JARED (RHB, Book 4) by Cat Johnson

7:48 AM | Labels: contemporary erotic romance, cowboys

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Red, Hot & Blue, Book 4

Everything is just right…until she turns his life upside down.

It doesn’t take anything fancy to make Jared Gordon a happy man. A slice of his mama’s pie, a pretty girl, a well-bred horse. Life on the farm is just how he likes it. Simple. Until a big city girl blows into town like a tornado hitting a trailer park.

Quintessentially small-town Pigeon Hollow has everything LA producer Mandy Morris needs for her new reality show. A smoldering deputy sheriff, a quirky diner owner and a horse farm complete with a hunky horseman. If her own instant attraction is any indication, Jared will have the female demographic glued to their sets.

Except the red-hot cowboy is cool to the idea of cameras in his face. And the harder she negotiates, the deeper he digs in…until their head-butting strikes sparks that fans a prairie fire of unexpected passion. She doesn’t usually mix business with pleasure, but as Pigeon Hollow’s charm works its magic, the youngest Gordon brother has Mandy rethinking many things.

Like happiness doesn’t have to end with the word “cut.”

Warning: Contains one hot shirtless cowboy taking a city girl for a roll in the hay…and a few other places.

This book has been previously published and has been revised from its original release.

EXCERPT (PG)

Jared sat again and grabbed his beer, refusing to even look as the bar door swung shut behind Mandy.

Bobby, however, watched her dramatic exit with an amused expression on his face. “She’s hot for you.”

“Are you fucking crazy?” Jared had nearly choked on his beer at that suggestion. “She’s only here to get her damn show made. She just made that more than obvious.”

Here Jared had been thinking Mandy was flirting with him because she liked him. How stupid could he be? Letting out a bitter laugh, he wondered exactly how far she’d been willing to take her little come-on to get him to agree to the show. He didn’t want to consider the answer to that question. He’d really liked her, proving he was a stupid man.

Bobby shook his head. “Nope. Well, yeah, she wants this show made, but she could pick another town if she really wanted to. You heard the stories she told us. There’s a ton of places more interesting than Pigeon Hollow. I think she’s so attached to this town because of you.”

“No, you’re wrong. She is single-minded and conniving and the only reason she sashayed her butt in here in those tight jeans tonight is so I’d agree to her show.” Jared was willing to bet she would have wiggled right out of those jeans too, all for her show.

“Why conniving? She never kept it a secret she wants this show done here. And she was right. She didn’t say anything that bad about you to me just now. I don’t know why you’re so pissed.”

Jared couldn’t admit he was pissed because he’d believed she was here for him, not the damn show.

That’s what it had been all about. Her staring at his chest today while he was unloading the hay. The flirting, pretending she wasn’t coming to the bar. Even her getting him hard with that damn foot of hers under the table. It was all about the show. Always had been, always would be. The more he thought about it, the angrier he got.

Jared slammed his beer bottle down onto the table and stood. “I’m going over there to the Hideaway and giving her a piece of my mind.”

“You really want to do that?” Bobby raised a brow.

“Hell yeah, I do. Why?” There would be no way he’d sleep a wink tonight until he told her exactly what he felt about her and her lying city ways, and Jared Gordon did not lose sleep over any woman.

Bobby shrugged. “Just making sure you know what you’re doing. You got a condom in your pocket?” More than one actually. That had been wishful thinking on his part when he’d left the house tonight, back when he thought Mandy was a decent person. “What the hell does that have to do with anything?”

“Just answer the question.”

Jared sighed. “Yes, I do. What are you my father?”

“No, I’m not. Thank God.” Bobby shook his head.

Jared frowned deeply at his friend’s strange behavior. “Watch my beer, will ya? I’ll be right back.”

Bobby laughed. “Yeah, okay.”

Was that sarcasm? He’d have to deal with Bobby later. Right now, he had other fish to fry.

Jared held on tightly to his anger until he’d made it across the parking lot. He found her rental car parked in front of the end unit. It was the only room with the lights on. It was probably the only room with an occupant.

Confident he had the correct door, he knocked loudly before he had a chance to think and change his mind. When she opened the door wearing nothing but a short slip of silk, he stopped thinking all together.

He supposed he stepped into the room, although he didn’t really remember doing so. Somehow, the door was closed behind him and Mandy was standing so close, she was practically pressed against him.

Grasping for the reason he was here, he finally came up with it. “You pissed me off tonight, darlin’.”

“You’ve pissed me off every day since I met you, Jared Gordon.”

Her blue eyes blazed into his. At six feet plus a few inches more in his boots, Jared towered over

Mandy, but she didn’t back down, or back up, even an inch. Jared swallowed hard when his glance hit upon the hardened nipples protruding through the painfully thin silk of whatever it was she was wearing.

He tried to wrestle his eyes up. “Put something on so I can yell at you.”

She snorted out a laugh. “No. You can just yell at me in what I’m wearing.”

“Damn it. Why are you so stubborn?”

“Ha! You should talk.”

He fisted his hands at his sides to avoid grabbing her. Whether he wanted to shake her silly or kiss her breathless, he wasn’t sure. The desire was equally strong to do both. “I’m so angry at you I can’t think straight.”

Yet he still wanted to fuck her until she couldn’t walk. That realization made him even angrier.

“You’re so angry at me? That’s rich.” She glared at him with defiance. “You, Jared Gordon, are a stubborn, chauvinistic, backwoods—”

Mandy never finished her sentence. It was as if his body moved faster than his brain, and before Jared knew it, his mouth covered hers. Once his brain caught up, there was a small nagging instinct that this was probably a really bad idea given his current mood and the fact she was a conniving, lying, single- minded…sexy-as-all-hell city girl.