The Heart of a Texas Cowboy

by Linda Broday

  Read on for a sneak peek of

  The Last Outlaw

  The final book in Rosanne Bittner’s Outlaw Hearts saga

  Coming 2017 from Sourcebooks Casablanca

  Jake trailed his tongue over his wife’s skin, trying to ignore his fear that she could be dying. Her belly was too caved-in, her hip bones too prominent.

  She’ll get better, he told himself. The taste of her most secret place lingered on his lips as he moved to her breasts, still surprisingly full, considering, but not the same breasts he’d always loved and teased her about, with the enticing cleavage that stirred his desire for her.

  He would always desire her. This was his Randy. She was his breath. Her spirit ran in his veins, and she was his reason for being. God knew his worthless hide had no business even still being on this earth.

  He ran a hand over her ribs, which were too damn easy to count. Sometimes he thought he’d go mad with the memory of last winter, the reason she’d become more withdrawn and had nearly stopped eating.

  He met her mouth, and she responded. Thank God she still wanted this, but something was missing and he couldn’t put his finger on it. He thought he’d made it all better, thought he’d taken away the ugly. He’d feared at first she might blame him for what had happened, but it had been quite the opposite. She’d become almost too clingy, constantly asking if he loved her, not to let go of her, asking him not to go far away.

  He pushed himself inside of her, wanting nothing more than to please her, to find a way to break down the invisible wall he felt between them, to erase the past and assure her he was right here, that he still loved her. How in hell could he not love this woman, the one who’d loved him when he was anything but lovable all those years ago? She’d put up with his past, his bouts of insanity, and all the trouble and heartache he’d put her through. This woman who’d given him a son and a daughter who couldn’t make a man prouder and who loved him beyond what he was worth, who’d given him six grandchildren who climbed all over him full of such innocent love for a man who’d robbed and killed and worst of all…killed his own father.

  He moved his hands under her bottom, pushing himself deep inside her, relishing the way she returned his deep kisses and pressed her fingers into his upper arms in an almost desperate neediness.

  That was what bothered him. This had always been good between them, a true mating of souls, teasing remarks back and forth as they made love. But now it was as though she feared she’d lose him if she didn’t make love often, and that wasn’t the sort of man he was. It had always been pure pleasure between them. He’d taught her things she never would have thought of, helped her relax and release every sexual inhibition. He knew every inch of her body intimately, and she’d loved it.

  This was different. And it was harder now; he was terrified he would break something. She was so thin and small. He outweighed her by a good hundred and fifty pounds by now—she couldn’t weigh more than eighty or ninety.

  He surged deep in a desperate attempt to convince himself he wasn’t losing her. And through it all he was screaming inside. Sometimes he wanted to shake her and make her tell him what else he could do to bring back the woman he’d known and loved for nearly thirty-two years. He missed that feisty, bossy woman, the only person on this earth who could bring him to his knees. He’d faced the worst of men as a lawman in Oklahoma, run with the worst of men the first thirty years of his life. He’d spent four years in prison under horrible conditions. He’d been in too many gunfights to count, taken enough bullets that he had no right still being alive. He’d ridden the Outlaw Trail and defied all the odds. His reputation followed him everywhere, and a reporter had even written a book about him—Jake Harkner: The Legend and the Myth. Myth was more like it. And the legend wasn’t one he was proud of.

  And this woman beneath him—this woman he poured his life into this very moment—she’d been there for most of it.

  He relaxed and moved to her side.

  “Don’t let go yet, Jake.”

  He pulled her against him. “Randy, I can’t put my weight on you anymore. You’re too damn thin. You’ve got to gain some weight back or we’ll have to stop.”

  “No!” She shimmied closer, pulling one of his arms around her. “I like being right here in your arms. Don’t stop making love to me, Jake. You might turn to someone else. You’re still my handsome, strong Jake. Women look at you and want you.”

  Jake sighed, the stress of her condition making him want to tear the room apart. “You have to stop talking that way.”

  “That you’re handsome and strong?” She turned slightly. “Since when does the magnificent Jake Harkner hate compliments?”

  There it was—a tiny spark of the old Randy in her teasing. Every time he saw that spark, it gave him hope. “I’ve always hated compliments. You know that. The only thing magnificent about me is my sordid reputation. I’d like to wring Treena Brown’s neck for putting that label on me in her letter.”

  Randy traced her fingers over his lips. “Peter’s wife was totally taken by you when they visited the ranch last summer.”

  “She’s a city woman full of wrong ideas about what she considers western heroes. God knows I’m sure as hell not one, and right now your magnificent Jake needs a cigarette.” Jake pulled away and sat up. “You okay?”

  “Of course I’m okay. You just made love to me. How could a woman not be okay after that?”

  Jake took a Long Jack from a tin on the hotel’s bedside table. “You know what I mean.” She didn’t answer as he lit the cigarette. He took a long drag. “Did I hurt you?”

  “Of course not.”

  Jake ran a hand through his hair. “Randy, I mean it about your weight. If you don’t start eating, I’m not making love to you anymore. Sometimes when I’m on top of you, I envision every rib breaking. We made this trip to Boulder because it was time you started getting away from the ranch, doing a few things amid strangers without being glued to me.”

  Be patient. Don’t yell at her. She might go to pieces.

  He heard a sniffle and it felt like his heart was breaking. He took another long drag before he set the cigarette into an ashtray and turned, moving back in beside her. “Baby, I’ve done everything I can to help you. When you’re like this, it makes me sick with guilt. I should have realized what was happening when that barn caught on fire, the way it burned so rapidly. Lloyd suffers with the same guilt. We shouldn’t have left the house unguarded.”

  “No! No! No!” Randy threw her arms around him. “Don’t ever blame yourself. You blame yourself for everything bad that happens to this family, but you never asked for any of it, Jake.”

  He held her close, careful not to use too much strength. “Randy, I want my wife back. The woman I’m holding right now isn’t her.”

  “I will be. I promise. Tomorrow, Teresa and little Tricia and I will go shopping. I won’t be quite so terrified without you at my side if I at least have Teresa with me. Thank you for bringing her along.”

  Jake was grateful for the Mexican woman who was such a help with the cooking as well as cleaning the big log home he’d built for Randy. It was still filled with noise at meals, all of the family gathering for Sunday meals. Before last winter, Randy had been a vital part of those gatherings—the one most in control, who loved all the cooking, who loved teaching and reading with Evie and the grandchildren. Living on a remote ranch meant no schools nearby, after all.

  Randy now left it all to Evie. She was no longer her joyful self at the dinner table, although she put on a good show. He knew her every mood, and he could tell she was still suffering inside.

  “Tell me what you need, Randy. How else can I help? You aren’t here with me when we make love anymore. I can sense it in your kisses, in the way you respond when I’m inside you. I won’t make love to a woman who’s doing it out of duty.”

  She buried her face in his neck.
“Jake, I still love it when you make love to me. It’s just…” She hesitated again. How many times had he come close to getting out of her what was really bothering her?

  “Just what? Talk to me, Randy.”

  She curled into a little ball against him. “That…ugly thing they did. That ugly thing. I can’t…get past it. I’m so sorry, Jake.”

  Jake struggled against insane rage every time he thought about it. His precious Randy. Of all the intimate things he and his wife had done, asking her to perform oral sex on him had never been one of them. She’d never suggested such a thing or made an attempt, and he’d never asked. What they had together was enough for him. His first desire was always to give her pleasure, and that alone gave him pleasure in return. It would be disrespectful to ask this beautiful woman to do something he knew in his gut she wouldn’t want to do. She was his wife, and he would not ask her to do something she hated. He still had the blazing memory of his father forcing himself on his mother that way right in front of her sons. Such childhood memories still sometimes made him wake up with screaming nightmares.

  It all came down to his father, his ruthless, brutal, drunken father—the man he hated worse than all the dredges of humankind, more than the filth he used to run with when he believed he was the worthless sonofabitch his father always told him he was.

  “Don’t be sorry.” God help keep me sane. “We’ll work it out.”

  “Don’t stop making love to me.”

  “I won’t stop.”

  “You do still love me, don’t you?”

  “Stop asking me that. You know better.” He wiped at her tears with his fingers. “Get some sleep, Randy. Tomorrow is a big day.”

  “You won’t ever be too far away, will you, even when I leave you to shop?”

  “I won’t be too far away.”

  “You’ll watch for me?”

  “You know I will.” He’d never felt so alone. Ever since he found and fell in love with this woman, he’d always had her to lean on, to keep him from the abyss that always beckoned. Tough and able as he seemed to others, she was his strength. And now that strength was gone. The tables had turned, and he had to be strong for her. He secretly begged God to help him remember that. He wasn’t sure he had it in him to last much longer this way. “Randy, when you figure out what more I can do, or what it is that will help you get better, you tell me. Don’t ever be afraid to tell me anything, all right? You know I’ve seen it all and done it all and nothing surprises me. And I love you. I’ll do whatever it takes. Understand?”

  “Yes.”

  “I can tell right now you’re keeping something from me—something more than what happened last winter. You tell me when you’re ready.”

  She clung closer, kissing his chest. “I will.”

  He kept his arms around her because she demanded it, every night until she fell asleep. He closed his eyes against his own silent tears. Without that closeness they’d always shared, it was as though he didn’t even exist.

  Without this woman, who was Jake Harkner?

  About the Author

  Linda Broday resides in the panhandle of Texas on the Llano Estacado. At a young age, she discovered a love for storytelling, history, and anything pertaining to the Old West. There’s something about Stetsons, boots, and tall, rugged cowboys that gets her fired up! A New York Times and USA Today bestselling author, Linda has won many awards, including the prestigious National Readers’ Choice Award and the Texas Gold Award. Visit her at LindaBroday.com.

  The Last Outlaw

  Fourth in the epic Outlaw Hearts saga from USA Today bestseller Rosanne Bittner

  The old West is changing—not that rugged former outlaw Jake Harkner would let that stop him. Setting out on his most dangerous journey yet, he takes the law into his own hands as he rides into Mexico to rescue a young girl from a fate worse than death. All the while, Jake’s family and his beloved wife Miranda are left to worry that Jake’s end will come the same way it began—by the gun.

  “Powerful, beautiful, harsh, and tender stories that take readers’ breaths away with their emotional depth.”

  —RT Book Reviews, 4½ Stars, Top Pick for Love’s Sweet Revenge

  For more Rosanne Bittner, visit:

  www.sourcebooks.com

  Last Chance Cowboys: The Outlaw

  Third in the sweeping Where the Trail Ends series from RITA finalist Anna Schmidt

  Amanda Porterfield longs to experience real adventure. So when she’s offered a position in bustling Tucson, she leaps at the chance despite unknown dangers—dangers like the mysterious Seth Grover.

  As an undercover detective working to stop a gang of outlaws, Seth can’t afford the distractions a woman like Amanda inspires. Yet when the fiercely intelligent beauty is thrust into the middle of a heist gone wrong, Seth will fight for a future that may never be theirs…even if it means risking everything he holds dear.

  “A feisty heroine and a hero eager to make everything right. What more could a reader want?”

  —Leigh Greenwood, USA Today bestselling author of To Love and to Cherish, for The Drifter

  For more Anna Schmidt, visit:

  www.sourcebooks.com

  A Match Made in Texas

  Welcome to Two-Time, Texas: where tempers burn hot, love runs deep, and a single woman can change the course of history

  As Two-Time, Texas’s first female sheriff, Amanda Lockwood is anxious to prove herself. She takes down wanted man Rick Barrett, but there’s something special about the charming outlaw. Common sense says he’s guilty…but her heart tells her otherwise.

  Things don’t look good for Rick—and they only get worse when his plan to woo Amanda to his side backfires and he falls head over heels. Now he must choose between freedom or saving the woman he loves…and the clock is ticking.

  “A great story by a wonderful author.”

  —#1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber for Left at the Altar

  For more Margaret Brownley, visit:

  www.sourcebooks.com

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