Avery, Anne - All's Fair

Title: All's Fair
Author: Anne Avery
Series:
Pub: Love Spell
Pub Date: March 1, 1994 / June, 1998
ISBN: 0505519372 / 0505522578
Genre:
Time Period:
Setting:
Hero: Rhys Fairdane
Heroine: Calista York

Summary:

Calista York was a stunning firebrand with a mind of her own; a golden-haired trader who could ward off a pirate attack as easily as a man's unwanted advances.

For five long years, Rhys Fairdane roamed the universe, trying to forget the woman who had seared his soul with white-hot longing, then cast him into space. Yet by a twist of fate, he and Calista were both named trade representatives of the planet Karta.

It would take all his strength to resist her voluptuous curves, all his cunning to subdue her feminine wiles. But if in war, as in love, all truly was fair, Calista had concealed weapons that would bring Rhys to his knees before the battle had even begun.

Excerpt:

    Calista York dropped out of hyperdrive into a perfect orbit about the planet of Karta, inordinately pleased with herself and life in general. That pleasure was considerably diminished three minutes later when she spotted a second ship already in orbit and eliminated entirely when the computer identified the ship as the Fair Trade.
    For an instant, she considered forgetting the whole affair, but the temptation of being named trade representative to the Dorinor of Karta was too great. A few years as rep and her fortune would be made. After so many years of struggle, she would be able to put the past behind her -- forever.
    She wasn't about to let the owner of the Fair Trade be named rep in place of her. Not without a fair fight.
    Well, a fight, anyway.
    If Rhys Fairdane really were after the position, she wouldn't put it past that sleazy slime bucket to use every dirty trick known to get it, and then invent a few more just for the hell of it -- and to irritate her.
    The communications panel chimed, indicating an incoming message in normal space. It was the Fair Trade, no doubt, since the Kartanese were notorious for disliking anything technical, including space communications systems.
    Briefly, Calista considered refusing to answer. But Fairdane knew she was here -- he would have spotted the spatial distortions caused by her incoming ship long before she entered orbit -- and he was perfectly capable of interpreting her refusal to answer as a sign his presence had upset her. The three moons of Tolkat would fall before she'd give him that satisfaction.
    With a curse she'd learned on Darneb II and found particularly satisfying at times like this, Calista slapped the respond button, then cued the view screen. Might as well confront him right off. The man could smell fear a parsec away and there was no sense in...
    The view screen was a mistake.
    It was also a mistake to catch her breath in a distressingly audible gasp, or to let her eyes widen until they couldn't grow any wider. But she couldn't control either of those automatic reactions to the sight of him, naked from the waist up -- which was, thankfully, all the screen revealed -- with droplets of water glistening on his bare chest and a broad, lopsided grin on his face.
    He hadn't changed. His hair was still long, black as the depths of space, and pulled back in a queue at the nape of his neck. Thick, straight brows shadowed dark eyes that gleamed like Risian soul stones. The flat planes of his cheeks were cut by the same strong lines running from beside his nose to the edge of a mouth that was far too full and sensual for such a masculine face. His jaw hadn't softened. It was as darkly shadowed as ever, even though he was clean-shaven.
    His body was, well, perfect. He was broad-shouldered, slim-waisted, with smoothly rounded muscles that slid easily beneath his skin. Even now, five years later, she could remember how distractingly tempting it had been to run her fingers across his chest, through the dark, silky hair that followed the curve of his breast then came together in a tapering vee....
    Thank the stars the image shown on the view screen ended at his waist.
    "Well-bred people don't come to the view screen unless they're properly dressed, Fairdane!" Calista snapped, irritated by her involuntary reaction to him.

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