Jun 19, 2016

Sunday Guest Smooch, with Anne McAllister

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!


Today Bronwyn Jameson hosts a Guest Smooch from the fabulous Anne McAllister but first an announcement...

The winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Laura Russell. Congratulations, Laura. Can you please contact yvonne (at) yvonnelindsay (dot) com to receive your signed copy of Arranged Marriage, Bedroom Secrets.



And now for today's Smooch from Cowboys Don't Cry, by Anne McAllister.


Don’t Fence Me In!

When Wyoming cowboy Robert Tanner promised to help out the new owner of the Three Bar C, he didn’t expect to have to teach a city girl schoolteacher how to run a ranch. Worse, Maggie MacLeod was a beautiful feisty redhead with flashing eyes and kissable lips — a woman who could tempt a saint.

Tanner was far from a saint. He didn’t do permanent, he didn’t do relationships. The smart thing would be to leave. But a man was only as good as his word. Trouble was, the longer he stayed, the more Maggie got under his skin…
While showing his new boss around the Three Bar C, ranch foreman Robert Tanner notices a cow having difficulty calving. With Maggie’s help and some difficulty, he delivers the new baby calf...


Maggie dropped the rope and knelt down beside it. "Is it—" her voice was hollow, her face ashen.

Tanner didn’t answer. He hunkered down over it and cleared its mouth, waited. Nothing. He bent and blew in it, forced air down into its lungs once, then again. Again.

It gagged, then choked. All four legs twitched. One eye opened, then the other.

“It’s alive!” Maggie exulted. She laughed. She crowed. She crouched down and planted a kiss on its messy head. Then she looked at Tanner, her green eyes sparkling. "You did it! Oh, Robert! You did it!”

And then she launched herself at him and kissed him, too.

The force knocked Tanner flat on his back. His arms came up and went around her all of their own accord. All the breath went right out of him.

The warmth and the weight of her robbed him of whatever coherence the sheer impact hadn’t. Only his body responded, and his lips. Hers were warm and wet. His were starving. He couldn’t help himself. Desperation could only protect him so far. Common sense simply fled.

When her lips touched his, he kissed her.

It had been years since he’d kissed a woman like that. Fourteen long, hungry, lonely years. There had been women in his life since his divorce from Clare. But they had been few, and none of them had promised more than a night’s satisfaction.

Maggie did—as he’d known she would.

The notion terrified him. He jerked his head aside, then grasped her arms and tried to shove her away.

Maggie pulled back, her face flaming. But still she straddled him and he could feel the press of the juncture of her legs against him. He shoved himself up, but that only made matters worse.

"Oh!" She scrambled off him and he got to his feet, turned his back, adjusted his jeans.

"I’m...sorry," Maggie said in a tiny voice.

"It’s all right." It wasn’t. It was awful. It had felt so good having her on top of him, her breasts pressing against his chest, her lips on his. He reached over and snagged his hat out of the muck and jammed it on his head.

He hoped to God she hadn’t noticed the way his hands had gripped her waist, hadn’t felt the instinctive masculine response of his body to her touch.

He got to his knees and ducked his head, reaching for the calf and hauling it up next to the cow’s head.

She lifted her head, put out her tongue and gave it a tentative lick. The calf made a noise and nuzzled against her. Her eyes, rheumy and lacking luster, brightened. She licked again, nosed her child, licked some more.

"Mother love," Maggie said softly. Her voice sounded a little bit hoarse.

Tanner nodded. He didn’t answer because he knew his would have been a whole lot hoarser. He didn’t look at her either, just gathered up his rope, tugged his hat down harder, then got to his feet and moved toward his horse. Maggie started to follow him, then turned back.

"Look, Robert, just look at them," Maggie said. "Isn’t it wonderful?"

She was dirty and slightly disheveled and with just a hint of embarrassment still in her cheeks, she looked positively radiant—the most beautiful woman he’d seen in his entire life, Clare included.

"Wonderful," Tanner croaked and turned desperately back to his horse.

Excerpt from Cowboys Don't Cry, the first in Anne McAllister's THE TANNER BROTHERS trilogy, published in March/April/May 2016 by Tule Publishing.


Best-selling author Anne McAllister has written nearly 70 romance novels—long and short, contemporary, time travel, and single title.  She has won two RITA awards from the Romance Writers of America—for Cowboy Pride and The Stardust Cowboy—and has had nine other books which were RITA finalists.

A former editor once told Anne that she wrote "died-with-their-boots-on cowboys", meaning  rugged, realistic, down-to-earth cowboys who don’t own multi-national corporations on the side.  She likes her cowboy heroes to be honourable, tough, competent and generous.  Tall, dark and handsome also helps.


Are you a fan of the cowboy hero? What qualities do you admire in them?  

Leave a comment and you will be included in the draw to win a digital copy of your choice of Anne's TANNER BROTHERS.

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and a smooch from The Bridesmaid's Baby Bump by Kandy Shepherd will be posted!


Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver

29 comments:

  1. Hi Anne

    WOW what a smooch I loved it and yes I do love me a cowboy the way they ride a horse with their hats on and the caring and love they show to their heroines when they find them :)

    Have Fun
    Helen

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    1. Helen, I love this excerpt too because of how it SHOWS so much about the characters. We know Tanner is a man who can be relied on in a bind -- he is caring and competent and real. And he's also, when it comes to relationships, a bit rusty and a lot saddle-shy.

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    2. Me, too, Helen! I love guys like Tanner. He is pretty much my quintessential cowboy hero, though I have a few others I'm fond of, too. And yes, they are good to the women in their lives!

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  2. loved the smooch--also love cowboys either American or Australian --the make one thing of wide open spaces ----LynW

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    1. I'm pretty fond of the Australian cowboys I've read about, too, Lyn. But I don't know any real ones -- yet.

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    2. They do have much in common with their American counterparts, Anne, in the ways that matter.

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  3. I loved that book and reading that excerpt really made me smile. I think the thing I love most about Anne's Tanner Brothers books is that they're written from the male POV and boy does Anne write her cowboys well.

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    1. Thank you, Shelagh. I'm glad you liked those Tanner guys!

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  4. I love Cowboy heroes. I love their ethics. I love Anne's books too. What a wonderful smooch this week

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    1. Thanks, Tammy. Totally agree about the ethics of cowboy heroes. And I'm delighted to know you've enjoyed my books.

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  5. OMG!!!! Anne!! You won't believe this but I've just spend two hours this rainy Sunday morning and finished Cowboys Don't Cry! I'd started it a couple of weeks ago then life interfered and I hadn't the chance to get back to it but this morning I thought - right! Perfect reading weather. I even tweeted that I was doing it! And I finished it and loved it and then one-clicked the next 2 books as well.

    I'm currently battling with myself to actually do some work and not go back to bed and binge read them :-) Trust me - I'm losing ;-)

    I love me a good cowboy and you do some of the best!

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    1. Amy! So glad to hear you got to spend a rainy Sunday morning with Tanner. I'm sure he enjoyed it as well! And thanks for ordering the other brothers. Hope you like them, too! And I very much appreciate the tweet! Bless you! Read on.

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    2. Don't you just love that kind of serendipity, Amy? And I couldn't think of a batter way to spend a rainy Sunday morning than in bed with a Tanner!

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  6. What a wonderful smooch, Anne! Am loving the chemistry between Tanner and Maggie. :-)

    Ooh, a man on a horse...a capable man on a horse...a hot capable man on a horse -- is there anything better? ;-) Thanks for visiting the LoveCats today and sharing some a fab excerpt with us!

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    1. Michelle, I'm so glad Bronwyn brought the smooch to the LoveCat readers today! And I very much agree about hot capable men on horseback. Gotta love 'em.

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  7. What I like near about cowboys is they take care of things, that to what they say they will.

    Your guy is got.:-;

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    1. Ouch that pesky spell chk garbled my post.

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    2. Argh, don't you hate that with auto-correct, Laura?

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    3. Hate spell-check, too! I agree, they are care-takers, Laura, and true to their word.

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  8. I do love a cowboy. I think it's the outer & inner strength most of all.

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  9. Anne is a new author to me so will have to check it out. !! Cowboys - mmm where do I start I think its the tight jeans, cowboy hat and the fact that most are handsome gentlemen ! They radiate strength and dont come across sleezy ! What can I say I love the smell of horses as well :D

    The book sounds great will def be checking out this authors work :D

    Katrina ;D

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    1. I think you've pretty much nailed the appeal, Katrina! Hope you will check out Tanner and his brothers. Thanks!

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  10. Hello Anne, I really enjoyed this kiss. I love the Cowboys, especially those Texans and those living in the interior of Australia. I am fascinated by their way of life, even though I know it is very difficult, for their contact with nature and animals, especially horses.

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    1. Thanks, Franca! I'm glad to hear you're fond of cowboys! It is a difficult life, that's for sure. It takes a special kind of man.

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  11. Anne! How lovely to have you here and to get a peek at 'Cowboys Don't Cry'. I love a capable man and there's something about the laconic, often loner hero image of the cowboy that appeals. He's there through thick and thin, doing what he must. Definitely the sort of guy you want by your side! :) Thanks for sharing.

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  12. Hi Annie, Lovely to be here and be able to share Tanner with all your readers. He is indeed there when you need him. My kind of guy!

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  13. I love cowboy heroes. I admire their honesty, loyalty, and caring.

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