Hot Texas Sunrise

by Delores Fossen

  Her eyes stayed connected with his, and she moved then, walking toward him. Cleo’s expression gave away nothing about how she was feeling. Not until the slow smile spread across her mouth. She took hold of his arm, leaning in until her mouth was right against his ear.

  “No lectures.” Her voice was a whispery breath that hit against his skin.

  Judd waited for whatever profound words she was about to say. But Cleo pulled him to her, drawing him into a slow, thorough kiss. And that, he decided, was the best kind of endorsement she could have given him.

  * * *

  JUDD STEPPED OUT of the lawyer’s office and looked around Main Street. Everything here was so etched in his brain that he could have described every detail with his eyes closed. But he looked now, carefully, as if he expected to see some kind of change.

  Nope.

  Everything was the same. Including the fact that the longhorn was obstructing traffic yet once again. But Judd felt different. Scared shitless was the first label that came to mind. Stupid was a close runner-up.

  But the most surprising difference was that he felt, well, content.

  Not a jolt like scratching off a winning lottery ticket but something that stirred through him like a gentle whisper. A whisper telling him that he was doing the right thing. And he hoped like hell he wasn’t going to have to explain that aloud to anyone.

  Judd was about to head across the street to get his air horn to deal with the longhorn when he spotted Cleo’s car parked in front of the Gray Mare. He checked the time. It was still well over an hour before the boys would be getting home from school, so Judd went to the saloon to see what was up. Since the place wasn’t open yet, he hadn’t expected to walk into what appeared to be a party.

  “Did you get the paperwork started with the lawyer?” someone immediately asked him. Not Cleo. The question had come from Audrey, who was at the bar with her mom, her uncle Marvin and a very busty redhead that Judd assumed was Marvin’s girlfriend, Bambi.

  Well, that explained the permanent smile that’d been on Marvin’s face for the past couple of months. Judd figured his smile was somewhat similar when his attention landed on Cleo. Just looking at her could sucker punch him with yet more emotions that he hoped he never had to explain.

  “I did the paperwork,” Judd answered, and he spent a couple of seconds studying Audrey’s expression to see if that bothered her.

  It did. But maybe she felt that way because it was tied up with the “eye fuck” look he’d just given Cleo. There was no assurance he could give Audrey, but he sincerely hoped that she found someone who’d give her one of those looks and that she’d then feel the unmentionable mush all the way to the toes.

  “Cleo’s agreed to buy half the place so I can take a whole lot more time off,” Marvin announced. That apparently pleased his girlfriend because she squeaked with delight, clapped her hands and bobbled on her toes so much that Judd was surprised the movement of her boobs didn’t off-balance her.

  “We’ve already put in the boards,” Blanche said, and she pointed to the Stupid Sh*t Men Say chalkboard. Next to it was one for Stupid Sh*t Women Say. They were both blank now, but Judd suspected once the booze started flowing, then so would the chalked gems.

  “You’re okay with this?” Audrey asked him. She didn’t know that Cleo had asked him something similar about adopting the boys. He’d said a very truthful yes to that, and he said another one now.

  Audrey smiled, and Judd didn’t press to see if it was a genuine one.

  “Well, I’ll be going,” Audrey said, smiling at Cleo, too. “Congrats on buying half the Gray Mare.” She added a muttered “good luck” and headed out.

  “She’ll be fine,” Blanche said to him. “Bambi here is going to introduce Audrey to her brother.” Blanche winked at Judd, brushed a kiss on his cheek and added her congrats to Cleo before she headed out.

  Blanche’s departure possibly spurred Marvin and Bambi to leave as well, but Judd thought that had more to do with Marvin sliding his hand over Bambi’s rather curvy ass. Apparently, Marvin was going to start putting his time off to good use right now.

  After Marvin and Bambi were gone, Judd stood there and stared at Cleo. She was still smiling, but he didn’t go to her. Instead, he went to the Stupid Sh*t Men Say board, picked up some chalk and started writing.

  I’d let you give me a thousand hickeys if it’d make you stop thinking you’re in love with me.

  Cleo’s smile widened, and she went to the women’s board.

  What exactly does get tickled in a slap and tickle?

  Their mutual nods indicated they were both good ones.

  Now she came to him, and as if she’d stolen a page from Bambi’s book, she slid her hand over his ass. “Still feel that way?” Cleo asked, tipping her head to what he’d written on the board.

  “No. But we could do the hickeys on their own and not tie them to the whole ‘declaration of love’ thing.”

  “You are such a romantic.” Cleo leaned in and kissed him. And Judd kissed her right back, sliding against her and making the kiss long, deep and full-bodied.

  “But about that whole love thing, the rec sex and the pressure,” Judd went on with his mouth still against hers. “I want all three of those.”

  “You could add the hickeys to that want list,” she reminded him.

  He could almost taste the smile that curved her mouth. “Four then. Hickeys, rec sex, pressure—and I’m in love with you, Cleo.”

  She eased back, and yeah, the smile made it to her eyes. “Judd Laramie, you are so getting lucky tonight.”

  Judd didn’t have to wait for the night for that. He’d already gotten lucky, and he pulled Cleo back to him to show her just how much.

  * * *

  Look for more books from

  USA TODAY bestselling author Delores Fossen,

  available from both HQN Books and

  Harlequin Intrigue, later in 2019!

  Texas Sheriff Raleigh Lawton hadn’t seen his ex, Deputy Thea Morris, since the night they said goodbye. But when a woman turns up dead, it’s all hands on deck to catch her killer...including those of the woman he’s never been able to get off his mind.

  Read on for a sneak peek at Under the Cowboy’s Protection by Delores Fossen.

  Don’t miss the latest releases from USA TODAY bestselling author Delores Fossen! Watch for two more books in the Coldwater Texas series!

  Sweet Summer Sunset

  A Coldwater Christmas

  “Fossen creates sexy cowboys and fast-moving plots that will take your breath away.”

  —New York Times bestselling author Lori Wilde

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  Under the Cowboy’s Protection

  by Delores Fossen

  Chapter One

  Sheriff Raleigh Lawton didn’t like the looks of this.

  The glass on the front door of the house had been shattered, and the chairs on the porch were toppled over. Both could be signs that maybe there’d been some kind of struggle here.

  That kicked up his heart rate a huge notch, and he drew his gun, hoping he didn’t need to use it. While he was hoping, he added that maybe there was some explanation for the glass and chairs. Maybe the woman who lived in this small one-story house was okay. Raleigh had a double reason for wishing that.

&
nbsp; Because the woman, Sonya Burney, was nine months pregnant.

  He’d known her all his life, and that’s why Raleigh hadn’t hesitated to go check on her when the doctor from the OB clinic had called him to say that Sonya had missed her appointment. In a big city, something like that would have gone practically unnoticed, but in a small ranching town like Durango Ridge, it got noticed all right.

  The rain spat at him when he stepped from his truck. It was coming down hard now, with an even heavier downpour in the forecast. He had a raincoat, but he didn’t want to take the time to put it on. However, he did keep watch around him as he hurried up the steps and onto the porch.

  “Sonya?” he called out and immediately listened for anyone or anything.

  Nothing.

  He tested the doorknob. Unlocked. And he cursed when he stepped inside. The furniture had been tossed here, too. There was a broken lamp on the floor, and the coffee table was on its side. Raleigh reached for his phone, ready to call one of his deputies for backup, but something caught his eye.

  Drops of what appeared to be blood on the floor.

  Raleigh had a closer look. Not blood. Judging from the smell, it was paint. And he soon got more proof of that. There was a still-open can in the hall just off the living room, and a discarded brush was next to it. However, it wasn’t the can or brush that grabbed his attention. It was what someone had scrawled on the wall.

  This is for Sheriff Warren McCall.

  Hell.

  That felt like a punch to the gut. Because he’d seen a message identical to that one almost a year ago. A message that’d been written very close to a woman’s dead body. Unlike Sonya, that particular woman had been a stranger to him.

  The memories came. Images Raleigh wished that time would have blurred. But they were still crystal clear. The woman. Her limp, lifeless body, and the baby she’d been carrying was missing—it still was.

  He prayed that Sonya and her baby wouldn’t have similar fates.

  Raleigh didn’t have any proof of who’d killed that other woman, stolen her child or written that message. But he had always thought the message had been left for him. And Warren, of course.

  Warren was his father.

  Biologically, anyway. Raleigh had never considered the man to be his actual dad. Never would.

  He made the call for backup and used his phone to take a quick picture of the message. Actually, it was a threat. Raleigh just hoped that Sonya hadn’t gotten caught up in this tangled mess between Warren and him.

  “Sonya?” he called out again.

  Still nothing, but Raleigh continued to look for her. The house wasn’t huge, a combined living and kitchen area, two bedrooms, and a bath. He went through each one and didn’t see her. But there was another message, and it’d been slopped in red paint on one of the bedroom walls. A repeat of the other one.

  The repeat hadn’t been necessary. Raleigh had gotten it the first time.

  This is for Sheriff Warren McCall.

  Warren was retired now, but he’d once indeed been the sheriff of McCall Canyon, a town one county over. He’d also carried on an affair with Raleigh’s mom for nearly three and a half decades. Or rather Warren had carried on with her until his secret had come out into the open after someone had tried to kill him. Raleigh’s mother had been a suspect in that attack. And Warren’s ‘real’ family—his wife, two sons and his daughter—hated Raleigh and her.

  Was one of them responsible for this?

  Maybe. That was something he would definitely investigate, but first he had to find Sonya.

  Since it would take a good twenty minutes for his deputy to get all the way out to Sonya’s house, Raleigh kept looking, and he made his way out through the kitchen and to the back porch. The moment he stepped outside, he heard something. At first he thought it was the cool October rain hitting the tin roof.

  It wasn’t.

  There was a woman dressed in jeans and a raincoat. She was facedown, on the end of the porch, and she was moaning. Raleigh ran to her and turned her over, but it wasn’t Sonya. However, it was someone he knew.

  Deputy Thea Morris.

  Seeing her gave his heart rate another jolt. Of course, Thea usually had that effect on him. Not in a good way, either, and it certainly wasn’t good now. What the hell was she doing here, and what was wrong with her?

  Raleigh didn’t see any obvious injuries. Not at first. Then he pushed aside her dark blond hair and saw the two small circular burn marks on her neck. Someone had used a stun gun on her.

  “Where’s Sonya?” he asked.

  Thea opened her eyes, but she was clearly having trouble focusing because she blinked several times. Then she groaned again. She didn’t answer him, but he saw the alarm on her face, and she started struggling to sit up. He helped her with that. Too bad it meant putting his arms around her to do that.

  And Raleigh immediately got another dose of too-clear memories that he didn’t want.

  Of Thea being not just in his arms but in his bed. But that was an “old water, old bridge” situation.

  “Where’s Sonya?” Raleigh repeated. “And what happened to you?” He had other questions, but those were enough of a start, since finding Sonya was his priority right now.

  “Sonya,” Thea repeated in a mutter. She lifted her hand—not easily because it was practically limp—and she touched her fingers to her head. “Sonya.”

  “Yeah, that’s right. Sonya. She’s pregnant, and I’m worried about her.” Worried was an understatement. “What happened to her? What happened to you?”

  Thea blinked some more, looked up at him, and the concern was obvious in her deep green eyes. “A man. I think he took her.”

  That got Raleigh’s attention, and he fired glances around them, trying to see if he could spot her. But there was still no sign of Sonya.

  “The man had a gun,” Thea added, and she groaned, trying to get to her feet. She failed and dropped right back down on the porch. She also reached for her own gun, but her shoulder holster was empty. Since she was wearing her badge, Raleigh doubted she’d come here without her gun.

  “What man?” Raleigh demanded. “And where did he take her?”

  Thea groaned again and shook her head. “I don’t know, but he said he was doing this because of Warren.”

  Raleigh hadn’t actually needed that last bit of info to raise the alarm inside him. With the signs of struggle and those stun gun marks on Thea’s neck, he decided it wasn’t a good idea for them to be out in the open like this. Sonya’s place was an old farmhouse with a barn and a storage shed, but the woods were only a short walk away. It would give an attacker plenty of places to hide.

  If the man was indeed hiding, that is. If someone had actually taken Sonya, he could be long gone by now.

  “We need to get inside.” Raleigh hooked his arm around Thea’s waist, pulling her to her feet. She wobbled, landing against him. Specifically against his chest. He shoved aside the next dose of memories that came with that close contact.

  “You have to go after the man,” Thea said. Her voice was as shaky as the rest of her. “You have to get Sonya.”

  “I will.”

  His deputy would be here in ten minutes or so, and Raleigh would start searching as soon as he had someone to watch Thea. She wasn’t in any shape to defend herself if her attacker returned. At the moment though, he was much more concerned about Sonya. After all, Thea was alive and okay, for the most part anyway, but Sonya could be in the hands of a kidnapper.

  Or a killer.

  But that didn’t make sense. Who would want to hurt her, and what did any of this have to do with Warren? Unless...

  A very unsettling thought came to mind.

  “Did this happen because Sonya’s a surrogate?” Raleigh asked. He helped Thea into a chair at the kitchen table and then went back to the window to see if
he could spot any sign of the woman or the person who’d taken her.

  “I don’t know. Maybe...” Thea’s voice trailed off, and that’s when Raleigh noticed that Thea’s attention had landed on the painted message on the wall. She shuddered, but she didn’t turn away. “I don’t suppose you put that there?” But she shook her head, waving off her question. “No. You and Sonya were friends.”

  Raleigh wasn’t sure how Thea knew that, but then he wasn’t sure of a lot of things right now. “Start talking. I want to know everything that happened.” Though it was hard to stand there and listen to anything Thea had to say when his instincts were screaming for him to go after Sonya.

  Thea didn’t jump right into that explanation; instead, she got to her feet. “We can talk while we look for her. Do you have a backup gun you can lend me?”

  Raleigh frowned. Thea didn’t look at all steady on her feet, which meant her aim would probably suck, too. Still, she was a cop.

  Warren’s star deputy, in fact.

  Warren had not only trained her and given Thea her start in law enforcement, his father had made it clear that he loved Thea like a daughter. That was convenient, since Thea loved him like a father.

  Raleigh wasn’t sure how Thea had managed to overlook the fact that Warren was a lying, cheating snake, and he really didn’t care. Heck, at the moment he didn’t care if Thea was having trouble standing. She had the right idea about looking for Sonya as they talked, so Raleigh gave her his backup gun from his boot holster.

  “I got here about a half hour ago,” Thea said, glancing at the clock on the microwave. While she held on to the kitchen counter, she made her way to the back door. “Sonya didn’t answer my call this morning, so I came over to check on her.” She paused. “I’ve been checking on her a lot lately.”

  “I didn’t know Sonya and you were that close,” Raleigh commented. Sonya had only moved to Durango Ridge about ten years ago, so it was possible she’d known Thea before then. Or maybe they’d recently become friends. But after one look in Thea’s eyes, he knew that wasn’t the case.