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

Small Town V Big City....

I've just submitted my eighth book for Harlequin Special Edition to my editor and although this next series is set across the ditch in South Dakota, I am still writing about small town's and close-knit communities. As I dive into book number nine I've been wondering what readers prefer - the small town setting, or the big city.

I must admit I like reading both, but when I write a book I always tend to sway towards small towns. Obviously that has a lot to do with the type of book I write, as Special Edition generally do have a real home and family theme running through them. And this seems to reflect on the TV I watch too - as I'm probably more Gilmore Girls than Sex In The City...more Picket Fences than Law & Order...more Longmire than The Good Wife.

So, do your reading and TV tastes match?

Do you like both?

And I've added a picture of a cowboy here because...well...I just love cowboys....

Sunday Smooch With Helen Lacey.....

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from  Helen Lacey___ but first 


... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is MaryLina67.....


Can you please contact Amy Andrews on amy (at) amyandrews  (dot) com (dot) au to receive your copy of It Happened One Night Shift ........


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from Claiming His Brother's Baby by Helen Lacey........


His Brother's Family

Cassie Duncan knew it was only a matter of time until Tanner McCord tried to sell her house out from under her. Still, the single mom can't help but be touched by the sacrifices the handsome loner makes for her and her son, even babysitting when she's sick! She knows he's keeping secrets—after all, it runs in his family…

Tanner returned to his childhood home in Australia to settle his estranged brother's estate—not fall for the woman who'd borne his brother's son. But one look into Cassie Duncan's blue eyes, and the rancher's heart was lassoed good and tight. He wants to give Cassie everything she's been denied…but doing so means confessing the truth about his brother and might ruin their chances at true family…

 

Scene set-up [Cassie and Tanner have just returned home from being out together, and where she learned some of the truth about his brother. Now they are back home and the baby is sleep, she is demanding answers to her questions....]

“Is Oliver settled?” he asked from the doorway.

“Yes.” She remained standing, arms crossed, chin raised. “Did you find out about what Doug had done with Leah before or after he stole your inheritance?”

Straight to the point. A trait of hers he’d come to recognize. “After. Before. It was all around the same time.”

Her gaze narrowed. “So, he stole your money and your girlfriend and got her pregnant?”

“Yes.”

She dropped down onto the love seat in the corner. “I think I need to throw up.”

Tanner moved into the room and stood behind the sofa. “It was a long time ago.”

“Which doesn’t change how utterly despicable it was.”

“No,” he said. “But time does alter perspective on things.”

She shook her head and stared at him. “So you simply forgive and forget and move on?”

“Or get bogged down with anger and resentment,” he replied. “And that’s no way to live.”

She twisted her hands in her lap. “I feel like…I feel like I suddenly know nothing of the man I knew, the man who fathered my son. The man you describe…he’s a stranger. He’s a cold, unfeeling stranger who did whatever he wanted and didn’t care who got hurt in the process.”

“Then don’t remember him that way,” Tanner said and came around the sofa. “Remember him as the man who made you laugh. The man you loved.”

“How can I?” she implored. “I’d be living a lie. How could I love a man who did such things? That would make me…pathetic.”

“Or human.”

She jumped to her feet. “Stop that. Stop making excuses…for Doug…for me. Stop being so forgiving and get mad at him!”

The passion in her voice shifted the mood in the room on some kind of invisible axis. Tanner stared at her, wholly aware of her in a deep, soul wrenching way. She was angry and confused and he watched as her rage gathered momentum. He knew that about her. He knew she was passionate and spirited and not the quiet wallflower his brother had often described. Around him she was fiery and full of life. She was combative and argumentative and stirred his blood and libido. And he wanted her. In his arms. In his bed. In his life.

Suddenly she was in front of him, hands on hips, her cheeks ablaze, chest heaving as she drew in large gulps of air. Heat swirled between them and without thinking he grasped her shoulders and pulled her close. Her arms dropped and then she was against him, breast to chest. And he claimed her lips. Like he’d done when they were thirteen. Like he’d imagined a thousand times since.

And she kissed him back. She opened her mouth and let him inside. She wound her tongue around his and groaned low in her throat when his hands moved down her arms and settled around her back, drawing her closer. There was heat and passion and urgency in the kiss. And it went on and on. He didn’t stop. She didn’t pull away. Her hands were on his shoulders and she sighed against his mouth in complete and utter surrender.

And in that moment Tanner knew he was done for.

He loved her.

And there was no going back. Nowhere to run. No part of his mind or body that could conceal what he’d tried so hard to deny for so long.

“Cassandra…” He whispered her full name against her lips. “Let me stay tonight. I want to make love to you so much.”

And that’s when she froze.

 

Cowboy or CEO? Who's your favourite?

Leave a comment to go into the draw to win a signed copy of Claiming His Brother's Baby.

 

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and another smooch will be posted!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver

My Cowboy Crush

By Bronwyn Jameson

I’m currently immersed in cowboys.  Over the past month I’ve watched movies, read non-fiction about ranch life and training trail horses and the cowboy way, as well as fiction set in the American west.  I’m listening to country music. I’ve started watching the first season of Nashville.

None of this has been a hardship.  In fact, it’s fun and ridiculously addictive... partly because this is quite a switch from the rich, cosmopolitan worlds I’ve most recently been obsessed with.  I’d forgotten how much I love a good western...and a good—or wickedly bad—cowboy. 

John Wayne. Gary Cooper. Clint Eastwood. Bonanza. Rawhide. F Troop J.  I adored Anne McAllister’s Code of the West series for Silhouette and the western historicals of Maggie Osborne and Jo Goodman and Johanna Lindsey. (Does anyone else love her Angel as much as I do?)

 So when I was invited to write a novella for Montana Born Books, I jumped at the chance to create my very own cowboy story. There will be horses, of course, and barn cats and a country band that plays covers of Lady Antebellum and Sara Evans and Keith Urban. There will be work-roughened hands and leather chaps and boot-cut jeans that fit just so. 

There will be a little loping, some sauntering and that slanted look from beneath the brim of a big black hat.

Those are the superficial things. Window-dressing, if you will. Dig deeper beneath the romanticised mystique and you’ll find the real cowboy. He is a hard worker, often in uncompromising environments.  The cowboy is capable, self-reliant, tough.  A simple man whose word is his bond, who doesn’t conform to trends, who lives by his own set of values. The strong, stoic type who is inclined to let his actions do the talking.

Do you have a favourite western? A favourite cowboy depiction? What do you find most attractive about the cowboy way?

Sunday Smooch with Helen Lacey.......

Welcome to another LoveCats DownUnder Sunday Smooch!

Today we have a smooch from Helen Lacey,but first 


... the winner of last week's Sunday Smooch Giveaway is Marcy Schuler.....


Can you please contact Jennifer St George on  jennifer_stgeorge (at) yahoo (dot) com to receive your prize .........


And now for today's Sunday Smooch from The Cattleman's Proposal by Helen Lacey ........

Joley McBride had no interest in Nate Garrigan...even though he'd made it crystal clear he wanted her. The rich and handsome rancher was the kind of man she'd sworn off years ago. But now, part of her beloved flying school was in his hands and Joley would do anything to get it back— including agree to his arrogant demand that she spend a month on his isolated cattle property.

Still feeling the sting of a bitter divorce, Nate knew what he wanted—a wife, children and a life void of any romantic nonsense. And he wanted it with the spirited and beautiful Joley McBride. With the help of a little blackmail, he might just get it. Only, he hadn’t anticipated that Joley would challenge his logical approach to relationships and unexpectedly touch his toughened heart.

Scene set-up - It's morning Joley has entered the stables to see the new foal that has been born and discovered that Nate has been there through the night.....

Finally, he spoke. “Not all men cheat,” he said quietly, locking his eyes with hers. “Not all men lie. Not all men will let you down.”

Could he read her mind? How did he know that she felt that way? Dale’s betrayal had made her wary of all men. Paul had bailed when she’d pulled back and she hadn’t trusted him enough to tell him why she found it so hard to give all of herself to their relationship. Any other man she’d become involved with had lasted only a few dates. And there was Patrick in the background, running her business into the hands of receivers. Until Nate had stepped in and pulled it back from the brink of ruin.

 Joley felt herself sway towards him. “I’m starting to realize that.”

“Believe it,” he said gently. “You trusted someone you shouldn’t have. You’re not the first person to do that. So, forget about him and forgive yourself.”

Could she? Her guilt and shame cut deep. “I’ll try.”

His gaze moved to her mouth. “You know, I’ve been going out of my mind all week.”

“You have?” she asked and laid her hands on his shoulders. “Why is that?”

“Because I’ve wanted to kiss you so much.”

His admission made her belly flip over. “So, kiss me,” Joley said, inviting him to take her lips, inviting him to take her.

He covered her mouth with his in a seductive kiss. It was hot and hard and exactly what she wanted. Nate’s palms curved over her hips and he urged her closer. She held on, driven by need and rising emotion. She curled her fingers around his neck and brought them together at his nape. Joley experienced a deep jolt of desire through to her bones. Denim against denim, breast against chest, he continued to kiss her, continued to slant his mouth across hers. As the kiss went on, the heat between them grew. It was a burning heat, way down, making her want as she’d never wanted before. In that moment, every other touch she’d known was forgotten. Everything was forgotten. Her business, her old fears about losing herself emotionally, seemed to fade and fall to her feet. Nate said her name as he trailed a kiss from her mouth and along her jaw. Joley clung to him and groaned when he moved to the sensitive spot below her ear and kissed her there again and again. He bunched her T-shirt in one hand and urged her closer.

A horse whinnied and Joley pulled back. “We should probably stop,” she said on a ragged breath.

Nate released her and straightened. “If that’s what you want.”

It wasn’t what she wanted at all. A few strides and they’d be in the tack room. Shedding a few layers of clothing and they could be naked together. A few minutes and she could press herself against him and feel every inch of his skin against every inch of hers.

“Yes…”

The word trailed off as she stepped back and pulled her shirt down over the waistband of her jeans. The kiss was over. The mood would be over too. Only, it was difficult to think of anything other than kissing him again when he stood so close.

Nate bolted the stable door. “We’re bringing some of the steers in tomorrow. Transport to the sales yard arrives on Tuesday morning. You can come along if you’re interested.”

“I’d like to help if I can.”

“Sure,” he said and grabbed his shirt off a hook near the door and quickly shouldered into it.

Was he annoyed she’d stopped their kiss? Impossible to tell with Nate. She’d told him everything about Dale and he hadn’t judged her. He’d given her the comfort she’d craved. His arms were pure temptation. And she was tempted to stay there…forever. If only they wanted the same things.

But they didn’t.

Do you like a cowboy hero? Or do you prefer an urban, sophisticated man? Perhaps you like both.

Leave a comment to go into the draw to win an eCopy of The Cattleman's Proposal.

It's available exclusively at Amazon here

Come back next Sunday, when the winner of today's giveaway will be announced and a smooch from From hero To Daddy by Sue Mackay ....... will be posted!

Smooch Graphic by WebWeaver

Release Day.....The Cattleman's Proposal

Today is release day for the first book in my indie published The Men of Mulhany Crossing series.

The Cattleman's Proposal was a labour of love...because it's about cowboys and horses - two of my favourite things.

Here's the blurb -

Joley McBride had no interest in Nate Garrigan…even though he’d made it crystal clear that he wanted her. The rich and handsome rancher was the kind of man she'd sworn off years ago. But now, part of her beloved flying school was in his hands and Joley would do anything to get it back—including agree to his arrogant demand that she spend a month on his isolated cattle property. 

Still feeling the sting of a bitter divorce, Nate knew what he wanted—a wife, children and a life void of any romantic nonsense. And he wanted it with the spirited and beautiful Joley McBride. With the help of a little blackmail, he might just get it. Only, he hadn’t anticipated that Joley would challenge his logical approach to relationships and unexpectedly touch his toughened heart. 

The series revolves around four friends who've known one another since they were kids. Four very different men with different lives, but who have two things in common - their love for their small town and their enduring friendship.

The idea for the series started several years ago when I was discussing relationships with a friend of my husband. They've known one another for over thirty years and it interested me to see them together. They often don't see or speak to each other for a year or so, but when they do talk they have a quick catch up on the past and then get stuck straight into the now. In true male-friend style. There are no wasted words, no long winded explanations, no judgements...it's a very in-the-moment friendship and it quickly got me thinking that I wanted to explore that theme in my books. And the Men of Mulhany Crossing were born. 

I think friendships end or endure because they are about choice. You know that old saying....you get to choose your friends not your family. Perhaps that's why when we find a friend who is a true kindred spirit we work hard to keep them. 

Do you have a friendship that has spanned years or decades? Or perhaps someone new? Someone who you met and just 'clicked' with straight away? 

I have an eCopy of The Cattleman's Proposal to give away to one commenter.

Amazon

www.helenlacey.com 

 

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