The Consummate Cowboy

The Consummate Cowboy
Sara Orwig

THE FORBIDDEN MAN Zach Durham could rustle the orneriest cattle, charm two rambunctious kids… and inspire desire in women who should know better. And Emily Stockton knew better. Her sister's ex-husband was way off-limits… but this flesh-and-blood, taut-muscled, slim-hipped cowboy had her pulse pounding, her heart racing and her mind reeling.She wanted to forget the real reason she'd come to his spread and simply be in his arms, live on his ranch, tend her adorable niece and nephew. But her stay was temporary. She knew it, and Zach knew it. So why was he looking at her like a man in love… like a man who wanted her by his side - forever?

“I Need You,” He Whispered. (#uc2651501-6e4e-56bc-99a7-8d88a2352c83)Letter to Reader (#u259290cf-b1ec-5dab-bed6-5bd1a93e6144)Title Page (#u231898ca-e03f-562d-af8f-ea84fc6c83f7)About the Author (#u9eb3f818-8421-5ee3-9aeb-1fa8b537606f)Acknowledgments (#u97d49194-e080-529b-8b75-3dd59bbbffc7)Prologue (#uf013c414-76f7-51f3-8c6f-bf0129dc5c15)Chapter One (#uc4b6847e-dcc7-50fc-b450-c6d302418d48)Chapter Two (#u30fb4f46-4b90-50c7-ae42-397e5040f914)Chapter Three (#ub861416d-22b3-5911-98c2-d86083d742ff)Chapter Four (#litres_trial_promo)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)Copyright (#litres_trial_promo)

“I Need You,” He Whispered.

Emily looked into his dark eyes and knew that never in her life had she been wanted this way.

“I’m going home tomorrow, Zach.”

“We have tonight,” he answered. He picked her up and carried her to the family room, where he closed the door and slipped the bolt in place.

He eased her down and with a powerful sweep of his arms he yanked off his T-shirt and tossed it aside, muscles rippling. She inhaled deeply. She saw his intention as he bent his head to kiss her, and she did not want to stop him. She sensed the vulnerability in him and she wanted to give to him, to make him feel complete. At the same time, she didn’t want to go home with a broken heart. It was a fleeting thought, whisked away by his fingers and his mouth and his body. This moment she was willing to risk all....

Dear Reader,

August predictably brings long steamy days...and hot sensuous nights. And this month Silhouette Desire spotlights the kind of pure passion that can erupt only in that sizzling summer climate.

Get ready to fall head over heels for August’s MAN OF THE MONTH, a sexy rancher who opens his home (and his heart?) to a lost beauty desperately hoping to recover her memory in A Montana Man by Jackie Merrit. Bestselling author Cait London continues her hugely popular miniseries THE TALLCHIEFS with Rafe Palladin: Man of Secrets. Rafe is an irresistible takeover tycoon with a plan to acquire a Tallchief lady. Barbara McMahon brings readers the second story in her IDENTICAL TWINS! duo—in The Older Man an exuberant young woman is swept up by her love and desire for a tremendously gorgeous, much older man.

Plus, talented Susan Crosby unfolds a story of seduction, revenge and scandal in the continuation of THE LONE WOLVES with His Seductive Revenge. And TEXAS BRIDES are back with The Restless Virgin by Peggy Moreland, the story of an innocent Western lady tired of waiting around for marriage—so she lassos herself one unsuspecting cowboy! And you’ve never seen a hero like The Consummate Cowboy, by Sara Orwig. He’s all man, allaround ornery and all-out tempted...by his ex-wife’s sister!

I know you’ll enjoy reading all six of this sultry month’s brandnew Silhouette Desire novels by some of the most beloved and sexy authors of romance.

Regards,

Melissa Senate

Senior Editor

Silhouette Books

Please address questions and book requests to:

Silhouette Reader Service

U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

Sara Orwig

The Consummate Cowboy

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

SARA ORWIG

is a national bestselling author with six Romantic Times awards, including Love and Laughter and a Career Achievement Award for Contemporary Fiction. Sara’s books have been translated into more than twenty languages, and she loves getting letters from readers around the world. An avid reader, Sara loves her native Oklahoma with its hot summers and gardening opportunities. Jalapeño peppers are the latest specialty that Sara and husband, David, are growing. The yard is filled with plants and the house is filled with books, as well as some people very special to Sara.

Thanks to Pat Froehle and to Debra Robertson

Prologue

“Things cannot get worse,” Emily Stockton said aloud. Later she would remember her foolhardy prediction. She turned off the faucets, stepped out of the shower and wrapped her red hair in a towel. Exhausted from working a ten-hour day at the office of Chicago Charities, she dried quickly and yanked on a short blue cotton nightgown. As she slipped it over her head, she heard the ring of the phone.

“Oh, no!” She could imagine Meg Dodson calling about the adoption they had been working on for weeks. She hurried to the phone and picked up the receiver, bracing for more upheaval and Meg’s panicky voice. An unintelligible and hysterical female voice ran words together.

“Meg? Slow down. I can’t understand you at all.”

“Emily, it’s me—Amber. I’m in desperate trouble. Help me. You’ve got to help me. He’s after me—”

“Amber?” Emily frowned in shock, trying to remember the last time she had talked to her sister. She shook her head, wondering what Amber’s latest predicament was. Her sister had already gone through two husbands and was now married to the third.

“You’ve got to help me. I know you’ll come, but please be careful. If he knows you’re going to help me, you’ll be in danger. I’ve got to get away from him—”

“Who’s him? Raimundo? Zach Durham?” Amber’s current husband and most recent ex seemed the logical possibilities. The first had long ago disappeared from Amber’s life.

“You know how tough Zach is and how he hates me. Stay away from him!”

“Amber, you’re not making sense. Who’s after you?”

“I’ve got to go. I think he’s here. I’m in New Mexico. Up north. I’ll call you—”

The phone clicked, and Emily stared at the receiver. “Damn,” she said, half tempted to hang up, go to bed, and forget all about Amber and her problems. Her sister had been in trouble all of Emily’s life. Yet Amber sounded more frightened than ever before. With a sigh of resignation, Emily knew she would have to do something. No matter what kind of jams her family got themselves into, she always felt compelled to stand by them. She was the youngest member of the family, yet she’d always felt like the oldest.

As she blew dry her hair, pulling the brush through her thick reddish-golden hair, the curls springing back in an annoying tangle, she mulled over Amber’s call. She hadn’t taken a vacation in three years. She could wind up the latest adoption and ask for time off to go to New Mexico and see what help Amber needed. She didn’t know where in northern New Mexico, but she expected another wild call from Amber. And more than likely, the trouble involved Amber’s second husband, Zach Durham, who was a rancher in New Mexico. Otherwise, why would Amber be in that state? The last call Emily had received from her sister had been from Acapulco, where Amber was celebrating her latest marriage to Raimundo Morales. That had been eight months ago. Maybe Raimundo and Zach were fighting over Amber.

Although Emily knew she could use some time off work, she didn’t want to spend it tied up with Amber’s problems. But she also knew she couldn’t ignore Amber’s plea for help. She let out a long sigh.

“Chump,” she grumbled into the empty darkness.

One

How long can someone live after a rattlesnake bite? Emily wondered. It hadn’t happened yet, but she half expected to hear a sinister rattle at any moment or feel fangs sink into her ankle. Now she wished she had worn boots instead of sneakers.

“Ouch!” She bit her lip and yanked her sleeve free from the barbed-wire fence. A perfect place for dying, she thought morbidly. Wind whistled through the regal aspen, their white trunks pale in the July moonlight, as she ignored a No Trespassing sign and climbed between the strands of the fence into a forbidden pasture.

Spruce and aspen cast black shadows across the ground and she could imagine various deadly threats hidden in the darkness. Like snakes. She loathed them. She had also seen pictures of bulls on the property, and prayed there wasn’t one in her vicinity. And out here in the wilds of New Mexico, there could be mountain lions, wild dogs, wild pigs. She preferred the streets of Chicago any night to walking alone here.

Looking back across the fence, she saw her car pulled off the side of the divided highway and parked in the shadows of a spruce.

Remember why you’re here, she reminded herself as she moved cautiously along the fence, heading toward the road that passed through wide, locked gates.

For a quarter of a mile along the highway in either direction from the ranch’s secured gates stretched chain-link fencing. Not a friendly place. A chill ran down Emily’s spine. Zach Durham and the Bar Z ranch were as inviting as a pit of snakes.

She walked swiftly, staying in the shadows, but she felt vulnerable in the darkness. She stayed parallel to the highway, but feared she might be seen from the road. Even more she feared the wild land on her side of the fence.