Rescuing love is never easy… Veterinarian Dr. Louisa Coldiron comes from a long line of hardworking, rough riding, straight-shooting cowboys. Her father and brothers are cowboys and nearly every male in the small town of Santa Camino, Texas, is, was, or will be a cowboy. And experience has taught her that when a cowboy gets thrown into the mix, something gets broken. Falling in love with the horses she helps to rescue is easy. Pretending she isn’t falling for the sexy cowboy who teaches them to trust again…? Not so much. After years of roaming, Brody Vance feels he’s finally found a home at the Promise Point Horse Rescue Ranch and a woman he could easily love. But he knows a wounded heart when he sees one. Louisa has more in common with her patients than she’s willing to admit. Coaxing Louisa’s skittish heart into letting him take the reins of passion will take Brody’s tender expertise.
Brody hung up, shifted the truck into drive, and after checking his side mirror, guided the truck back onto the road.
When he’d gotten the call from Heather saying that she’d gotten pregnant during their one-night stand, Brody’s world had flipped upside-down. Those long months when she didn’t call, he’d nearly worried himself to death thinking about her and his unborn son’s welfare.
After Riley arrived, he’d learn how to work while worrying, and he’d learned how to deal with missing his son. He pushed through the heartache and focused on the job he had to do. Brody was pushing now, but he wasn’t making much headway.
He turned off the main road and followed the five-mile gravel road to Darby’s place. He parked in the shade of a juniper tree and slid out, making sure he had the satellite phone and his slicker before reaching to the back for his rifle.
As he headed towards the horse trailer, he saw a gnarled finger hook around one of the yellow, sunbaked curtains hanging over a dingy window. A second or two later, the front door opened, and Darby’s unmistakable form filled the shadow. A dingy gray pinch-front hat, a bushy ocher- colored beard, thin ribs, and bowlegs that resembled a wishbone clad in dirty jeans.
By Brody’s estimation, the man was near seventy. He’d never married and the only children he had were the bedraggled Australian cattle dog he called Fred and a horse that looked to be as old as Darby.
Darby let the screen door slam shut, nearly clipping Fred’s tail as he trotted out the door behind him. He stopped at the edge of the porch and bit into the half of a sliced sandwich, chewing slowly like a cow enjoying the first taste of spring grass. “You alone?”
Brody opened the trailer door. “Yeah, I’m alone.” Now was not the time for brooding reflection or an in-depth analysis of how accurate the old man’s words were. His impatience had destroyed one of the best chances he’d had at building intimacy with a woman he was in love with, and his son was in another state.
Mina is the author of the Coldiron Cowboys series and the Rough Creek series (2020 IMADJINN AWARDS FINALISTS).
She and her husband live on a farm in the beautiful Appalachian Mountains. Along with reading and writing, she enjoys painting, photography, baking, and spending time with her rescue dogs, miniature horses, and donkeys. https://www.instagram.com/minabeckett/
Life in her corner of the world consists of long winter nights curled up by the fire, cheering on her favorite football teams in the fall, enduring March Madness in the spring and walking barefoot through her garden with a cold jar of tea in the summer ─ fireflies at sunset accompanied by a serenade of crickets and frogs, and lazy nights in the porch swing.
After moving to London, Amelia Glendale landed her dream job as a lawyer at the Queen’s Charitable Foundation. But when the queen dies, Amelia finds herself working for her longtime royal crush, Prince Leo – and his stuffy older brother Prince Edmund.
Charismatic Prince Leo was once known for his hard-partying ways, but has settled down and thrown himself into a life of philanthropy. He’s Amelia’s perfect man and she’s sure they’d get along if she wasn’t too star-struck to speak to him.
Prince Edmund has always been the sensible brother and dutiful heir, until a scandal of epic proportions leaves his reputation in tatters. With his comfortable existence disrupted, he sees a chance to build a life and relationship where he is more than just his position.
Thrown into the princes’ orbit, Amelia discover that maybe the perfect man for her isn’t the prince she expected. Will Amelia get her fairytale ending, or will the pressures of life in the spotlight be too much to bear?
This feel-good romantic comedy about love, friendship and tiaras is perfect for fans of American Royals and The Royal We.
I know it’s been a long day, but would you like to come back with me for dinner? Lucy and Emma are coming over for a post-trip debrief, and I’m sure they’d like to see you.”
“I’d love to, but I promised Penny I’d have dinner with her. She’ll disown me for sure if I stand her up.”
“Are you sure? Am I going to have to get down on my knees and beg?”
Now that’s an image. How am I meant to say no to that?
“Alright, I’ll come for dinner. But I’m going to have to leave early—eight p.m. at the latest. Don’t let me lose track of time.”
“I wouldn’t dream of it.”
Walters is standing squinting out the window as the flight attendant disarms the door. He turns around and walks towards us.
“Excuse me, Your Highness. It seems we have an issue.”
“What’s the matter?”
“There are photographers on the runway. We’ve called airport security, but it may take a while to clear them.”
“Are the cars ready to go outside?”
“Yes, sir.”
“In that case, let’s just get to the cars quickly and head out.”
“Are you sure, sir?”
“Yes, quite sure. I don’t want to spend an hour waiting for airport security to deal with it.”
“As you wish, sir,” Walters responds. He strides back to the door and nods to the flight attendant who opens the door.
With the door open, Walters walks towards the stairs with Edmund and me following behind.
“What are we having for dinner then? Have you got your chef on standby?”
“I’ll have you know that I don’t have a chef.”
“But you can order food from the kitchens at the other apartments, right?”
“Well, yes, Helena has extra kitchen staff, so they can cater for the rest of us. But that’s not the same as having my own dedicated chef.”
“Oh, of course not, Your Highness. You’re the picture of the everyman. The public would never question the cost of the monarchy again if they knew you were here sharing chefs,” I say, rolling my eyes.
No response. Eddie is frozen at the door with his back to me. Oops, maybe that one went too far.
“Hey, I’m sorry. It was just a joke…”
“It’s not you,” Eddie says stiffly. “It’s them.”
My gaze follows Eddie’s hand as he gestures out the door to the runway. On the ground is a pack of at least forty people with cameras and microphones. There are flashbulbs going off everywhere and photographers and reporters jostling and yelling over each other, trying to get our attention. This is not what I pictured when Walters said there were photographers here.
Watching the scene down on the ground, I try to figure out how so many people got here so fast. Is this what it’s always like when Eddie goes out? There were reporters following us around in Kenya, but it was nothing like this. They were a small group of pre-approved professionals. Something about this pack is far rougher and more volatile.
“What do we do?”
“They’ve already seen us, so I say we keep our heads down and get to the cars as fast as possible. You’d better head back to your flat. If they get photos of us going into KP together, things are going to escalate quickly.”
“Right, of course. Okay, I guess I’ll head home.”
Eddie walks down the steep stairs and I follow, watching my feet and trying to pretend that this is a totally normal experience that I am completely fine with. The facade doesn’t last long.
Halfway down the stairs, the wind dies down and I’m hit by a wall of sound. Everyone on the ground is yelling. Reporters are shouting questions, airport security officers are screaming at the reporters to move back and Walters and the PPOs are urging Eddie and me to move faster and get to the cars. Making my way across the tarmac to the car, I keep my head down and catch bits and pieces of the questions being hurled at Eddie through the chaos.
“Why did you cheat, Edmund?”
“What did Sibella say?”
“Give us a kiss!”
“How long have you been seeing her?”
After what seems like an hour, I make it to the car, and a PPO opens the door and starts pushing me in. As he does, I look up and see a lone reporter with floppy brown hair and tortoise-shell glasses staring at me. Not Eddie, me. “Oi, Amelia! How does it feel to finally catch a prince?” Before he can say anything else, I’m shoved into the backseat and the door slams shut next to me.
“Camden, is it, ma’am?” the driver asks, looking at me in the rear-view mirror.
“Pardon?”
“We’re headed to an address in Camden?”
“Oh, yes. Thank you.”
“Don’t worry, ma’am,” he says, his eyes softening. “You’ll get used to it.”
I write funny stories about people falling in love. Mainly princes and princesses because I’m a bit of a royal family tragic. Also because writing about royalty is the closest I’ll ever come to wearing a tiara that isn’t made of plastic.
I live in Australia with my husband and three small humans. In my seventeen seconds of free time each day I love reading romantic comedies, watching cheesy Netflix movies and baking cakes which I absolutely do not eat most of myself.
To be the first to hear about new releases and exclusive extras, head to www.alicedolman.com and sign up for my newsletter.
After his scandalous fight with Mad Max, Stone was banned from the professional fighting world. Turning to a wild and reckless life filled with women, alcohol, and drugs, Stone thought that his life was officially over. With nowhere left to go, Stone takes a job as a bouncer in a Las Vegas Club.
Ember grew up in a trailer park in the middle of nowhere. Once she graduated high school, she took off for the big city lights of Las Vegas and never looked back. She has no idea what she wants out of life yet, but she knows she will never go back to the world she left behind.
One night, after a couple of customers get a little too rowdy in the bar, Ember finds herself being saved by the last man she ever would have expected– Stone Cold, the infamous bad boy fighter who was shunned from the MMA fighting world. When their eyes lock, both Stone and Ember realize there’s more to the other than they ever could have imagined. Ember see’s strength in Stone and he finds hope in Ember.
Will they be able to save one another and help build the lives they are both destined for?
Quickly, our kiss deepened, and Ember crawled over my lap, her heated core warming against my jeans as she slightly rocked.
I began to trail light kisses down her neck and Ember let her head fall back, giving me more access to her sweet skin.
“Aren’t you tired from earlier?” she asked, but we both knew she was enjoying this.
“I could never get tired of you,” I sighed.
Ember stopped kissing me and stared deep into my eyes. “Stone…”
“Ember, don’t fight this. We both know how amazing we could be. You wouldn’t believe how good this could get,” I said, winking.
“Oh yeah. We are both royally screwed up, Stone. You think that’s good?” she asked.
“I do. I’m on track to getting back into professional fighting and you have dreams, too. I’m going to make a lover out of you,” I said, making sure she was still looking at me.
