Cowboys and Cabernet

Cowboys and Cabernet
Margot Dalton

RAISE A GLASS –TEXAS STYLE!Crystal Creek…where power and influence live in the land, and in the hands of one family determined to nourish old Texas fortunes and to forge new Texas futures.A TOAST TO NEW IDEASTyler McKinney is out to prove you can produce good wine on a Texas ranch and make money doing it. He enlists the help of vintner Ruth Holden, but he doesn't like her advice. Her methods may work in California, but this is Texas!For Ruth, Tyler is too stubborn, too impatient, too…Texas. And far too difficult to resist.

“I’m sure as hell not the father of that baby.”

Tyler’s voice was cold and level. “Listen, Ruth, I never touched Jodie Hiltz. I’d hardly know the girl if I saw her on the street.”

Ruth glanced up at him, aching to believe him. But Jodie’s words were carved into her memory: “He’s so handsome without his clothes…he has a birthmark on his left hip…shaped like a map of Texas….”

Ruth moaned softly. She remembered the sweet pleasure of the previous night when she and Tyler had made love, laughed and teased.

“Show me Amarillo,” he’d whispered.

Ruth forced herself back to the present. She looked hopelessly at Tyler. “Jodie wasn’t lying. Please take me home. I have to start packing.”

Special thanks and acknowledgment to Margot Dalton

for her contribution to the Crystal Creek series.

Special thanks and acknowledgment to Sutton Press Inc.

for its contribution to the concept for the Crystal Creek series.

Cowboys and Cabernet

Margot Dalton

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

Dear Reader,

Welcome to Crystal Creek! In the heart of Texas Hill Country, the McKinneys have been ranching, living and loving for generations, but the future promises changes none of these good folks could ever imagine!

Crystal Creek itself is the product of many imaginations, but the stories began to take shape when some of your favorite authors– Barbara Kaye, Margot Dalton, Bethany Campbell, Cara West, Kathy Clark and Sharon Brondos–all got together with me just outside of Austin to explore the Hill Country, and to dream up the kinds of romances such a setting would provide. For several days, we roamed the countryside, where generous Texans opened their historic homes to us, and gave us insights into their lives. We ate barbecue, we visited an ostrich farm and we mapped out our plans to give you the linked stories you love, with a true Texas flavor and all the elements you’ve come to expect in your romance reading: compelling, contemporary characters caught in conflicts that reflect today’s dilemmas.

Margot Dalton’s fascination with the burgeoning Texas wine industry finds expression in this captivating tale of Tyler McKinney, the eldest McKinney offspring, and Ruth Holden, a Californian with a string of impressive credentials in wine making to her name, and a measured, analytical, thoughtful approach to growing grapes that puts our poor frustrated cowboy right off his feed!

And next month, watch for Amarillo by Morning, the story of Cal, Tyler’s younger brother. An entrepreneurial young Texas bootmaker in search of an endorsement gets way more than she bargains for when she is bombarded by the formidable charms of rodeo rider Cal McKinney….

C’mon down to Crystal Creek–home of sultry Texas drawls, smooth Texas charm and tall, sexy Texans!

Marsha Zinberg

Executive Editor,

Crystal Creek

A Note from the Author

When Harlequin editors first approached me about writing these books, I was really nervous. I’d never even been to Texas…how could I write books about the place? But when my husband and I finally traveled to Austin for a research trip, I was amazed and delighted to find that I felt right at home. The countryside is truly big and beautiful—just like the hearts of the people. And Texas ranchers are every bit as colorful, rugged and lovable as their counterparts on the Canadian prairies where I grew up. They have the same hospitality and generosity of spirit, and that deep love for the land and its traditions that unites farmers and ranchers all over the world.

Now, when anybody mentions the place, I just smile and say, “Yeah, I love Texas. I’m even learning to speak the language.”

Margot Dalton

Cast of Characters

AT THE DOUBLE C RANCH

AT THE CIRCLE T RANCH

AT THE LONGHORN

CONTENTS

CHAPTER ONE

CHAPTER TWO

CHAPTER THREE

CHAPTER FOUR

CHAPTER FIVE

CHAPTER SIX

CHAPTER SEVEN

CHAPTER EIGHT

CHAPTER NINE

CHAPTER TEN

CHAPTER ELEVEN

CHAPTER TWELVE

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

CHAPTER ONE

THE WINTER CLOUDS rolled into California’s Napa Valley during January, dark and heavy, brooding on the craggy hilltops and drowning the sheltered valley in mist and rain. The fields that had so recently been alive with color and motion now lay dormant, their acres and acres of grapevines resting neat and bare in long trellised rows, stripped of leaves and fruit, awaiting the new growing season.

By late afternoon the light thinned and faded, then slipped away behind piled masses of clouds. Night fell early, a dank smothering blackness that rolled across the hills in a solid ominous mass, blocking the moon and stars.

Don Holden moved restlessly across his dining room and pulled the drapes aside, peering out into the darkness. He looked at his watch and frowned, then glanced through the rain-splattered window again, his face drawn with concern.