A Very Cowboy Christmas
Smokin’ Hot Cowboys #3
Kim Redford
Kim Redford
Pub
Date: October 3, 2017
Third in a spicy contemporary cowboy series from acclaimed author Kim
Redford. Sydney Steele needs to wrangle cowboy firefighters to model for her
charity Christmas calendar, and Dune Barrett—who she has in mind for Mr.
December—is just the man for the job.
There’s nothing like a firefighting cowboy to keep you toasty warm this
Christmas…
Christmas is coming up, and single mom Sydney
Steele is determined to make this a holiday to remember for Wildcat Bluff
County. She still has to get those pesky, reluctant—and deliciously
attractive—firefighting cowboys to pose for her charity calendar. They claim
they’re too busy pursuing an unknown arsonist to take a break.
Dune Barrett has been flirting with Sydney for months, so he jumps at
the chance to give her a hand. And when he agrees to pose as Mr. December, she
couldn’t be happier. But to really win her over, Dune will have to convince
eleven other guys from his crew to exploit their good looks for charity…a task
much easier said than done.
Sydney felt the heat of
Dune’s gaze and glanced up at him. He’d moved closer. She inched toward
Celeste, her 1959 pink Cadillac, but if she backed up any farther, she’d be
impaled on the tinsel-wrapped longhorns. Drat that gleam in his blue eyes. He
had it whenever he was around her, and it had a tendency to strike sparks in
her.
“You want me to look under
the hood?” He leaned forward with a little quirk of his sensual lips.
So kissable. She squashed that thought and immediately was swamped with
another one that had him looking under her skirt
instead of the hood. What was wrong with her? She definitely did not want him
looking anywhere but at her convertible. She had to get her mind back on
business.
“Are you in a hurry?”
“Yes!” She was in a hurry
to get away from him, or she’d be wearing tank tops instead of sweaters this
Christmas.
“You want to step away
from Celeste?”
How could she when he was
right in front of her? If she made a single move, she’d be right up against his
body. If she could’ve, she would’ve looked into the distance to try to clear
her mind of unacceptable thoughts, but she couldn’t see over his broad
shoulders. He totally filled her world with his presence.
“Guess you’ve got a lot on
your mind.”
She rolled her eyes. He
didn’t know the half of it. She caught her lower lip with her upper teeth in
frustration.
He reached out, tugged her
lip free with the pad of his thumb, and gently rubbed back and forth as if to
soothe a hurt. “No need to worry. I’m here to help you now.”
She felt chills run up her
spine at his gentleness and concern. She didn’t mean to do it—and wouldn’t have
been so bold if he hadn’t short-circuited her brain—but she flicked the tip of
her tongue over the edge of his thumb and tasted the essence of him. All male.
“Now, why’d you go and do
something I can’t resist?” He eased his thumb across her lower lip, down her
jaw, and captured the back of her neck with his fingers to hold her head in
place as he lowered his face toward her.
She knew a kiss was
coming—right on the side of Wildcat Road in front of the whole county—and she
knew she should say something or do something to stop him, but she wanted his
kiss more than anything else she could imagine at that moment. It’d been so
long since a man had held her or kissed her that she wasn’t sure she even knew
how to respond anymore.
When his lips finally
touched hers—just a gentle brush really, as if he was gauging her response—she
felt swept up in a blazing wildfire.
And yet she sought to keep
her wits about her. She should focus on business, not her own sudden need. She
put her hands flat against his broad chest to push him back, but she quickly
realized she couldn’t budge him because he was so much bigger and stronger. She
felt a little shock. She was five ten—although she’d claimed to be six feet
tall since her high school basketball days when height was critical—and sported
enough muscle to work a ranch, but he made her feel almost petite.
She intended to push him
away—absolutely, no doubt about it. Instead, she found her hands slowly sliding
up his chest, making her hyperaware of the soft cotton of his shirt as his
muscles hardened under her touch. All her senses came shockingly alive. She
heard a mockingbird’s song, caught the tangy scent of cedar trees, and Dune’s
taste still lingered on her tongue. He didn’t move a millimeter, as if he’d
waited a lifetime for her to touch him.
When she reached his
shoulders, he gave her another feather-light kiss that promised more than it
gave. Not nearly enough, not now that her mind had given way to her body. She
sighed against his soft lips and clasped his shoulders to pull him closer. He
groaned—as if the ragged sound was torn from his gut—at her response to him.
She returned his kiss, teasing his lips with the tip of her tongue until she
tore another groan from him, and he plunged inside while he crushed her against
him, holding her head in one hand and her waist in the other as if he’d never
let her go.
She moaned as she thrust
her fingers into his thick hair, shivering with heat as he plundered her mouth
and made her weak in the knees. She quickly realized that she had an answer to
her question. No, indeed, she hadn’t forgotten how to give or receive a kiss,
particularly one of this magnitude.
Finally, when she was
putty in his hands, he raised his head and looked at her with eyes the color of
midnight. She simply blinked in response, unable to articulate a single word.
“If you let me into your
life—even a little bit—I promise not to disappoint you.”
KIM REDFORD is an acclaimed author of Western romance.
She grew up in Texas with cowboys, cowgirls, horses, cattle, and rodeos. She
divides her time between homes in Texas and Oklahoma, where she’s a rescue cat
wrangler and horseback rider—when she takes a break from her keyboard. Visit
her at kimredford.com.
A note from Kim Redford
As
a holiday tradition, imagine a big, roaring bonfire with red and orange flames
leaping upward along with spirals of pale smoke. I’ll be in my chair beside the
fire, along with family and friends, in an open meadow surrounded by the sight
and scent of evergreen trees. Bright stars twinkle in the canopy of dark sky
above us. Dogs and cats lounge here and there. Guitar and flute and voice
serenade us with favorite Christmas carols and old-time country songs that stir
fond memories of our close community of loved ones, as well as those who are no
longer with us or who are too far away to be there. We drink hot apple cider,
roast marshmallows, cook hotdogs, and make s’mores as we sing and visit while
making plans for another wonderful year.
And
just so you know, there’s always room for one more at our bonfire.
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