Texas Secrets (23 page)
Boone had Maddie, and that was all that mattered.
He heard her sniff and looked over. Maddie rose and came to stand beside him.
Boone pulled her down on his lap and held on tight. For a long span, they didn't speak, just held one another.
"He loved you, Boone."
"I guess he did, in his own way."
"Are you angry that he figured it out too late?"
Boone loosened his hold enough to look at her. "I don't know. I can't be angry, because anything changed would mean I might never have met you. If for nothing else, I'll always be grateful to him for that."
"We'll find Mitch. We will," she promised.
He nodded. "And we'll meet Lacey soon."
"I'm so sad for Sam."
Such a tender heart
. "He paid a high price." He looked deep into her eyes. "I understand better now. If I lost you..." He wrapped her up tightly in his arms, his voice cracking. "I could be just like him."
Maddie sat up straight and framed his face with her hands. "No, you would never do that. You already showed me that. You were ready to let me go if that's what would make me happy. You're not like him, Boone. You would never make Sam's mistakes."
"You don't know that."
Maddie looked deep into his eyes. "Yes, I do." Then she grinned. "I take it back. You are like him in one way." Maddie's eyes twinkled. "Stubborn as sin."
The weight of the moment vanished with her teasing. "Anyone ever tell you that you got a mouth on you, Maddie Rose?"
"Why, yes, I believe someone has."
"I've got better uses for it." Boone bent down to show her what he meant.
* * *
"You are so beautiful. Rose would have loved to see you in her dress." Boone's blue eyes gleamed with tender appreciation.
Maddie nestled against him, loving the moment of quiet they'd stolen on the porch. The entire town of Morning Star, it seemed, was packed inside the big white house that was now her home, having a wedding reception that looked as though it might never end.
Boone read her mind. "Do you think they'll ever leave?" They'd decided to postpone a honeymoon until the lost siblings had been found.
She smiled. "Everyone pitched in to make it a dream wedding. They deserve to stay as long as they want."
"Then I'm stealing you away and we're heading for Dallas," he growled. "I've waited too long already to get you naked."
Maddie tried to laugh past the catch in her breath. "Dallas is a long way."
"Forget Dallas. Fifty miles to Brownwood seems like the moon." He tilted her chin up and sealed his mouth to hers in a hungry kiss.
Maddie's knees went weak. She had it all right here—everything she had ever longed for in the years of wandering.
See if Texas whispers in your heart like it always has in mine.
It does, Sam
. In the back of beyond, Maddie had finally found where she belonged.
Then she thought no more, caught up in the magic of the man who had finally let go, finally opened up a wounded heart and let her inside to find a love that still staggered her with its abundance. Maddie answered his kiss with a hunger that matched his.
"Ahem—"
Both of them started at the sound of Jim's voice.
"I'm sorry to bother you two." Jim's eyes twinkled. "You know, there's a party inside in your honor. Think you might want to attend?"
"Go away, Jim." Smiling, Boone held Maddie close. "Just because you gave Maddie away doesn't mean you can start acting like a father." Then he shot Jim a glance. "And get those people to go home."
Maddie laughed.
Jim did, too. "If you think I'm going toe-to-toe with Velda
and
Vondell, then you better go get your brain checked. My mama didn't raise no fool."
Boone sighed. "I hear you."
"But you go right ahead, if you think you're big enough." Jim turned to leave.
"Jim—" Maddie spoke up then.
The foreman halted.
"Thank you—for everything."
He nodded. "Never mind what that boy says. You need a father figure, I ain't too old to take him to the woodshed."
Maddie laughed. "I'll remember that."
Boone smiled and shook his head. "I'm firing everyone. Between him and Vondell, I'll never get any time alone with you."
"Vondell's moving into town."
"Yeah, but you know she'll be in the thick of it, once you take over The Dinner Bell."
Jim chuckled. "It's a long way from a fancy restaurant in New York, Maddie."
"You two just wait. I'll have people driving from Fort Worth and Dallas to eat at my place." Saying the words
my place
sent a surge of pride through Maddie's heart.
"I believe you will," Boone responded, his gaze locking on hers, delivering a deeper layer of messages.
"You'll put my name on a booth, right?" Jim asked.
Boone's eyes went dark and hot. Anticipation tap-danced over Maddie's nerves. For a moment, she couldn't think what Jim had asked, lost in the world only she and Boone inhabited.
"Never mind," Jim muttered.
"Jim," Maddie roused herself to answer without looking away from Boone, "It's a deal,
if
—"
"If what?"
"If you'll get all of those people out of Boone's house."
Boone shook his head. "
Maddie's
house."
Once that would have been enough, a place of her own.
Not anymore.
"
Our
house." Maddie smiled.
"Our house," Boone whispered, as he lowered his head to hers. "And
my
woman."
Maddie's giggle turned to a sigh as Boone kissed her.
Jim walked away, whistling.
###
TEXAS REFUGE
Seeking peace after nearly dying in a failed attempt to save his sister, the last thing former Houston detective Quinn Marshall wants is another woman to watch over, but someone important to his brother is in trouble, and Quinn's basic nature is to protect.
Soap opera star Lorie Chandler has already lost her husband to an obsessed fan and now her son is the madman's new target. While the police hunt the killer, Quinn's rugged Texas ranch is the ideal hiding place for Lorie and her child. Neither Quinn nor Lorie expects the explosive heat or the powerful emotion that flares to life in his canyon refuge, yet there is no future for them and both are painfully aware that their time together can only be temporary. When the madman finds them, Quinn's sole focus is on keeping Lorie and the boy he's come to love safe, even though his success will mean that he will have to give them up to a life where he cannot belong.
TEXAS HEARTS TRILOGY
From Kindle and
USAToday
bestselling author Jean Brashear, a trilogy of classic romances rich with emotion, ripe with secrets, scandals and sexual tension.
Dalton Wheeler vanished from Morning Star, Texas nearly forty years ago under suspicion of murder, leaving behind him a trail of secrets, scandal and lives torn apart in the wake of his reported death. The woman he loved married another, and life went on.
Now the main characters in this tragedy are all gone, and in the wake of the final man's last will and testament, the past has roared back with a vengeance. Secrets will be revealed and the lives of four people will be shattered as they learn that who they are and where they come from is not at all what they always believed.
"Jean Brashear writes with warmth and emotional truth. The depth of her understanding of human nature marks her as a writer to watch." ~Debbie Macomber, #1
New York Times
bestselling author
"Jean Brashear is a writer of rare talent." ~
Affaire de Coeur
TEXAS SECRETS
Texas Hearts
Book One
Up-and-coming chef Maddie Collins finds out that her father's life was a lie when she is bequeathed a family homeplace she never knew existed—by the husband of the only woman her father ever loved. Rugged horseman Boone Gallagher arrives back in Texas to discover that the father who drove him away has struck one last blow. The only place he's ever thought of as home now belongs to a woman who doesn't want it, and he must keep her there for thirty days—or it will be lost to them both.
Updated, revised version of previously published A Family Secret, Silhouette Special Edition.
TEXAS LONELY
Texas Hearts
Book Two
After TEXAS SECRETS comes the story of Boone's brother Mitch, missing twenty long years...
Mitch Gallagher is a loner, down to the bone. Banished at sixteen from everything and everyone he held dear, he's an intensely private man whose rusty, unused heart long ago gave up on love. Fragile Perrie Matheson is on the run to protect her beloved son. Too ill to travel further with a winter storm on the way, she has no choice but to gamble her child's safety on a man who wants only to be left alone.
But during days spent together in the mountain cabin, Mitch and Perrie each find surprises in store...and all the reasons they should stay apart battle with the yearnings of hearts too long denied love.
Updated, revised version of previously published Lonesome No More, Silhouette Special Edition.
TEXAS BAD BOY
Texas Hearts
Book 3
The final book in the TEXAS HEARTS trilogy...
Everyone thinks Lacey DeMille is the next thing to royalty, a society girl with beauty, brains and money—but bad boy Devlin Marlowe knows better. Twenty years after being exiled in disgrace for daring to want her, the boy from the wrong side of the tracks has sweet revenge in his grasp...for only he knows that her whole life is built on a lie.
And revenge may be more costly than either of them can imagine.
Updated, revised version of previously published Texas Royalty, Silhouette Special Edition.
THE PEARL OF PARADISE
An unabashedly romantic tale of sacrifices made in the name of love...
Five years ago, covert operative Damon Alexander became guardian of the sacred ivory carving, the Pearl of Paradise, and he sacrificed any chance for a life with the woman he loved to save her from being killed by his archenemy, Kwan. The vow curses him to die, should he leave holy ground, but his enemy is back and is picking off those Damon cares for most, taunting Damon to risk the curse to stop him.
Lily Shen has spent five years closing off her heart from Damon after his devastating betrayal, but hearing that he means to sacrifice his life to stop the killing, she knows that she may have the only means to save him—by revealing to him that he has a son. When Kwan kidnaps their child, the love that never died draws them together in a race to find some means to break the curse and save the son Damon has never met.
An original, never-before-published novella from
USAToday
Bestselling Author Jean Brashear.
THE CHOICE
She's driven by vengeance; he's driven by guilt. She's out to kill the man he's sworn to protect. White-hot attraction...dangerous secrets. Only one can win, but both could die, depending upon...THE CHOICE New version--with new ending--of previously published award-winning bestseller, The Bodyguard's Bride.
SO TEMPTING
(Originally published under the title Surrender)
A mesmerizing, wealthy recluse...a rookie detective who can't afford to trust him...temptation beyond measure...
Rookie detective Jace Carroll's first case plunges her into a tangle of deadly secrets and a decades-old feud. At the center of the puzzle is the enigmatic and mesmerizing Dante Sabanne, a sexy, powerful, wealthy recluse whose expertise in ancient poisons and exotic sexual practices makes him by turns a crucial expert witness, a devastating lover...and possibly the man behind a cult whose rituals have turned from depraved to deadly.
Jace's devotion to the law and her stubborn refusal to back off from duty makes her the last temptation on earth Dante can afford to indulge when he is conducting a secret battle against a foe intent on destroying everyone important to him, a battle she can only complicate.
Every encounter between them ratchets up the stakes and the explosive chemistry between them only flares hotter—but the consequences could be deadly if she makes the wrong choice between the evidence before her eyes…and the yearnings of a heart she is no longer sure she can trust.