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The Cowboy Next Door
Marin Thomas
Hard-working cowboy Johnny Cash has always been a protector to his little sister's best friend, sweet but tough cowgirl Shannon Douglas. It's pretty crazy for girls to ride bulls—yet it's her life to live. Then he realizes he's got some purely male instincts toward her, too. But absolutely no way can he fall for his boss's daughter–if he loses his job, there'll be hell to pay at home….Shannon was raised to be strong and independent. She wants a national title so bad she can taste it—and she needs Johnny's help. His protectiveness drives her crazy…the same way his kisses do. But she's not about to hang up her bull rope because of him!Her heart says he's the one—but her own stubborn streak might push away the only man who might actually understand her.
She Doesn’t Need His Protection!
Hard working cowboy Johnny Cash has always been a protector to his little sister’s best friend, sweet but tough cowgirl Shannon Douglas. It’s pretty crazy for girls to ride bulls—yet it’s her life to live. Then he realizes he’s got some purely male instincts toward her, too. But absolutely no way can he fall for his boss’s daughter—if he loses his job, there’ll be hell to pay at home….
Shannon was raised to be strong and independent. She wants a national title so bad she can taste it—and she needs Johnny’s help. His protectiveness drives her crazy…the same way his kisses do. But she’s not about to hang up her bull rope because of him! Her heart says he’s the one—but her own stubborn streak might push away the only man who might actually understand her.
Shannon waited for Johnny to make eye contact.
Sex with him had been amazing. She never would have guessed that they would have hit it off in bed the way they had.
Finally he looked at her. “We need to talk about what happened.”
Boy, howdy, did they.
“I’m sorry, Shannon.” He grimaced. “I accept full blame—” his gaze cut to the bed “—for what happened.”
Sorry? Swell—just what every girl yearned to hear the morning after.
She snatched her clothes from his hand. He might act as though making love hadn’t been a big deal—but they both knew they’d set the sheets on fire.
“Seems like just yesterday I was bandaging your knees and wiping your runny nose.”
“You’re only nine years older than me.” Obviously their age difference bothered him.
“Old enough to know better.” Gaze glued to the tips of his boots, Johnny walked to the door. “Like I said, I’m sorry. Good luck at the rodeo. Drive safe.”
Then he was gone.
Dear Reader,
Welcome back to Stagecoach, Arizona! The Cowboy Next Door is the first story in my new six-book series for Harlequin American Romance. You may recall meeting Dixie’s brothers in A Cowboy’s Duty (August 2012). The Cash brothers were named after country-and-western legends by their deceased mother, whose lifelong search for her true love left each of her sons with a different father.
I love writing about the dynamics of family relationships and the drama that results in family members interfering in each other’s lives. In my new series, I’ll explore how growing up without a father has impacted the choices in life that each of the Cash brothers has made and the consequences of those choices.
As the firstborn son, Johnny grew up taking care of his siblings and has been accused on more than one occasion of acting more like a parent than a brother. Being overprotective of his siblings comes naturally to Johnny, but when a run-in with his sister’s best friend, Shannon Douglas, triggers lusty thoughts, he’s not sure what to do. Shannon doesn’t have a problem with their age difference—her issue with Johnny is that he thinks he can still tell her what to do, and she rebels when he tries to interfere with her goal of winning a national rodeo title. I hope you enjoy reading how Johnny and Shannon struggle to overcome the baggage from their childhoods and find their way as a couple.
I love to keep in touch with my readers. Email me at marin@marinthomas.com, and follow me on Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/marin.thomas.39) and Twitter (https://twitter.com/MarinThomas). Visit www.marinthomas.com (http://www.marinthomas.com) for more information on my books.
Happy Ever After…The Cowboy Way!
Marin
The Cowboy Next Door
Marin Thomas
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Marin Thomas grew up in Janesville, Wisconsin. She left the Midwest to attend college in Tucson, Arizona, where she earned a B.A. in radio-TV. Following graduation she married her college sweetheart in a five-minute ceremony at the historic Little Chapel of the West in Las Vegas, Nevada. Over the years she and her family have lived in seven different states, but they’ve now come full circle and returned to Arizona, where the rugged desert and breathtaking sunsets provide plenty of inspiration for Marin’s cowboy books.
To my agent Paige Wheeler of Folio Literary
Management: thank you for your expert guidance the
past ten years and for helping me achieve a longtime
dream of becoming a Harlequin author. Here’s to the
next decade and wherever my writing takes us!
Contents
Chapter One (#ud92b2bdd-2469-5a4d-bf48-0085ba3eaca2)
Chapter Two (#u9510049f-4a83-57da-953c-a020b17a7256)
Chapter Three (#u42b0f9e3-eb4b-5b33-bb16-8ec97f3888c5)
Chapter Four (#ub9a6227e-4f0e-5f93-b389-51055750ac73)
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)
Excerpt (#litres_trial_promo)
Chapter One
On a hot, mid-August Saturday Johnny Cash stood in the cowboy ready area of the Butterfield Stage Days Parade and Rodeo in Gila Bend, Arizona, and watched the fireworks display between lady bull rider Shannon Douglas and all-around rodeo cowboy C. J. Rodriguez.
The hand-gesturing and boot-stomping drew a lot of notice and Johnny edged closer, ready to intervene if the argument quickly went south.
“You’re supposed to be my man, not Veronica’s,” Shannon said.
No surprise that the notorious buckle bunny Veronica Patriot had sunk her claws into another cowboy. The woman was hell on boot heels and took what she wanted—mostly cowboys in committed relationships. If that was the case, and Rodriguez had cheated on Shannon, then Johnny felt bad for her.
Shannon was his sister’s best friend and Johnny had known her most of his life. Nine years her senior, he’d been a big brother to the little girl who’d spent countless afternoons playing at the Cash pecan farm or trailing after him at her father’s spread where Johnny worked as a seasonal ranch hand.
Rodriguez jabbed his finger in the air. “I can’t help it if I attract women everywhere I go.”
Hands fisted, Shannon stood her ground. “You’re ticked off that I won last week.”
“You didn’t beat me.” Rodriguez glanced at his competitors, who pretended not to listen.
Shannon laughed. “You’re sore because fans are finding out you’re not the superstar you claim to be.”
The feuding couples’ audience showed no signs of intervening. Pretty soon the rodeo officials and cameramen would notice the confrontation playing out behind the chutes and broadcast the lovers’ spat on the JumboTron.
“Shannon.” Johnny stepped from the shadows and touched a finger to the brim of his black cattleman’s Stetson.
She flashed him a grateful smile.
“Well, if it ain’t the Man in Black.” Rodriguez snickered.
Johnny’s hackles rose. What the hell had his mother been thinking when she’d named him and his brothers after country-and-western singers? It had been bad enough that they’d all been fathered by different men. From the day Johnny entered kindergarten, he’d been teased—not that his mother had cared.
When his biological father, Charlie Smith, had split after Johnny’s birth, Aimee Cash had become an absentee mom, gallivanting across the Southwest, searching for the next Mr. Right. She hadn’t been there when Johnny had come home from school with his first black eye—Grandma Ada had hugged him and insisted there was room in the world for two Johnny Cashes. Eventually he might have learned to turn the other cheek, but every year or two, another brother had been born and saddled with a moniker that needed defending until he grew old enough to fight his own battles. And Johnny had made his fair share of trips to the principal’s office during his school career.
“Back off, Rodriguez.” He leveled a sober stare at the cowboy.
“This is bullshit.” Rodriguez threw his gear bag over his shoulder and stomped off. The onlookers dispersed.
“You okay?” he asked Shannon.
“Yeah. C.J.’s just frustrated with his riding, that’s all.” She rolled a clump of dirt beneath her boot.
Johnny noticed she wore Dynasty Boots. He glanced at her gear bag—that, too, sported the Dynasty Boots logo. The last he’d heard, Wrangler Jeans was promoting Shannon and Rodriguez’s cross-country tour, highlighting women’s bull riding. He motioned to the boot stitched on her shirt. “I thought Wrangler sponsored you.”
“They did.” She watched the rodeo helpers load a bull into a nearby chute. “Dynasty Boots offered me and C.J. a better deal and bought out our contract with Wrangler.”
“What kind of better deal?”
“If C.J. and I continue to compete against each other and keep up our sham of a romance—fans love that we’re a couple—” she said, rolling her eyes “—we—”
“You’re not a couple?”
“Not anymore.” She shrugged. “Anyway, whoever has the most wins after the Tucson rodeo in January earns a fifty-thousand-dollar bonus.”
Johnny whistled between his teeth. “Where does the score stand between you two?”
“Dead even.”
“No kidding?”
“Did you think because C.J.’s a man he’d be ahead of me in the competition?”
“No...I...” Johnny shrugged. In truth, he believed bull riding was best left to cowboys, but if there was ever a cowgirl who could go the distance with the men, Shannon Douglas was that girl.
“If I want to win the title of Cowgirl of the Year, I need to beat C.J.” She shifted her weight from one foot to the other, clearly agitated. The hotshot cowboy had rattled her.
“You sure you’re okay?” His gaze roamed over her body.
“Why are you looking at me like that?”
“Rodriguez must be blind.”
Her cheeks flushed pink. Even though Shannon was a tomboy, the subtle signs of a pretty woman were evident. Her turbulent green eyes, fringed with thick black lashes, glowed with a vibrant, determined spirit. Then there was her mouth, plump lips that begged a man to... Startled by his train of thought, he cleared his throat. What the heck was he doing—cataloging his sister’s friend’s body parts? At least he’d stopped before he’d checked out her—
“I got to the rodeo late. Did you ride this afternoon?” she asked.
“Sandpiper tossed me on my keister.”
“Did any of your brothers compete?”
“The rest of the gang stayed behind to work on the bunkhouse.”
“I heard Dixie threw all of you out of the farmhouse after she and Gavin married.”
“You heard right.” He nodded at C.J. “Was that your normal warm-up routine?”
“Hardly.”
“Ladies and gentlemen, we’re about to kick off the men’s bull riding event, but first, we have a special treat for you.” Applause and whistles filled the arena. When the noise died down, the announcer continued. “Shannon Douglas is about to show us that cowgirls are as tough as cowboys when it comes to bull riding!”
The crowd noise was deafening. Johnny had no idea Shannon had become so popular on the circuit. “You sure you’re okay?” She shot him a dark look, so he said, “Good luck,” and moved aside. He didn’t stray far—in case Rodriguez got it in his head to pick another fight with her. After she put on her Kevlar vest, protective face mask and riding glove, she climbed the chute rails while the announcer finished his spiel.
“Shannon Douglas hails from the Triple D Ranch near Stagecoach. She’s been competing in roughstock events since high school and you won’t find a tougher cowgirl in the whole state of Arizona!” The JumboTron displayed a close-up of her as she waved to the fans. “This cowgirl’s about to tangle with Boomerang, a veteran bull known for his tight spins.”
Shannon stretched a leg over the bull and settled onto his back. She wrapped then rewrapped the rope around her gloved hand and Johnny worried that she was thinking about her quarrel with Rodriguez.
He spotted her partner inching toward the chute and stepped into the man’s path. He wasn’t letting the rodeo playboy taunt Shannon. Only after the gate opened and Boomerang sprang free, did Johnny turn to the action inside the arena.
Shannon hung on through three spins. As the seconds ticked off the clock, the bullfighters moved into position, ready to help if needed.
Six...seven...
The buzzer sounded and Shannon waited for an opening to dismount. Boomerang chose for her. The bull kicked out at the same time he twisted his back end and she catapulted through the air. She hit the ground and skidded several feet across the dirt. His heart stalled when Boomerang turned on Shannon as she struggled to stand.
