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“Cole, why me?” Maddy sighed. “I’ve got baggage. A lot of it. I’m prickly.”
Cole chuckled and she felt the vibration of the sound through his chest and into her back. “You’re not the only one with baggage,” he admitted. Before she could ask what he meant, he continued on. “Listen, what happened to you just made you cautious. You’re not prickly. You’re scared. I would be, too.”
They let the thought sit for a few minutes, and then Cole spoke again. “I don’t know, Maddy. I got thinking about how you’re young and pretty and so damned strong and then … and then I couldn’t stop thinking about you.”
She looked up into his face. “The last thing I was looking for was a date. Maybe it just snuck up on both of us.”
She licked her lips, which suddenly felt dry, and saw his gaze drop to where her tongue had wet the surface. Desire surged through her, terrifying by its very presence and exhilarating at the same time.
“It snuck up on me for sure,” he admitted quietly, smiling. “You snuck up on me.”
The Cowboy’s
Christmas Family
Donna Alward
DONNA ALWARD is a busy wife and mother of three (two daughters and the family dog) and she believes hers is the best job in the world: a combination of stay-at-home mum and romance novelist. An avid reader since childhood, Donna has always made up her own stories. She completed her arts degree in English literature in 1994, but it wasn’t until 2001 that she penned her first full-length novel and found herself hooked on writing romance. In 2006, she sold her first manuscript, and now writes warm, emotional stories for Mills & Boon.
In her new home office in Nova Scotia, Donna loves being back on the east coast of Canada after nearly twelve years in Alberta, where her career began, writing about cowboys and the West. Donna’s debut romance, Hired by the Cowboy, was awarded a Booksellers’ Best Award in 2008 for Best Traditional Romance.
With the Atlantic Ocean only minutes from her doorstep, Donna has found a fresh take on life and promises even more great romances in the near future!
Donna loves to hear from readers. You can contact her through her website, www.donnaalward.com, or follow @DonnaAlward on Twitter.
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To my family—the reason for everything.
Contents
There were days when Madison Wallace felt like a single-mom Cinderella.
She blew at a few strands of hair that had escaped her messy ponytail, then tucked them behind her ears for at least the tenth time in the
