Publisher: Sourcebooks Casablanca
Publication Date: 10/29/2019
The
firefighting cowboys of Wildcat Bluffs take Christmas VERY seriously…
When
Ivy Bryant arrives in town to run the historic honkytonk, she finds herself
immersed in traditions that can’t be bucked. Luckily, cowboy firefighter Slade
Steele has an idea to increase both the honkytonk’s income, and his own. It’s
an offer Ivy couldn’t refuse, even if the passion between them wasn’t already
reaching the boiling point.
Ivy
and Slade’s love story is legendary—when you add in arsonist cattle rustlers, a
runaway Angus bull, and a chili recipe that includes liquor AND chocolate,
Wildcat Bluffs will be celebrating a cowboy Christmas unlike any other.
Excerpt:
As Ivy Bryant stood on her tiptoes
with arms raised to toss decorative tinsel over deer antlers on the wall above
her head, she heard the side door that led to the Wildcat Hall’s beer garden
open and boots hit the floor with a determined stride.
“We’re closed!” she hollered, not bothering to
look over her shoulder. “Come back next week.”
“You look like you could use a little help,” a
man said.
She froze with her hands in the air as she felt the
deep male voice with that melodic, slow cadence of a born-and-bred Texan strike
her body and go deep, as if she’d been pierced by a flaming arrow. Talk about
red-hot. She tried to shrug off the heat, but the chair shifted under her,
making her sway.
“Easy does it,” he said. “Chairs have
a way of pretending they’re bulls sometimes.”
“Bulls?” She didn’t know whether to
laugh at the joke or appreciate he’d tried to make her feel better about almost
toppling to the floor. Still and all, if she’d known she was going to have
company, she’d have put on something besides formfitting yoga pants and top in
hot pink with black trim. He was getting an eyeful.
“In my case, I always tried to pretend
bulls were chairs.”
“How’d that work out?” She eyed the
antlers, mind half on her next throw and half on the amusing man behind her.
“About like you can imagine.” He
sighed, as if life had been unfair. “I finally had to give up bulls for
chairs.”
“I bet the bulls were grateful.” She
definitely wanted to see the face that went with the voice, but she wanted to
finish her task more.
“Yeah…but I’ve broken a few chairs.”
“Maybe even one of the chairs here in
the honkytonk.”
“Might be.
Looks like your chair is keeping an uneasy peace with the floor
“That’s one way of putting it.” She
rose to her tiptoes again, trying one last time to get the tinsel to disobey
the laws of gravity.
“Let me help.” He spanned her waist
with large hands and lifted her so she could easily reach the antlers.
She caught her breath in surprise at
his strength—and his boldness. But she wasn’t looking a gift horse in the
mouth. She quickly twined the antlers with red tinsel until they looked festive
for the holidays.
“Pretty,” he
said.
She shivered in response. What had
gotten into her? She should be struggling to get away. Instead, he was revving
her up with his hot hands.
“Got any more tinsel to put up?” he asked in a
deep voice gone husky. “I could hold you all day and into next week.”
“I suggest you put me down before you get into
trouble.”
“If you’re the one handing out trouble, I’d
wait in line to get it.”
She couldn’t help but chuckle because he was laying it
on thick in that teasing way Texas men would do to get them out of problems
with women. “Better put me down before your arms give out.”
“Not a chance. You’re light as a feather.”
She laughed harder. “Guess some women
would fall for that one. What are you selling?”
“As a matter of fact, I’m here to help you,
but you might consider it selling to you, too.” He gently set her down so her
feet were steady on the floor, and then he stepped back.
She turned to face him—and felt her
breath catch in her throat at the tall hunk of a cowboy. He wore pressed
Wranglers that accentuated his long legs and narrow hips, with a wide leather
belt sporting a huge rodeo belt buckle. His blue-and-white-striped, pearl-snap
shirt tucked neatly into the waistband of his jeans emphasized the width of his
shoulders and breadth of his chest. Blond haired. Blue eyed. Square jawed. Full
lipped. He looked as if he’d been made to dazzle—and she was suddenly and
breathtakingly susceptible to every single one of his charms.
“Whatever you’re selling, I think I’m buying.” She
spoke the words with a teasing lilt in her voice and a mischievous smile on her
face. Still, she meant it. And he probably knew it because he was definitely
heartbreaker material. How many women had already fallen to his charms and been
left in the dust? She didn’t intend to be a notch on his belt, but if she’d
known leaving the city for the country paid off so well in eye candy, she
might’ve followed her sister sooner.
He chuckled at her words and held out
his hand with a thick, muscular wrist that came from controlling
thousand-pound-plus animals. “Slade Steele. If you haven’t heard of me, maybe
you’re aware of the Chuckwagon Café and Steele Trap Ranch. Family businesses.
I’m not just any guy off the street.”
“You’re
definitely not just any guy.” She slipped her hand into his big one and felt
him gently enclose her fingers. “Smart guy to throw a few compliments my way.
Guess you’re more than a pretty face.” She tried to keep the teasing going, so
their interaction stayed on a light note, but he was still holding her hand and
she wasn’t pulling away and his eyes were heating up to a blazing blue fire.
“Nothing but the truth.”
“My sister Fern is the star.” She
tried to tug her hand away, but he held on another long moment, nodding as if
deciding something or conveying something or accepting something before finally
letting go.
He grinned with a gleam in his eyes, revealing teeth
white against the tan of his skin. “Yeah, she is that…but you make the earth
move.”
“Oh my.” She returned his grin while fanning
her face with one hand in that old Southern way, as if he was too hot to
handle. “You really do want to sell me something, don’t you?”
“How am I doing?”
“Not bad.”
***
Excerpted from Cowboy Firefighter Christmas Kiss by Kim Redford. © 2019 by
Kim Redford. Used with
permission of the publisher, Sourcebooks
Casablanca, an imprint of Sourcebooks, Inc. All rights reserved.
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Praise
for Kim Redford:
“Redford
reels you in with this hot-as-hell firefighting cowboy.”—Fresh Fiction
for Blazing Hot Cowboy
“Will
keep you warm and toasty and entertained.”—USA Today Happily Ever After
for A Cowboy Firefighter for Christmas
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