To Catch a Thief

a cognizant v5 release august 27 2010
“You do know what they say about all work and no play, don’t you?”
He regarded her seriously. “That it gets the job done?”
She groaned. “No, that it makes for a very dull guy.”
A dangerous glint appeared in his eyes. “You think I’m boring?”
“Not boring, just limited. Under other circumstances, I might be tempted to try and change that.”
“Oh? How?”
“Maybe one of these days I’ll give you a list of my recommendations,” she said. “Will you pay any attention to them?”
“I might,” he said solemnly. “What would my reward be?”
“More fun,” she said at once.
He grinned. “You’ll have to provide more incentive than that.”
“Such as?”
“Will I get the girl?”
Gina shuddered at the penetrating look in his eyes. “I suppose that depends.”
“On?”
“On how badly you want her.”
“I’m beginning to wonder about that myself.”


Sherryl Woods
TO CATCH A THIEF


Books by Sherryl Woods
Silhouette Special Edition
Safe Harbor #425
Never Let Go #446
Edge of Forever #484
In Too Deep #522
Miss Liz’s Passion #573
Tea and Destiny #595
My Dearest Cal #669
Joshua and the Cowgirl #713
*Love #769
*Honor #775
*Cherish #781
*Kate’s Vow #823
*A Daring Vow #855
*A Vow To Love #885
The Parson’s Waiting #907
One Step Away #927
Riley’s Sleeping Beauty #961
Finally a Bride #987
‡A Christmas Blessing #1001
‡Natural Born Daddy #1007
‡The Cowboy and His Baby #1009
‡The Rancher and His Unexpected Daughter #1016
**A Ranch for Sara #1083
**Ashley’s Rebel #1087
**Danielle’s Daddy Factor #1094
††The Littlest Angel #1142
††Natural Born Trouble #1156
††Unexpected Mommy #1171
††The Cowgirl and the Unexpected Wedding #1208
††Natural Born Lawman #1216
††The Cowboy and His Wayward Bride #1234
††Suddenly, Annie’s Father #1268
◊The Cowboy and the New Year’s Baby #1291
◊Dylan and the Baby Doctor #1309
◊The Pint-Sized Secret #1333
◊Marrying a Delacourt #1352
◊The Delacourt Scandal #1363
A Love Beyond Words #1382
§Do You Take This Rebel? #1394
§Courting the Enemy #1411
§To Catch a Thief #1418
Silhouette Desire
Not at Eight, Darling #309
Yesterday’s Love #329
Come Fly with Me #345
A Gift of Love #375
Can’t Say No #431
Heartland #472
One Touch of Moondust #521
Next Time…Forever #601
Fever Pitch #620
Dream Mender #708
Silhouette Books
Silhouette Summer Sizzlers 1990
“A Bridge to Dreams”
Maternity Leave 1998
“The Paternity Test”
††The Unclaimed Baby


SHERRYL WOODS
has written more than seventy-five romances and mysteries in the past twenty years. She also operates her own bookstore, Potomac Sunrise, in Colonial Beach, Virginia, where readers from around the country stop by to discuss her favorite topic—books. If you can’t visit Sherryl at her store, then be sure to drop her a note at P.O. Box 490326, Key Biscayne, FL 33149 or check out her website at www.sherrylwoods.com.


Winding River High School
Class of ’91
Welcome Home—Ten Years Later
Do You Remember the Way We Were?
Gina Petrillo—Tastiest girl in the class. Elected most popular because nobody in town bakes a better double-chocolate brownie. Member of the Future Homemakers of America. Winner of three blue ribbons in the pie-baking contest and four in the cake-baking contest at the county fair.
Emma Rogers—That girl can swing…a bat, that is. Elected most likely to be the first female on the New York Yankees. Member of the Debate Club, the Honor Society and president of the senior class.
Lauren Winters—The girl with all the answers, otherwise known as the one you’d most like to be seated next to during an exam. Elected most likely to succeed. Class valedictorian. Member of the Honor Society, County Fair Junior Rodeo Queen and star of the junior and senior class plays.
Cassie Collins—Ringleader of the Calamity Janes. Elected most likely to land in jail. Best known for painting the town water tower a shocking pink and for making the entire faculty regret choosing teaching as a profession. Class record for detentions.
Karen (Phipps) Hanson—Better known as the Dreamer. Elected most likely to see the world. Member of the 4-H club, the Spanish and French clubs, and first-place winner at the county fair greased pig contest.


Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Epilogue


Prologue
The office at Café Tuscany on Manhattan’s Upper West Side was little bigger than a broom closet, large enough for a desk, a chair and a bookshelf crammed with cookbooks, nutrition reports, menus and file boxes of handwritten recipes. It could only hold one person at a time, but at the moment Gina Petrillo’s feeling of claustrophobia had more to do with the court document in her hand than the size of the space.
“I’m going to kill him,” she muttered, fingers trembling as the summons to appear for a deposition slid to the desk. “If I ever get my hands on Bobby, I am going to kill him.”
She had met Roberto Rinaldi when they were both studying cooking in Italy. A passionate enthusiast of fine food, Bobby was an intuitive genius in the kitchen. They had struck up an instant rapport that had more to do with ingenious blends of sauces and inventive uses for pasta than lust.
Truthfully, Gina wouldn’t have trusted Bobby anywhere near her bed. The man was more fickle about women than he was about ingredients. He was constantly experimenting with both. He got away with it because he was charming, impossible to resist when he tempted with either delectable dishes or devilish kisses—at least according to his many conquests.
Gina had ignored his romantic overtures and concentrated on his skills in the kitchen. He was the most creative chef she had met during all of her studies, which was saying quite a lot. After forsaking college, she had studied at some of the finest culinary institutes in Europe. Though she had loved French cuisine, from the gourmet recipes of Paris to the simpler fare of Provence, Italian cooking spoke to her soul. Maybe it was genetic, maybe not, but the first time she had walked into the kitchen in Rome with its aromas of garlic, tomatoes and olive oil, she had felt at home.
It had been the same for Bobby, or so he had claimed.