No amount of training
could’ve prepared him for her.
IN A RANGER'S ARMS
The Men of At Ease Ranch #1
Donna Michaels
Entangled Lovestruck
No amount of training
could’ve prepared him for her.
Former Army Ranger Stone
Mitchum doesn’t have time for relationships, let alone a one-night stand. He’s
too busy running a ranch that helps transition veterans back into society. But
when his curvy new tenant falls into his arms, his libido snaps to attention.
Jovy Larson has four weeks
to prove she’s worthy of taking over the family business. She’s up for whatever
ridiculous task they throw at her, but selling vegan food to a bunch of cowboys
in cattle country, Texas? Not half as tough as fighting her attraction to her
sexy, surly landlord.
Good thing she’s stubborn.
Then again, so is he…
EXCERPT
When Jovy Larson’s grandfather had sent
her to the middle of cattle country USA to open a gluten-free, vegan café in a
contest to test her business skills against her cousin, she knew she would have
to deal with some tough, and often unexpected, situations. Becoming a
hit-and-moo victim of a rampaging cow had never made the list. Bovines
weren’t exactly a common fixture in the City of Brotherly Love, despite the
fact that Pennsylvania was one of the top five U.S. dairy farm states with over
eight thousand farms. She’d never seen one up close. The clanging of the bell
grew louder.
That was about to
change. And fast. Mad-cow-charging fast.
With a startled
gasp, she tried to scramble down the ladder, but it teetered under her feet and
her hands ended up windmilling instead. Jovy’s last thought as she flew
backward toward the large plate-glass storefront window was if she didn’t die,
her cranky landlord was going to kill her.
Fully expecting to
smash through the glass, she was shocked to hear a deep, sexy, panty-melting
baritone claim, “I’ve got you,” a second before a tall cowboy appeared out of
thin air to catch her with his rock-hard body. Two strong, muscular arms
clamped around her before the momentum knocked them both to the ground.
Her mind was
processing the fact that she was uncut and still alive, sprawled over the
sexiest man she’d ever seen, when the stranger rolled them over to shield her
from the falling ladder. The impact vibrated through his stiff frame.
Holy cow. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah.” Warm breath
rushed over her neck and shoulders as he drew back to stare down at her. During
the tussle, his hat fell off to reveal short black hair that didn’t quite reach
his collar. “What about you? Are you all right?” Gray eyes, the color of a
child’s prized marble, blinked at her in a worried frown.
Increasingly aware that
she was now underneath the tall, sexy stranger, whose big, warm, firm
hand was cupping her ass—and she liked it—Jovy cleared her throat. “Define ‘all
right.’”
“Are you hurt?” He
removed his palm from inside her shorts, the warm, tingling feeling dissipated
along with his touch, until he shoved the ladder aside, sat up, and began to
run both hands efficiently over the rest of her body.
Her sorely neglected
body. A body doing an all hail Mr. Gray Eyes tremor. Lord have mercy,
her good parts hadn’t been in contact with a male like this in over a year. Not
since…
“Hey, miss? Answer
me. Are you hurt?”
Hurt? She stifled a
hysterical giggle. “No.”
Aroused? Oh, yeah.
Big-time. And completely embarrassed by her reaction to the total stranger. She
could explain away the tremors racking her body as shock, but not the beaded
nipples plainly visible through her bra and tank top.
If he noticed them,
he didn’t let on as his hands skimmed over her chest, neck, and shoulders.
She gritted her
teeth, enjoying the scrape of his callus-roughened hands on her skin, doing her
damnedest not to embarrass herself further by moaning.
Dumb body.
“You feel okay to
me.”
Sitting up, she
snickered. “Thanks, but…shouldn’t you buy me dinner first?” The stupid words
were out of her mouth before she had the chance to swallow them down.
He stilled and met
her gaze for a beat, then his head tipped back and a bark of laughter echoed
down the covered walkway. The deep, sexy sound did nothing to lessen her
arousal, but the sight of the cow, pushing her way past the fallen ladder to
moo in his startled face, sparked her amusement.
Jovy giggled. “Looks
like you have yourself an admirer there, cowboy.”
“Nah.” He shrugged,
lifting a hand to stroke the cow’s neck. “Lula Belle is just a little overzealous.”
And bold, or maybe
not. Jovy didn’t possess a wealth of bovine knowledge. But she did know it was
plumb dangerous for livestock to be roaming free in town. “You should probably
keep your cow at home.”
A smile tugged his
mouth. “She’s not my cow.”
At this, Lula Belle
bent down to lick his face.
Jovy quirked a brow.
“Does the cow know that?”
Donna Michaels is an award winning, New York Times & USA
Today bestselling author of Romaginative fiction. Her hot, humorous, and
heartwarming stories include cowboys, men in uniform, and some sexy, primal
alphas. With a husband in the military fulltime, and a household of nine, she
never runs out of material to write, and has rightfully earned the nickname
Lucy…and sometimes Ethel. From short to epic, her books entertain readers
across a variety of sub-genres, and one has even being hand drawn into a Japanese
translation. Now, if only she could read it.
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