Cole: Red, Hot & Blue, Book 5 (8 page)

“You ready?” Bobby eyed him.

“Yeah.” Cole adjusted his tie, willing the nerves to go away. He wanted this more than anything. That didn’t mean it wasn’t nerve wracking as all hell. He smiled down at Mikey, looking like his clone in a matching tux. “You ready, sport?”

“Yes, sir.” Mikey nodded, taking his job as second best man very seriously.

“Then I guess we better get inside.” Cole stood staring at the door that would lead them up the aisle, past all their friends and family.

Bobby raised a brow. “It’s not too late, you know.”

Cole frowned at his soon to be brother-in-law. “I want this, Bobby.”

His irrational fear was, did Lizzie? His nightmare was she’d not show, or show up to break up with him. It was crazy, he knew that, but a ten-year-long hurt was hard to totally put to rest.

“Okay, just checking.” Bobby shrugged.

Enough was enough. Cole pushed through the doors and walked into the main part of the church. Both his and Lizzie’s parents filled the front pews. Most of the people filling the remaining seats had known them both since they’d been born. Cole glanced at all those who would comprise his new family and his friends and realized that he, the only child of a service-station owner from Pigeon Hollow, had done pretty well for himself to be surrounded by so many people who cared about him.

The first strains of organ music filled the church and the entire congregation turned toward the door. Cole hadn’t realized how much he feared Lizzie would back out until the relief at seeing her overwhelmed him. Cole stood at the altar and watched Lizzie’s sister, Mary Sue, walk toward him. She’d flown home to stand up with Lizzie as matron of honor. But it was the figure behind Mary Sue, waiting at the other end of the aisle, who really captured his attention.

Lizzie was a vision and she was his. Cole’s heart soared as smiling, she walked slowly toward him.

The ceremony passed in a blur. He answered the pastor when necessary, though he probably couldn’t repeat exactly what he’d said later on. His head was spinning.

Bobby winked at him when it came time to hand over the wedding band. Cole noticed his own hands shake as he took the wide, diamond-encrusted circle. That had been the compromise. Lizzie could wear the tiny promise ring, but her wedding band was going to be something worthy of her. Although no amount of diamonds would be enough to thank her for the son she’d given him.

On the way out of the church, with his wife’s hand on his arm, Cole spotted the ever-present television producer and cameramen belonging to Bobby, but there was no camera. Cole didn’t even want to think what Bobby had to do to keep the cameras out of the church for their wedding. He’d have to thank him later. But right now he had something more important to do.

He pulled Lizzie by the hand when they reached the sidewalk. “Come on.”

“Where are we going? The reception is in the church hall.”

“I know. We’ll be back, eventually.” He pulled her to the car and once he’d tucked her and her white dress safely into the convertible, sped for the Bartons’ street.

“Are you dragging me home to have sex?”

“No. Well, okay, yes. But not yet. There’s something I have to show you first.”

She looked skeptical, until he pulled onto the street behind her parents’ house, parked and turned off the car.

“Why are we here?”

“See that big hole in the ground filled with cement?” He went around to her side and pulled her out of the car.

“Yeah.”

Scooping her up, he walked across the red clay dirt of the construction site and stepped up onto the poured-concrete slab. Then he spun her around as she clutched the ring of fresh flowers that sat on the dark ringlets pinned up on top of her head. “I have just carried you across the threshold of our new home, Mrs. Ryan. What do you think?”

“This is ours?”

“Yup. Bought, paid for and almost built.”

She squeezed his neck and smacked a kiss on his lips. “I think, that if you don’t take me to a house with actual walls really soon, we’re going to be giving our new neighbors quite a show.”

Cole’s heart clenched with love as he grinned and started the walk back to the car. “Mrs. Ryan, I think I am really going to like being married to you.”

About the Author

As an award-winning author of contemporary erotic romance in genres including military, cowboy, ménage and paranormal, Cat Johnson uses her computer so much she wore the letters off the keyboard within a year. She is known for her creative marketing and research practices. Consequently, Cat owns an entire collection of camouflage shoes for book signings and a fair number of her consultants wear combat or cowboy boots for a living. In her real life, she’s been a marketing manager, professional harpist, bartender, tour guide, radio show host, Junior League president, sponsor of a bull-riding rodeo cowboy, wife and avid animal lover.

To learn more about Cat, please visit
www.catjohnson.net
. Send an email to Cat at
[email protected]
, or follow her on Twitter at
www.twitter.com/cat_johnson
.

Look for these titles by Cat Johnson

Now Available:

Red, Hot & Blue

Trey

Jack

Jimmy

Jared

Cole

Rough Stock

Studs in Spurs

Unridden

Bucked

Ride

Hooked

Coming Soon:

Red, Hot & Blue

Bobby

A Few Good Men

Everything is just right…until she turns his life upside down.

Jared

© 2011 Cat Johnson

Red, Hot & Blue, Book 4

It doesn’t take anything fancy to make Jared Gordon a happy man. A slice of his mama’s pie, a pretty girl, a well-bred horse. Life on the farm is just how he likes it. Simple. Until a big-city girl blows into town like a tornado hitting a trailer park.

Quintessentially small-town Pigeon Hollow has everything L.A. producer Mandy Morris needs for her new reality show. A smoldering deputy sheriff, a quirky diner owner and a horse farm complete with a hunky horseman. If her own instant attraction is any indication, Jared will have the female demographic glued to their sets.

Except the red-hot cowboy is cool to the idea of cameras in his face. And the harder she negotiates, the deeper he digs in…until their head-butting strikes sparks that fan a prairie fire of unexpected passion. She doesn’t usually mix business with pleasure, but as Pigeon Hollow’s charm works its magic, the youngest Gordon brother has Mandy rethinking many things.

Like happiness doesn’t have to end with the word “cut”.

Warning: Contains one hot shirtless cowboy taking a city girl for a roll in the hay…and a few other places.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Jared:

The babe in front of him was looking mighty warm in that jacket. He started to sweat in sympathy. She blew out a breath and ran a hand along the back of her neck and under her shoulder-length hair. Then she took the jacket off.

That
was enough to make a man stand up and take notice. Now she looked downright hot, enough to make Jared sweat for real and not from the air temperature.

Under that jacket, she was wearing nothing but a tight, low-cut, sleeveless top. Much better than the jacket, he decided, forcing his eyes up from her breasts and back to her face.

“We’ve got satellite television with all the channels, but I can tell you that a pretty stranger is much more entertaining.” He treated her to his most charming smile but it didn’t seem to work like it usually did on most women.

“I need to speak with the owner. Do you think you could stop whatever you are doing—” she looked around pointedly as if to let him know she didn’t think he was doing much of anything before she continued, “—and go and get her for me?”

What she’d said captured Jared’s attention even more than her sexy tank top had. He raised a brow. “Her? What makes you think the owner is a she?”

She let out an annoyed sounding sigh. “I do my research. I know this farm is registered with the small business bureau as being a woman-owned business.”

The question of why she was researching them remained unanswered. He was about to interrogate her further when the woman owner in question, his mama, stuck her head out of the kitchen door.

“Jared, honey. The computer crashed again. When you come in for lunch maybe you can figure out why that keeps happening.”

The pretty stranger glanced from his mother standing in the door of the house and then back to Jared. The look she shot him was full of suggestion. “Is that the owner?”

“Yup.” He started walking toward the kitchen, resigned to the fact that this nosy but hot female was bound to follow.

As anticipated, she practically jogged to keep up with him. “Are you and she…ah, you know? A couple?”

He stopped dead and turned in horror. “No.”

She shrugged. “It’s okay if you are, I’m just wondering.”

Jared shot her another unhappy glance and then scowled all the way to the back door at her lewd suggestion.

Okay, maybe if he took a moment to re-evaluate his mother the way a stranger might see her he wasn’t so shocked. Mama had been really, really young when she got married and started having babies. She’d just turned fifty, but she took good care of herself.

Dressed in cut-off jeans and flip-flops the way she was today, she looked easily in her early forties. Jared was in his late twenties. He knew there were some actresses in Hollywood who dated guys as much as twenty years younger, but still, this was his
mother
.

Jared shook his head. This woman came from a totally different world than he did. A world he could barely comprehend. Given that, he’d have to try not to judge her too harshly, particularly since he had kept his real identity from her. He also resolved to find out her damn name so he could stop thinking of her as this woman because he had a feeling he’d be thinking a lot about her.

Holding the screen door open for her, Jared waited for her to walk through first. Hell, he had been raised right. He knew how to act around a lady, even if she was likely some sort of salesman, uh, sales
person
. He would have introduced her to his mama too, but again he didn’t know the woman’s name. Luckily, she was one of those assertive business-like types and stepped right up without waiting for him. “Ms. Lois Gordon?”

His mama nodded.

“I’m Mandy Morris.” She smiled and stuck out her hand. “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”

“The pleasure is all mine. Jared never brings his girls home to meet me.” His mama smiled wide and shook her hand.

Mandy—cute name—glanced at him briefly and then turned back to his mother. “I’m sorry, Ms. Gordon. I think you’ve gotten the wrong impression. I’m not one of Jared’s
girls
. I’m actually here to see you. I have a business proposition for you. If you have some time now, I’d love to discuss it with you privately.”

Jared noticed she said the last word very pointedly, as if to let him know he was not welcome to participate in the discussion about whatever this business proposal was. He looked her over again, all decked in her city clothes. No way was she here to make an offer to buy the farm, or even a horse. She was probably trying to sell them ad space in the local yellow pages or something.

“Ms. Morris, I may be the owner on record for Gordon Equine, but my son runs the farm. All I do nowadays is handle the paperwork and the accounting and crash the computer.” Mama smiled and indicated the computer, phone and stack of papers on a desk set up in the corner of the kitchen.

She insisted on working in the kitchen rather than making one of the many other rooms into an office. Mama said it was because she usually was cooking or baking something at the same time she was working on the books. Multi-tasking, isn’t that what women called it?

Personally Jared preferred doing one thing at a time. Though glancing at Mandy again, he decided he could definitely get into doing some multi-tasking when it came to her.

“Your son?” Mandy looked understandably surprised at what Mama had just revealed. She also didn’t appear happy. She shot him quite a nasty look.

Now he was in for it.

His last eight seconds could lead to the longest, most satisfying ride of his life.

Hooked

© 2011 Cat Johnson

Studs in Spurs, Book 4

Annie Grant is at the top of her game as an on-air interviewer for the pro bull-riders tour. In all those years standing within microphone range of thousands of sexy cowboys, she’s never been tempted…until now. Now that respected veteran Luke Carpenter is no longer with his longtime girlfriend, he’s back on the market. And Annie is buying.

Luke knows his days are numbered. Every year the rookies get younger, the bulls get ranker and, like it or not, the time is coming when he’ll be hanging up his spurs. After a sizzling hot night with Annie, he realizes that maybe this old dog can learn some new tricks. But quicker than a bull can spin, things get complicated.

A tragedy forces Luke into a no-win decision: hang onto the tail end of his career, or retire early for his family. Either way, he can live with his choice. Question is, can he live without Annie?

Warning: Contains knock-your-boots-off cowboy lovin, some up close and personal interviews of the oral persuasion, and a happy ending… cowboy style.

Enjoy the following excerpt for
Hooked:

Would he leave now? She really didn’t want him to. “Um, I could make us some coffee, or decaf…” She swung her arm in the general direction of the bathroom where the machine was, as unappetizing as that juxtaposition was.

“Sure. That would be great.” Luke let the door swing shut.

Annie took the keycard he had handed her and dropped it onto the dresser along with her bag. The surface was a little messy but at least housekeeping had made the bed—the big king-sized bed. She yanked her gaze away from that and glanced guiltily at him, and noticed Luke was staring in the same direction she had been, at that big inviting mattress.