Excerpt of Seducing the Sheriff by Marie-Nicole Ryan

Star’s hands shook, but she kept them in front of her so Cord couldn’t tell how much seeing him after four long—damn long—years affected her. He was a man grown all right, in every sense of the word. Four years older than she, he was a good head taller. His craggy face was darkened by the sun, but the warmth of his dark eyes hadn’t changed since the time he teased her at the age of six and dropped a mess of earthworms in her lap in the town’s one-room schoolhouse. And sadly enough at one time, he and her half- brother had been the best of friends.

Now they were on the opposite sides of the law.

More important, this Cord Tate with his double six-shooters was nothing like the lecherous lawyer with sweaty hands and unyielding mouth her mother tried to marry her off to back East. Her mama’s re-entry into polite society and Star was the price. It’d taken Mama four years to find a man with the right setup—respectability, money, social position—who was willing to take an old maid daughter off her hands.

No indeed.

An unfamiliar stirring of emotions hit her from the moment Cord identified himself. While she might’ve had a schoolgirl’s crush before her mother dragged her along to Boston, what she felt now didn’t feel very girlish. Her feminine core clenched at the sight of his long legs and muscular thighs while he cared for his horse before filling his canteen. A man who took good care of his horse would treat his woman with respect, too. But was it respect she wanted?

Never mind what she wanted. She needed a husband and needed one fast before they dispatched someone else to bring her back. And Cordero Tate fit the bill on both accounts.