Tall, Dark & Western

Tall, Dark & Western
Anne Marie Winston

When widowed rancher Marty Stryker placed an ad for a wife, the last thing he expected was a second chance at love. His little girl needed a loving mom– and he needed someone to share his long-empty marriage bed.But he certainly hadn' t counted on his new bride, Juliette Duchenay, bringing her own bundle of joy. Yet, from their first kiss, Marty knew all his willpower might not stop the surrender of his well-guarded heart….

He’d Have Liked Nothing More Than To Climb Right Into That Shower With Her, But He Had Things To See To.

A baby to deal with.

Normally he’d have hesitated to enter the room where the baby slept, but anxiety and adrenaline pushed him into the room. He leaned over the crib and looked down at the tiny, red-faced occupant. “Hey, little man, what’s the matter?”

Bobby stopped crying. And then he smiled. Not a tentative smile, but a wriggling, fist-waving, feet-kicking, face-splitting grin.

Marty’s throat grew tight. A shaft of the familiar pain speared his heart, but he forced himself to reach down and slide his hands beneath the baby, lifting him up and settling him against his chest. The baby snuggled in as if he belonged there.

Maybe he did. Marty blinked, trying to clear vision suddenly suspiciously blurred. This child was a member of his family, his child now.

Dear Reader,

Happy New Year from Silhouette Desire, where we offer you six passionate, powerful and provocative romances every month of the year! Here’s what you can indulge yourself with this January….

Begin the new year with a seductive MAN OF THE MONTH, Tall, Dark & Western by Anne Marie Winston. A rancher seeking a marriage of convenience places a personals ad for a wife, only to fall—hard—for the single mom who responds!

Silhouette Desire proudly presents a sequel to the wildly successful in-line continuity series THE TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB. This exciting new series about alpha men on a mission is called TEXAS CATTLEMAN’S CLUB: LONE STAR JEWELS. Jennifer Greene’s launch book, Millionaire M.D., features a wealthy surgeon who helps out his childhood crush when she finds a baby on her doorstep—by marrying her!

Alexandra Sellers continues her exotic miniseries SONS OF THE DESERT with one more irresistible sheikh in Sheikh’s Woman. THE BARONS OF TEXAS miniseries by Fayrene Preston returns with another feisty Baron heroine in The Barons of Texas: Kit. In Kathryn Jensen’s The Earl’s Secret, a British aristocrat romances a U.S. commoner while wrestling with a secret. And Shirley Rogers offers A Cowboy, a Bride & a Wedding Vow, in which a cowboy discovers his secret child.

So ring in the new year with lots of cheer and plenty of red-hot romance, by reading all six of these enticing love stories.

Enjoy!

Joan Marlow Golan

Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

Tall, Dark & Western

Anne Marie Winston

www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)

ANNE MARIE WINSTON

has believed in happy endings all her life. Having the opportunity to share them with her readers gives her great joy. Anne Marie enjoys figure skating and working in the gardens of her south-central Pennsylvania home.

For Harold, who keeps all my parts in working order.

Contents

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Epilogue

Prologue

When he saw the letter addressed in a looping, unfamiliar feminine handwriting, Marty Stryker withdrew the mail from his post office box in Kadoka, South Dakota, as if it might be poisonous. Stopping by the trash barrel in the corner to get rid of the junk mail, he held up the envelope, weighing it in his palm.

Should he even read it? The last few had been so goofy he hadn’t even bothered to answer them. Quickly, he slit one envelope and scanned the contents.

Dear Rancher,

How much would I have to know about children to marry you? I am eighteen years old. I know you might think that’s a little young but—

With a snort, Marty tossed the letter into the trash. And another one bites the dust.

Dispiritedly, he pushed open the heavy door and stepped out into the icy winter afternoon. His truck was parked at an angle just a few steps away on Main Street and he quickly strode over and folded his big frame inside, starting the engine and sitting there for a minute while it warmed up. He took off his hat and tossed it onto the seat, running his fingers through his gold-tipped curls.

A mild depression settled over him. He’d placed an ad in several Rapid City, South Dakota, papers nearly a year ago for a wife. Who’d have thought it would be so difficult to find a good woman?

He reached for the keys and cranked the engine, then started the drive south out of town to the Lucky Stryke, the outfit he worked with his brother Deck. All Marty wanted was a capable, friendly woman to share the raising of his daughter and help with the work around the ranch. Someone who’d enjoy a good romp between the sheets a few nights a week. She didn’t have to declare undying love; in fact he wouldn’t even consider marrying anyone who did.

No, he’d had love once. And losing Lora had been unbearable. All he wanted now was a partner, someone he liked enough to live with and make a life with. He didn’t want more children, so she’d have to be someone who didn’t hanker after babies. But other than that, he didn’t have a lot of requirements.

Or maybe he did. He thought back over the past few months to some of the disastrous encounters he’d had. Drunken women, priggish women, women who said they were thirty when they were closer to sixty…the one that took the cake, though, was the one who had declared that she could never live in a Godforsaken place like Kadoka.

He loved his little town, with its population of seven hundred something. He loved the wide, flat prairie and the gently rolling hills. He loved the lousy winters and the scorching summers, the stupid cattle and the awesome power of the storms that swept down from the north. He glanced out the window at the eroded outcroppings and peaks of the Badlands that stretched away to the west, stark and strangely beautiful to his eye—

And against his will, he remembered another trip on this very road, over two years ago, heading in the opposite direction at a much higher rate of speed as he’d rushed to get his laboring wife to the hospital in Rapid City.

His hands clenched on the steering wheel and the tips of his fingers grew white. He’d lost the battle with time on the trip, lost both Lora and the infant son she’d carried, and lived with the loneliness and grief every day since. Getting married again wasn’t at the top of his list of things he really wanted to accomplish in his lifetime, but he had his daughter to think of. His daughter, his beautiful, totally out of control daughter, needed a mother. And he was tired of sleeping alone, trying to get meals and laundry done in between feeding, branding and birthing calves, tired of the dreary look his home had acquired without a woman’s presence.

So he guessed he’d keep on with his ad campaign, even though his brother and his friends thought it was a crazy idea.

The right woman had to be out there somewhere.