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The Cowboy Seal's Jingle Bell Baby
Laura Marie Altom
A BABY FOR CHRISTMAS?Tiffany Lawson promised herself that she would never, ever give her heart to a man again. Now she’s a pregnant former rodeo queen and ex-debutante struggling to support her mother and grandmother. She's already picked out the perfect adoptive parents, but cowboy Navy SEAL Rowdy Jones isn't letting anyone take his child.Rowdy loves the rush that comes from being a Navy SEAL, but finding out he's about to become a dad? That trumps everything. While he and Tiffany shared only one night, Rowdy's determined to do right by her and their baby. His next mission—to win Tiffany and keep his son—might be his toughest yet…
A BABY FOR CHRISTMAS?
Tiffany Lawson promised herself that she would never, ever give her heart to a man again. Now she’s a pregnant former rodeo queen and ex-debutante struggling to support her mother and grandmother. She’s already picked out the perfect adoptive parents, but cowboy Navy SEAL Rowdy Jones isn’t letting anyone take his child.
Rowdy loves the rush that comes from being a Navy SEAL, but finding out he’s about to become a dad? That trumps everything. While he and Tiffany shared only one night, Rowdy’s determined to do right by her and their baby. His next mission—to win Tiffany and keep his son—might be his toughest yet…
How many times had he proposed?
Funny, but accepting Rowdy’s offer of marriage struck Tiffany as a cop-out. They were virtual strangers. Aside from their lone hot night, they had nothing in common. Sure, the baby was half his responsibility, but the last thing she wanted was for him to feel trapped.
Most important, Tiffany deserved more than what would essentially be a marriage of convenience. If she ever married again, it would be forever. Rowdy was sweet, but not exactly a forever kind of guy.
“Need help?”
She looked up to find him kneeling alongside her.
His face was close enough to hers that with minimum effort, she could have leaned forward to press her lips to his. She could have. And it was an undeniable fact that kissing him would feel beyond amazing. Sublime. But what would that solve? There was no denying their physical chemistry.
But that had nothing to do with the kind of love it took to sustain a forever kind of marriage…
The Cowboy Seal’s Jingle Bell Baby
Laura Marie Altom
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
LAURA MARIE ALTOM is a bestselling and award-winning author who has penned nearly fifty books. After college (go, Hogs!), Laura Marie did a brief stint as an interior designer before becoming a stay-at-home mom to boy-girl twins and a bonus son. Always an avid romance reader, she knew it was time to try her hand at writing when she found herself replotting the afternoon soaps.
When not immersed in her next story, Laura plays video games, tackles Mount Laundry and, of course, reads romance!
Laura loves hearing from readers at either PO Box 2074, Tulsa, OK 74101, or by email, balipalm@aol.com.
Love winning fun stuff? Check out lauramariealtom.com (http://www.lauramariealtom.com).
When I asked my daughter who this book should be
dedicated to, she smiled and said, “Duh—me and Yeti.”
Yeti’s her big, doofus black Lab who’s so naughty
that he actually takes time away from my writing.
He doesn’t in any way deserve a book dedication,
but since he’s so cute, I’ll cave… :-)
For Hannah & Yeti
Contents
Cover (#u701e6056-86ec-5dfc-b5ec-de1ff410d823)
Back Cover Text (#u83753e2d-d8b4-5803-828c-0d3ccef50d21)
Introduction (#uc60b0f1c-5def-5b15-96c4-ed031d5380dd)
Title Page (#u2285d8b8-2b61-5987-9d19-234ec891e944)
About the Author (#u8c2d8f4d-679f-562f-95df-d3fd4cec98e0)
Dedication (#udfa89abe-1608-57fb-8cfd-d5ea5a602442)
Prologue (#u0372eb3a-d700-5ecb-ab5c-bb5b41ab94e9)
Chapter One (#ud6ad7872-eac7-560d-ba73-1c198a51bea7)
Chapter Two (#u12ca86cb-2d01-5eb1-a1bd-20672157ad36)
Chapter Three (#ud74e3606-0793-5c04-b4cb-f9d058017e1d)
Chapter Four (#u11a9f87a-29e5-5054-91c4-cebbf29a562d)
Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
Prologue (#u1a08596e-a84e-51dd-8cfd-2df7868d8eed)
’Twas the night before Easter...
“How about letting a cowboy buy you a drink?” Navy SEAL Rowdy Jones slurred his words, but the evening’s libations bolstered his courage. As such, he’d moseyed over to the gorgeous little hottie who’d stolen his last rational thought.
She appraised him as if he were a stud sire up for auction.
“Want me to spin around so you get the full force of my magnetic attraction?” he asked with a grin.
In a dive bar filled with boot-wearing, beer-guzzling cowboys, she sipped a martini. Her white dress clung tight enough to have been painted on. She had the face of an angel, with cherry-red lips and a sleek wave of blond hair his fingertips knew would feel silky.
Instead of speaking, she downed more of her drink, then raised her hand, motioning for him to twirl.
More than a little turned on by her silent take-charge demeanor, he raised his longneck beer high, gyrating his ass in time with George Strait’s “All My Ex’s Live in Texas.”
He didn’t just want this gal; he had to have her—all of her. Down and dirty and every way in between.
In his thirty-odd years, he’d gotten pretty good at sizing up a man’s or woman’s character. The woman’s exterior screamed iceberg dead ahead. But a sadness in her eyes made him wonder if her carefully applied outer persona was eggshell fragile.
“Like what you see?” he asked on the turn around.
Without a trace of a smile, she nodded.
“Wanna get a room?”
She nodded again.
She set her drink on the bar, then held out her hand as if she were a princess and he her loyal subject.
His brain couldn’t quite compute the fact that she was taking him up on his offer, but he wasn’t complaining. He paid their bar tabs, then led her through the maze of Saturday-night heroes, all striving to outshine one another with their tall tales.
Though the next morning would ring in Easter, their miserable portion of North Dakota hadn’t gotten the memo. Earlier that night at the annual rodeo, the temperature had been pleasant enough, but a front must’ve moved in and cold wind whipped his mystery gal’s formerly smooth hair into a wild, sexy tangle.
Given the nasty weather, the bar’s exterior was lonely. Neon beer signs glowed through dusty windows. The parking lot’s one light didn’t do much to show their way to the adjoining motel.
Giddy Up Inn wasn’t fancy, but he’d heard from temporary cowboys hired to move cattle from seasonal ranges that it was clean.
The lobby was plain.
A single red Formica counter held a cash register and a few struggling plants. The air smelled of Lysol and the coffee brewing on a corner stand.
Rowdy paid cash for the room, and the weary-looking clerk handed over an actual key attached to a plastic horseshoe.
Back outside, Rowdy sheltered his dream girl from the worst of the wind. He found room twenty-one and slipped the key into the lock.
The room was cold, so he quickly shut the door and turned on the heat.
The woman stood just inside the door.
She hugged herself and looked on the verge of crying.
“Look,” he said, “if you’d rather call this off, I’d understand.” He hooked his thumbs in his Wranglers’ back pockets. “I mean, I’d be lying if I said I wouldn’t be disappointed, but my momma raised me to be a gentleman and—”
“You always talk this much?”
She flew at him like a summer wind—wild and hot.
She braced her hands to his stubbled cheeks, slanting her lips across his with what he could describe only as an angry, frenzied need. He met the sweep of her tongue and groaned.
When she reached for his belt buckle, he was all too happy to help her along. She jerked his denim shirt open with enough force to rain buttons onto the carpeted floor. She pressed her small, nimble hands to his chest, kneading his pecs, skimming his abs. She trailed her lips over his bare skin, nipping his left biceps, sucking the hollow at the base of his neck.
Her every action screamed desperation.
The gentleman in him wondered why.
The horny bastard only wanted more.
He spun her around, jerking down the zipper on her dress. It might be white, but her attitude was bad-girl red. He let the garment drop to the floor, and with her back to him, he kissed her neck, cupping his hand to her belly to press her against his obvious need.
Her bra and panties weren’t from around these parts. White lace fine enough for him to rip off her with his teeth yet fancy to the degree he wasn’t ashamed to admit he felt damn near intimidated.
As if her curves weren’t tough enough to handle, there was her scent—once again at odds with her outer ice queen. How could she look so cold, and yet, when he breathed her in, smell like sunshine and lemonade or wildflowers swaying in a gentle breeze.
His physical ache to be inside her had grown to a near-frantic need. A nagging voice told him to at least dig a condom from his wallet. After a few tries in between kisses, he finally managed to roll one on. But too many beers and two hands filled with her ample breasts made him not much interested in anything beyond unlatching her bra and then dragging down the sheer panties.
She dropped his jeans and he was damned glad to have gone commando.
They were kissing again, and he found her hot and ready. Without thinking, he hefted her onto the dresser, then rammed all the way home. She cried out but then dug her fingers into his back, urging him faster and harder.
He didn’t know her name or job or where she could possibly be from, but none of that mattered. She was his every wicked fantasy. His whole world encapsulated in a lemonade-scented dream.
He thrust until he couldn’t think or breathe.
Until raw sensation struck him temporarily blind.
Mere moments after spilling his seed, he had to have her again...
Chapter One (#u1a08596e-a84e-51dd-8cfd-2df7868d8eed)
’Twas almost the night before Halloween...
“Just shoot me...” Rowdy stared at his cell phone as if it had bit him.
“What’s wrong?” His roommate and fellow navy SEAL, Logan, slurped from his milkshake.
