Criminal Negligee: Lawless in Love, #1

By Piper Denna

A preacher's daughter and a sexy agent undercover in an adult shop…what could possibly go wrong?

Web designer Lauren Rivers steps in to help out a friend, and finds herself running an adult lingerie and toy shop! Not only that, she has a sexy Drug Task Force agent watching her every move. Certain the owner of Saucy Secrets can’t be guilty of selling dangerous drugs through her shop, Lauren makes a rash bet to serve the handsome but aggravating Agent Galloway his dinner wearing a bustier from the shop if she's wrong…only to realize there's more to some of the skimpy ensembles, and to her feelings for him, than she bargained for.

 Agent Jake Galloway just wants to wipe out the deadly brand of Ecstasy being sold in his city. Convinced it's connected to this adult shop, he intends to prove it. But when a pretty troublemaker keeps popping up at all the wrong times, he must choose to arrest her or bring her in as his partner. After all, nothing says he can't enjoy the investigation. Then Lauren is caught with circumstantial evidence, and Jake must choose: the girl, or the investigation?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Piper Denna
• Release date: Jun 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781519999047

Piper Denna

Romance is sexy. And often funny, and sometimes tangled up with suspense. Let’s face it: all sorts of things get mixed up with romance in real life. Piper Denna’s stories are not cut-and-dried romance. Her characters deal with issues female readers can relate to: independence and trust, empowerment, inhibition, an unfaithful partner, motherhood. Sometimes her characters make mistakes, and often her “bad guys” are not 100% bad. She hopes to take the reader on an emotional journey to a happy ending…with enviable sexual encounters along the way. When she’s not writing, she edits, raises two teens along with her husband, and collects scrapbooking material. She enjoys books—or movies—with a comedic twist and hopefully a love story with lots of tension, too. Sexiest parts of a man in Piper’s opinion? The hands and eyes. Shoulders are nice too, and of course, great pecs are never amiss…

Book preview

Chapter 1

What a place to spend a Thursday evening. Lauren looked around the blazing-bright waiting area at the Remington County jail’s reception room. Nobody ever really expected to get that phone call: Lauren, it’s Tilda. Can you please come down to the county jail and bail me out?

Ms. Rivers? A tall, wide-in-the-shoulders guy with blond hair stood between double doors open to a long bright hallway. No uniform, just jeans and a black t-shirt.

Yes. She’d made every effort to not make her answer sound like a question. Like she was nervous. Which she was, since she was at a jail. Of all places.

I’m special agent Jake Galloway. He held out his hand for her to shake, and when she did his grip was solid, warm. Follow me.

Maybe this would be like on TV, where certain people got to walk back to the cells and greet the person they were bailing out. She still hadn’t done the bailing, though. He led her down the hall and into a small office on the left.

Lauren! Slumped in the plastic chair next to the large metal desk, Tilda looked as bad as she’d sounded on the phone. Petite, blond, and pretty, Tilda was a sad sight indeed when she cried. Right now she looked like a poster child for the plaque Lauren had gotten made for her birthday last year:

I don’t always cry, but when I do, just seeing me will make you feel like joining in.

Tilda. Hon. Lauren rushed forward and hugged her. What is this all about? On the phone, Tilda had blubbered something about her shop and drugs.

The incredible blond hulk—er, agent Galloway—cleared his throat.

She let go of Tilda and looked up, to find him motioning toward an empty chair. As she sat, he straightened his shoulders and crossed his arms over his chest.

Ms. Schmidt has been charged with sale of a Schedule One controlled substance.

Tilda shook her head and sobbed.

The hulk was still talking, his voice drowned out by sobs and wails. He stopped, looked at her, the ceiling, then tilted his head toward the door and stepped out of the room.

Lauren followed him. How? Where? When? No way was Tilda a drug dealer.

As I was saying... He pulled the office door shut. Though slightly muffled, Tilda’s sobs still came through. Through her adult book store—

Lingerie shop, Lauren corrected.

Right. Lingerie shop, then. We’ve got four women hospitalized, who were under the influence of what appears to be MDMA—that’s Ecstasy, in street language—but they all suffered cardiac arrest and then fell comatose. We believe they purchased the drug believing it was X, but it had something else too. All four women made purchases at Saucy Secrets shortly before taking the drug.

So? Lauren crossed her arms over her chest, also. "Just because they got a bad batch of X, and buy their lingerie at the only lingerie store in town doesn’t mean Tilda had anything to do with it." Good grief. Women came shopping in groups all the time at Saucy Secrets.

We believe it does. And there’s no such thing as coincidence. Word on the streets from our undercover operatives is, Saucy Secrets is the place to buy Molly.

Undercover operatives. She stared at the insignia on his t-shirt pocket. CDTF. Ugh. Colorado Drug Task Force. This has to be a set-up. You see that girl in there? He glanced inside through the tiny window in the door, where Tilda clutched her sides and shook. His eyes stayed narrowed and jaw never relaxed. There is no way she had anything to do with selling drugs. None. Does she look like a drug dealer to you? Tilda’s face looked like it had multiple bee stings, big puffy blotches everywhere.

What does a drug dealer look like, Ms. Rivers?

Like the slimeball on the corner who wouldn’t pull his pants up. Of course that’s what he expected her to say. The old cliché. Tilda would hate her for playing this card, but it was for her own good. Look. I know she wouldn’t participate in any drug sales. The reason I know this is, when we were in college, her brother died of an overdose. There. Now this whole fiasco would end and they’d go home. The cops could go looking for the real responsible lowlife.

He closed his eyes and when he opened them—good God, they were a vivid shade of green—he gave her a soft smile. I know you believe she’s innocent. And that’s good, for her. She’s made financial arrangements for her bail, but she’ll need someone to sign her into custody. Tomorrow a probation officer will contact her about wearing a tracking device. But until then, she’s under house arrest. Should we register her address or yours?

Lauren snapped her mouth shut, unsure when it had dropped open. Um. Mine?

He nodded, pulled out a smartphone, and tapped something into it. "One other thing, Ms. Rivers. Until the investigation concludes, your friend is strictly forbidden from entering her place of business for any reason. And her phone records will be reviewed to make sure she’s not in contact with any vendors."

* * * *

Anything else? Is that enough blankets? Lauren had Tilda settled on her couch with a mug of cocoa, her favorite pillow, and her softest fleece throw.

No. Tilda smiled weakly. Thanks for everything. She picked a piece of fuzz on the blanket. Um, Lauren?

Yeah?

Did you get a chance to read those papers we signed?

Sure. She’d read every word, hoping to God they’d find a way to clear Tilda of the charges. But how could they do that when Tilda couldn’t even go to her shop?

"Hm. Well, I was thinking. The papers say I can’t work in my shop. But it doesn’t say it can’t be