Don't Dare a Diamond (Must Love Diamonds Book 5)
Page 16
Hold On To Me, Book 8
Say You’ll Marry Me, Book 10
(books 1,3,5,7,9 written by Donna Marie Rogers)
ROMANCING WISCONSIN SERIES
Mistletoe Mischief
Mistletoe Magic
Mistletoe Match-up
**Mistletoe Rules – short bonus story
Autumn Wish
Autumn Bliss
Autumn Kiss
**Autumn Glimmer – short bonus story
Spring Fling
Spring Serendipity
Spring Dreams
**Spring Spark – short bonus story
Summer Scandal
Summer Bride
Summer Secrets
**Summer Wager – short-ish bonus story
STAND ALONE ROMANCE TITLES
More Than a Kiss, contemporary romance
Chasin’ Mason, contemporary western romance
Ditched Again, high school reunion novella
Dragonfly Dreams, Christmas novella
Nina, Beach Brides sweet contemporary novella
PARANORMAL ROMANCE TITLES
If Tombstones Could Talk, paranormal novella
Beneath Still Waters (Part One), paranormal novella
Rising Above (Still Waters Part Two), paranormal novella
FREE READ
Holding Out For a Hero
PUZZLE BOOK
Passion & Puzzles
a Word Search and Crossword Puzzle Book of Stacey Joy Netzel Romance books
Catch the stallion—win the ranch.
Bitter enemies have inherited half shares of the family ranch—if they work together to catch Mason’s Gold. A secret winner-takes-all competition sounds simple, but once Tripp and Regan are out on the range, passion flares in the Texas heat and nothing goes as either of them expects.
Can they work together to keep the ranch, or will their past get in the way of their future?
“Stacey Joy Netzel is at the top of her game with CHASIN’ MASON. I was hooked at page one and stayed hooked until the end...you’ll love it!” Becky ~ Dark Angel Reviews 5 Stars
CHAPTER 1 EXCERPT:
Reggie Reed pressed her face to the soft nose of her chestnut Quarab gelding, Prince, and fought unsuccessfully for the frozen control she'd clung to over the past week. Moisture scalded her cheeks, and even within the shadowed barn, breathing was difficult in the stifling July heat.
“Don't you cry for me,” Judd commanded. “Wipe those tears and stand tall, Reggie, darlin'. You're stronger than that.”
But she wasn't. She may have managed to convince the only father she'd ever known, and everyone else these past eleven years, but deep down she knew she was a spineless coward. Now, with Judson Henry Warner gone, she feared she wouldn't have the strength to keep up the facade.
She fisted her hand against her mouth. Never in a million years had she expected to lose him so soon. He was supposed to be there to give his blessing when she met that someone special. He'd promised to walk her down the aisle and give her away. Be there when her first baby was born to bounce the little tyke on his knee.
A ragged sob escaped, shaking her shoulders.
“Miz Reggie?”
Ernesto's gruff voice from behind made her stiffen with alarm. No one could see her like this—especially Ernesto, who judged character as harshly as the unforgiving Texas range. Judd's best friend since childhood, he'd been the hardest to convince here at Warner Ridge Ranch. Most days she doubted she had, even though he always treated her with a distant, grudging respect. Now that she'd be running the business alone, she couldn't let him see her vulnerable underbelly.
Keeping her back to him, she shook her head mutely and held up a hand to keep him at a safe distance.
He shuffled closer anyway. “But, Miz Reggie, I—”
“Not now, Ernesto,” she snapped in desperation. “The funeral's over, get back to work.”
Dead silence settled in the barn like dust caught in the sun's rays. Reggie squeezed her eyes tight and fisted a hand in Prince's mane, shamed at how cold-hearted her words sounded. Today of all days, Ernesto was a friend first, employee second; she had no right speaking to him with such insensitivity.
Sensing the tension in her touch, the gelding shifted uneasily, rustling the straw beneath his hooves. Even knowing she should turn around and apologize to Ernesto, she couldn't force her muscles to cooperate.
“Ma'am.” Ernesto moved away, his footsteps fading to nothing.
Fresh tears threatened to join the others still wetting her face. How in the world could she return to the house and face him, or Grandma Rosie, or the rest of the family who'd stayed for the luncheon after the burial? If she looked half as awful as she felt, everyone would know she'd broken down. She hadn't cried since she realized tears were not a tool for manipulation, but a weakness. Now they'd all see she wasn't as strong as she pretended.
“Well, well, well. Seems the princess became a queen.”
The sardonic drawl from the barn entrance sent Reggie's heart ricocheting off her ribs in wild panic. Adrenaline swept through her, leaving her light-headed. Eleven years had passed since she'd last heard that voice, and though it had deepened considerably in adulthood, she recognized it instantly. How could she not when the person behind it haunted her guilty conscience every day.
“Hell will freeze over before I step foot on this ranch again!”
The hate-filled vow of seventeen-year-old Tripp Warner sounded in Reggie's mind like it’d been shouted only yesterday. Fourteen years old at the time, she'd smiled with malicious satisfaction when he walked away without looking back. He'd kept his word until today. Maybe Hell had frozen over—because despite the above ninety temps, she suddenly felt chilled to the bone.
Reggie swallowed hard as guilt threatened to overwhelm her. She'd wondered if he'd show up for the funeral, but the blustering coward inside had resolutely ignored the possibility and left her completely unprepared to face him.
The prickle along the back of her neck from his stare told her she didn't have a choice now. She dashed the remaining moisture from her lashes and drew in a shaky breath before willing herself to turn around.
Another jolt rocked her senses.
No longer the lanky boy she remembered, the man Tripp Warner had become stood before her, larger than life, lounging against the doorway with one shoulder, his hands in his pockets. A white dress shirt stretched across his broad chest , contrasting with a black tie and tailored slacks that hugged lean hips.
The sun at his back glinted off dark blond hair as it cast his face in shadow, but his words and the chilling animosity in his voice left no doubt as to the hate she would find there.
Breathe.
She forced a tight smile to her uncooperative lips. “Hello, Tripp.”
“Regan.”
The sound of her name off his tongue raised the hair on her arms. His deep voice had a rough, sensual edge that sent a flutter through her stomach. She sucked in a breath while thrusting the disturbing sensations aside. Nerves, that's all.
With a last fortifying caress of her palm down his velvety nose, she stepped away from Prince's comforting presence and eased toward the barn door in hopes of heading back to the house. Her step faltered when Tripp's intense gaze locked with hers. She’d forgotten the shocking blue of his intense eyes.
Forcing her feet to keep moving beneath her ankle-length black skirt, she nervously brushed her long dark curls back over her shoulder. “I go by Reggie now.”
Tripp's gaze swept from the top of her head to the tips of her boots, leaving a tingle of awareness in its wake that unnerved her even more.
“I'll stick with Regan, it fits the bitch inside.”
A reflexive flash of indignation warred with guilt. “People change, Tripp,” she said with cool dignity.
He gave a rude snort and straightened from the doorway. “Okay.”
Reggie took a deep breath to control another burst of temper. He's going off the past, she reminded herself. And in d
oing so, his opinion was more than justified. During the three months they'd lived under the same roof, she had been a little bitch. She'd snuck around, told well-constructed lies, and manipulated his father any way she could, all to turn the two of them against each other in her nasty campaign to win Judd's undivided attention. All lessons well learned from her mother.
However, unlike the last three boyfriends before him, Judd treated his new love’s daughter like an individual person, not another piece of her mother's baggage to be ignored. Under his kind influence, she'd flourished, learned what a real family was like and how to be a good person.
Then her mother found someone else. Terrified of losing the first home she’d ever known, Reggie refused to leave the ranch, and Judd let her stay. Not that her mother had put up much of an argument before blowing her a kiss as she slipped inside the limo.
As if she’d taken Tripp’s place, Judd showed her how to run the ranch, taught her all about horses and cattle, paid for the best education money could buy, and gave her the choice to do whatever she wanted. She earned a degree in business, then returned to the ranch to run it alongside him. Like a daughter...almost.
He and Grandma Rosie loved her, she knew, but it always felt as if they held a small part of themselves back. With her mother gone, and fearful of losing them, too, she never once spoke to Judd about his son.
She should apologize to Tripp right now for stealing the life he should've had, but, impaled by the icy shards of his cold eyes as she stared up at his impressive height, the words stuck in her throat with a thick coating of guilt and shame.
Instead, she averted her gaze and murmured, “I should get back to the house or Grandma will start to worry.”
When she started to walk past, a strong, calloused hand clamped over her arm, halting her mid-stride. Startled, she jerked her chin up to find his eyes narrowed accusingly.
“You don't get to call her that,” he ground out. “She's not your grandmother.”
Reggie swallowed, hard. Despite the warmth of his fingers burning her skin, she forced herself to hold his gaze and show some backbone.
“She helped raise me since I was fourteen. It was her idea, not mine.”
His lip curled. “You wormed your way in nice and tight, didn’t you? I bet you and your mother can’t wait for the reading of the will.”
A discreet attempt to pull free only succeeded in making him tighten his steel grasp.
“My mother’s not here.”
“That explains why I haven’t seen her, then. What, did she take a shopping trip to celebrate her new status as a wealthy widow?”
She frowned, momentarily accepting his hold without resistance. Did he not know? Loretta, in fact, had called yesterday from her new yacht in the south of France to offer insincere condolences before bragging about the size of the rock her fourth husband had bought her—a wedding Reggie hadn't even known about.
She did her best to ignore the sharp bite of bitterness that always surfaced with any thoughts of her mother and simply replied, “They never did get married.”
The slackening of his grip and genuine surprise on his face told her he hadn’t known. His expression quickly hardened again. “Leaves more for you then, doesn’t it?”
“I’m not the same person I was back then, Tripp.”
His fingers tightened. “And that's why you were smiling during the service, isn't it, because you've changed so damn much.”
“You were there?” Reggie flushed with the realization that he'd seen her bittersweet smile earlier.
“It's not my fault you were too busy figuring out how to spend the money to notice.”
“That wasn't it at all.”
“Well, then, please, tell me what was so amusing when my father's body was being lowered into his grave?”
In truth, the shock of seeing the casket disappear into the dark hole in the earth hit home with a finality she hadn't even imagined. In desperation, she'd looked away and focused on the antics of the foals in the pasture below the hill.
“I was only remembering how much Judd enjoyed watching the newborn foals every spring,” she whispered. “He used to love it when they—”
Tripp's fingers bit into her skin, effectively cutting off the rest of her sentence. His eyes darkened for a few seconds before he subjected her to another sweep of his chilling gaze.
“You took everything from me. You and your gold-digging mother. You can dress all respectable and shed some of your well-timed tears, but we both know you’re nothing but a conniving stepsister in Cinderella’s clothing.”
GET YOUR COPY OF CHASIN’ MASON HERE
Don’t Dare a Diamond
Must Love Diamonds Series, book 5
Copyright © 2020, Stacey Joy Netzel
Chasin’ Mason excerpt
Copyright © 2012, Stacey Joy Netzel
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.
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without the written permission of the author, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews.
Editor: Stacy D. Holmes
Cover Art: Cover Couture
ebook ISBN: 9781939143815
Print ISBN: 9781939143822