Title: Cowboy Luke (Book 5, Cooper’s Hawke Landing Series)
Author: Rhonda Lee Carver
Genre: Contemporary Western Romance
Book Blurb:
Two stubborn firefighters are faced with an uncontainable blaze inside their hearts. Can they withstand the heat? What’s a woman to do to get over a lying, cheating ex-husband? She finds a cowboy-firefighter like Luke “Mug” Foster to salve her open wounds. He’s exactly what the “heart” doctor ordered. He was tall, dark, handsome, and eager to stoke her fire. But what happens when Jady Pierce starts to have feelings for him? She runs before she loses herself to another heartbreak. People couldn’t be trusted, and she’d learned that lesson through a long list of men who’d done her dirty. Jady was back in Cooper’s Hawk. Last year, she’d swept in, turned Mug inside out, then disappeared without a word. Story of his life. He wouldn’t lose himself in her again, yet there was something about her that challenged and excited him. To get to the “real” Jady, he’d have to chisel through some tough layers. She was carrying around a lot of pain…and not just from a cheating ex and a bum childhood. So what made her tick? What made her hurt? She’d be sticking around town for a while when she accepted the Sheriff duties, but how would she keep her feelings for Mug in check? He had a hold over her and she could feel her walls crumbling. An abandoned baby, an unveiling of secrets from the past, and Mug will have Jady slowly gaining trust as she finds peace, emotion and joy in the small town that she’d once hated. However, she isn’t the only one with a few demons to exterminate.
Excerpt:
Hearing the identifiable clicking of a gun hammer behind him, Mug stiffened and slowly lifted his hands. “I’m unarmed.”
A tense silence passed.
Finally…
“I’ve met a few brave men in my life, Cowboy, but you’re not one of them,” came the soft, feminine voice. “You must have a death wish.”
He grinned and lowered his arms to his sides. “I’ve always been one to find trouble. Looks like I have again.”
“They say a man who finds trouble shouldn’t be trusted.”
“They do, do they? I should have a talk with these people.”
“Maybe you should after you learn the definition of trespassing,” she said flatly.
Grinning, he took his time turning then settled his hungry eyes on the woman who’d burrowed her way under his skin. He’d meant to drive on by her house, ignore the light he saw in the window from the road…forget her. Mug wished he could forget how good she smelled. How her taste lingered on his tongue. How she’d given him two amazing, unforgettable weeks before she disappeared from his life and Cooper’s Hawk.
Taking in her jewel-like blue eyes then the barrel of the pistol, he managed a tight chuckle. This wasn’t the greeting he’d hoped for. He wasn’t expecting a warm welcome or a rolling of red carpet, but being held at gunpoint completely threw him for a loop.
Lifting his gaze, he noted a flicker of appreciation that fell over her heart-shaped face, just before her plush lips dipped at the corners, and so did the gun but only a few inches.
“You changed your hair color.” The last time he saw her she had red hair. The soft, raven waves hung untamed down her back. There was a glow about her olive skin but the dark circles under her glistening eyes warned him she hadn’t been sleeping. Insomnia was something they had in common—that and a few other things that triggered a familiar ache.
“Your hair is longer.” Her hip slanted, showing a sliver of her sassiness. He saw a new softness in her expression that didn’t last long.
“And a few more grays too.”
“Age definitely isn’t making you wiser.” Her jaw tightened some. “I could—would—have shot you.”
“Are you still planning to?” He kicked up a brow. Honestly, he didn’t know a lot about Jady Pierce because they didn’t talk much during those weeks together last year, but one thing was for certain, she didn’t play games. She was a straight shooter, with her mouth and with a gun. He’d ridden broncs with less spunk than her. No doubt, he liked a challenging woman but preferred when they weren’t holding a loaded pistol aimed at his chest.
With a sigh of submission that belied the arching of her thin brows, she lowered the gun to her side. “What are you doing here, Mug? It’s late.”
“Is that anyway to treat an old friend?” He shifted his boots on the welcome rug. Her irritation in seeing him didn’t erase the fragment of enthusiasm he felt at seeing her again. She’d come along like the strike of lightening, magnifying all his senses. He’d been a fool because from the get-go all they could have had together was a good time between the sheets.
The static electricity causing the hair on his neck to lift cautioned him that a storm was brewing.
Although she might want to deny the facts, they had a fire between them that still burned bright. The evil tug was tempting, but the last thing Mug wanted was to want her again. Truthfully, he’d sort of hoped she wouldn’t look at him like she wanted to roast him over a spit.
What right did she have to hate him?
Damn woman.
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What makes your featured book a must-read?
Cowboy Luke is book 5 in the amazing Cooper’s Hawke Landing Series. It has all the feels of a sweet, small-town romance with a splash of spice and sexy. Readers will be laughing, crying, sitting on the edge of their seats as the characters navigate romance and their intriguing love stories unfold. Cowboy Luke has lots of nail-biting, page-turning moments, and what reader can resist a sexy, studly cowboy firefighter? Not me…
Giveaway –
Enter to win a $45 Amazon (US) gift card
Open Internationally.
Runs April 20 – April 28, 2021.
Winner will be drawn on April 29, 2021.
Author Biography:
Rhonda Lee Carver is a bestselling author of romance. Her first love was a cowboy she'd read in a novel and has been her inspiration ever since. Fun Fact: She wrote a rough draft of a story on a dirty napkin while sitting in a parking lot after buying diapers for her newborn. That was her first published story in 2010. She's written over eighty novels since. Her kids are the center of her world, her animals are her babies, and her fictional characters fill her heart. She has a soft spot for cowboys, small towns, and taking readers down an emotional journey that ends with a happily ever after. Writing for Rhonda is like falling in love and finding a new best friend over and over again. Allow her stories into your heart too.
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