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  “You sound just like your mother, little lady. I’m thinkin’ you’d best get yourself your own man to bother. One snotty woman is enough for me.”

  Linc grinned as those words quieted her. She shot her soon to be step-father a nasty look as he left the room.

  “If he thinks I’m going to thank him after that remark, he’d best think again.”

  “You did sound a little like her, you know,” Linc teased.

  Abby’s gaze narrowed. “He almost hit your head into the wall. Next time, I promise you, I won’t say a word. I’ll just let him bash your brains out.”

  Abby moved to storm out the door but relented at Linc’s weak, “Wait, please, don’t go.”

  Instantly, she was beside the bed again. “What? What’s the matter? Are you all right?”

  “Marry me, Abby, please?”

  “Oh God, I didn’t want this.”

  “I know, but you can’t help it any more than I can.”

  “All right, let’s talk about this reasonably. What are you going to do for a living?”

  “I take it you wouldn’t be happy if I were a sheriff.”

  “You’d be taking that right.”

  “All right. We’ll buy a ranch. Anything you want will be fine with me.”

  “Right, so you can complain about how I forced you to—”

  “I swear it doesn’t matter. Only you matter. Only having you matters. I don’t care if I have to pick cotton. As long as I have you, I’ll be happy.”

  “Are you sure?” she asked, her doubt quite a bit lessened in strength but still in evidence.

  “Very sure.”

  “All right.”

  “All right what?”

  “All right, I love you,” she finally admitted.

  Linc grinned. “Damn, I knew my little sick act would work.”

  Abby gasped.

  “No, don’t hit me. I was only teasing.”

  Abby sat at his side. “You truly are a beast.”

  “I love you.”

  Abby played with the dark hair that came over his white bandage. “I can’t imagine why, but I suppose, I love you, too.”

  “And you’re going to marry me?”

  Abby only shrugged, unwilling to see this man gloat.

  “There are things a lady could do to prove she loves her man.”

  Abby chuckled a low, knowing sound. “Like getting him a cup of tea?”

  Linc suddenly came up to lean on one elbow. “I just thought of something.”

  “What?”

  He threw back his covers and said, “Help me get dressed.”

  “Lay down. You’re not going anywhere.”

  “If you’re not marrying Bradley and told him as much, why is he still here?”

  Abby shrugged. “Maybe he likes my mother.”

  Linc gave her a hard look. “Where is he every day? What’s he doing with himself?”

  “How should I know? He has business here, I think.”

  “Does he? What kind of business?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “Well, what does he do for a living?

  “He works with investments. Railroads, land development, mining, that kind of thing.”

  “Railroad and mining? And he just happens to have some sort of business out here?”

  “What are you getting at?”

  “Just thinking. How long is he gone during the day?”

  She shrugged. “A few hours.”

  “And you never wondered where he went?”

  “Linc, you’re talking in circles. Why would I wonder something like that?”

  “Let’s take a look at his room.”

  “You can’t do that. What are you thinking?”

  “I’m thinking that if the lady I was to marry suddenly said she no longer wanted to marry me, I wouldn’t be sticking around. Why is he?”

  She pressed against his shoulders, pushing him back to the bed. “You can’t get up again. Damn you. You’re going to fall on your face.”

  “Get my brother.”

  “Only if you promise—”

  “Fine, I promise. Now, get him.”

  “If I come back here and find you—”

  “Just get him. Hurry up.”

  Moments later, Jeb stood beside Linc’s bed. A few words were exchanged and Jeb nodded, at his brother’s urging, “Take a look.”

  “Abby, take my gun and keep watch,” Linc urged.

  “What am I going to do with it? Do you think I could shoot him, just because he came back to his room?”

  “Fine, just hurry, Jeb.”

  Moments later, Jeb reentered Linc’s room with a packet of papers in his hand. He handed a paper to Linc and said, “Says there he’s the president of a company that has holdings in mining all around this area. Appears there’s bit of gold in these parts, and Bradley’s company apparently wants it. Says he’s made offers for the land, but they were refused.”

  “The ranchers?” Linc asked. “The ones that were burnt out?”

  Jeb nodded. “Look at the map. I think those ranches were on some prime land.”

  “Oh my God,” Abby groaned. Her weakened knees forced her to sit at Linc’s side. “And I almost married him.”

  “No, you didn’t. You’re marrying me.”

  Jeb grinned as he turned toward the door. “I’m going to get the sheriff. I think we’ll wait downstairs for your fiancé and leave you two to fight that out.”

  “Wait! What are you going to do?”

  “I’m going to arrest Bradley and charge him with the crimes he’s committed against the ranchers in this area. Even if you wanted to, there’s no way you can marry him, at least not for the next ten or twenty years.” Just before he left the room, he added, while nodding toward his brother. “Take it easy on him, Abby. He’s a sick man.”

  “You don’t know the half of it,” she returned almost to herself.”

  Linc chuckled a low wicked sound. “I need you down here. I need you to tell me you love me.”

  “You’re pathetic. You want my sympathy?”

  “I’ll take anything I can get.”

  Abby lay at his side above the covers. She hadn’t a doubt her mother would be up here in a few minutes. All Jeb needed to do was tell Lilly what Linc had said about Abby marrying him, and she’d would want to know for sure. Abby leaned her head on her raised hand and looked down at his pitiful expression. “What am I going to do with you?”

  “Should I show you?”

  “You beast.”

  “Tell me you’re going to marry me.”

  “I should marry you. It would serve you right. Then I could make you suffer every day of your life, just for being an obnoxious beast.”

  Linc laughed and hugged her tightly to him. “Your mother’s going to be here in a second.”

  “I know.”

  “So what are you going to tell her?”

  “I’m going to tell her that I love her soon-to-be brother-in-law. And we’ll probably be married within a few weeks.”

  “People will start to talk.”

  “Why?”

  “First, my brother Jack then Jeb and now me. That’s odd, don’t you think?”

  “I think most people will be happy to know there are only three brothers. The ladies around here couldn’t take any more.”

  About the Author

  Patricia Pellicane lives with her husband on Long Island in New York. Her six children live in neighboring towns as do most of her fifteen grandchildren. Her favorite hobby is reading. Patricia insists her ideas for stories come while doing dishes. “Could anything be more boring? It’s nearly impossible to keep your mind from wandering.” In a recent interview she was asked. How hard or easy is it for you to write? Patricia returned with, “Someone once wrote. ‘Writing is easy. All you have to do is put a sheet of paper in a typewriter and stare at it until blood forms on your forehead’. Sometimes writing is exactly like that. And other times it’s a wondrous happening where words flow from m
ind to fingers to computer screen almost without conscious thought. It doesn’t matter which way it works for you. Once a writer begins the journey, they’re hooked. It’s a drug and you can’t stop looking for that next story, that next high.”

  Patricia’s fans can contact her at, [email protected] or stop in at her website at www.patriciapellicane.com Click under Books for a list of her twenty two printed published books and About Me to catch a glimpse of what Patricia thinks about life in general and more.

  Jan Scarbrough’s Bluegrass Reunions Series

  is available at

  Resplendence Publishing

  They thought the boys they loved were out of their lives. They were wrong.

  KENTUCKY COWBOY — She had dumped him in high school because he was a risk-taker.

  “Warmhearted and wonderful... Kentucky Cowboy is a keeper.” — Bestselling Author Joanne Rock

  *Winner of the 2006 PASIC Book of Your Heart Contest, Contemporary Series Romance

  A contender for the world title, professional bull rider Judd Romeo defies death for a living. Now he must deal with the death of his mother by settling her estate. Returning home to Kentucky, he runs smack dab into the arms of his high school sweetheart, a woman he has never forgotten.

  Veterinarian Mandy Sullivan learned early on that risk-takers are trouble. Having custody of her sister’s child, she is working hard to be both mother and father to the abandoned girl, and doesn’t count on trouble showing up next door.

  Mandy discovers she can’t avoid the famous cowboy she’s never quite put out of her mind. When Mandy’s sister comes back threatening to take away the little girl she loves as her own, will Mandy realize Judd is not the same man he was back then?

  KENTUCKY WOMAN — She had loved him when she was a teenager, but they never connected.

  *Winner of the 2007 San Diego RWA’s Spring into Romance Contest

  *Second Place in the 2007 PASIC Book of Your Heart Contest, Contemporary Series Romance

  Years of hard work and schooling have paid off for single mom and ex-jockey Alexis Marsden. She now has a desk job she loves and she’s paying her bills—barely. But she can’t give her son everything he needs, especially a father. When the big brother of her child’s father asks her to marry him, does Alex give up her hard-won independence and settle for an old-fashioned marriage of convenience?

  Workaholic banker Jackson Breckinridge has spent his life meeting the expectations of his parents and protecting his younger brother. When his brother fathers Alex’s child, Jack must protect his parents from the truth and fix his brother’s screw up. Marriage to the childhood playmate he’s loved since his school days is just the right thing to solve his problems. He accepts her terms for a marriage of convenience, but he longs to convert it into a one that’s for real.

  KENTUCKY FLAME — She had his baby, but he left not knowing the truth.

  Horse trainer Jake Hendricks arrives to take charge of Royalty Farm from his one-time mentor. After the main barn goes up in flames, Jake must do everything he can to save the farm that is already under financial pressure from a greedy local real estate developer.

  After gathering the courage to leave an abusive marriage, horse trainer Melody O’Shea returns to Royalty Farm when her father needs her help. Coming home to the famed American Saddlebred farm is bittersweet because it is also the home of her daughter, the secret child she gave up for a private adoption.

  Mel doesn’t count on Jake being there. The man left her nine years earlier not knowing she was carrying his baby. Forced to work with Jake to save her daughter’s home and heritage, Mel grapples with the mistakes of her past and her love for a man who once rejected her, but who she never forgot. When danger escalates, Mel’s life is in jeopardy and she must work with Jake to solve the mystery that threatens her safety and the safety of the daughter they both love.

  Also available from

  Resplendence Publishing

  Circle Star

  After thirteen years in the East, Susanna Talbot stands to inherit the Arizona ranch she grew up on, but only provided she marry Connor McGregor, the young drifter who once forged a bond with her father. Susanna will do whatever it takes to claim her right to land—even seek a union with a man who believes she ruined his life.

  But first she must find him.

  Connor McGregor rode into the desert without a backward glance thirteen years ago, believing Susanna had banished him from Circle Star. Now a man of twenty-eight, he has no interest in coming to her aid. Will he bury his bitterness, or leave Susanna on the mercy of the ruthless neighbor Burt Hartman, who covets the ranch and will stop at nothing—including rape and murder.

  Made for Mischief by Regina Carlysle

  All she really wanted was one naughty night before returning to her life as a sheltered country spinster! Crawling beneath a bed in London’s most notorious brothel was beyond the pale, even for known eccentric Arabella Spencer. Little did she imagine that lust, desire, and yes, love was just within her grasp.

  When Grayson St. James, Lord Mercer, newly returned from fighting Napoleon, dragged a squirming, dusty bluestocking from beneath his bed, he was…well...aghast! She wanted adventure, did she? She wanted to learn about sex, did she? He was just the man to teach her.

  As a vow of vengeance and a case of mistaken identity unite Grayson and Arabella in a common goal, the dour Lord Mercer finds himself laughing for the first time in longer than he can recall. But will an unknown threat bring them together or tear their world apart?

  A Love in Disguise by Cara Hart

  The letter from her brother warned her of danger, but Kate Carteret is doubtful until she discovers her bedchamber in ruins. In the face of an unknown threat, she flees her home and finds sanctuary as companion to a family friend. But Kate’s peace is soon shattered by the arrival of the Earl of Ashton, a man with a few secrets of his own.

  Though retired, James Meredith has unwillingly accepted one last mission for the Crown—locate a dead colleague’s sister, who may hold the key to the identity of a traitor. Her trail leads to the home of his cousin, in a tiny village in the north of England. His aunt’s new companion, a middle-aged spinster, should be easily dismissed. Why can he not get her out of his head?

  More than Words by Kelly Kirch

  Kylie Dobson is a romance author with a problem. As a seat-of-the-pants writer, she depends on the strength of the characters to drive her plot. But when her hero, Milo, Lord Gafton refuses to chase after the prescribed heroine, everything goes wonky. Kylie is inexplicably sucked into her work of fiction and transported from a contemporary venue to a fictional Regency setting. What’s worse, nothing she does is affecting the plot and she can’t get out.

  Set into motion by her own creative process is a winter storm which seals the Regency party goers in on a country estate. If that wasn’t bad enough, a murderer is on the loose and he’s picking off one guest at a time. The more time Kylie spends with Milo the more she comes to depend on him. She’s convinced that his character sketch will kick in at any moment and he’ll fall for her heroine. But will it happen before she loses her heart to him? And what happens when the plot draws to the end? Will the killer have his way and will Kylie solve the case only to be returned to her reality without the man she’s fallen for?

  Always and Forever by Pamela Labud

  Left crippled and weak after a pistol shot to his head, Robert Houghton, Earl of Singleton, a nobleman from the English Regency, is kidnapped by a cantankerous ghost and taken back through time to 1245 Scotland. Now he must rescue a headstrong and beautiful Laird’s daughter from a forced marriage to a cruel clan chieftain.

  Jenna MacReynolds is the daughter of a dying clan chieftain who faces her doom at the hands of the cruelest man in all of Scotland, the very same who years before had ravaged her and left her barren. She knows that once it is learned that she cannot conceive his child, he will arrange an ‘accident’ that will take her life, and then go on to claim her beautiful you
ng sister as his bride.

  Desperate, Jenna calls up the ancient ghost who owes every first born daughter of the MacReynold clan a single wish. The ghost fulfills her wish, and Robert appears, a broken man who is able only to speak in her presence. Although he’s not quite what she had in mind, she has no choice but to accept Robert and offers him her hand in marriage. Soon they find themselves in the midst of castle intrigues, a fierce battle between the clan chieftains, and finally facing their own death at the hand of their enemy.

  But the love that grew out of a common purpose has a magical power of its own, and, as Robert and Jenna learn, is strong enough to overcome the fiercest evil and transcend even time itself.

  A Dusting of Syn by Melinda Barron

  As the seventh son of a duke, Keran of Bristol never thought to have his own lordship. So when King Edward IV offers him a bride and a castle near the Scottish border, he is ecstatic. However, when he arrives at the country keep, he finds that His Majesty’s court is not the only place where intrigue resides.

  Syndra of Mardoon knew that after her father’s death, her stepmother would never allow her to be anything more than a servant in her own home. Threatened with the death of her friend if she doesn’t cooperate, she hides in the shadows while her younger half sister is introduced to the new lord as his intended.