SHATTERED

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by Alice Sharpe


  She smiled as she stared at their interlocked fingers. “I know who you are, Nate. I would never want you to be anything or anyone else.”

  “Ditto,” he said. A moment later, he added, “So, you will marry me someday? You’ll have our babies?”

  She nodded, too emotional to speak.

  The smile started in his eyes, then spread to his lips, and the next thing she knew, he’d wrapped her in his arms. Wounded or not wounded, he held her so close she wasn’t sure where he stopped and she began. And when he kissed her, the sensation of their bodies and lives merging into one completely overwhelmed her.

  Whatever the future held, they would face it together.

  Always.

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss Alice Sharpe’s STRANDED,

  the second book in her miniseries

  THE RESCUERS, on sale next month.

  Look for it wherever

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  Keep reading for an excerpt from WEDDING AT CARDWELL RANCH by New York Times bestselling author B.J. Daniels.

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  SPECIAL EXCERPT FROM

  Read on for a sneak peek of

  WEDDING AT CARDWELL RANCH

  by New York Times bestselling author

  B.J. Daniels

  Part of the CARDWELL COUSINS series.

  In Montana for his brother’s nuptials,

  Jackson Cardwell isn’t looking to be anybody’s hero.

  But the Texas single father knows a beautiful lady in distress when he meets her.

  “I’m afraid to ask what you just said to your horse,” Jackson joked as he moved closer. Her horse had wandered over to some tall grass away from the others.

  “Just thanking him for not bucking me off,” she admitted shyly.

  “Probably a good idea, but your horse is a she. A mare.”

  “Oh, hopefully she wasn’t insulted.” Allie actually smiled. The afternoon sun lit her face along with the smile.

  He felt his heart do a loop-de-loop. He tried to rein it back in as he looked into her eyes. That tantalizing green was deep and dark, inviting, and yet he knew a man could drown in those eyes.

  Suddenly, Allie’s horse shied. In the next second it took off as if it had been shot from a cannon. To her credit, she hadn’t let go of her reins, but she grabbed the saddle horn and let out a cry as the mare raced out of the meadow headed for the road.

  Jackson spurred his horse and raced after her. He could hear the startled cries of the others behind him. He’d been riding since he was a boy, so he knew how to handle his horse. But Allie, he could see, was having trouble staying in the saddle with her horse at a full gallop.

  He pushed his horse harder and managed to catch her, riding alongside until he could reach over and grab her reins. The horses lunged along for a moment. Next to him Allie started to fall. He grabbed for her, pulling her from her saddle and into his arms as he released her reins and brought his own horse up short.

  Allie slid down his horse to the ground. He dismounted and dropped beside her. “Are you all right?”

  “I think so. What happened?”

  He didn’t know. One minute her horse was munching on grass, the next it had taken off like a shot.

  Allie had no idea why the horse had reacted like that. She hated that she was the one who’d upset everyone.

  “Are you sure you didn’t spur your horse?” Natalie asked, still upset.

  “She isn’t wearing spurs,” Ford pointed out.

  “Maybe a bee stung your horse,” Natalie suggested.

  Dana felt bad. “I wanted your first horseback-riding experience to be a pleasant one,” she lamented.

  “It was. It is,” Allie reassured her, although in truth, she wasn’t looking forward to getting back on the horse. But she knew she had to for Natalie’s sake. The kids had been scared enough as it was.

  Dana had spread out the lunch on a large blanket with the kids all helping when Jackson rode up, trailing her horse. The mare looked calm now, but Allie wasn’t sure she would ever trust it again.

  Jackson met her gaze as he dismounted. Dana was already on her feet, heading for him. Allie left the kids to join them.

  “What is it?” Dana asked, keeping her voice down.

  Jackson looked to Allie as if he didn’t want to say in front of her.

  “Did I do something to the horse to make her do that?” she asked, fearing that she had.

  His expression softened as he shook his head. “You didn’t do anything.” He looked at Dana. “Someone shot the mare.”

  Someone is hell-bent on making Allie Taylor think she’s losing her mind. Jackson’s determined to unmask the perp. Can he guard the widowed wedding planner and her little girl from a killer with a chilling agenda?

  Find out what happens next in

  WEDDING AT CARDWELL RANCH

  by New York Times bestselling author B.J. Daniels,

  available July 2014, only from Harlequin® Intrigue®.

  Copyright © 2014 by Barbara Heinlein

  ISBN-13: 9781460333624

  SHATTERED

  Copyright © 2014 by Alice Sharpe

  All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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