Never Say Never Again

Standing directly in the last remaining beams of the setting sun, Bronte watched Connor’s eyes darken. “This is crazy,” he muttered, just before burying his hands in her hair and slanting his mouth against hers, the hot wetness of his tongue begging for entrance.

Bronte’s knees went weak and she melted against him for support. She suddenly realized Connor’s arousal pulsed against her stomach. She drew a sharp breath, trying to clear her head. Connor groaned something, then launched a renewed attack on her mouth.

Helpless to resist him, and not sure she wanted to anyway, Bronte arched her back in invitation. An invitation he obviously accepted, Bronte decided, when he backed her up against the rough bark of the tree, well out of sight of any onlookers. The low-hanging branches created a fragrant cocoon around them. The sun finally slipped over the horizon, leaving them in deep, secretive shadows.

Bronte shuddered as Connor’s hand seared her flesh through her dress. Then he dipped his finger inside the low neckline and his hot skin made contact with hers. Desire pooled between her thighs, making Bronte whimper.

Who would have guessed that serious, brooding Connor McCoy could bring a woman to the brink with just a kiss?

Dear Reader,

We can’t tell you how much we’ve enjoyed writing THE MAGNIFICENT MCCOY MEN miniseries. All the McCoys feel like family, and it’s really tough letting them go. Especially Connor. As the eldest of the five McCoys and fill-in dad to his four rough-and-tumble brothers, his story touched us on the deepest level. So it made sense for us to find Connor a very special woman.

In Never Say Never Again, U.S. Marshal Connor McCoy meets up with savvy junior U.S. Attorney Bronte O’Brien. Bronte is everything Connor’s always avoided in a woman—she’s strong, she’s smart and she’s very, very sexy. But when Connor finds himself framed for a crime he didn’t commit, she’s exactly the woman he needs—on his side and in his bed.

We hope you enjoy watching the last Magnificent McCoy bachelor fall. We’d love to know what you think. Write to us at: P.O. Box 12271, Toledo, OH 43612, or visit us at www.toricarrington.com for fun drawings. And be sure to keep your eyes peeled for our first book in Harlequin’s new BLAZE series, YOU SEXY THING!.

Here’s wishing you love, romance and a happy ending,

Lori & Tony Karayianni

aka Tori Carrington

Never Say Never Again

Tori Carrington

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To our editor, Brenda Chin,

who took one look at License To Thrill and saw

The Magnificent McCoy Men miniseries.

This one’s for you!

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

Epilogue

1

CONNOR MCCOY CAUGHT A glimpse of himself in the mirror and nearly choked. Yes, he recalled agreeing to be his youngest brother David’s best man, though he still couldn’t quite figure that one out. Yes, he remembered putting the tuxedo on, every agonizing moment of the ordeal, from fastening the cummerbund to nearly strangling himself with the bow tie. But as he walked through David’s bedroom to get his brother’s wallet, he was startled by his own reflection in the mirror above the dresser.

The guy looking back at him was a stranger, as was just about everyone in his life right now. He puffed his chest out, and turned his head slightly, considering the dark-haired guy in his late thirties looking back at him. Not bad, if he did say so himself. He never spent much time grooming, which explained his startled reaction to spotting his own reflection. He made a monthly visit to the Manchester barber for a trim to the close-cropped cut he’d taken to back at the U.S. Marshal’s Service Training Academy in Glynco, Georgia, over a decade ago. A supply of good, ol’ Ivory soap, deodorant, shaving cream, a straight edge razor and a bottle of aspirin were the total contents of his medicine cabinet at his apartment. Completely low maintenance. Unlike some people he could name but wouldn’t. His gaze dropped to the dresser in front of him and he frowned, eyeing the variety of colognes there. He picked one up. Sex Bomb?

“What’s the holdup?” David asked, popping his head in the doorway.

Connor held up the bottle. “Do you really wear this stuff?”

His younger brother entered the room then leaned against the doorjamb. “Every chance I get. Drives the women crazy.” He winked.

Connor put the bottle down, nearly knocking the rest of them over as he did so. “I think I’ll pass.”

David collected his wallet from the night table on the other side of the bed. Connor watched him, trying to pinpoint some sort of visible difference. Aside from the monkey suit he wore, he looked the same. His hair was a little neater, maybe, but that was about it. For all intents and purposes, David McCoy was the same smart-ass kid he’d always been.

Why, then, the sudden need to get married?

Connor cleared his throat. “Are you nervous?”

“Who? Me?” David said, jabbing his thumb into his chest. “Hell, yeah, I’m nervous.”

Connor relaxed. Perhaps it wasn’t too late to talk his brother out of making the biggest mistake of his life. Where there were nerves, there were good, solid reasons.

David slipped his wallet into his back pocket, then straightened his tuxedo jacket. “After all, it’s not every day a man has to stand in front of half the D.C. law enforcement community and profess his love for a fellow police officer.” He grinned.

Connor grimaced.

His brother whacked him in the stomach. “What’s the matter, Con? You’re looking a little green there. Don’t tell me you’re nervous?”

“Me? Hell, no.” He stiffened. “I just want to make sure that…you know, that you’re doing the right thing here.”

“Are you kidding? Oh, I’m definitely doing the right thing. Marrying Kelli Hatfield’s the smartest thing I’ll have done in my life up ’til this point.” He smoothed down the front of his shirt, his expression slanting toward the serious. He slowly shook his head. “You know, I thought I had it all figured out before. Life. Career. Love. Then came Kelli and she…well, she proved I didn’t know diddly.”

This wasn’t going anything like the way Connor had planned. He took a deep breath and fought the urge to shake his own head in disbelief and pity for the youngest of the McCoy clan.

“Do you know what that’s like?”

Connor snapped his head up. “What?”

“You know…loving someone. Falling in love with someone. Meeting that one person who makes the whole world look different. Like opening your eyes for the first time.”

Oh, boy, was his brother really in sorry shape. “I like the way the world looks right now.”

David laughed. “I knew you’d say that.” He slapped his hand across Connor’s shoulders, meeting his gaze in the mirror. “I hope I’m around when it happens to you, big bro. Now that’s going to be something to sell tickets to.”

“Yeah, well, I wouldn’t go reserving a forum just yet, David. Because you’d lose every stinking cent you’d put down.”

David waggled a finger at him. “You just watch and see if it doesn’t happen to you.”

“Never.” He checked each of his cuff links and sighed, realizing he wasn’t going to get anywhere talking to his brother now. And if they didn’t get out of there soon, he was afraid David would put on a teapot to boil and suggest they reminisce about old times. “You ready?”

“For the past thirty years of my life.”

Connor cringed, thinking that out of the four weddings he’d attended in the past year, this one was going to be the most nauseating yet.

SIX HOURS LATER, OUTSIDE the swanky downtown D.C. hotel, the warm spring sun was setting, birds were singing, cherry blossoms were blossoming. Inside, in a lavishly laid-out ballroom, under artfully painted ceilings and curving archways, a dark cloud hunched around Connor McCoy’s shoulders, threatening to unleash a storm he wasn’t sure he knew how to deal with.

He leaned against the bar and eyed the happy couple across the hall as they engaged in the traditional first dance of the night. David’s blond head angled closer to his bride’s ear, murmuring something that made Kelli blush then turn into his kiss. The sight was so intimate, so private, Connor couldn’t help but feel like he was somehow intruding on the moment, despite the very public display, even though two hundred others looked on with him.

He swore under his breath then turned away.

Who’d have thought that one year could make so much of a difference? Twelve months? Three-hundred-and-sixty-five days? He sure wouldn’t have guessed at the same time last year that he would be standing at David’s wedding reception, the only McCoy male still single.

“You look like an accident waiting to happen,” Sean said coming to stand next to him.

Connor’s grimace deepened. Well, okay, he was the second single McCoy male left. Pops was the first. Though he’d never really considered Pops just a male. He was a widower. His father. Not exactly prime bachelor meat up for grabs to the first bidder.

He looked down at his suit. “This is the fourth time I’ve had to rent a tux in a year. The rental-shop girl asked if maybe I wanted to buy the sucker. How do you expect me to look?” He tugged on the sleeves of the jacket, feeling as if the material had somehow grown snugger since he’d had it on earlier that day. Leave it to David to schedule his wedding ceremony at noon, his reception at seven, making him have to wear the suit not once, but twice in the same day.

Sean ordered a brew, then straightened the lapels of his own tailored suit. With his white hair neatly combed, his shoulders wide, he was, in fact, looking very much like an older bachelor up for auction. He said, “Oh, I don’t know. I suppose I was expecting you to look happy for your brothers, maybe? Proud?”

Connor nearly choked on his own beer. “Proud?”

Pops grinned, though his gray eyes were watchful. “Yeah. I know I’m biased, but I think our boys have picked themselves a great bunch of women. Don’t you think?”

Connor glanced away. There was something about the way his father had said “our boys” that made his stomach twist tighter than it already was. On the dance floor petite Michelle was pulling gangly Jake onto the parquet floor next to Mel and Marc, who were dancing as if they were the newlyweds instead of new parents.

Speaking of which…

Connor scanned the surrounding tables where draped linens and colorful flower arrangements competed with guests’ apparel. There. There she was. He spotted Melanie’s mother Wilhemenia. She wore a navy-blue dress that reached up to her neck and down to midcalf. But despite the severe clothing, her face was softer than he’d ever seen it as she held up little Sean Jonathon McCoy, named for Sean, and Mel’s late father, Jonathon. Wilhemenia’s lips moved as she said something to the infant, then she pressed her mouth against his temple.

Connor’s gaze moved to his nephew. Three months old. He could still remember when David was that age. And now David was married.

Where did the time go? And why did he have the unsettling feeling that it was passing him by?

Sean cleared his throat. “Certainly you didn’t expect your brothers to stay single, did you?”

Connor blinked at him. It took him a moment to register what his father had said. He shrugged. “Sure, why not? What’s wrong with being single?”

“Nothing. But I think the applicable question here is what’s the matter with being married?”

Connor narrowed his eyes, his gaze again trailing to Wilhemenia Weber. “Are we talking about you here, Pops? Because if we are—”

“No, we’re not talking about me, here. We’re talking about your brothers.” He drew in a deep breath then slowly let it out. “You…well, you’ve made it quite clear on where you stand on my being involved with a woman, so I’m not interested in revisiting that topic—especially since this is the first time you’ve done more than grunt at me in months.”

“I don’t grunt.”

“Whatever you say.” His father’s grin caught him off guard. Connor found himself grinning back.

“Yes, well, I learned it from the best.”

“That you have. And one of these days you and I are going to have a long talk about that.”

“Pardon me. Connor?”

At the sound of the female voice, Connor swung around so fast, his beer nearly sloshed over the side of his glass. He found himself staring at one of the purple-clad bridesmaids. The cute one with the blond hair and the impish smile that looked all of twelve. And came to about his navel standing on the tip of her toes.

“Would you care to dance?” she asked.

Dance? Him? He’d never even set foot on a dance floor, much less danced on one. And he had no intention of starting now. “No.”

The young woman darted away without so much as another peep.

Pops cringed next to him. “You were a bit abrupt, don’t you think?”

Maybe he had been, but he wasn’t about to admit that to his father. “Nope. I’ve found it’s the only way to be. Try being nice and women think you’re playing hard to get. Put them off, hoping they’ll take the hint, and they come back.” He watched the pretty young blonde hurry to rejoin the rest of the wedding party, then shrugged. “Give her five minutes. She’ll get over it.”

Pops stared at him in a way Connor couldn’t decipher and didn’t particularly like. “What?” he finally asked, inexplicably irritated.

Sean shook his head. “Oh, nothing.” He gestured with his glass toward the dance floor. “You know, for David’s sake, you could maybe pretend that you’re having a good time.”

“I’ve never been very good at pretending.”

“No, that you haven’t.” He put his glass down. “You don’t mind if I have a little fun for the both of us then, do you?”

Before Connor could answer, he watched his father head toward the dance floor and cut in on the bride and groom. Kelli laughed as he said something to her, then he swept her away from David like Fred Astaire on a bad dance day.

Connor turned back toward the bar. For a minute there he’d been afraid Pops meant to ask Mel’s mom, Wilhemenia, to dance. He was curious at the mixture of relief and disappointment that his father hadn’t.

Someone put a full wineglass on the bar next to him. “I’d like to exchange this for a glass of beer, please.”

He glanced over to find Kelli’s friend—what was her name?—standing beside him. He drew a complete and utter blank on her first name as he noticed the way the light from the chandeliers set her short, red hair on fire.

She thanked the tender for the beer then leaned against the bar next to him. “Looks like you’re having about as good a time as I am.”

Connor forced himself to take a sip from his glass. Bronte. That was her name. For the life of him he couldn’t figure out why he had momentarily forgotten it. It wasn’t like he hadn’t seen her enough times in the past few months, what with her being Kelli’s best friend and all.

He shifted from one booted foot to the other. Who was he kidding? His memory of her and her name went back farther than that cop bar where David and Kelli had first met. A lot farther. He remembered Bronte O’Brien from George Washington University, second year.

One recollection in particular sprung forth. Although he’d noticed her in the lecture hall before, on this day she’d taken the seat in front of him. It had been exam time, just after spring break. He hadn’t had much time to study because he’d spent his vacation looking after David, who had come down with a nasty virus. The night before his brother had been sicker than a dog. Connor had spent hours holding a bucket up at the side of his bed and keeping a cool rag on his head. Still, he’d fully intended to pass the exam. He’d been twenty-five and it had taken him longer than most to make it to college, and that had made him determined to make each moment count. He had passed the exam—just barely. He’d been so obsessed with the way the ends of Bronte O’Brien’s short hair curled against the back of her freckled neck that he’d been marked wrong on questions he could have answered in his sleep.

He took a long pull from his glass, moving past the memory and to the present. So long as she was standing next to him, and wasn’t making a pest out of herself, he supposed some sort of small talk was warranted, something he’d never been particularly good at. But at least in their case they had shared interests. More specifically, the witness she’d placed into the witness protection program two months ago. A witness that was giving Connor his fair share of sleepless nights with her ceaseless demands for expensive items not included in the program’s limited budget.

He cleared his throat. “Congratulations on convincing Melissa Robbins to testify.”

Bronte appeared not to hear him at first. She twisted her lips, then glanced away. “I’m not sure if I’m deserving of congratulations yet. She’s a reluctant witness at best. And her ex-boyfriend, Leonid Pryka, is a formidable target.” She looked him full in the face. “Does that mean you’re in charge of her protection?”

“Yeah.”

Connor supposed that, on the surface, you couldn’t find two people more different from each other. Where Bronte appeared at home in her sophisticated clothes and surroundings, he was counting the minutes until he could get out of there and out of his monkey suit.

But they did share something in common: their involvement in the justice system, though he found it ironic that even in that regard their roles were completely different.

As an attorney in the Transnational/Major Crimes Section of the U.S. attorney’s office, Bronte O’Brien put together cases against criminals to take to trial, which sometimes required protection for key witnesses she unearthed. And as a deputy U.S. marshal in Witness Security and Protection, also known as WitSec, that’s where he came in. He made sure those witnesses were kept safe and sound and delivered in time for trial.

In this particular case, Bronte had convinced Melissa Robbins to testify against her ex-boyfriend, Leonid Pryka, a once small-time importer who had become big time with noted speed, making local and federal law enforcement very interested in just how, exactly, he had come by his seemingly instant wealth. They suspected that illegal arms and possibly weapons of mass destruction might be the import of choice. And apparently the U.S. attorney’s office felt that Pryka’s spurned girlfriend was the witness that could help them finally prove it.

Connor’s current assignment was to keep Melissa Robbins safe. Well, at least from outsiders. Protecting himself and the other marshals from her incessant, aggravating, irrational demands was something else entirely.

He squinted at Bronte, wondering if she knew exactly how…impossible her witness was. It wasn’t that he doubted Bronte’s capabilities. He made a point of knowing what was going on in the U.S. attorney’s office. You couldn’t fully protect a witness unless you knew who and what you were protecting her from. And he’d long since become aware that Bronte’s conviction rate was high. If she thought Robbins could deliver the goods on Pryka, then she could. It was as simple as that.

But as far as witnesses went, high-maintenance Melissa Robbins was one of the most difficult targets he’d had to protect in all his years with WitSec—second only to a schizophrenic mob accountant who had convinced himself that the marshals protecting him had been bought. Norman Becknal had escaped their custody no fewer than four times.

Connor would count himself lucky if Melissa Robbins tried to do the same.

“I suppose I can be thankful for that,” Bronte finally said. “I mean, your being in charge of Robbins’s protection. At least I can be reasonably assured that she’ll be…available when the case comes up for trial next month.”

Connor grimaced. That was if he and his men didn’t end up whacking the woman themselves.

Bronte fingered a simple silver earring on her left lobe. Connor watched the absent movement, inexplicably fascinated.

It wasn’t the overt things about women that got to him. Height, hair color, breast size—none of that made one iota of difference to him. It was the small things that threatened to do him in. The way they wrinkled their noses when they talked. How they told a story, including details he’d overlook but ultimately made the tale more interesting. The way they toyed with tiny, shimmering earrings….

“What?” Bronte made a funny face. “Don’t tell me. I have rice or something stuck in my eyebrow.”

Connor couldn’t help a smile. “No. Your…eyebrows are just fine.” As was everything else about the outgoing college student turned savvy junior U.S. attorney.

He snapped upright, moving from his startlingly relaxed position.

He’d be well-served to remember what else he knew about Bronte O’Brien. Particularly that she went through men faster than a shopaholic could max out a new credit card. He narrowed his eyes. Funny, he hadn’t seen her with anyone lately, though. Not at the bar when he’d first crossed paths with her again outside the district courthouse. Not during her occasional visits out to the McCoy place with Kelli.

Not that he’d been paying close attention, mind you. The last thing on his mind was women.

Bronte pushed from the bar and visibly straightened her shoulders, jolting him from his thoughts and making him realize he’d been staring. “Okay, after that thorough inspection, I know something is wrong. It’s my makeup, isn’t it? I forgot to put mascara on one eye. No, wait. My blush doesn’t match my lipstick.”

Connor looked down at his glass, fighting a half smile. “I’d be the last person to notice either thing.”

She considered him warily. “Then why are you staring at me?”

He shrugged. Why was he staring at her? He already knew that such steady attention only garnered unwanted interest. And while he wasn’t opposed to bedding the occasional female every now and again, Bronte wasn’t going to be one of them. “Just thinking.”

“Uh-huh…you were just…thinking.”

He put his glass on the bar. “Something wrong with that?”

“I don’t know. Depends on what you were thinking.”

He fastened his gaze on her face. But rather than the flirtatious look he expected, he instead found she wore a guardedly curious expression. Was that because she wasn’t attracted to him? Found his company…wanting?

He frowned. What was he thinking? He didn’t want her to be attracted to him any more than he wanted to be attracted to her. And he wasn’t. He was merely appreciating her beauty, that’s all. He wasn’t any more attracted to her than he was to any of his sisters-in-law. So what if he noticed the way her breasts pressed against the thin fabric of her dress? How the slit up the side of her ankle-length skirt flashed glimpses of her long legs when she walked? How pale freckles peppered every visible inch of her skin? He’d notice the same thing about any other female within the vicinity. He was a man, after all. It didn’t necessarily mean he was attracted to her.

“I was just thinking,” he began, searching for an explanation that would keep him safely out of reach, yet make some sort of sense. “You went to G.W.U., didn’t you?”

Her instant answering smile yanked on something inside his chest. He told himself it was relief. “I’m surprised you remember.”