FISH OUT OF WATER BY CAT JOHNSON

HE'S THE ONE

Multi-author anthology releasing June 25^th in mass market paperback and eBook

Finally, no more lonely nights…

LINDA LAEL MILLER "Batteries Not Required"

The only boyfriend Gayle Hayes has is the battery-operated kind. But when she returns to her small Montana hometown, rodeo bad boy Tristan McCullough gives her a whole new lesson in power surge…

JILL SHALVIS "Captivated"

James Scott warned his investigator ex-wife Ella to be more careful. Now he finds the irate woman nearly naked and handcuffed to the towel rack in his Mexican vacation condo. He should release her. Then again…

LUCY MONROE "Seducing Tabby"

Everybody always wants Tabby Payton’s beautiful sister. But not sexy English spy Calder Maxwell. He wants Tabby, body and soul, and he’s willing to take the seduction to new levels to prove it…

KATE ANGELL "No Shirt, No Shoes, No Service"

Violet Cates is done surfing beach bums. She’s ready for a new wave, someone with more ambition than a grain of sand. Like Brad Davis. He looks like a beach bum, but looks can be so deceiving…

CAT JOHNSON "Fish Out of Water"

Carla Henricks is a cowgirl through and through, but her lasso has never met an English professor like Mark Ross. It’s true opposites attract. Staying together is the juicy part…

Don't miss ONE NIGHT WITH A COWBOY by Cat Johnson for your first introduction to the sexy, nerdy English professor Mark Ross.

"FISH OUT OF WATER" BY CAT JOHNSON EXCERPT

The early morning sky, streaked with vibrant colors, made for a breathtaking start to the day. No doubt about it. For millennia, man had waxed poetic about sunrises this magnificent. Mark knew he should be more appreciative. Take note of the experience. After all, it’s not as if he was up and outside early enough to see the beauty of this natural phenomenon all that often. But instead, he couldn’t take his eyes off her.

To be fair, she was a natural beauty as well, silhouetted in profile against the hues painting the sky. She stood on the shoreline of the lake, holding a fishing pole. His first glimpse of her had him tripping over his own feet.

A few steps ahead of him, Tucker strode toward the lakeshore. “Hey, Carla. You catching anything?”

“More than you got while you were sleeping in, that’s for sure.” She turned and Mark got a better look as she faced them and teased Tuck with easy familiarity. Of course she did. Tucker wore a hat that looked almost a mate to the cowboy hat she wore. Or perhaps hers was a cowgirl hat. Mark didn’t know these things. That was probably obvious to the stranger from the canvas bucket-hat Mark had chosen for this excursion. It had looked pretty sporty on the mannequin in the store, but here and now, up against Tuck’s headwear, or even Logan’s baseball cap, not so much.

Mark watched the interaction between Tucker and the cowgirl fisherwoman. He didn’t recognize her as one of the faculty. Not that he knew everyone, but still, he thought he’d remember seeing her.

“Is she with our group?” he asked Logan.

Logan dumped a load of camping gear on the ground and glanced up. “Carla? Yeah. She coaches the rodeo team with Tuck.”

“Ah.” The university’s rodeo team had never been on Mark’s radar before. After seeing Carla, it would be from now on.

How could a woman manage to look so tempting this early in the morning? And while fishing?

Maybe it was the long brown braid draped over one shoulder. If he loosened that braid, set those waves of hair free, it would reach all the way down her back. Her cowboy hat was pulled low over her eyes so that it accentuated the heart shape of her face. He wanted to peer beneath the brim of that hat and discover what color those eyes were.

All in good time. For now, this view would have to do. And oh what a view.

The contour of her Cupid’s bow lips drew him. He couldn’t help but stare and want to see it all closer. Even this distance, just a couple of yards away from her, seemed frustrating. Was her complexion genuinely that rosy, or was it a trick of the light? He needed to find out.

She stood in the ankle-deep water with her jeans rolled to her knees. Most of the women Mark had dated wouldn’t even venture outside in the rain. Everything about her seemed to be the opposite of the females he was used to, and he liked the differences.

The weight of the overnight bag in his hand finally drew Mark’s attention away from his ponderings. He lowered it to the ground and glanced up to find Logan staring.

“I’ll introduce you if you want.” Logan wore an amused expression.

Mark managed to maintain a poker face while playing poker, but judging by Logan’s smirk, he wasn’t doing too well at hiding his interest in Carla now. He swallowed hard. “Oh, sure. That would be good, since we’ll be fishing together.”

Sure, fishing. That’s what he wanted to do with this vision in denim before him. Fish.