by Vivian Arend
“I love you, Joel Coleman.” She whispered the words and the spring air drifted them skyward with the promise of new life and new growth. So many things to look forward to in the future.
But right now? They had each other. They had the moment, and a handful of condoms.
Hell, yeah, life was good.
About the Author
Vivian Arend in one word: Adventurous. In a sentence: Willing to try just about anything once. That wide-eyed attitude has taken her around North America, through parts of Europe, and into Central and South America, often with no running water.
Her optimistic outlook also meant that when challenged to write a book, she gave it a shot, and discovered creating worlds to play in was nearly as addictive as traveling the real one. Now a New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of both contemporary and paranormal stories, Vivian continues to explore, write and otherwise keep herself well entertained.
Website: www.vivianarend.com
Blog: www.vivianarend.com/blog
Twitter: www.twitter.com/VivianArend
Facebook: www.facebook.com/VivianArend
Look for these titles by Vivian Arend
Now Available:
Granite Lake Wolves
Wolf Signs
Wolf Flight
Wolf Games
Wolf Tracks
Wolf Line
Wolf Nip
Forces of Nature
Tidal Wave
Whirlpool
Turner Twins
Turn It On
Turn It Up
Pacific Passion
Stormchild
Stormy Seduction
Silent Storm
Xtreme Adventures
Falling, Freestyle
Rising, Freestyle
Six Pack Ranch
Rocky Mountain Heat
Rocky Mountain Haven
Rocky Mountain Desire
Rocky Mountain Angel
Takhini Wolves
Black Gold
Silver Mine
Paradise Found
Coming Soon:
Diamond Dust
Sometimes even Angels must learn to fly…
Rocky Mountain Angel
© 2012 Vivian Arend
Six Pack Ranch, Book 4
Allison Parker needs a convincing excuse to come home to Rocky Mountain House. A hopelessly romantic reason that won’t let her mother suspect the truth—that Allison has discovered Mom is keeping a terrible secret from the family.
Gabe Coleman is struggling with two of the roughest parts of ranching: dealing with his bull-headed mule of a father, and making enough to pay the bills. When his old friend Allison offers to help him develop his ideas for organic ranching—in trade for pretending to be her fiancé—it sounds like the perfect set-up.
Yet the deception leads them in an unexpected direction, where their shared daily hells are erased by nights of heavenly distraction. It’s not supposed to be real, but once the gates are opened, there’s no denying they’ve found in each other a little bit of Paradise.
To break free of the past and face the future, though, will take more than temporary pleasures. It’ll take putting their hearts on the line.
Warning: Tortured hero with a guardian-angel complex, grief-stricken heroine willing to sacrifice everything for family. Break out the tissues, this trip to the ranch is a heartbreaker on the way to the HEA.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Rocky Mountain Angel:
He gave her a confused look. “What are you doing?”
She shook out the sturdy picnic cloth, placing the cushiony fabric on the grass beside where he sat. “You’re still tense. Take off your shirt and I can at least massage out a few of the knots.”
Gabe eyed the blanket warily, then nodded, rising on his knees to strip off his shirt and undershirt.
Allison pulled a small bottle of hand cream from her purse triumphantly. She dropped the bag to the side and turned to deal with Gabe.
Oh damn. He’d laid himself out on the blanket like she’d asked, resting his head on his hands. The position showed off his muscles beautifully—shoulders, biceps, and the firm bands that wrapped around his torso down along his waist.
A slick of sexual tension stroked her spine. A massage might help get rid of his tension, but it was going to increase hers.
“You ready?” Gack. Her voice sounded far too high-pitched and unnatural.
“Yeah, I guess.”
She knelt at his side and warmed up the cream before putting her hands on his shoulders.
For the next fifteen minutes Allison’s mind raced as she worked her hands over Gabe’s back. Her thumbs along his spine, fingertips digging into the hard bulges that slowly relaxed. She slipped lower, wondering why she was doing this to herself. What had started as an offer from a friend to another was making all kinds of more-than-friends ideas pop into her head.
No. They’d made it clear that this was about helping each other. The little bits of teasing they’d done at the start of their time together—she’d made sure that was put aside. Just ignored any of the sexual attraction she felt for the man.
But right now? Good Lord, she was getting turned on.
She’d straddled him shortly after she began, and now she sat on his legs, the edge of his jeans the barrier line for “go no farther”. Only she wanted to. Wanted to pull down the fabric and let her hands wander all over his warm skin. Wanted to press hard into his ass muscles and curl her fingers around his naked flesh.
Wanted what she shouldn’t want.
She swallowed and tried to ignore the lust. Focus instead on the sights and sounds around them.
Only the rush of the river and the nearby trees weren’t nearly as mesmerizing as his body. She smoothed her palms all the way up to his shoulders, wishing she were brave enough to lean down and set her teeth to his skin.
Suddenly she was no longer sitting on his thighs, but lying on her back as he loomed over her.
It was the little noises she made that finally broke his control.
He’d been riding hard on his frustrations as much as possible, not wanting to punish her for what Ben had stroked to a high pitch. Holding on to her and accepting her comfort had seemed like an innocent thing. Until she put her hands on him and all that adrenaline was directed away from anger at his impossible life. Now the fervour was firmly centered on his cock, and she was the reason for the change of locations.
He held her trapped, her dark hair spread out on the blanket as he examined her face for a sign he was about to get rejected. Little puffs of air escaped her lips, her chest rising and falling way too fast for someone who’d simply been giving a chaste rubdown.
She stared up, pupils dark and wide. Their bodies tight together, his groin solid to hers in a way that couldn’t possibly let her fail to recognize the state he was in.
She licked her lips, and this time he was the one who groaned in frustration. In need.
“Tell me no,” he whispered.
She caught his head in her hand, fingers threaded through his hair to hold him in place. “No.”
Then she dragged him toward her and lifted her lips.
The connection between his brain and his body shut down for the second time that day. He took the kiss she offered. Took her mouth and lips, their teeth knocking for a moment as they both went a little wild. Frustration, fire from whatever source, they both took and gave and goddammit if it wasn’t exactly what he had to have right then.
Allison squirmed, opening her thighs wider to let him settle tighter between her legs. He matched his hips and his tongue, pulsing slower now, making firm enough contact to tease them both. She dragged her hands through his hair and down his back, fingernails scraping over the territory she’d been rubbing so enthusiastically earlier.
When she clutched his ass, planted her feet on the ground and rose to meet him, he was caught wanting to take this way further than it should go.
He rolled them slightly, break
ing their kiss. Keeping her against his body but pressing his lips to her face, to the hollow of her neck. “I should stop.”
“We should stop. Oh God, yes, Gabe…ahhh…” She held on too tight for her words to push him away. He sucked on her neck again, and she jerked as if he’d put a brand to her skin.
He smiled before licking the sensitive spot. “I found a hot button.”
She had thrown a leg over his thigh, keeping their groins in contact. “I think my entire body is a hot button right now.”
He’s faced down every demon…except one fast-talking Southern girl.
Lost in You
© 2013 Lauren Dane
Petal, Georgia, Book 2
It hasn’t been easy for Joe Harris to live down his not-so-honorable past, but the military made him a better man. He’s determined to make up for past mistakes, starting with coming home to care for his ailing father.
Things are going as planned until his best friend’s little sister comes barreling into his life. Funny, quick talking, smart, beautiful, she’s a temptation he tries—and fails—to resist.
When Beth Murphy hears Joe is back in town, she makes sure she’s the first on his welcoming committee. Though he tries to pretend he’s gruff and unworthy of her, she sees the man who spoils his dog, who touches her like she’s precious. Cherished. But there’s one wall she can’t break down—the truth about what’s happening at home.
On the night the nature of his father’s illness becomes painfully, publicly apparent, Joe does the right thing—push Beth as far away as possible. But if he thought she’d go away quietly, he’s about to learn she’s made of sterner stuff.
Warning: Slow-talking, sexy mechanic with a drawl, looking to get a Murphy right out of her underpants. Quick-talking woman who knows what she wants and has a weak spot for the aforementioned slow-talking mechanic and his dancing dog. Bad words. Polly Chase behind the wheel again.
Enjoy the following excerpt for Lost in You:
What he needed to do was take a ride. He’d been dealing with his father, the move, getting all the stuff in place for the shop, and none of it was fun. Joe was tired of everything. He took a glance over to where Buck had sacked out, his face near his bowl should anyone try to take it. The dog snuffled his annoyance when Joe bent to stroke over his head but groaned a little when he got his ears scratched.
“I’ll be back in a while. Don’t sleep too much.”
Buck opened one eye and then closed it again on a sigh. The sound of Joe’s keys would have sent his normally high-energy dog jumping. But he’d been playing with the dog next door while Joe had been painting earlier and had taken several runs with Joe to the shop and out to his parents’ place and clearly had had enough.
Joe got that. He wished he could lie near his bowl with a bottle of beer and sack out for hours too.
Joe snorted as he stood, looking out his kitchen window over Main Street. He’d finally finished unpacking the last boxes earlier that morning, and while he wasn’t totally moved in, he’d already come home.
Petal had been part of Joe Harris for his entire life. Even when he’d been halfway across the world, he’d never been too far from Petal’s streets. So when he backed the motorcycle out of the garage and started it up, he knew exactly where he wanted to ride.
It was a warm day. Sunny and clear, and once he’d gotten a little out of the main part of town, the scent of grass and trees replaced everything else. The hum of the road beneath him soothed nearly as much as the full-throated growl of the bike. He might have turned his life around, but a guy still had to have some fun. The bike was part of that fun. He’d miss his every-Sunday group he had back in Dallas, but he had so much to do now that he’d moved back home he wasn’t sure when he’d be able to find a new group. But he would eventually.
He needed to remind himself of that. Right now things seemed overwhelming, but they’d mellow. He’d find a routine. Get his dad some help. Get his business up and running. Maybe even find some time to date around, or at the very least have sex.
For now, the road had to be enough.
For now, it was.
“You missed a spot.”
Beth sent a look to her brother William. “Volunteer labor is notoriously imperfect. It’s a sad fact of life.” She rinsed off the window she’d been washing on his truck.
“You want to borrow the truck, you gotta wash it. That’s the deal.”
“I did wash it.” She turned the hose on him, and he jumped with a hoot, sending kids hurtling into the yard, giggling and soaked. “And now I washed the owner. You want I should break out the soap and get behind your ears?”
He grinned and shook his head. “I’ll get even for that.”
“One day maybe. But for today, I am queen.” She tossed the cloth back into the bucket and bent to turn the hose off, pausing to squirt the kids again.
“Thanks for the truck wash. And for watching the kids last night.” Her brother winked before he looked over the yard. His kids were out there running through the sprinkler along with several of her nieces and nephews belonging to their other siblings. She’d had them all at her apartment the night before for a sleepover so their parents could have a date night. She loved each and every one of those munchkins, and it was a lot of fun to have been able to spend so much time with them.
Still, when she left William’s she planned to go back to her place and take a long nap.
“No big. We made cookies and had popcorn and watched Mary Poppins a few times over.”
“We still pretending you watched that one for the kids?”
“Plenty of sprockets young enough that I can keep that up a while longer.” She grinned. Mary Poppins was one of her favorite movies of all time. She hadn’t ever seen it as a kid. Her parents weren’t much for Disney movies for their kids. That and they never had a VCR or anything like that. She’d discovered it when William’s oldest had come along. By that point, years later, she’d seen it so many times it’d become a running joke in the family and she didn’t care.
There was something fine and lovely about Mary Poppins with her perfect voice and quest for happiness in whatever task set before her. Plus, dancing penguins.
A low-throated growl of a motor sounded before she caught sight of the motorcycle that pulled up at the curb out front.
William raised his hand to wave, smiling.
“Who is that?”
“Joe Harris,” William called back over his shoulder.
Holy sweet baby Jesus.
Beth stood still, unable to move or tear her gaze away from Joe as he swung his leg over the bike to stand. And that was before he took his helmet off and all that golden hair spilled out. Her parts came to life as she swallowed hard, taking in the bulging biceps, straining against the soft-looking blue T-shirt. Tattoos made her wonder if he had any hidden out of sight. Powerful thighs filled out faded and worn jeans. His boots were more work boots than cowboy boots, but they worked too.
Worked, much like the sunglasses hiding eyes she remembered were green. He looked dangerous. And hot. More hot than scary. Definitely hot.
He was the exciting older bad boy her brother used to run around with. In other words, total teenage-girl fantasy fodder.
“Hey, Joe Harris, what brings you here today?” William approached his friend and Beth had to rush to catch up.
She was glad she did because Joe smiled at William, showing perfect white teeth.
“Needed to get out for a ride. Thought I’d stop by when I came back through town to say hey.”
He looked to Beth and she licked her lips nervously. And that was before he slid his sunglasses down, exposing those intense eyes as he took her in.
“Welcome back to Petal, Joe.” She managed to talk to him like she’d talk to anyone else. Mainly because she was trying to pretend she wasn’t imagining him naked and bringing her cake.
Ha. She was totally imagining him naked bringing her cake.
“Beth?” She didn’t miss the way hi
s gaze lingered on her breasts where her shirt clung. It wasn’t white so she missed giving off the wet T-shirt thing. And good, ’cause kids and all, and because she didn’t do wet T-shirt contests. But she was glad he found them nice enough to look at a while.
“Yep.”
He got that look. The one guys got when they liked what they saw. Then his gaze darted to William, and the look changed to oh yeah, that’s my friend’s little sister. Damn. She was clearly going to have to knock him out of that box.
“Nice to see you. Last time I did you were still in high school, I think.”
She was sure he never even noticed her as a person back then. “Probably.”
He really looked good. Like, really, really.
But before she could get warmed up enough to flirt, he turned his attention back to her brother and she hid her frown.
“Come on in. I’m planning on some time on the porch. Gotta keep an eye on all these sprouts.” William had pretty much forgotten about her now that his friend had arrived. Boys.
“I’m gonna run. I have an appointment in a while with my bed and a nap.” She tiptoed up and hugged her brother, who kissed her forehead when she stepped back.
“Thanks again for watching the kids.”
“Anytime.” She looked to Joe again. “See you around town, Joe.” And she totally would. Because now it would be her mission.
The kids all came running, laughing and squealing to give her hugs and kisses, and she told them she’d see them the next day at her sister Tate’s house.
She didn’t even try to pretend she didn’t throw some sway into her walk when she headed to her car.
He’ll be any man she wants—except himself.
Big Boy
© 2013 Ruthie Knox
A Strangers on a Train Story
