скачать книгу бесплатно
Because Of You: A blazing hot cowboy romance
Kristina O'Grady
‘I didn't want to put it down’ – Shari (Goodreads)One sizzling night… One life-changing moment!Beth Copeland has made a terrible mistake. She slept with her long time crush Mark Asher…the man she couldn't get out of her head, the man she dreamed about…the man who recently broke up with her best friend, Kelsey Woods!Beth is consumed with guilt and is certain she will never let that one night of passion be repeated, but sometimes a gorgeous cowboy is hard to resist…The second blazing novel in the brand new Copeland Ranch romance trilogy from Kristina O'GradyTHE COPELAND RANCH TRILOGYBook 1 – I Choose YouBook 2 – Because of YouBook 3 – All for YouPraise for The Copeland Ranch Trilogy‘Great second chance romance.’ – Megan Wylke (Goodreads) on All for You‘This is a story with an engaging plot, great, well portrayed characters, family drama and history that is dramatically revealed with near fatal consequences.’ – Elaine (Goodreads) on I Choose You‘This is a truly engaging story and the two main characters are interesting, romantic and totally hot for each other.’ – LJT (Goodreads) on I Choose You
One sizzling night… One life-changing moment!
Beth Copeland has made a terrible mistake. She slept with her long time-crush Mark Asher…the man she couldn’t get out of her head, the man she dreamed about…the man who recently broke up with her best friend Kelsey Woods!
Beth is consumed with guilt and is certain she will never let that one night of passion be repeated, but sometimes a gorgeous cowboy is hard to resist…
Also by Kristina O’Grady (#u44090b2f-639e-5784-a662-5221734325af)
Debutantes Don’t Date
Damsel in Distress?
The Copeland Ranch Trilogy
I Choose You
Because of You
All For You (coming soon)
Because of You
Kristina O’Grady
Copyright (#u44090b2f-639e-5784-a662-5221734325af)
HQ
An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.
1 London Bridge Street
London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HQ in 2015
Copyright © Kristina O’Grady 2015
Kristina O’Grady asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins.
E-book Edition © June 2015 ISBN: 9781474035491
Version date: 2018-07-23
KRISTINA O’GRADY
has always loved telling a good story. She took up writing at a young age and spent many hours – when she should have been doing her math homework – scribbling romance stories in a book she hid in her sock drawer.
She grew up on a cattle ranch in Western Canada and loves reminiscing by writing about cowboys and their horses.
In 2000 Kristina met her own knight in shining armour/cowboy who swept her off her feet and across the world to New Zealand, where she now lives on a sheep and beef farm with her amazingly supportive husband, three gorgeous young kids, seven working dogs and one very needy cat.
Because of You is her fourth book.
Contents
Cover (#u7e9cd0ba-e19d-5c36-b0bc-71265703bfe4)
Blurb (#ufa9c9430-1f9b-5c17-9de2-3c23092271a3)
Book List
Title Page (#ua2d397d4-0309-58e1-a821-9945e37621d9)
Copyright
Author Bio (#u3bc4b4f5-d410-539c-8c4e-672479b92394)
Acknowledgement (#ue95ab55a-af2a-5f49-998c-f601f599936f)
Dedication (#u0bd3d677-e661-530d-bf04-f22d8dbfc1de)
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Chapter Thirteen
Chapter Fourteen
Chapter Fifteen
Chapter Sixteen
Chapter Seventeen
Chapter Eighteen
Chapter Nineteen
Chapter Twenty
Chapter Twenty-One
Chapter Twenty-Two
Chapter Twenty-Three
Epilogue
Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)
Endpages (#litres_trial_promo)
About the Publisher
Without certain people the story of Beth and Mark would never have seen the light of day.
Thank you to the HQ Digital Authors Facebook group who are always on hand to answer questions, give advice or to send virtual hugs, wine and chocolate my way when I need it. To belong to a group such as this is more than I ever dreamed possible when I signed up for this gig. Thanks for always having my back.
Thank you to the Romance Writers of New Zealand (RWNZ) for all your support and friendship. I absolutely love having a group of like-minded people to hang out with that ‘get’ me.
Thank you to the entire HQ Digital UK team for all the time you spend polishing my writing, marketing and making the best book covers known to man. You guys do a fantastic job.
A special big thank you to my family and friends. I Love you.
And finally to my editor, Victoria Oundjian, thank you for everything you do for me and for my writing. Without a doubt this book is here Because of You.
To Mick, because I love you.
Chapter 1 (#u44090b2f-639e-5784-a662-5221734325af)
Sunlight bounced off the white sheets and shone into her eyes. With a groan, Beth Copeland rolled over and covered her head with her pillow. God, her head hurt. It was way too early to be up. The mattress dipped beside her.
WTF?
She peeked out from under her pillow. Skin. A glorious expanse of golden skin greeted her eyes. It took her a moment of brazen observation before images of last night filtered through her mind.
Flashes of strobe lights and sweaty bodies gyrating on the dance floor swept through her hazy memory. And booze, lots and lots of booze. She groaned and covered her face back up with the pillow. No wonder she didn’t feel so hot. But there was still the matter of the expanse of skin lying next to her. She peeked again, this time following the trail of skin up towards the other pillow.
Her eyes swept across his face, taking in every glorious feature as she slowly moved her eyes upward.
Oh no. It couldn’t be.
Blue eyes pierced hers through his heavily lidded lashes.
She sat bolt upright, clutching the sheet to her bare breasts. She looked at the man lying next to her in horror. Sweet Jesus, he was naked!
‘You alright, Beth? You look like you’ve seen a pink cow.’ Mark Asher, the man who she’d had a crush on since forever, grinned up at her.
She opened her mouth but no sound came out. How could she have gone home with him? She looked down at her own nakedness flimsily covered in a sheet. How could she have done that with him? Oh my God, he was practically married.
He sat up, obviously not caring if his half of the sheet covered all his important bits. No matter how hard she tried not to look, her eyes kept straying to what should have been under the covers.
‘Like what you see, B? Instead of just looking, we could make use of it, you know.’ Mark grinned at her again, this time his smile full of the mischief she was used to on his face.
She clutched the sheet tighter against her breasts, ‘Not on your life, Mark, put that thing away.’ She deliberately averted her eyes and looked out the window at the trees in his back yard. ‘How did I end up here? Naked. In your bed?’
‘Don’t you remember, B?’ He reached out and tucked a wayward strand of her hair behind her ear, still not bothering to hike the sheet any higher. ‘Helga left with Ben, along with her keys. You were stuck at The Jackson and decided to hang out with me and the boys once all your friends left. One thing led to another and we ended up here’
‘We…um, never did…um,’ she said, waving her hand between them, ‘anything, did we?’
‘Trust me, B, if we had sex, you’d remember. We did get a little frisky, but you passed out and I’m not the sort of guy to take advantage of a friend.’
Beth turned back to face him. ‘What’s going on, Mark? Why am I here and not Kelsey? What are you playing at?’
‘Nothing,’ he said, letting out a long sigh. ‘You know as well as I do, B, Kelsey and I broke up weeks ago.’
‘But everyone thought you were getting married. You were dating forever.’ She squirmed. It was so uncomfortable sitting naked in the bed her friend Kelsey not long ago shared with the man lying next to her. She shifted closer to the edge and looked around for her clothes. It was well past time she’d left.
Mark reached out and touched her arm. ‘Hey, it’s alright,’ he said gently. ‘We never did anything last night. I promise.’
She looked into his eyes and trusted him. In all the years Beth knew Mark Asher, she never knew him to lie. At least not to her. He always, no matter how painful, told her the truth. She nodded. A tear slipped down her cheek. What had she done? How could she even be here with him? It didn’t matter that he’d broken up with Kelsey. Her friend was going to kill her…and with good reason. Even if they hadn’t done anything, she was still naked in his bed.
Beth had never breathed anything to anyone about how she felt about Mark, especially since Kelsey started dating him. But ever since the first day her brother Ben had dragged Mark home with him when they were kids, she was lost. Lightning struck and from then on she was ruined for anyone else. Sure she’d dated, but no one could live up to her brother’s best friend. Having him lying next to her, naked, was more than anything she could have ever hoped for…him being her friend’s ex was a nightmare.
She checked the room again, this time not caring if he actually noticed what she was doing. Where were her clothes? Surely she didn’t leave them behind at the bar. She desperately tried to recall what happened after they arrived at Mark’s but her mind stubbornly stayed blank.
‘Hang on, B, I’ll get your clothes for you.’ Mark seemed to read her mind. He hopped out of bed and went out into the hallway, not bothering to pull on some pants before he walked across the room. Beth’s eyes were glued to his backside; she couldn’t look away even if she tried.
