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Cowgirls Don't Cry
Silver James
The wealthiest of enemies may seduce the ranch right out from under her!Cassidy Morgan wasn’t raised a crybaby. So when her father dies and leaves the family ranch vulnerable to takeover by an Okie gazillionaire with a grudge, she doesn’t shed a tear, she fights back.But Chance Barron, the son of said gazillionaire, is a too-sexy adversary. In fact, it isn’t until Cassidy falls head over heels for the sexy Stetson-wearing businessman that she even finds out he’s the enemy. Now she needs a plucky plan to save her birthright. But Chance has another trick up his sleeve, putting family loyalties—and passion—to the ultimate test.
The wealthiest of enemies may seduce the ranch right out from under her!
Cassidy Morgan wasn’t raised a crybaby. So when her father dies and leaves the family ranch vulnerable to takeover by an Okie gazillionaire with a grudge, she doesn’t shed a tear—she fights back.
But Chance Barron, the son of said gazillionaire, is a too-sexy adversary. In fact, it isn’t until Cassidy falls head over heels for the sexy cowboy-hat-wearing attorney that she even finds out he’s the enemy. Now she needs a plucky plan to save her birthright. But Chance has another trick up his sleeve, putting family loyalties—and passion—to the ultimate test.
“Most people just call me Chance, since that’s my name.”
“Fine. So, why are you here … Chance?”
“Can I be honest with you?”
“I don’t know. Can you be honest?”
Damn but that question hit a little too close to home. Good thing he was the poker player in the family.
He deflected her question with a wink and a little smirk. “I’ll plead the Fifth on that one. You know what folks say—all’s fair in love and war.”
“Yeah, but which is this?”
“You tell me, Cassidy.”
“You still haven’t answered my question.”
“Which one?”
“Well, you’re a man, so we know you can’t be honest. So that leaves the other one. Why are you here?”
“Ow. I lodge a protest in the name of men everywhere.” He offered her another crooked grin and a wink as he added, “I came to see you.”
“Why?”
Time to lay his cards on the table. “Because I want to take you to dinner.”
* * *
Cowgirls Don’t Cry is a Red Dirt Royalty book—These Oklahoma millionaires work hard and play harder.
Dear Reader, (#u4ff283cb-3456-5b7a-be51-1f50fa1db1d1)
I’m an Oklahoma red-dirt cowgirl bred, born and raised. Once you get red dirt in your blood or on your clothes, it never washes out. When I was lucky enough to share a walk through New York City and lunch with the man who would become my Mills & Boon editor, I popped off and asked, “If I write you a Mills & Boon Desire story, will you read it?” He laughed but said, “Absolutely.”
Back in my writing cave, I went to work. I wanted to write about my home state. The people here are as fascinating and enduring as the land itself. We have cowboys, oilmen, billionaires, country music stars and smart women more than capable of wrangling their men. It took hearing a country-and-western song, sung by two Okies, to figure out the story of Cassidy Morgan and Chance Barron.
I wrote the manuscript. My editor read it. And here it is. To say I’m excited to share Chance and Cassie’s story is an understatement. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed the telling. If you like it, please let me know.
Happy reading,
Silver James
Cowgirls Don’t Cry
Silver James
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
SILVER JAMES likes walks on the wild side and coffee. Okay. She loves coffee. Warning: her muse, Iffy, runs with scissors. A cowgirl at heart, she’s also been an army officer’s wife and mum and has worked in the legal field, fire service and law enforcement. Now retired from the real world, she lives in Oklahoma, USA and spends her days writing with the assistance of her two Newfoundland dogs, the cat who rules them all and the myriad characters living in her imagination. She loves interacting with readers on her blog, Twitter and Facebook. Find her at www.silverjames.com (http://www.silverjames.com).
To my dad, who taught me how to ride and all about cowboy honor, to my family for always believing in me, and to Charles, my editor, for his faith in my abilities, his enthusiasm and his patience.
Contents
Cover (#u20373b0e-b792-568d-8c70-243455ab10b3)
Back Cover Text (#ubd11b63a-ae9e-5434-9909-7a3bd78198db)
Introduction (#u3c02ecf8-233e-5cf5-a4e1-51573d6aa452)
Dear Reader
Title Page (#u20b3a46b-220c-5254-aecd-0924fee240b6)
About the Author (#ueec7382f-cfdb-5ec4-a69f-065c0ed35d33)
Dedication (#ua37d4aab-fad8-5aa0-a899-48d9367c79ad)
One
Two
Three
Four
Five
Six
Seven
Eight
Nine
Ten
Eleven
Twelve
Thirteen
Fourteen
Fifteen
Sixteen
Seventeen
Epilogue
Extract (#litres_trial_promo)
Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)
One (#u4ff283cb-3456-5b7a-be51-1f50fa1db1d1)
Chance Barron always knew exactly what he wanted. At the moment, he’d set his sights on the attractive blonde sitting at the hotel bar.
The late-March blizzard had shut down Chicago O’Hare Airport, and he wasn’t going anywhere in a hurry. The weather service predicted the storm would blow over by morning, and he’d be on the first flight back to Oklahoma City. In the meantime, there was a pretty little gal all alone knocking back martinis like water. She’d twisted her hair up on top of her head and secured it with something that looked like a chopstick. Her face remained angled away from him, but the graceful curve of her jaw and neck had him noticing her profile. The red jacket and black slacks showed fashion flair and, despite the snow, she sported boots with impossible heels.
He studied her like she was evidence in a hotly contested case and debated how to phrase his opening argument. She ordered another martini and when the drink was served, he watched her long fingers play with the plastic pick and all but gulped as her full lips slid over the ripe, green olive stuffed with a cocktail onion. His groin tightened as his mind conjured up sexy images. A one-night stand wouldn’t hurt, and he’d certainly be in a better mood to deal with the old man when he got home.
Thoughts of his father, Cyrus Barron, intruded at the worst possible times. Probably because he was a force of nature. Oil. Land and cattle. Politics and media. Name the pie, and Chance’s old man owned most of it. Too bad he was such a jackass. He delighted in setting his spurs in the hides of his sons, and Chance was no exception. He had his own law firm, though the family was a big client. He certainly wasn’t in charge of the ranch’s breeding program but his father had sent him on a fool’s errand looking for a stud colt that didn’t exist in the state of Illinois. And now he was stuck in the Windy City during a freak March blizzard.
The waitress approached, an interested smile curling her lips. He declined her offer for a refill and handed her a crisp fifty dollar bill to cover his tab and tip. “Keep the change, hon,” he drawled. He slid out of the booth and homed in on the bar—only to realize his quarry had escaped.
“Damn.” His muttered curse was lost in the clatter of glasses and hum of conversation as he pushed toward the exit. She couldn’t have gone far. He’d find her and argue his case for keeping each other warm tonight.
* * *
Cassidy Morgan leaned against the window in the hotel lobby, her cell phone pressed to her ear. Outside, fat cotton balls of snow drifted across her view—like staring into the heart of a giant snow globe. Dizzy and a tad claustrophobic, her equilibrium thrown off both physically and emotionally, she closed her eyes.
“I’m not going to make it in time, am I?” The words spoken quietly into the phone were ripped from the depths of her soul.
“No, darlin’.” Baxter “Boots” Thomas didn’t believe in sugarcoating things. “The doctors don’t know how he’s hung on this long.”
She heard the muted sounds from the heart and respiration monitors beeping in the silence that followed on the other end of the line. And she recognized both the exhaustion and surrender in the voice of her father’s best friend.
“Will you put the phone next to his ear? I know he can’t hear me but...” Her throat closed, and she blinked hard to clear her vision. She pictured Boots’s actions from the rustling sounds and then she heard his muffled, “Go ahead.”
She talked. She reminisced. In the end, her voice broke and she cried. When her mother died of pneumonia, Cassie had been three, so young the emotional pain was lost on her. But this? This hurt far more than she had ever imagined it could. She wanted to be there. Wanted to hold his hand as he passed. He’d always been there for her. And she’d always managed to fail him, the disappointment in his eyes apparent to her every time she’d seen him over the past ten years.
Her father’s voice whispered in her ear. “Cowgirls don’t cry, baby. Ya gotta pick yourself up and ride.”
She blinked against the stinging tears and felt his sharply indrawn breath all the way to her toes. Then silence. He was gone. That quickly. Two blinks of her eyelids, his sharply indrawn breath, and the great bear of a man who’d been her father existed no more.
“You okay, baby girl?” Boots was back on the line.
Cass dashed at her eyes with the back of her hand. Hell no, she wasn’t okay. But she had to be. She had to take care of things. Whether she wanted to or not. “I’ll be there as soon as possible, Uncle Boots. I’m stuck here until the blizzard lets up. Couldn’t even get back to my apartment, so I’m spending the night in a hotel here at O’Hare.” Her voice remained steady. She couldn’t lose it. Not yet.
“I’ll be on the first flight out in the morning. I’ll call to give you my arrival time.” She cleared the lump forming in her throat. “Will you call the funeral home for me? To pick him up. I... Don’t let them cremate him until I get there, Uncle Boots. I...I need to see him. To say goodbye. Okay?”
“Sure, baby girl. I’ll take care of it.”
“You know where he stashed the good stuff. Go home and toast the stubborn old coot for me.”
“Sure thing, sugar. Now get your tail home. We’ve got work to do.”
“I love you, Uncle Boots.”
“Love you, too, baby girl.”
She tapped the red end call bar on her phone and slipped it into her pocket. Damn, damn, damn. How could she absorb the enormity of this event and not let it drive her to her knees? She closed her eyes against the prickle of tears. She didn’t cry. Not in public. Hadn’t she learned that from her dad? Cowgirls were tough. Well, dammit, she wasn’t a cowgirl. Not anymore. Not for a long time. Cass continued to rest her hot forehead against the cool glass.
She’d left the ranch behind ten years ago. With dreams of making her mark, she’d chased life in the big city, where stars in the night sky were outshone by light from skyscraper windows, and the rumble of traffic sounded like far-off thunder.
Ranch life was hard. Early mornings. Late nights. Worrying about the weather—searing heat, freezing cold, too much rain or not enough. Early frosts. Diseases that could wipe out a herd in a heartbeat. Rodeo was even harder. Her dad had loved the rodeo. She had, too, once upon a time when she was a little girl insulated from the reality of it all.
Cass did not want to go home. She didn’t want to say goodbye to the man against whom she measured every boyfriend. Even hurting him as she had, and regardless of his disappointment in the choices she made, he had continued to love her. And now her dad was gone.
She squared her shoulders and decided she needed to go to bed, despite the allure of another martini. Or a bottle of whiskey. Not that it would help. Booze wouldn’t touch the ache in her heart, wouldn’t numb the pain like a shot of Novocain administered to an abscessed tooth. That’s what her heart felt like. A deep, throbbing abscess full of decay and vile selfishness. She hadn’t been back home for a year. And now it was too late.
She reconsidered getting another drink. Or ordering a bottle from room service. She knew that wasn’t the answer. Plus, there were other drawbacks. Fighting the crowd at the airport and dealing with things at home while nursing a hangover just didn’t appeal.
Cass turned —and buried her nose in a starched white shirt.
“Easy, darlin’.”
The man’s large hands gripped her biceps and kept her upright despite the fact her knees had turned to jelly. She tilted her head to look up. Quite a ways up. She took in the chiseled jaw shadowed by dark stubble, eyes the color of amber and dark hair—thick, silky and worn just a little long so that it caressed the man’s wide forehead and kissed the collar of his crisp shirt. She swallowed. Hard.
“I’m so sorry. I didn’t realize you were standing there.” At least she didn’t stammer. Two points for her. But she cringed inside at how breathless her voice sounded. It was surprise. That’s all. She didn’t want or need the complication presented by this sexy man right now.
“S’okay, hon. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
She backed away from him and shook his hands free. “Scare me?” Her brow quirked as she lifted her chin. “I don’t scare, mister.” Now that she had a good look at him, her brows narrowed in speculation. “You look sort of familiar. Have we met before?”
Cass managed not to blush as those wolf-like eyes traveled over her body from head to toe and back again. A smile she could only describe as appreciative spread across his full lips.
“Honey, as beautiful as you are, I’m sure I’d remember.” He held out his hand as if to introduce himself but was interrupted when the theme song from the old television show Rawhide emanated from his pocket, startling them both.
A look of anger flashed across his face, and he muttered something that sounded like, “Dammit, I’m busy.”
Busy? She stepped back, putting more space between them. For an insane moment, she wondered if he was stalking her. She’d noticed a man in the bar watching her. This guy fit the general description even though the corners of the place were dark, and he’d remained in the shadows.
