Today I have an excerpt from Outlaw Cowboy and giveaway ;)
Would
you rather change the past or be able to see into the future?
As much as
I was obsessed with the show Quantum Leap (which, if you don’t know
was about a man who could ‘leap’ through the past and change
things), I’d hate to mess with the course of things that way. I’m
not sure I really want to know what’s coming either, but I think
it’d be preferable to possibly screwing up the world!
An
Excerpt:
“I know.
I’m not comparing, Delia. I can’t.” He shook his head as his
gaze returned to hers.
If she
looked closely enough, she could probably see her own reflection, but
getting any closer than this already too-close cab of his truck held
zero appeal.
“But if
you had something that was yours, that made you who you are, that
gave you a reason to get up in the morning, wouldn’t you do
everything to keep it? Wouldn’t you fight to keep the thing that
made you feel like you weren’t a complete waste of space?”
She should
look away. She should get out of the truck or demand he drive her to
her family home. She should do anything but keep his gaze and let his
words wrap around her heart and squeeze.
She didn’t
have a thing that made her who she was, or a reason to get up in the
morning—at least not once Steph was out. Yet she’d always kept
plowing ahead, because no matter how bleak things were, she knew who
she was. Strong. Resilient. And she knew, deep in her heart most of
the time, that once she did her duty to her sisters, there would be
something waiting for her on the other side.
She hadn’t
planned on it being jail, but even in her darkest moments she knew
even that would
be a temporary thing, as long as she could get Steph safe first.
All the
crap Caleb was complaining about was easier, but somehow sadder,
because he didn’t know how to go on without this beautiful, amazing
piece of land that made her feel an aching kind of hope.
Hope.
Somehow, it kept her going. It kept people like them
going. And all of Caleb’s
was tied up in something that could be taken from him.
“I’m
not expecting sympathy,” he said, his voice hushed and his eyes on
hers.
She felt
herself lean forward, as if there was some force pushing her there.
Him or the sun disappearing in his eyes.
“I just
want you to understand why I did what I did. Helping you isn’t an
easy choice for me. It threatens my only chance at this. But I want
to do it anyway.”
She
couldn’t swallow the lump in her throat, and her eyes burned. It
shouldn’t make it better and it shouldn’t make it understandable.
It certainly shouldn’t make her forgive him for trying to kick her
off Shaw.
But she saw
his battle, and that thing inside of him so lost he couldn’t find a
center without the beauty that surrounded them, and that seemed more
depressing than getting up every morning ready to fight. Thinking the
only thing that made you worthwhile could be so easily taken away
seemed worse than working to save people you loved. At least, at the
end of the day, she knew she’d have her determination.
He cleared
his throat. “Christ,
Delia. Why are you crying?”
“I’m
not crying.”
He reached
out and touched his thumb to an unruly tear trailing down her cheek.
She had a handle on the rest, but that one escaped and now he was
touching it. Her.
Why were
they so close? Why was she letting him be this close? Letting him
touch her? She should push him away. Knock that stupid hat off his
head while she was at it. She should do everything but lean into that
gentle touch. It was a lie, a distraction, anything but something she
could believe in or allow.
But somehow
their mouths were close, and her heart was beating frantically
against her chest, pushing her even closer to him. With his mouth a
whisper from hers, her body completely warm for the first time since
she’d woken up in the Shaw house this morning, he didn’t press
his mouth to hers. He shook his head.
“I can’t
do this with you.” But he didn’t back away, and when his eyes
searched her face, they didn’t seem to mean that at all.
“But here
you are,” she managed to croak out, sounding not at all like the
cool, unaffected, kick-ass woman she’d like to be. Here she
was, letting him swoop in,
letting him touch her and affect her. “I
don’t trust you,” she whispered, because she had to put that
between them. She had to remind herself.
“Good. I
don’t trust myself.”
Why? Why
did she feel sorry for him?
He had everything, including all the power. But sympathy softened her
heart against her will, because the jackass didn’t know himself at
all, and that was damn sad.
She’d
rather be stupid than sad. She’d rather feel than run away from it.
So she did the stupid, feeling
thing to do.
She leaned
in and pressed her mouth to his.
Rafflecoptor Link:
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Title:
Outlaw Cowboy
Author:
Nicole Helm
Series:
Big Sky Cowboys, #2
Pubdate:
May 3rd,
2016
ISBN:
9781492621270
BIG SKY
TROUBLE
Ever since
his father's accident, Caleb Shaw vowed he'd mend his wild ways, and
he means to keep his word. He’s a changed man. A better man. And he
knows he should want absolutely nothing to do with his crazy old
life...or the maddening temptation that is Delia Rogers.
Because
Delia? Is nothing but trouble.
Delia’s
been stealing her sisters away from their violent father ever since
she was old enough to fight back. But now with the police on her
trail and all her bridges burned, there’s nowhere left to run but
back into the arms of the one cowboy she knows she shouldn’t need.
Caleb has always been too good for her, no matter how bad he claimed
to be. Yet when close quarters turn into something more, Delia and
Caleb are forced to decide what really matters: mending their
reputations or healing their wary hearts...
Nicole
Helm writes down-to-earth
contemporary romance specializing in people who don’t live close
enough to neighbors for them to be a problem. When she’s not
writing, she spends her time dreaming about someday owning a barn.
She lives with her husband and two young sons in O’Fallon,
Missouri.
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