Friday 21 January 2011

Author Spotlight week -Excerpt from The Ill-Gotten Insurance


Minx placed Harris' coffee in front of him and pulled out napkins from the table dispenser. There. She'd done her hostessing duties. Sitting across from him, she reached into her bag and got out her power bar.

"So, lieutenant, what's up?"

Harris took a sip, then set the cup back down. "I've never been at the Elite Exercise Emporium before. Nice place. Do you think I should take out a membership?"

She blinked back surprise. Surely this wasn't his official business?

Peeling the wrapper off the bar, she replied, "You look buff enough, lieutenant."

"Is that a compliment?"

She tilted her head at him. "Do you want it to be?"

What was going on here? Were they actually flirting with each other?

As she nibbled on the end of the granola power bar, she studied him. His odd combination of short dark and light grey hair swirled in waves over his head. A dark lock tumbled down over his high forehead. One renegade curl strayed appealingly around the curve of his ear.

He gestured with his large, well-formed hand. "That your lunch?"

"It sure is. Are you hungry? I've got two more bars with me."

He was a man that didn't smile much. With his job in the Los Angeles Police Department, there probably weren't many opportunities for smiles. But when he did let loose and show those pearly whites, despite herself, she seemed to turn into one of those silly adolescent girls she'd disparaged just a minute ago.

Harris not only smiled, but laughed. A deep, hearty, masculine laugh. His laughter attractively crinkled the skin around his eyes. Otherwise, his tanned face was unlined. Prematurely grey, that was what he was. Maybe that trait ran in his family.

"No, thanks. That granola bar looks like Fido's dog food to me."

The laugh and the smile disappeared as quickly as they surfaced. He must've been getting ready to lower the boom. Official police business was rarely good.

She swallowed down a bit of apprehension

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