A Match Made in Texas by Margaret Brownley Published by Sourcebooks Casablanca on June 6th 2017
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There's a New Sheriff in Town...Amanda Lockwood gets more than she bargained for when she's elected Two-Time's first female sheriff. Anxious to prove her detractors wrong, she sets out to stop a crime wave that has been plaguing the town. Trouble begins when she saves suspected killer Jake Barrett from a lynch mob. Common sense says he's guilty, but her heart tells her otherwise.
Things sure don't look good for Jake. If he doesn't convince the pretty sheriff to let him go, he will soon be keeping company with the daisies.But his plan to woo her to his side backfires when he falls head over heels. Now he must choose between freedom-or saving the woman he loves.
A Match Made in TexasLeft at the AltarA Match Made in TexasHow the West was Wed
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Could she trust him? Dare she trust him?
The man—a stranger—looked like one tough hombre. Perched upon the seat of a weather-beaten wagon, he sat tall, lean and decisively strong, his sunbaked hands the color of tanned leather. The only feature visible beneath his wide-brimmed hat and shaggy beard was a well-defined nose. The beard along with his shoulder-length hair suggested he had no regard for barbers. From the looks of him, he wasn’t all that fond of bathhouses either.
“Need a ride?” the stranger asked, looking down at her with open curiosity.
She hesitated. It wasn’t as if she had a lot of choices. If she didn’t accept his offer, she might have to spend the rest of the day and maybe even the night alone in the Texas wilderness with the rattlers, cactus and God knows what else.
“Where you headin’?” he asked.
This time she answered. “Two-Time.”
“Same here,” he said with a gruff nod, as if that alone was reason to trust him.
His destination should have offered no surprise. Two-Time was the only town within twenty miles. Still… “Why there?” she asked.
Her hometown had grown in leaps and bounds since the arrival of the train, but still lagged behind San Antonio and Austin in commerce and population. Most people, if they ended up in Two-Time at all, did so by mistake.
He shrugged his wide shoulders. “Good a place as any.”
Moistening her parched lips, she shaded her eyes from the blazing sun as she gazed up at him. No sense beating around the bush. “You don’t have a nefarious intent, do you? To do me harm, I mean?” A woman alone couldn’t be too careful.
The question seemed to surprise him. At least it made him push back his hat, revealing steel blue eyes that seemed to pierce right through her. What a strange sight she must look. Stuck in the middle of nowhere dressed to the nines in a stylish blue walking suit.
“Are you’re askin’ if your virtue is safe with me?”
She blushed, but refused to back down. The man didn’t mince words and neither would she. “Well, is it?”
“Safe as you want it to be,” he said finally. His lazy drawl didn’t seem to go with the sharp-eyed regard, which returned again and again to her peacock feathered hat, rising three stories and a basement high above her brow.
It wasn’t exactly the answer she’d hoped for, but he sounded sincere and that gave her a small measure of comfort. Still, she cast a wary eye on his holstered weapon. The Indian Wars had ended, but the possibility of renegades was real. The area also teemed with outlaws. In that sense, it wouldn’t hurt to have an armed man by her side. Even one as surly as this one.
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About Margaret Brownley
New York Times and CBA best-selling author MARGARET BROWNLEY has penned nearly forty novels and novellas. Her books have won numerous awards, including Readers’ Choice and Award of Excellence. She’s a former Romance Writers of American RITA® finalist and has written for a TV soap. She is currently working on a new series. Not bad for someone who flunked eighth grade English. Just don’t ask her to diagram a sentence.
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