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Excerpt...
Elizabeth Fitzgerald is the most beautiful woman Jonathan Winchester’s
ever laid eyes on. She’s also the craziest. Why on earth would a
citified woman move to Sapphire, Montana, in the dead of winter when the
weather’s cold enough to freeze the hooves off of cattle? And why would
that woman buy an old, beat-up hotel that’s been boarded up for years
and just might be haunted?
Jonathan Winchester is the most infuriating man Elizabeth’s ever met,
but he’s got mesmerizing sapphire eyes that warm her fingers and toes,
and, heaven knows, a woman needs something to keep her warm in Sapphire,
Montana.
They’re two strong-willed people and it’s no surprise that Elizabeth and
Jon clash not five minutes after they meet. But Jon can’t stay away from
the raven-haired, Rubenesque beauty and taking her to dinner at the Tin
Cup Cafe sounds like a mighty fine way of getting acquainted.
Elizabeth isn’t sure dinner with this man is going to work, but she
can’t resist his invitation. For some strange reason, she can’t resist
Jon, either.
When Jon pushed
open the cafe door, Elizabeth was amazed by what she saw. It was like
looking back in time into a gay nineties saloon with red glass
chandeliers and a highly polished bar. She expected to see a burly man
with a handlebar mustache tending to customers and saloon girls
sashaying around, serving drinks. But the place was nearly empty except
for a few tables scattered about. It wasn’t brimming with patrons,
either, just two men sitting at a center table.
She stepped
inside and turned around, smiling her pleasure to Jon.
"I take it you
like our cafe," he said as he entered, his broad shoulders barely
squeezing between the jambs. He even had to tilt his head down to keep
the top of his hat from brushing the dried mistletoe hanging overhead.
He looked powerful and intimidating, just like the mansion he lived in,
but she sensed that buried deep, deep beneath that ominous exterior
there might be a touch of warmth.
She was just
unbuttoning her coat when she felt Jon’s hands on her shoulders, felt
the leather of his gloves lightly touch the hair at the nape of her
neck. He was standing very close, peeling her coat away as she released
the last of the buttons, and she felt uncommonly warm all over. In fact,
she realized, she’d felt warm ever since she’d opened her front door and
seen him on the doorstep with firewood in his arms.
Their gazes met
when she turned around, his sapphire eyes shining brightly from under
his hat. He reached somewhere to his right and got rid of her coat. And
he didn’t look away. Not once.
He swept his
black felt Stetson from his head. A lock of wavy blond hair fell across
his forehead as he smacked the brim against his Levi’s to shake off the
snow It was the first time she’d seen him without his hat. Oh, she’d
seen the neatly trimmed sideburns, but she hadn’t noticed the way his
thick blond hair waved around his ears and just barely brushed the
collar of his coat. She liked what she saw, and she liked the way that
errant strand fell right back over his forehead after he combed his
fingers through the top.
With their gazes
locked, she was finding breathing difficult. Somehow she tore her eyes
away and watched him shrug out of his jacket, getting her first good
look at his body. Not an ounce of fat anywhere, and she’d been right
when she’d made her earlier observation about his build. He was
definitely a combination of every he-man on record. Through his blue
denim shirt she could make out the play of muscles in his arms and his
chest, even the flat planes of his stomach. She couldn’t picture him
standing on stage with his body oiled and glistening. No, Jon would
never stand around flexing and posing. He didn’t have to prove himself
that way.
He took her arm,
drawing her attention from his chest to the smoothness of his cheek as
he leaned over to whisper in her ear. "My friends have been staring at
you since we walked into the room. Promise you won’t ogle them like
you’ve been ogling me."
His words stung,
and she tried to pull away, but he kept her close, that insufferable
grin spreading across his face before he whispered to her again.
"They’ve got wives at home who might not approve. I don’t have a wife--"
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