She waited for him to continue. He sounded as though each word was dragged from deep in his soul. Soul-deep words could be hard to reach and harder to say, so she didn’t rush him or try to finish his sentences for him. He had to do this himself.
He looked at her. “I loved my first wife, but what I feel for you is different and I think that scared me. It’s deeper, richer, more ingrained in my soul. I love you, Caroline. I love you so much that sometimes it hurts. Without you, I don’t feel whole. It’s like you’re the other half of me. I wasn’t lying. I do need you. I love you. Please come home and build a life with me.” He took a step toward her. “Say something, damn it.” He smiled. “I know you are rarely speechless.”
Caroline flew across the room and threw herself into his arms. “I love you so much, Travis.” She began spreading kisses all over his face. “I’ve missed you more than you imagine.”
He wrapped her in his arms. “I don’t have to imagine. I know. I’ve missed you that much too.” He kissed her, taking the simple press of lips into a deep soul-searing experience.
She took his hand and led him over to the sofa. “You might want to sit down. I’ve got news too.”
He sat on the couch and pulled her into his lap. She kissed his wonderful mouth, sucked on his luscious bottom lip. “I’ve missed these lips,” she said against his mouth. She felt the movement of his lips as he smiled.
“I have more news too,” he said. “But I’ll let you go first.”
“Do you gamble?”
He drew his head back and looked shocked. “Gamble? No, not really. Why?”
“You probably should. Or, maybe I should say, we probably should. We’ve beaten a one in a million chance.”
She watched as he considered her words and then the wide opening of his eyes as he realized what she was trying to tell him.
“You’re pregnant?”
“I am. Are you upset?”
He laughed and hugged her so tightly she struggled to breathe.
“I can’t breathe,” she said on gasps.
“Sorry,” he said and hugged her again.
“So you’re not mad?”
“Mad? I’m thrilled. I’m going to be a dad.”
“What would you think about getting married for real?” Her gut churned with fear. What if he said no?
He chuckled.
She slapped his shoulder. “Don’t laugh.”
“Honey, that’s the piece of news I need to give you. Prepare yourself. Seems your grandmother was a little smarter than I, or maybe you, gave her credit for.”
“How so?” When she frowned, he kissed the wrinkles in her forehead.
“We had a marriage license, a person legal to marry us and we went through a wedding ceremony. In Arkansas, that’s good enough.”
“I don’t understand. We never filed the license.”
“Don’t have to. There’s a 160 dollar penalty for filing outside the sixty-day window when we were supposed to return it. But the state says we’re married.”
She rested her head on his broad shoulder. “You’re kidding.”
“Nope. You’re mine, fair and square.”
She sighed. “And you’re mine.”
“That I am. What about Montana?” he asked as he nibbled down her neck.
“Canceled. I’ve been offered a long-term contract with another medical clinic,” she said, running her hands up the hard contours of his chest.
He grabbed her wrists and pulled her hands off. “You signed another contract? Where?”
She leaned forward and ran her tongue along the rim of his ear. “Not yet, but I’m going to. It’s a little town in Texas. You’ve probably never heard of it. Whispering Springs. There’s a medical clinic there that made me an offer I couldn’t refuse.”
“What was that?”
“Life with the man of my dreams.”
About the Author
Cynthia D’Alba was born and raised in a small Arkansas town. After being gone for a number of years, she’s thrilled to be making her home back in Arkansas living in a vine-covered cottage on the banks of an eight-thousand acre lake. When she’s not reading or writing or plotting, she’s doorman for her two dogs, cook, housekeeper and chief bottle washer for her husband and slave to a noisy messy parrot. She loves to chat online with friends and fans. You can find her most days at www.cynthiadalba.com or www.everybodyneedsalittleromance.com. Follow her at www.facebook.com/AuthorCynthiaDAlba, www.twitter.com/CynthiaDAlba or email her at [email protected].
Look for these titles by Cynthia D’Alba
Now Available:
Texas Montgomery Mavericks
Texas Two Step
Their love never died, but her secrets could break his trust beyond repair.
Texas Two Step
© 2012 Cynthia D’Alba
Texas Montgomery Mavericks, Book 1
After six years and too much self-recrimination, rancher Mitch Landry is ready to admit he was wrong. He’d loved Olivia Montgomery but commitment wasn’t high on his list back then. That was his first mistake. He’s just divorced his second, and he’s set to do whatever it takes to convince Olivia to give him another try.
Through hard work, determination and more than a few tears, Olivia survived the break-up with Mitch. She’s rebuilt her life around her business and the son she loves more than life itself. She’s not proud of the mistakes she’s made—particularly the secrets she’s kept—but when life hands you manure, you use it to make something better of yourself…lest you get stuck in it.
At a hot, muggy Dallas wedding, they reconnect. Olivia’s first instinct is to play it cool, but after one devastating kiss things flare real out of control, real fast. Maybe a quick roll in the hay will get him out of her system once and for all. Funny thing about hay though, once it’s tangled in your hair, getting it out risks revealing things that were never meant to see the light of day. Warning: Bourbon shooters, shirtless cowboys, and a hot rendezvous or two…
Warning: Contains hot sex, a vindictive ex-wife and hot chocolate-chip cookies.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Texas Two Step:
He kissed her and the world stopped revolving. She swayed into him. Ran her fingers into his thick, wavy hair. Stroked his tongue with hers. Tasted the champagne inside of his mouth. Sucked gently on his tongue. Soaked him up like an arid desert in an unexpected rainstorm.
Olivia could have blamed the dim lights, or the romantic setting, or even Mitch’s raw animal magnetism for her response to his kiss. Instead, she admitted she wanted this night, this man, his touch, his kiss. All of her fantasies started this way.
Could reality be as good as her imagination?
What would it be like to be with him again? Make love with him again?
There was curiosity, but that wasn’t what was driving her response to his kiss. Desire ran rampant through her veins. A soul-deep lust consumed her.
Their love story was history, so she’d waste no time planning a future that would never come. She’d take what he offered, take what she wanted. Here and now, not a future. Tonight was all there was. She’d not walk away from his arms until she’d gotten what she needed.
Mitch’s mouth scorched her lips as he took her mouth with a rough passion that left no doubt of his intentions. He pulled the pins holding her chignon and threaded his fingers through her hair, holding her head in place as he plundered her mouth with his tongue.
Returning his kiss with a fervor matching his, she allowed the all-consuming yearning to fill her. The desire to touch him, be close to him, make love with him overwhelmed her.
She flattened her hands against his chest. His heat seared through the shirt’s material and burned into her flesh. She stroked hard muscles sculpted from years of physical labor. His nipples stiffened to her caress. The soft cotton of his shirt teased the nerve endings in her palms.
He leaned his huge body over her and cupped her breast in his work-roughened hand. He squeezed and flicked her now dis
tended nipple.
Ripples of sexual longing echoed through her. She moaned into his mouth and, arching her back, pressed her breast firmly into his palm, wordlessly begging for more.
Mitch gave her what she wanted, fondling and stroking her breasts until she wanted to rip her clothes off. She groaned, burning with a frantic desperation to feel skin against skin.
Olivia slipped the buttons on his shirt through the holes with ease. She separated the shirt’s edges until she could feel the crinkle of his chest hair and the direct hot flesh of his chest beneath her hands.
The tantalizing scent of Mitch filled her nose. She’d probably smelled the same cologne on other men, but the cologne’s interaction with Mitch’s body chemistry produced a bouquet unlike any other on Earth. She lowered her head to his chest, first kissing then flicking her tongue on his turgid nipple before wrapping her lips around it. His skin was a dichotomy. Sweet and salty. Dangerous and comforting. Past and present.
There’d be no turning back for her now. She’d had a sample of her addiction, and she had to have more.
When she sucked his nipple between her lips, he groaned and slid his hand under the hem of her dress. Her abdominal muscles danced and jerked when his thick fingers touched her inner thigh.
He stroked fingers along the inside of her thigh, the silk of her stockings tickling and enflaming her flesh at the same time. “Your silk stockings drive me wild,” he said, nibbling along her chin. “Your skin was always silky and smooth. I love to touch you. I’ve always loved to touch you. I loved the way you moaned and twisted at my touch. The way your eyes would glaze over when I stroked you.” His hand moved higher, stopping at the top of the stocking. “But tonight, I want—no, need—to see you in these stockings. These stockings, my necklace and nothing else.” His voice was coarse and guttural and harsh.
Olivia quivered at his words. Emotional fires she’d suppressed since finding out she was pregnant with Adam flared. She’d believed them stomped out and dead. She’d been wrong. She was dry tinder to his lit match.
He stood, took her hand, pulled her to standing.
Her legs were weak and rubbery, threatening to collapse under his relentless assault.
Gazing intensely into her eyes, he said, “I want you. I want to be deep inside you. If you want to stop, say it now, because in a minute I don’t think I’ll be able to stop.”
He waited. Gave her time to say no. Gave her time for rationality to return.
But she didn’t want rational thoughts. Didn’t want to think about tomorrow, or the next day, or the next. Didn’t want to let go of all the sensations surging through her.
She’d made up her mind when she’d unbuttoned the first button on his shirt. For her, there was no going back.
She shook her head. “Don’t stop. Please.”
Some things never change. And some things change everything.
In Too Deep
© 2013 Delilah Devlin
Triple Horn Brand, Book 2
Gabe Triplehorn can think of no better getaway from his heavy responsibilities at the ranch, than to go back to a time and place where he didn’t have a care in the world. When there was just a campground, a river and a girl.
When he gets to Red Hawk Landing, the campground and the river are still there. He just never expected the girl would still be there too. Only now she runs the place.
Lena Twohig can think of no better place to raise her young son than the family owned campground that holds so many memories. Especially the romance with Gabe that lit up one long-ago summer like a wild electrical storm. Now he’s back, with a ranch-hardened body she knows she shouldn’t want so badly.
No amount of lies or the years that have passed can tame this tidal wave of passion.
Warning: Contains a flash flood of passion between a cowboy who knows how to pitch a tent and a woman who isn’t afraid to get a little dirty.
Enjoy the following excerpt for In Too Deep:
Gabe listened to the rustle of clothing being shed and her quick, excited breaths. When water splashed behind him, only then did he turn to acknowledge her presence. He didn’t betray any emotion over the fact she’d dumped propriety on its ass to join him—deliciously nude.
Only her breasts were visible, floating just beneath the surface of the water. The cream-colored globes were naturally full. The tips were tightened little buds. The areolas were a little larger than he remembered but still cotton-candy pink.
His cock hardened, pulsing as he imagined gently chewing on a stiff bud while her legs writhed around him.
She swam closer, but not so near he could sweep out a hand to bring her against him. She was ready to flirt but still held on to a little caution.
Gabe struck out for the first rocky ledge, and pulled himself up to sit while clear river water sluiced around his body. His cock was prominent despite the blurring stream. No way could she pretend not to be looking where she was.
Her gaze was caught, her pupils growing large as she stared at his erection.
He patted the rock beside him. “Why not join me?”
Her eyes widened, but she firmed her mouth and swam nearer.
He held out a hand, which she accepted after giving him a long, searching look. He pulled her up beside him to rest on the ledge. With her knees pulled up against her chest and her body curled, she hid most of her interesting bits. Her shyness amused and enchanted him.
That same combination of boldness and reticence had excited him as a youth. He’d wanted to make her blush with embarrassment one moment and with searing passion the next. In the end, she’d given him both.
“Tell me something,” he said softly. “Something about you.” He hoped she’d answer the questions abounding in his mind. Like why was she still here? Had she finished college? Or given up? Why was she still wearing that cheap promise ring he’d given her all those years ago?
She gave him a sideways glance. Her body still folded tightly, she wrapped her arms around her knees to hide herself.
Not that she looked anything but completely sexy. The long expanse of her back was golden and smooth. The sides of her breasts a creamy white.
She slicked back her wet hair then set her cheek against her knee as she stared back at him. “There’s not much to tell. I run this place in the summers for my grandfather.”
“And during the rest of the year?”
She lifted her shoulders. “I teach art in middle school.”
She’d wanted to study graphic design and work in a marketing firm. What the hell had happened to that dream?
“What about you?” she asked.
“I’m in cattle.”
Her eyelids dipped, and she glanced away. The tiny catch in her breath made him wonder if she was remembering a boy who’d been a rancher’s son.
Texas Tango
Cynthia D’Alba
Their wedding might be fake, but there’s no faking the mutual attraction.
Texas Montgomery Mavericks, Book 2
Dr. Caroline Graham is happy with her nomadic lifestyle fulfilling short-term medical contracts. No emotional commitments, no disappointments. She’s always the one to walk away, never the one left behind.
But now her great-uncle is gone and her grandmother is on her deathbed, more concerned about Caroline’s lack of a husband than her own demise. What’s the harm in a little white lie? If a wedding will give her grandmother peace, then a wedding she shall have.
Travis Montgomery has one dream left—to build the ranch he and his wife planned before he lost her to cancer. There’s just one thing standing between him and the last bit of acreage he needs—a last living heir who has one traveling foot out the door…and an unusual request that challenges his determination to never again place his heart at risk.
The land he wants in exchange for a faux marriage. Everyone wins. Until things start to snowball…and the hearts they stand to lose are their own.
Warning: This book contains a tortured widower who doesn’t wan
t a wife and an independent doctor who doesn’t want a husband. Hot stuff between the sheets and failed efforts to avoid emotional involvements.
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They cannot be sold, shared or given away as it is an infringement on the copyright of this work.
This book is a work of fiction. The names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the writer’s imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to persons, living or dead, actual events, locale or organizations is entirely coincidental.
Samhain Publishing, Ltd.
11821 Mason Montgomery Road Suite 4B
Cincinnati OH 45249
Texas Tango
Copyright © 2013 by Cynthia D’Alba
ISBN: 978-1-61921-888-8
Edited by Heidi Moore
Cover by Valerie Tibbs
All Rights Are Reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.
First Samhain Publishing, Ltd. electronic publication: November 2013
www.samhainpublishing.com
Texas Tango: Texas Montgomery Mavericks, Book 2 Page 27