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Cowboy Up
A Contemporary Western Romance Box Set
By: Allison Merritt, Vickie Taylor, Leslie Garcia, Melissa Keir,
Autumn Piper, Sara Walter Ellwood, & D’Ann Lindun
Seven men as tough as the west…
Seven women who know how to...
Cowboy Up
A boxed set of seven romantic novellas by seven award-winning authors experienced with writing about the men of the West.
Get Now for ONLY $0.99
Always, Cowboy by Allison Merritt
The past is better left behind, unless it offers a brighter future.
Brody Longtree's first love was bull riding, but he loved beauty queen Libby Dempsey equally as hard. When she turned down his marriage proposal, everything from his rodeo career to his love life went to hell. His love ran too deep for blame, so he made the best of what life threw at him. Things finally get back on track...and then she almost runs over his dog.
When her pageant dreams died in an embarrassing display of nerves, Libby made a new, cowboy-free life for herself. One where she could train other girls who want to be pageant princesses. One that doesn't give her any reason to dwell on what might have been with Brody until his dog bounds into her heart. And she bounds into Brody's bed.
Despite the differences in their lives, they mesh together, the way Brody always knew they would. No matter what, he's waiting until he's certain Libby is ready to get married before he asks again, but their relationship comes under fire when one of her friends reveals a secret about a little girl Libby is awfully attached to—a girl who's the right age to be Brody's daughter.
Under that snap front
western shirt, did he still sport six-pack abs? She couldn't count the number
of times she'd helped him out of a similar shirt and put ice on his bruises
after a ride. Or how often they'd parked at the lake and explored one another
under the stars.
“Hot?” Brody asked.
“What?”
“You're flushed. We
could go sit in the stands, maybe catch a breeze.”
“Yeah, I guess.”
“Can I ask you
something, Lib?” Brody rose. His dark eyes were serious and a few lines
bracketed his mouth. “Why'd you come tonight?”
Libby swallowed hard.
“You asked me.”
“Really?”
“I only live an hour
away and I didn't have anything else to do tonight.” Tell him you miss him.
“You used to be more
honest.” He slipped his hand around her wrist. “You missed me.”
“I—” Electricity
buzzed through her from his touch. “Maybe a little.”
“Maybe a lot.” He
pulled her into his arms. “You wouldn't be here otherwise.”
Allison Merritt
Cowboys Don’t Cry by Vickie Taylor
Dash Connaway is hell-bent down a highway to nowhere. But he can’t outrun fate. Just a few months ago, he’d had a new album shooting up the country music charts, a luxury tour bus prepped for gigs in 39 cities, and a live-in girl friend he’d been thinking of asking to marry him. Now he’s just another drifter with an old guitar, a beat-up pickup, and a dog named Bill for a bed mate…until he meets Maggie McCain.
Maggie isn’t your ordinary Oregon rancher. She’s more into organic gardening and hand-spinning yarn from the fleece of her prized alpacas than breeding stinky old cattle. She’s a nurturer, a giver, so when Dash steps into her life from nowhere, she’s ready to trade in her solitary existence on the farm in favor of a husband to grow old with and a passel of children to care for.
But when she learns the real reason for Dash’s commitment to life on the road, she’s faced with a difficult choice and a lesson in the fallacy behind the old saying “Cowboys don’t cry.” Only time will tell just how potent the healing power of love can really be.
“It’s a girl,” he pronounced cradling the newborn alpaca in
his arms.
The woman wiped her grimy chin with the back of her grimier
hand. Tears tracked through the dirt on her cheeks. “You did it.” She pushed to
her feet, but her legs looked none too steady. She picked up the rifle and
leaned on it like a crutch.
Dash went to her, ready to catch her if she fell. “We did
it,” he corrected.
“Yes, we did.”
He smiled and reached out to her free arm. It was meant to be
a celebratory brush, a comfort…but it lingered a moment too long. The air
changed.
Without warning, she swung her rifle up and rested the barrel
against his chest. “Now who the hell are you, and what are you doing on my
land?”
Vickie Taylor
A Cowboy’s Heart by Leslie Garcia
Teenage lovers torn apart by betrayal. Have seventeen years changed everything—or nothing?
Star-crossed lovers in their south Texas hill country high school, torn apart by a best friend’s lie, a mother’s cold hatred, and a father’s lack of trust…
High school junior Illy Kingston turns to varsity football star and cowboy in training Gil Salas when her father, a Border Patrol agent, is killed under suspicious circumstances.
Their hormone-fueled, all or nothing affair ends when betrayal tears them apart.
Years, later, Illy returns home, at loose ends after her disastrous marriage to a reality show rock star ends with an embarrassing photo gone viral and a divorce.
When Gil and his mounted Border Patrol make an unannounced civic call at a local elementary school, Gil is shocked to see Illy lurking in the shadows, threatening to upend his existence once again.
The old passion still burns—but neither can go back to the innocence of their high school affair. Illy swore never to love a man wearing a uniform that didn’t involve jeans, a western hat, and boots. Gil has a price on his head.
And star-crossed love doesn’t usually work for cowboys, either.
He stopped abruptly. Illy had told him to stop, and he hadn’t
thought she meant it. The memory of her reacting to him, caressing him, wanting
him, stormed back. And then, when Emma called, she’d turned off and fled in a
fury.
Did she think he’d seen the picture? He’d seen it online,
like the entire world had, according to all the social media. What if she
thought he was just acting out what he’d seen? No matter how much the photo
enraged and sickened him, he could only imagine her horror that her marriage
was over, but that episode never would be.
Did she feel strange at all, being in his arms after that
very public display with her ex-husband? His heart thudded dully. She must know
he’d seen the picture, but what would it do to her if she knew the truth?
He closed his eyes. She was out of his life, and that was
best for him. Because truth be told, he didn’t know if he could take her again
and not remember the second most painful night of his life. The night he’d
happened on Illy making love to her rock-star husband in public.
Leslie Garcia
The Heartsong Cowboy by Melissa Keir
Angela French blames herself for her daughter’s lack of voice. Determined to do anything to correct the situation, she seeks out Jake Kyncade, the owner of The Heartsong Ranch.
Jake Kyncade hides his own sorrows behind his no-nonsense demeanor. Helping children becomes one way to correct his past. Using equine therapy, he sets out to make a difference.
Can Jake help Angela’s dreams come true or will Jake’s past bring more heartache? Will love save them all?
With Taylor asleep on the couch, Angela snuck the magazine
out of her daughter’s sleeping hands before carrying her to her bed. After
making sure her baby was tucked in, she turned out the lights and went to the
kitchen. She sat down at the table to study the article about the horse
whisperer. The photos gave off a peaceful feeling—so much so, she longed to
jump into the images. Along with the horses, there were shots of children
laughing and petting the animals. The article mentioned a little boy with
Down’s Syndrome whose language increased after a week of animal therapy. The Heartsong Ranch. Even the name sounds
encouraging. Dare I get my hopes up?
One photo in particular captured her attention. The owner,
Jake Kyncade, wore jeans and a cowboy hat as he stood next to the ranch sign.
She took a deep breath as butterflies circled in her abdomen. He’s sexy. Very different from Mike. Mr.
Kyncade has this wounded look in his eyes. I wonder what his trauma was. I’ve
gotten better at noticing it in others. Still, he’s good looking. Probably
married with his own children.
Melissa Keir
Cowboy Trouble by Autumn Piper
She’s decided to make some bad choices this weekend.
Susie Howell has always done what her family expects of her, but they don’t know about the divorce papers she’s just signed, or the secret torch she carries for sexy ranch hand Cash. When keeping the secret gets to her, she flees her brother’s wedding reception. Determined to live a little, she swipes the nearest truck from the ranch and heads to Sin City.
Cash Acosta has worked hard for everything he has, and nobody is taking off with his truck. When he sees it driving away, he jumps in—and becomes the unwilling passenger of a ready and willing woman he’s forbidden to touch. Hell-bent for trouble, the boss’s sister has already earmarked him as one of her “bad choices”.
And Susie intends to get what she wants.
“So that’s why you’re runnin’.” Under the parking lot lights,
his eyes were pitch black. He thumbed a tear from her cheek.
She tried for a more ladylike sniffle, blinked away her
tears. Nodded, for lack of a better reply.
“When I hear a beautiful woman wants to make some mistakes,
my gut instinct is to help her out with that.” His thumb brushed her lower lip.
“Hearin’ she’s single…that’s another checkmark in the pros column.” Hypnotized,
she barely breathed as he cupped her jaw in his fingers and that gaze riveted
on hers. “Seein’ her cry? What choice do I have?” He bent to her, his lips hot
and strong, skilled as they teased hers apart, his tongue waking feelings she’d
forgotten. And Lord, it may be too soon, it may be wrong, but she wanted.
Wanted Cash, his hands, his mouth, his… She grabbed onto his hard shoulders,
slipped her hands up his neck, buried her fingers in that thatch of hair. And
kissed him like there was no tomorrow. Of course there was. Sexy, brooding,
womanizing Cash wanted her, and he’d be hers, at least for this trip.
Autumn Piper
Chasing a Cowboy by Sara Walter Ellwood
He’s running from heartbreak. She’s chasing after love… Their hearts will never be the same.
Paige Morgan has lived her entire life in the glare of her fraternal twin sister’s star. Although the sisters are as different as sun is from the moon, Paige fell in love with the same man as her famous swimsuit model sister. When country superstar Chase Jordan is dumped at the altar by her twin, Paige sees an opportunity to go after the one thing of her sister’s she’s always wanted.
She finds Chase in Cabo San Lucas nursing his broken heart in the true country song fashion—with a bottle of Jose Cuervo—and reminds him of the desire he once felt for her. Will this singing cowboy change his tune as they set the tropical nights on fire? Or will Paige be the one singing the blues when her sister shows up wanting her man back?
All of his hopes and dreams shattered on what should have
been the happiest day of his life. Today, instead of settling in for their
two-week vacation and only getting out of bed to eat, he was nursing a bottle
of Jose Cuervo. Why had he come here? His brother was right; he could have
easily eaten the cost of the trip. Chase had insisted that he had to escape for
a little while, lick his wounds and come up with a plan before he had to go
back on tour in a few weeks. Jack accused him of wanting to punish himself. Why
else would he go to the place he and Kayla were to have their honeymoon? Had he
come here to remind himself of what should have been? He shook his head, hoping
to dislodge the thoughts, and turned to gaze out the other side of the bar.
A woman stood on the walkway staring at him through a pair of
Aviators. Her long blonde ponytail shimmered in the sun like spun gold. He
narrowed his eyes. Was he now hallucinating?
She entered the bar and headed toward him. Sitting on the
stool beside him, she removed her sunglasses to reveal a pair of expressive
hazel eyes. “Surprise.”
“Paige? What the hell are you doing here?”
Sara Walter Ellwood
Cowboy Bred, Cowboy Born by D’Ann Lindun
Freedom or family? Only love can make the choice.
Photographer Alannah Murphy refuses to be tied down. She watched her parents struggle to hold onto their dairy farm until it killed them. The mere thought of the same fate makes her shudder. When she meets rancher Sterling Gentry she has to face her fears, or lose him.
Sterling Gentry longs for someone to hand his ranch down to. Like his father before him, he has sacrificed everything to hold onto the land his ancestors settled. But finding Ms. Right proves harder than he imagined. Then he meets Alannah Murphy with her big city ways. How he can ever take a chance with a woman exactly like his mother, who abandoned him when he was a child?
Despite their determination to stay the course they’ve each chosen, attraction pulls them together as steadily as a nail to a magnet. Can these two find a way to mesh Alannah’s need for freedom and Gentry’s desire to hold onto his land?
Still snapping photos, the woman approached him. When she
came within speaking distance, she waved. “Hello.”
“Who the hell are you? And what are you doing in the middle
of the road? Don’t you know better than to stand in the way when somebody’s
herding stock?”
Her mouth opened and closed a couple times. “I didn’t think—”
“Hell no, you didn’t think,” Gentry shouted. “Damn it anyway.”
“I’m sorry,” she said in a small voice. “The shot was just so
good…”
The
shot? She’d ruined hours upon hours of exhausting work because
she’d wanted a picture? Who the hell would do something so stupid?
Only a damn greenhorn.
For the first time he noticed her get-up. A straw hat only a
city girl would wear, floaty pink top with tiny straps that left her bare
shoulders exposed to the unforgiving Arizona sun, cut-off jean shorts and red
cowboy boots. Daisy Duke personified. He shook his head in disgust.
Reality crashed over him.
The New York photographer his mother had enticed out here,
hoping an article in The Cowboy magazine would bring attention to the Santa
Gertrudis cattle they raised.
Damn.
Thank you for participating! ~Gaele (for Lisa)
ReplyDeleteCowboys are honest and hardworking.
ReplyDeleteThank you for sharing our book bundle! Good luck everyone!!
ReplyDeleteI love cowboy books - am just wondering if the authors find it hard to come up with ideas for stories that haven't been done to death yet or that have a different take on the usual cowboy tale???
ReplyDeleteSabine