Jake's Angel

Jake's Angel
Nicole Foster

After dragging his wounded body halfway across New Mexico, Texas Ranger Jake Coulter desperately needed a doctor. What he got was the town "witch," Isabel Bradshaw. While she tended his wounds, Jake soon found that the townspeople were right. Isabel's gentle touch was pure magic to body and soul!But a lifetime spent alone made the passion Jake was feeling for Isabel seem dangerous. And when a deadly enemy came to town, it was time for Jake to dedice once and for all: to leave town and never look back–or to take a stand and protect the woman he'd come to live….

“This is what healing is about. This—”

She reached out and took his hand. Cradling it in hers, she rubbed her fingertips over his palm in a light circular motion, looking into his eyes with unflinching directness. “This is healing. It’s the giving of strength and hope and—love.”

Her last word came on a soft rush of breath, and Jake caught it with his own. They stood poised in twilight’s embrace, his hand in hers, her touch kindling a slow heat. One motion, one word from her, and it would become wildfire in his blood.

She was taking him apart, making him burn inside.

Isabel gradually became aware of how near she stood to him. The realization came like a gentle change—the warm pressure of his hand in hers, the scent of him, the awareness of his size and strength. She tried to breathe easily, to achieve some measure of calm.

But the way he looked at her, his eyes darkening like storm clouds, quickened her heart and coursed a restless ache of longing through her veins.

Dear Reader,

The perfect complement to a hot summer day is a cool drink, some time off your feet and a good romance novel. And we have four terrific stories this month for you to choose from!

We are thrilled to welcome Nicole Foster to Harlequin Historical with her touching Western, Jake’s Angel. Nicole Foster is actually the pen name for the writing team of Annette Chartier-Warren and Danette Fertig-Thompson. This duo has previously published several romances under various pseudonyms. Jake’s Angel is the tender tale of an embittered—and wounded—Texas Ranger on the trail of a notorious outlaw; he winds up in a small New Mexican town and is healed, emotionally and physically, by a beautiful widow.

Jillian Hart brings us a wonderful Medieval, Malcolm’s Honor, in which a ruthless knight discovers a lasting passion for the feisty noblewoman he is forced to marry for convenience. In Lady of Lyonsbridge, a superb story by Ana Seymour, a marriage-shy heiress uncharacteristically falls for the honorable knight who stays at her estate en route to pay a kidnapped king’s ransom.

And don’t miss Judith Stacy’s darling new Western, The Blushing Bride, in which a young lady travels to a male-dominated logging camp to play matchmaker for a bevy of potential brides—only to find herself unexpectedly drawn to a certain mountain man of her own!

Enjoy! And come back again next month for four more choices of the best in historical romance.

Sincerely,

Tracy Farrell

Senior Editor

Jake’s Angel

Nicole Foster

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

Available from Harlequin Historicals and NICOLE FOSTER

Jake’s Angel #522

For Jeff, always my hero.

For Ken, thanks for the memories of Paris, Rome,

Amsterdam, London, Oxford, Copenhagen…

but most of all Alassio.

Contents

Chapter One (#ud0d3879f-859f-58b2-840a-1a6652ed4a61)

Chapter Two (#ub7a973d4-fe20-5ad0-ab81-5cb0ee0a7462)

Chapter Three (#ua6926a5e-7dcb-5f5d-8012-f295908262d2)

Chapter Four (#u8f3fb2a5-04d9-5e80-810c-316a4e864923)

Chapter Five (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Six (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eight (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nine (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Ten (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eleven (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Twelve (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Thirteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fourteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Fifteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Sixteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Seventeen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Eighteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter Nineteen (#litres_trial_promo)

Chapter One

Whispering Creek, New Mexico, 1874

Jake Coulter limped up to the doors of the Silver Rose leaving a trail of blood and dust behind him. After two days of hard riding with a hole in his leg, no sleep, and nothing but a bottle of bad whiskey for solace, he felt mean enough to shoot the next man who crossed him.

He hadn’t planned on dragging into Whispering Creek looking and feeling like something the vultures left behind; he hadn’t planned on coming to Whispering Creek at all. But Jerico Grey had decided to run home to the New Mexico territory, and Jake hadn’t spent nearly six months tracking him just to let him steal his freedom by crossing the border.