His Sweet Obsession
Torrid Romance Contemporary
Length: Novella
Price: $5.49
ISBN # 978-1-60313-487-3
Blurb: Have you ever loved someone so much you’d wait your entire life for them just to discover love may not be enough? Jack and Addy belong together, but their past haunts them. Will their sweet obsession be enough to sustain them or will it tear them further apart?
Coming back to Texas was the last thing on Addy’s mind, but with the death of her Aunt Maggie who raised her, that’s exactly where she finds herself– back under the scorching Texas sun and thanks to Maggie’s last will and testament, tied to the very place she ran from years ago.
Excerpt:
Addy burst through the screened door as if someone had set her tail feathers on fire, letting it bang shut behind her. Cowboys! Damn they were arrogant bastards. And Jack Colter was the biggest of them all.
Bounding down the front porch steps, she strode across the yard headed for the old, faded green pickup truck. Just as she reached it, the door banged shut again. She heaved open the truck door and before she could climb into the seat, a strong masculine arm reached out and slammed the truck door shut.
“Damn it, Addy. Why are you all fired up with me?”
Addy balled her hands into fists at her sides and twirled to meet the thunderstruck look on Jack’s face. “You knew, Jack. You knew!”
He fitted his signature black Stetson on top of his head and looked her square in the eye. “I didn’t know, Addy. I swear.”
Deep green with flecks of gold, his eyes were just as she remembered. And if she stared into them long enough, she might just believe him. No way would she travel back down that road.
“Liar.” She turned, and this time opened the door with success. Hurriedly, she got in, stomped on the clutch and shifted the gear stick into neutral. Pushing the starter button with her thumb, the lazy churn of the engine whined. “Start, damn it!”
Jack laid his hand on the side mirror and adjusted his hat. “You need to pump the gas. The ol’ gal’s a bit ornery.”
“Shut up, Jack. I remember how to do it. I learned how to drive in this truck.” Actually she hadn’t remembered, but where Jack was concerned she had no intention of agreeing with anything he said.
Addy pumped the accelerator, and this time the truck sprang to life. She shifted into first, let out the clutch too fast and stalled the engine.
“Easy on the clutch, Addy.”
Addy drew a deep breath and squared her shoulders. “Jack. I don’t need your help. Leave me alone.”
“I swear to you, Addy, I had no idea Maggie was gonna put all those restrictions on you inheriting the ranch. Stop pumping the accelerator. You’re gonna flood it.”
The truck gurgled noisily as if drowning. Flooded. Addy slapped her hand to her forehead. If she didn’t get away from Jack—and soon—she’d explode. “No idea. Funny how all those restrictions involve you. You had to know. You and Maggie were thicker than thieves.”
“In the first place, Maggie would never seriously consider giving the ranch to the church. She didn’t have a lot of respect for those Bible thumpers. You know that. She probably just put that in the will so you’d hang onto it for a while.”
“A while? I’d say forcing me to keep the ranch for five long years and keep you on as foreman or lose it to the church is definitely a while.” She pressed the starter button, only to hear the pitiful gurgling noise again.
“It’s flooded. Now you gotta let it sit. And what’s wrong with keeping the ranch
anyway?”
Pissed to the max, Addy jerked her head in Jack’s direction. “I live in New York. I haven’t lived on this ranch in fifteen years. I don’t want to live here either.”
“I still don’t see a problem. Live in New York, and I’ll keep running the ranch for the next five years just like Maggie wanted. After that it’s yours to sell.”
“Right. Mine to sell after I give you first refusal. Explain that!”
Jack shoved his hand deep into his jeans pocket and looked down. “Can’t rightly say other than Maggie knew how much this place means to me. And, well, she was probably thinking about our profit sharing deal and how long it would take for me to be in a position to buy it from you, I guess.”
Addy looked away. His hushed voice touched her deep inside and forced her to calm. Jack had lived and worked on the Double Eagle since he was a kid. Without a doubt, it did mean everything to him. Long buried memories threatened to surface, and she pushed them aside.
Too bad the ranch was the only thing he’d ever cared about. That and dancing to Maggie’s tune.
Her rage returned with a vengeance. Slamming her hand against the steering wheel, she tried the truck again. Much to her relief, the engine started. With every intention of having the last word, she looked Jack dead in the eye. “That codicil to the will is obviously new, and with all the medication Maggie was taking near the end it’s no wonder she wasn’t thinking straight. Otherwise she would never have given a second thought to the financial security of the hired hand.”
Addy rammed the old truck’s gearshift into first and floored the accelerator. Jack jumped backward as the truck took off, its tires digging a trench and spewing a steady stream of dirt. At the end of the driveway, she glanced up in the rear-view mirror. Much to her satisfaction she’d achieved the desired effect. A cloud of dust billowed all around Jack. He stood in the driveway fanning his black Stetson wildly, coughing and raising even more dust as he kicked at the dirt with the toe of his boot.
Who the hell did he think he was anyway? It was her ranch, not his. Granted, she hadn’t been back since the day she left, but Maggie had left it to her, not him.
She supposed it only added to his already swollen ego that Maggie had left him the North Ridge property—which reluctantly she had to admit he did deserve—but the shit-eating grin that spread across his face as the codicil to Maggie’s will was read was more than Addy could take.
Never in a million years could she have imagined something so utterly twisted. It had completely thrown her. Bucked and thrown her as if from a wild stallion. Leave it to Maggie to fuck with her life, even from six feet under.
The old truck clipped along flat out for a few miles. Without thinking, she turned down a side road. Hitting a wash out, the truck bounced and sent the top of her head into the roof of the cab. “Damn!”
Instinctively, her hand went to her scalp. The truck veered to the right. She grabbed the steering wheel, fighting for control, and hit the brakes hard, holding her breath as the truck slid dangerously close to the side ditch and came to an abrupt halt.
Addy let out the breath she’d held and relaxed against the back of the seat. Dust immediately assaulted her through the open windows. She shook her head and laughed, fanning it from her face. What goes around comes around, I guess.
She frowned.
It was Texas. And to make matters worse, it was summer in Texas on the Double Eagle Ranch. Dust owned every square inch of the hundred thousand acre spread—one of the things she’d hated most about growing up here as a kid. That and Aunt Maggie’s controlling ways.
She wiped her forehead, glancing at the film of sweat-mingled dust on her hand and wiped it on her jeans. After the cloud of dust around her settled, she focused on what lay ahead. The river.
Not only was it the lifeblood of the ranch, but the source of all her past and present woes. The river made the ranch valuable to prospective buyers. For all the good it would do her now. Maggie had seen to that.
And what about the past?
That, of course, was tied to the reason she’d left. And that reason was Jack.
