Windows are open. Country music—old, twangy, honky-tonk music—floats out of the cab.
The woman driving is wearing a white tank top, a pink camo ball cap, and black sunglasses. She stops and waits for me to approach. She’s young, about my age. I can’t see much else of her, but…
You ever look at someone who you can’t see too much of, but you just know they’re incredible-looking? I get that impression with this girl.
“Hey.” Her voice is light. Her smile is bright and contagious. “Ya’ll need help?”
“Yeah.”
She glances at my Range Rover. “What’s up with it?”
“Ran out of gas.”
“Well, there ain’t a gas station this side of Carthage.” She smiles, and the sun seems to shine a little brighter, and I swear a bird flits by, singing a happy little song.
“Yeah. I should have stopped at the last town, but I didn’t.”
“Rookie mistake, ’round these parts.”
I laugh. “No kidding.”
She leans over and shoves open the passenger door. “Well, Rookie, hop in.”
I lean into my Rover, grab my bag and keys, lock it, and head for her truck. Toss the bag on the seat between us, and slide in. It smells like old cigarettes, hay, and girl.
Meaning perfume, hair stuff, lotion—and the, mysterious, indefinable, intoxicating scent of a woman.
She eyes me. “Got a name? Or should I just call you Rookie?”
I laugh again—I haven’t laughed in what feels like years. “Dell. My name’s Dell McKenna.”
She extends her right hand, and when I clasp my hand around hers, I get a jolt:
Don’t let her get away from you, Dell. She’s the one.
I hear it in my skull like an audible fucking voice.
I yank my hand away, too fast, like I was burned. She smirks, lopsided. “I know, I know, I gotta put lotion on. Tossing hay bales is hell on the hands.”
I shake my head. “No! Sorry—no. It wasn’t that. It’s not that. I just…” I flap my hand helplessly. “There was a bug.”
She snorts. “Okay…if you say so.” Clearly, she doesn’t believe me.
Understandable.
I look at her. Her hair is up under the hat, but it looks dark. Brunette, maybe. Can’t see her eye color. Don’t dare get caught copping a glance at her body.
None of it matters. She’s beautiful. Her voice is beautiful. Her very presence, the sense of her in this space, near me—it’s beautiful. Calming.
I’m shook.
“Gonna ask me my name?” That grin, lopsided, teasing, brighter than the sun. “Or are you just gonna stare at me?”
I swallow. “What’s…your name?”
She smiles, and I think I hear an angel singing somewhere.
“Kyra,” she says—KYE-ruh. “Kyra Connelly.”
I hear that voice in my head again—it’s the voice of my soul, yelling at me:
She’s the one. Don’t let her get away.
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My other titles:
Forbidden Fruit
Wild Ride: Biker Billionaire
Delilah's Diary
Big Girls Do It:
Big Girls Do It
Married
On Christmas
Pregnant
Rock Stars Do It
Big Love Abroad
The Falling Series:
Falling Into You
Falling Into Us
Falling Under
Falling Away
Falling for Colton
The Ever Trilogy:
Forever & Always
After Forever
Saving Forever
From the world of Wounded:
Wounded
Captured
From the world of Stripped:
Stripped
Trashed
From the world of Alpha:
Alpha
Beta
Omega
Harris: Alpha One Security Book 1
Thresh: Alpha One Security Book 2
Duke: Alpha One Security Book 3
Puck: Alpha One Security Book 4
Lear: Alpha One Security Book 5
Anselm: Alpha One Security Book 6
The Houri Legends:
Jack and Djinn
Djinn and Tonic
The Madame X Series:
Madame X
Exposed
Exiled
The Black Room (With Jade London)
The One Series
The Long Way Home
Where the Heart Is
There’s No Place Like Home
Badd Brothers:
Badd Motherf*cker
Badd Ass
Badd to the Bone
Good Girl Gone Badd
Badd Luck
Badd Mojo
Big Badd Wolf
Badd Boy
Badd Kitty
Badd Business
Badd Medicine
Badd Daddy
Goode Girls:
For a Goode Time Call…
Not So Goode
Goode To Be Bad
A Real Goode Time
Goode Vibrations
Dad Bod Contracting:
Hammered
Drilled
Nailed
Screwed
Fifty States of Love:
Pregnant in Pennsylvania
Cowboy in Colorado
Married in Michigan
Billionaire Baby Club:
Lizzy Goes Brains Over Braun
Autumn Rolls a Seven
Laurel’s Bright Idea
Standalone titles:
Yours
The Cabin
Non-Fiction titles:
You Can Do It
You Can Do It: Strength
You Can Do It: Fasting
Jack Wilder Titles:
The Missionary
JJ Wilder Titles:
Ark
The Parent Trap Page 27