Purchase
Harlequin
July 2005
570 pages
ISBN: 0373836791
Trade Size
Add to Wish List
Romance Anthology
Riding Home, April 2024
e-Book
Riding Hard, March 2024
e-Book (reprint)
Rolling Like Thunder, February 2024
e-Book (reprint)
Thunderstruck, February 2024
e-Book (reprint)
Tempting the Cowboy's Sister, May 2023
e-Book
Testing The Cowboy’s Resolve, August 2022
Paperback / e-Book
Having the Cowboy's Baby, February 2022
e-Book
Stand-Up Cowboy, February 2021
Paperback / e-Book
Big-Hearted Cowboy, May 2020
Paperback / e-Book
Sweet-Talking Cowboy, February 2020
Paperback / e-Book
A Cowboy's Kiss, January 2018
e-Book
Notorious, June 2017
Mass Market Paperback
In The Cowboy's Arms, June 2017
Mass Market Paperback / e-Book
A Cowboy's Strength, March 2017
e-Book
Cowboy Unwrapped, December 2016
Paperback / e-Book
Cowboy Untamed, July 2016
Paperback / e-Book
Cowboy After Dark, July 2016
Mass Market Paperback / e-Book
Cowboy All Night, June 2016
Paperback / e-Book
A Cowboy Under the Mistletoe, December 2015
e-Book
Wild About The Wrangler, November 2015
Paperback / e-Book
Rolling Like Thunder, August 2015
Paperback / e-Book
Thunderstruck, July 2015
Paperback / e-Book
Midnight Thunder, June 2015
Paperback / e-Book
Crazy for the Cowboy, May 2015
Paperback / e-Book
The Fix-It Man, March 2015
e-Book (reprint)
Premiere, February 2015
e-Book
Jingle Spells, November 2014
e-Book
A Last Chance Christmas, November 2014
Paperback / e-Book
The Perfect Man, September 2014
Paperback / e-Book
Riding Hard, July 2014
Paperback / e-Book
Riding High, May 2014
Paperback / e-Book
Pure Temptation and Old Enough to Know Better, April 2014
Paperback (reprint)
Werewolf In Las Vegas, March 2014
Paperback / e-Book
Cowboys & Angels, December 2013
Mass Market Paperback / e-Book
Nerds Are From Mars, November 2013
Paperback / e-Book
The Nerd Who Loved Me, August 2013
e-Book (reprint)
The Heart Won't Lie, July 2013
Paperback / e-Book
Werewolf in Alaska, July 2013
Paperback / e-Book
Wild at Heart, July 2013
Mass Market Paperback / e-Book
Tempted By A Cowboy, June 2013
e-Book
I Cross My Heart, May 2013
Paperback / e-Book
One Night With A Billionaire, May 2013
e-Book
Rescuing Christmas, November 2012
Paperback / e-Book
Werewolf in Denver, October 2012
Paperback / e-Book
Feels Like Home, August 2012
Paperback / e-Book
Lead Me Home, July 2012
Paperback / e-Book
Long Road Home, June 2012
Paperback / e-Book
Werewolf In Seattle, June 2012
Paperback / e-Book
Already Home, May 2012
e-Book
Merry Christmas, Baby, December 2011
Mass Market Paperback / e-Book
Merry Christmas, Baby, December 2011
Paperback / e-Book
Holiday Hideout, November 2011
Paperback / e-Book
Werewolf In The North Woods, October 2011
Paperback / e-Book
Werewolf in Greenwich Village, September 2011
e-Book
Cowboys Like Us, August 2011
Mass Market Paperback / e-Book
Cowboy Up, July 2011
Paperback / e-Book
Should?ve Been A Cowboy, June 2011
Paperback / e-Book
A Werewolf in Manhattan, January 2011
Mass Market Paperback / e-Book
Claimed!, August 2010
Mass Market Paperback
Ambushed!, July 2010
Mass Market Paperback
Cupid Cats, July 2010
Paperback / e-Book
Wanted!, June 2010
Paperback
Two In The Saddle & Boone's Bounty, May 2010
Paperback
Chick with a Charm, March 2010
Paperback / e-Book
Racing Hearts, February 2010
Mass Market Paperback
Blonde with a Wand, February 2010
Paperback / e-Book
Better Naughty Than Nice, December 2009
Mass Market Paperback
Casual Hex, March 2009
Paperback
Winter Heat, January 2009
Mass Market Paperback
Wild & Hexy, June 2008
Paperback
Best Of Cowboys Bundle, December 2007
e-Book
Over Hexed, October 2007
Paperback
Operation Gigolo, May 2007
Paperback (reprint)
My Nerdy Valentine, January 2007
Paperback
Nerds Like It Hot, August 2006
Paperback
A Fare To Remember, June 2006
Paperback
Nerd Who Loved Me, June 2006
Paperback (reprint)
Nerd Gone Wild, June 2006
Paperback (reprint)
Gone With the Nerd, June 2006
Paperback (reprint)
Talk Nerdy to Me, February 2006
Paperback
Forever Mine, Valentine, January 2006
Paperback / e-Book (reprint)
Bewitched, Bothered and Bevampyred, November 2005
Trade Size
Talking about Sex..., October 2005
Paperback
Gone with the Nerd, August 2005
Paperback
Undressed, July 2005
Trade Size
Bewitched, Bothered and BeVampyred, April 2005
e-Book
Nerd Gone Wild, February 2005
Paperback
Getting Real, January 2005
Paperback
'Tis the Season, October 2004
Paperback
The Nerd Who Loved Me, August 2004
Paperback
Every Woman's Fantasy, July 2004
Paperback
Invitations To Seduction, July 2003
Mass Market Paperback
Nerd in Shining Armor, April 2003
Paperback / e-Book
Bedazzled (3 Novels in 1), May 2002
Paperback (reprint)
Notorious, August 2001
Paperback
Taming The Lone Wolf / Single In The Saddle, May 2001
Paperback (reprint)
Urban Cowboys, April 2001
Paperback (reprint)
The Lawman, October 1995
Paperback / e-Book
The Drifter, September 1995
Paperback / e-Book
The Trailblazer, August 1995
Paperback / e-Book
Be Mine, Valentine, January 1989
Mass Market Paperback
The Devil and Ms. Moody, September 2011
e-Book
The Private Concierge, October 2008
Mass Market Paperback
The Arrangement, May 2007
Paperback
Island Heat, May 2007
Paperback (reprint)
Decadent, November 2006
Paperback
Tease, May 2006
Trade Size
The Lonely Girls Club, August 2005
Paperback
Undressed, July 2005
Trade Size
Man of My Dreams, November 2004
Paperback
All through the Night, October 2001
Trade Size
Sinful, January 2000
Paperback
The Sweetness of Honey, October 2014
Paperback / e-Book
Beneath The Patchwork Moon, March 2014
Paperback
Boots Under Her Bed, January 2014
e-Book
Boots Under Her Bed, January 2014
e-Book
Boots Under Her Bed, January 2014
Mass Market Paperback / e-Book
Unforgettable, August 2013
Paperback / e-Book
The Second Chance Cafe, March 2013
Paperback / e-Book
Unbreakable, February 2013
Paperback / e-Book
Undeniable, October 2012
Paperback / e-Book
Holiday Kisses, December 2011
e-Book
The Icing On The Cake, October 2010
Paperback
No Limits, May 2009
Paperback
A Long, Hard Ride, March 2009
Mass Market Paperback
Maximum Exposure, December 2008
Trade Size
Kiss & Tell, November 2008
Mass Market Paperback
Tex Appeal, February 2008
Mass Market Paperback
The Perfect Stranger, April 2007
Trade Size
Beyond a Shadow, December 2006
Trade Size
Infatuation, November 2006
Paperback
Deep Breath, April 2006
Trade Size
Goes Down Easy, January 2006
Paperback
Undressed, July 2005
Trade Size
Beach Blanket Bad Boys, June 2005
Trade Size
The Beach Alibi, January 2005
Trade Size
The Mckenzie Artifact, January 2005
Trade Size
The Samms Agenda, December 2004
Trade Size
The Shaughnessey Accord, October 2004
Trade Size
The Bane Affair, September 2004
Trade Size
Jingle Bell Rock, October 2003
Trade Size
HE WAS PLAYING THE blues again.
The melancholy and menacing low-down sounds wound their
way through her bedroom's open window, conjuring wild and
reckless images in her wandering mind. Feet tucked beneath
her in the bedroom's overstuffed reading chair, Erin
Thatcher placed the open copy of Anaïs Nin's Little Birds
facedown on the quilted throw covering her lap.
With her hands resting on the chair's padded arms, her
head sinking into the cushioned back, she closed her eyes
and listened. The rhythm worked the magic she'd come to
expect from the sultry sounds, arousing the parts of her
body the erotica had wickedly stirred to life.
She wanted to indulge in the sensations, to let the music
take her places she hadn't visited in far too long, to
offer her experiences rich with the sensual encounters and
adventures her reading of late reminded her she was
missing.
The guitar strings stroked velvet fingers the length of
her neck, caressing her skin from her chin to the hollow
of her throat. The singer's voice filled her ears with
dirty words and sweet nothings, whispered suggestions of
bodies belonging together and loving long into the night.
Hearing so much in the music said a lot about the silence
in her life.
Oh, the crowd at Paddington's On Main was noisy enough,
but the downtown Houston, Texas, wine and tobacco bar was
her career. A career she loved. A career she'd been
destined for since first visiting the U.K. with her
parents, standing but knee-high to her Granddad Rory
behind the counter in his quayside pub deep in Devon's
lush countryside.
But it was not a career that met her personal needs and
desires. Neither her regular customers nor her co-workers —
no matter how much she enjoyed the interaction with both —
touched that part of her soul that knew there was more to
life than the endless hours she devoted to work.
Hours she knew Rory would never have wanted her to spend,
but how could she do any less? Paddington's was her legacy
from the granddad she'd already lost. And she would do
everything in her power to keep the bar afloat.
After all the years he'd devoted to her upbringing, the
sacrifices he'd made on her behalf, the remorse of letting
him down would be too much to bear. She couldn't chance
losing his dream, not when she wasn't certain she'd ever
recover from losing him.
Right now, however, at this moment, the one thing of which
she was selfishly feeling the loss, the one thing her life
was missing above all else, was intimacy of the most basic
sort. One man and one woman. Simple and to the point.
She had friends galore, both here in town and in
cyberspace. It was, in fact, the literary erotica her
online reading group had chosen to read this month that
had her so restless, furthering her discontent with this
one part of her life — the only part of her life — in
which she felt lacking.
And now he was playing the blues again.
She wanted to know who he was. He'd lived in the loft
above hers since, several months before, she'd moved into
the newly converted, one-hundredyear-old hotel on the edge
of Houston's theater district.
They crossed paths in the mail room, the tomblike space
too small for the two of them and the mutual attraction
which hovered like a heavy cloud of bone-soaking rain.
They ran into one another in the garage. His classic black
GTO lurked at the end of the row where she parked her
Toyota Camry, a darkly menacing presence lying in wait.
They passed each other coming in and out of the elevator
on the ground floor. Neither gave the other wide berth.
Instead, each seemed to have the need to test unspoken
limits, to brush clothing, to breathe the same air, to
measure the fit of bodies…
Enough already!
Pushing her way up out of the chair and dragging the quilt
behind her, Erin padded across the hardwood floor of her
bedroom, her socks slip-sliding on the smoothly grained
surface. She pulled back the simple muslin panel along the
antique brass rod and climbed into the window seat,
tugging her sleep shirt over her updrawn knees and
cocooning herself in the warm cotton knit and the quilt.
It was dark here, away from the single lamp she'd left on
for reading. Here in the very corner of her room, far from
the hallway door and the rest of the pitch-black loft, six
stories above the ground. It was dark and it was cold and
the clock was ticking its way toward 3:00 a.m.
But from here she could hear the muted noises of the
traffic below, watch the brake lights and blinkers of the
cars leaving the city's nightlife behind. And she could
smell the smoke curling from the end of the cigar he
inevitably smoked while the blues made love to the night.
She could so easily picture him, leaning on the window
ledge, elbows bracing his weight, hand holding the
dangling cigar, thumb flicking ashes from the end. He
always wore dark colors — navy, burgundy, black and pine.
Tonight, unseasonably cool for early October, her
imagination dressed him in a crew-neck cashmere sweater.
He'd wear it loose, rather than tucking it into his jeans.
The hem would bunch loosely around his hips, inviting her
hands to explore the tempting skin beneath. He'd have on
expensive black leather boots and his hair, cut short only
on the sides and the back, left overly, rebelliously long
on top, would fall over his forehead, to his darkly
slashed brows and starburst lashes, skimming eyes an
incongruously light shade of green.
Why she was playing fantasy dress-up, she had no idea.
Except, perhaps, for the possibility that she'd never been
easily intimidated. And that single personality quirk
inspired her to figure out why the idea of actually
sharing the building's tiny, slow-moving elevator with the
man set her temperature on the same upward climb.
Or why she checked his parking space each time she pulled
into hers, the skin on the back of her neck prickling hot
at the thought of being caught alone with him in the
ominously gloomy garage. Or why the click of his key in
his mailbox, echoing in the small basement, resounded
through her body like a shot to the heart.
Okay. Now she was exaggerating. He had to have at least
one or two redeeming qualities or he'd wouldn't be living
where he lived. She knew exactly the type of invasive
background checks mortgage companies and tenant
associations put a body through…unless that body had paid
cash, another possibility that had occurred to her as the
man hadn't kept any sort of regular hours since she'd
known him.
Except she didn't know him. And so she shouldn't be
noticing his comings and goings.
She was noticing both and far more. Things that a sane and
practical woman would have the sense to ignore. Or at
least to pass off as surface attraction. Shoulders
accentuated beneath dark fabric. Legs confident in their
long, rangy stride. Hands large enough and strong enough
to palm a basketball. Or a woman's throat.
Erin shuddered. She had to be at least six degrees of sick
to find his formidable aura intriguing. Her sex drive
might be steering her thought processes but she'd be
damned before her brain forgot how to apply the brakes.
Brooding good looks did not serious boink material make.