, horror, comedy and women’s fiction. Two of her novels and one novella were adapted for television.

Donna has received numerous awards for her body of work including the RT Book Reviews Career Achievement Award, and she is the first recipient of the Trailblazer Award. She currently teaches writing at the Frederick Douglass Creative Arts Center. Donna lives in Brooklyn with her family. Visit her Web site at www.donnahill.com.

Longing and Lies

Donna Hill

ESSENCE BESTSELLING Author

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

I sincerely have to thank my editor Glenda Howard who has the patience of a saint! Many thanks to the readers who have embraced the TLC series and shared their enthusiasm with their friends.

Dear Reader,

Welcome to my latest novel in The Ladies Cartel series. Hopefully, you’ve already met Savannah, Danielle and Mia, fierce sisters. This time I will introduce you to my most complex character, Ashley Temple.

You may remember her from Temptation and Lies as Mia’s assistant. Now she has her own story, one that is timely and ripped right out the pages of today’s headlines. But what is a romance without the hero? Have I got a hero for you! Elliott Morgan. Tall, dark, mysterious, handsome and wickedly sexy. Of course he has his flaws. But we can work with him!

I’m a little sad to part with my ladies as Longing and Lies is the last book in the series. Hopefully, Savannah, Danielle, Mia and Ashley will turn up on the pages of some of my other romances, keeping readers up to date on what’s happening with them. I do hope that you have enjoyed each one: Sex and Lies, Seduction and Lies and Temptation and Lies.

I want to thank you for picking up this book, trying it out and hopefully enjoying it as much as I enjoyed writing it. It is because of your support that I have been able to bring book after book to readers for the past twenty years! Amazing.

Thank you for all that you do for me. Happy reading.

Donna

Chapter 1

The month of April had definitely lived up to its reputation. For a solid week, it rained in every variety from bad-hair-day mist to outright downpours complete with thunder and lightning.

Ashley Temple sent up a prayer of thanks as she pulled back her bedroom curtains to usher in the first rays of sun in a week. She stretched catlike, raising her face to the warm rays that beamed through the window.

The previous week had been difficult for more reasons than bad weather. She’d recently finished up an assignment where she’d had to pose as a college coed to break up a drug-trafficking operation on campus. She developed friendships with some of the girls that she ultimately had to turn in. She could still see their faces, the looks of betrayal, the hurt and terror in their eyes.

She sighed heavily and turned away from the new day. There were times when she wished that The Cartel was not part of her life. As a member of the secret organization, she could never have a real life, because part of who she was and what she did could never be revealed to anyone outside of The Cartel’s inner circle. That fact alone limited forming any long-lasting intimate relationships. And as she crept past the age of thirty, the desire to find someone and something permanent was beginning to fill her thoughts more each day.

However, there were some wonderful benefits. She’d met some of the most incredible women through The Cartel and forged unbreakable friendships. Savannah, Mia, Danielle and more recently Traci, were the savviest sisters she’d ever met. Somehow they’d all managed to maintain the man in their lives, get married or engaged, have kids and still kick major butt when duty called. So there was definitely hope for her at the end of the “espionage rainbow.”

She was closest to Mia, having worked as her assistant at MT Management—Mia’s event-planning firm—for the past year and being a shadow on Mia’s last assignment that involved an elite illegal escort service. That assignment had been harrowing at best, testing the ladies on many levels, but it had been nothing compared to MT Management’s crème de la crème affair, the coordination of the triple wedding ceremony for three of The Cartel members: Claudia and Bernard, Mia and Steven and Danielle and Nick. Although they’d all returned back to work, they were still gooey-eyed and bubbly. If she didn’t like them all so much, it might just turn her stomach.

Ashley turned away from the window, sat down on the side of the bed and put on her sneakers. She wasn’t expected at the office until ten, and she wanted to get in her morning run before the streets grew too crowded with the mad dashers en route to work in bustling Manhattan.

She loved the city, she thought, stepping outside and taking a deep breath of rain-washed air, particularly the eclectic atmosphere of lower Manhattan where she’d lived for the past five years. It was a mixture of young and old, exciting and sublime, from mom-and-pop stops to reservations-only restaurants. The aroma of foods from around the world wafted through the air, giving the city its own unique, and often mouth-watering scent.

Ashley did a few stretches on the front steps of her four-story apartment building before slowly taking off down Avenue A. She waved to Herbie as she jogged by his newsstand, making a mental note to pick up a paper on her way back and a lottery ticket. She was no more than three blocks from her apartment when the vibration went off on her hip. She glanced down at the illuminated screen of her BlackBerry. “Anonymous.” She knew exactly who it was.

Ashley circled the block in her tan 2000 Honda Accord before finding a parking space on 126th Street, across the intersection from TLC’s headquarters.

As she walked down the street, she was continually amazed at the gentrification that had taken place in Harlem over the last decade and even more so in the past two years. It was almost unrecognizable except for the tree-lined blocks that still embraced the stately brownstones, many of which had been restored to their former glory, when Harlem was in vogue and the salons were frequented by Langston Hughes, Adam Clayton Powell and the like discussing the “Negro condition.”

Ashley reached her destination and spotted several well-toned guys entering a brownstone, which was actually the Pause for Men Day Spa, owned by four women. She’d had the opportunity to meet them and visit the spa on several occasions and was totally impressed with what they had accomplished. And with The Ladies Cartel headquarters tucked unobtrusively across the street, it was a testament to the power of women on this stretch of street in Harlem.

Ashley approached the brownstone. To the casual observer, TLC headquarters was simply another restored brownstone that ran the Tender Loving Care body products business, which would account for the traffic of women and the often large, all-female gatherings. However, it was anything but that.

She rang the bell and moments later Claudia answered the door. Claudia was Jean’s right hand and long-time TLC operative. What was most intriguing was that she was Savannah’s mother, and it had been Claudia who recruited her own daughter into the organization, and in turn Savannah brought in Mia and Danielle.

“Hello, sweetheart,” Claudia greeted, clasping Ashley’s shoulders and kissing her cheek. “You look stunning and stylish as always,” she said, taking in Ashley’s wild, spiral afro, knee-high brown suede boots over a pair of very tight jeans, layered T-shirts and a thick, brown leather belt hanging low on her slender hips.

Ashley grinned. “Thanks.” She stepped in. “How’s married life?”

Claudia beamed. “Wouldn’t have it any other way.”

“Don’t wear Bernard out with your bad self,” Ashley teased.

Claudia made a face. “Now where’s the fun in that?”

They both laughed.

“Jean is waiting for you,” she said as they approached the stairs. “You should be very proud of yourself.”

Ashley looked at Claudia over her shoulder. Her brow creased. “Proud of myself? Why?”

“Jean rarely picks the same operative for assignments back-to-back.” She smiled slowly. “She thinks very highly of you.”

For an instant Ashley’s stomach tensed. The corner of her mouth flickered. “I guess that’s a good thing. Huh?”

Claudia merely smiled and turned away.

Ashley drew in a breath, turned and headed up the stairs to Jean’s office on the second floor. As she went up she passed the Hall of Fame that held the pictures of many of the TLC operatives on the wall, hers included. She made a mental note to give them an updated photo. One of the most recent additions was Brenda’s picture—the prodigal daughter—who’d returned to the fold during Mia’s last assignment.