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Unrequited love, two sexy cowboys and a passionate veterinarian fight their past in order to find their futures together…half a heart at a time.
A promise broken.
Losing her family at a young age, and being a victim to broken promises from the man she loved all her life, means Charlie McCarty rarely lets anyone get close to her. Resolved to live her life without love and determined to become a top-notch veterinarian, she begins her residency in Redfield. Fate, however, has a way of stepping in to change even the most stubborn set plans, and forces Charlie to face her past, pushing the boundaries of her control and her heart to the brink of destruction.
A passion-fueled desire.
It started out as a celebration, a chance for Charlie to let her hair down and just let go of her firm control for just one evening, but a sexy as hell cowboy, and his familiar best friend, ambush everything. With relentless determination, both cowboys set out to show her that she is everything they want to complete their lives. Charlie begins to dream, once again, for the future she thought lost to her years ago.
A journey of the heart.
When a terrifying figure from the past steps into their fragile romance, will their love be enough to overcome the horror about to be unleashed, or will it leave them with hearts broken?
Publisher's Note: This book has previously been released elsewhere. It has been revised and re-edited for re-release with Totally Bound Publishing.
Reader Advisory: This book contains kidnapping, a brief scene of sexual assault and graphic violence. There are also scenes of MM intimacy,
General Release Date: 23rd February 2016
Seven years later
“I can’t believe I let you talk me into coming here.”
Charlie knew she was pouting, but she didn’t really care at the moment. She hated honky-tonks.
She looked around Jack’s Place. It was like all the other cowboy bars she had allowed Rae to force her to. The standard chicken wire stretching across solid wooden beams closed off the small stage in an attempt to protect the local cover bands from rowdy patrons and wayward longnecks. Sawdust covered a wood-plank dance floor that sported couples whirling and twirling in two-step fashion while twangy music blasted from a jukebox in the far corner. The decor did nothing to cover up or distract from the thick, harsh aroma of stale beer and cigarette smoke—it assaulted the nose and eyes just the same.
Rolling her eyes at Rae, Charlie continued to pout. “Dammit, Rae, this was supposed to be a celebration for my seven years of hard work. Not just another excuse for you to hogtie some poor, unsuspecting cowboy.” She stuck her tongue out at her best friend.
“C’mon, Charlie, this is about you. What better way to celebrate your success and burn off a little stress than surround yourself by tight asses? If I happen to get a chance to hogtie one, it’s just an added bonus. You know what you need?”
“Oh, do tell.”
“You, my friend, need to get laid.”
Charlie snorted a laugh, nearly choking on her beer. “Ha! If I needed to get laid—which I don’t—the last place on earth I’d look for a date would be somewhere like this.”
Rae lifted an eyebrow at her. How the hell does she do that? Charlie had spent hours in the mirror trying to perfect that look and just couldn’t get it right. It was a look that made the recipients instantly start questioning themselves.
“See, that’s your problem right there. I never said you needed a date, just that you should get laid. What’s it been, like a year? Is that even possible? Honey, what you need is one of these big, strong, hot and horny cowboys to work all that tension right out of your system.”
Actually, it had been one year, eleven months and four days—not that she was counting or anything. The image of rope-callused hands as they stroked up and down her body made Charlie squirm in her chair. She would certainly never admit it to Rae, though.
The self-induced celibacy was sometimes even a bit much for her. She had her reasons and knew she had made the right choice not to get involved with anyone, physically or otherwise. But dammit, some days were harder than others.
“Besides,” Rae continued, “it would do the locals good to see their new town vet with her hair down and having some fun.”
“First of all, I’m just an overworked, underpaid resident. I won’t officially be able to call myself a vet for another year. Secondly, I don’t really think the ‘locals’ will give a damn whether my hair is up or down when I have my arm shoved up their cows’ asses.”
“Eww.” Rae grimaced. “TMI, Charlie, TMI!”
A roar of laughter escaped Rae and Charlie joined her. They laughed until tears rolled down their cheeks and Charlie’s sides ached. They wiped the tears from their eyes as their waitress approached then set down two longneck bottles of beer and two shot glasses that smelled strongly like tequila.
Charlie stared at the waitress through watery eyes. The woman was short, but what she lacked in height, she obviously tried to make up for with the size of her surgically enhanced breasts. They strained against a size too small T-shirt that advertised she got ‘off’ at Jack’s Place. Calling the material she wore across her ass shorts would be adding length to the barely there garment.
Charlie couldn’t help but wonder how uncomfortable it must be to have to wear such an outfit at home, let alone in public. Maybe that was why the woman had a look of disgust in her eyes and a snarl on her bright-red lips, though she highly doubted it.
“Compliments of the cowboy at the end of the bar,” the waitress drawled, jerking her head in the direction indicated. She met Charlie’s eyes with a look of pure hatred before she stalked off.
“Jesus, what the hell is her problem?”
“Who cares? Holy shit, Charlie! Turn around and look at the wet dream that just bought us drinks,” Rae murmured. “I think I just came in my panties.”
Charlie picked up her beer and turned toward the bar with every intention of saluting the cowboy with the beer in a gesture of thank you. When her eyes locked on the man standing at the bar, she was too stunned to move.
“Holy shit is right,” Charlie panted.
At the end of the bar stood a curly, dark-haired mountain of a man, a black Stetson pulled down low over his eyes. Olive skin accentuated a strong masculine face with full lips turned up into a sly smile above a strong, square jaw with just a hint of dark stubble.
The man was a god, pure and simple, and the look on his face showed he knew exactly what effect he had on the opposite sex. Hell, he was gorgeous enough that he probably had the same effect on most of the same sex as well.
Charlie let her eyes travel downward from his handsome face to his broad shoulders and thick chest, which tapered beneath a tight white T-shirt to lean, narrow hips. His jeans were loose, hung low on his hips, and covered tree-trunk-sized thighs.
Charlie took in the sight of him with a deep appreciation as she moved back up the man’s smoking hot body and locked on those piercing eyes. Her quickened heart rate increased to hummingbird speed and her lungs forgot the need for oxygen as the sexy cowboy’s smile moved from sly to dazzling, then winked in her direction.
Heat rushed through her body like a freight train and heated up every cell of her body, only to merge into one lava-hot charge between her thighs.
Turning back to face her friend, Charlie knew the awed, dazed look on Rae’s face was a mirror image of her own. She worked hard to slow down her breathing and squirmed in her seat, attempting to relieve the ache in her sex.
“Rae?” she whispered.
Silence.
“Earth to Rae.”
Rae continued to stare in the direction of the bar, never once blinking until Charlie kicked her shin under the table. “Please tell me I’m not imagining that the sexiest man on the planet is standing against a bar behind me and just bought us a drink.”
Rae jumped with a start, nearly knocking her beer over, and they both burst out laughing.
“So, what were you saying about not needing to get laid?”
“Well, I do believe that Mr. Yum-Yum might be able to convince me otherwise given the right motivation.”
“Uh-huh, might? Riiiight! On that note, I think I’ll head to the little girls’ room to wring out my panties.”
Charlie watched Rae’s exaggerated hip swings as she swished and swayed her way across to the back of the bar and had to giggle. She was actually having a good time. She had met Rachel ‘Rae’ Lang during her first semester in college, and the woman always seemed to know exactly how Charlie was feeling and just what she needed.
She so needed this tonight. She just wanted to spend one evening without thinking about school or anything else. During the semester, she was able to immerse herself completely in her studies with little time to let the loneliness she felt take up residence in her thoughts.
In between semesters, void of the schedule and the endless hours of researching and studying, were the hardest times for her. Rae was the only person on the planet who seemed to give a damn if Charlie existed or not. At twenty-five years old, she had no family and only one friend. Just how pathetic was that? A twinge of pain hit Charlie as she wondered what the hell she was going to do when Rae finally found the cowboy of her dreams and settled down. What then?
You go back to being lonely and miserable like you are whenever Rae’s with her family.
Not really a comforting thought. Charlie sighed, realizing the truth of it as she took a sip of beer.
Feeling a heavy hand land on her shoulder, she nearly jumped out of her skin when a deep, sultry voice whispered in her ear.
“Dance with me.”
The soft command sent a hot thrill through her.
Charlie turned and looked up into the most captivating chocolate-brown eyes she had ever seen. Before her brain had a chance to react to the command, her body took over and followed him across the room to the dance floor.
Once engulfed in the sea of dancers, the cowboy pulled her against his rock-hard body. He cupped his right hand behind her neck and settled the other at the small of her back, his touch searing her skin.
Though the music that blared from the jukebox inspired a two-step hoedown, the mysterious man seemed oblivious to the upbeat tempo and pulled her against him, adjusting her slightly until his powerfully built thigh was nestled between her legs. His muscles flexed and rippled against her heated skin as he began to sway in a slow, sensual movement that had Charlie fighting to control her breathing.
The urge to pant was overwhelming. Rough fingertips stroked the exposed skin at the small of her back. The nerve endings seemed hardwired directly to her core. She shivered as moisture heated between her thighs.
Those wonderful fingers at her back began to slide under the waistband of her skirt, the heat singeing her flesh and making it difficult to concentrate on anything but the sensual touch that kept rhythm with the sway of his hips against hers.
Charlie was losing her ever-loving mind and fought to keep from grinding against the thick thigh wedged between hers. The hard bulge pushing against her hip was doing little to help her with that battle.
A warm breath ghosted against the sensitive skin below her ear. “Tell me your name.”
He expected her to speak? She couldn’t think past the sensations consuming her body. How the hell was she supposed to form a coherent thought when his whisper turned into open-mouthed kisses down her neck? She forgot all about words and questions, or hell, breathing for that matter. Instead, she did the only thing she could think of under the onslaught of that warm, wonderful tongue. She eased her head back and gave him plenty of room to work.
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