A wizard whose hand was trembling as he stuffed the remote in his back pocket.
“You wanted choices.”
He gave her a little lopsided smile.
“Mac . . . you’re . . . you’re just . . .”
She shook her head, because feelings were getting in the way of her ability to form words, and he was blurring from tears.
“Yeah,” he agreed, with relief. “I sure am.”
His smile faded. “Okay. I need to tell you something, all right?”
She nodded.
He drew in a breath. “That night when you blew a fuse? I knew the moment you did it. It was kind of funny. Suddenly everything was silent and dark, and the house was just this shadowy pile. And then I gave you the fuse, and I watched out the window as you went into the basement . . . and I waited. And I didn’t know it, but I was kind of holding my breath. And when your house finally lit up again, it was the strangest feeling, but it was like watching actual magic. I felt like I was lit up, too.”
This was hands-down the best story she’d ever heard, and it wasn’t even over yet.
“And that’s what I understand now: for me, you’re like that fuse. You’re the magic. For me, there’s no point to this house or this town or possibly to anything, really, without you. You can laugh if you want, but that’s as romantic as I know how to be.”
It was as romantic as anyone had ever been in the history of the world, as far as she was concerned.
“I’m not going to laugh.” She said it solemnly as a priestess. Her voice was shaking a little.
She watched his chest move in a huge sigh. As if he’d been dreading getting through that and he was relieved.
“I know this comes as a shock to you, Avalon, but I’m far, far from perfect. But I will be perfect at one thing: I will get you down out of attics and hand you ice and build anything for you, any kind of life you want. I know how to make you happy. No one will ever be better at that than me. And I know you. Not just how many freckles you have, but I know your heart. Not only that, but I have a plan. Because I will never not have a plan. Want to hear it?”
She nodded. He threaded his hands through hers and pulled her gently up against his chest, as if he sensed she was in danger of floating away like a dandelion from the sheer lightness of being.
And his voice got lower. And a little rushed, but to her, it might as well have been a spell.
“We live here. Together. You and me. In the big house. We raise goats and chickens and maybe get a horse or a donkey and other animals that need some looking after. We hold classes for kids, all kinds, for at-risk kids and programs for vets, too. About farming, ecology, animal husbandry. You get your teaching degree, if you still want it. We can get grants from the state and from other sources—I’ve looked into this—and invest our own funds, and if you choose to sell GradYouAte, you’ll be pretty comfortable, too. I’m still working on it, and I already have a spreadsheet. Between the two of us, we can pull it off. We can even have outdoor concerts at a venue we build or other special events in the ballroom. Maybe even . . . weddings.”
The donkey was kind of a wildcard but she was on board with every bit of this.
She wasn’t going to mention the wedding part. They’d get around to that.
“Or . . .” he concluded. “You go on back to GradYouAte. I buy the house from you. If that’s what you want.”
He was a swirl of impressionistic colors, thanks to tears.
She swiped at them with a knuckle. “I choose staying with you.” She didn’t even make him wait. Her voice was thick.
She could literally see his breath stop then. His eyes closed and his head tipped back and his mouth moved in a word that looked like hallelujah.
The world was only his eyes, and his breath, and his hands twined in hers, and the river moving over the rocks as they stood high above it.
He raised their twined hands and collected her tears from her eyelashes gently on his knuckle. “I’ve loved you pretty much from the moment I laid eyes on you, Avalon. You have my heart. You can keep it or you can throw it off Devil’s Leap. Devil’s Leap’s yours, too.”
“Your heart is the most precious thing in the world to me,” she could have said. But he’d already filled the air with romance and she knew he liked it when people said exactly what they meant.
So she said, “I love you.”
Three words that contained worlds and the past and the future. They were as beautiful and intricate as the house, as basic as Mac.
He closed his eyes briefly and his head went back and he exhaled a breath. He folded his arms around her.
“And Devil’s Leap is ours,” she corrected on a murmur, as she melted against him, and looped her arms around his neck.
And her face turned up as his came down. They kissed each other like they’d invented kissing.
Somehow, deftly, as this was all happening, he’d managed to free the remote from his pocket and he used it to turn up the music again.
And they rotated in a slow circle, bodies fit together like gears, the length of him warm and strong against the length of her, like kids at a high school dance, there was no sound except Roxy Music and the river below them.
Until:
“You were right all along,” he murmured into her hair, sounding only a little surprised. “This isn’t ridiculous at all.”
Acknowledgments
My thanks to my wise, witty, and wonderful editor, May Chen; to the brilliant folks at Avon Books who work so hard and ingeniously to make sure books find their way into the hands of readers, especially Jessie Edwards and Shawn Nicholls; to my stalwart agent, Steve Axelrod; to bloggers and reviewers who write so passionately and eloquently about the books they love—you’re the best, and I adore you; to the dedicated, discerning booksellers and librarians who lead us to our new favorite authors; to all the warm, enthusiastic readers who’ve embraced Hellcat Canyon; and a special shout-out to Josh Morgon for bike expertise.
Hellcat Canyon Series
Don’t miss the first two wickedly sexy and deliciously fun romances in Julie Anne Long’s Hellcat Canyon series!
HOT IN HELLCAT CANYON
A broken truck, a broken career, and a breakup heard around the world land superstar John Tennessee McCord in Hellcat Canyon. Legend has it that hearts come in two colors there: gold or black. And that you can find whatever you’re looking for, whether it’s love . . . or trouble. JT may have found both in waitress Britt Langley.
His looks might cause whiplash and weak knees, but Britt sees past JT’s rough edge and sexy drawl to a person a lot like her: in need of the kind of comfort best given hot and quick, with clothes off and the lights out.
Her wit is sharp but her eyes and heart—not to mention the rest of her—are soft, and JT is falling hard. But Britt has a secret as dark as the hills, and JT’s past is poised to invade their present. It’s up to the people of Hellcat Canyon to help make sure their future includes a happily ever after.
Available now from Avon Books!
Buy your copy today!
WILD AT WHISKEY CREEK
Everyone knows the Greenleaf family puts the “Hell” in Hellcat Canyon—legend has it the only way they ever leave is in a cop car or a casket. But Glory Greenleaf has a different getaway vehicle in mind: her guitar. She has a Texas-sized talent and the ambition (and attitude) to match, but only two people have ever believed in her: her brother, who’s in jail, and his best friend . . . who put him there.
Sheriff Eli Barlow has secretly been in love with Glory since he was twelve years old. Which is how he knows her head is as hard as her heart is soft—and why she can’t forgive him for fracturing her family . . . or forget that night they surrendered to an explosive, long-simmering passion. But when a betrayal threatens Glory’s big break, Eli will risk everything to make it right . . . because the best way to love the girl from Whiskey Creek might mean setting her free forever.
Available now from Avon Books!
Buy
your copy today!
About the Author
USA Today bestselling author JULIE ANNE LONG originally set out to be a rock star when she grew up (and she has the guitars and fringed clothing stuffed in the back of her closet to prove it), but writing was always her first love. Since hanging up her guitar for the computer keyboard, her books frequently top reader and critic polls and have been nominated for numerous awards, including the RITA®, Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice, and the Quill, and reviewers have been known to use words like “dazzling,” “brilliant,” and “impossible to put down” when describing them. Julie lives in Northern California.
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Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.
By Julie Anne Long
Dirty Dancing at Devil’s Leap
Wild at Whiskey Creek
Hot in Hellcat Canyon
The Legend of Lyon Redmond
It Started with a Scandal
Between the Devil and Ian Eversea
It Happened One Midnight
A Notorious Countess Confesses
How the Marquess Was Won
What I Did for a Duke
I Kissed an Earl
Since the Surrender
Like No Other Lover
The Perils of Pleasure
Copyright
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
dirty dancing at devil’s leap. Copyright © 2017 by Julie Anne Long. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers. For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.
First Avon Books mass market printing: September 2017
Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2017 ISBN: 978-0-06-267289-6
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-267288-9
Cover design and photo illustration by Nadine Badalaty
Cover photographs: © Shutterstock; © 123RF (people)
Avon, Avon & logo, and Avon Books & logo are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.
HarperCollins is a registered trademark of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.
first edition
About the Publisher
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Table of Contents
Cover
Title Page
Dedication
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Acknowledgments
Hellcat Canyon Series
About the Author
By Julie Anne Long
Copyright
About the Publisher
Dirty Dancing at Devil's Leap Page 27
