A Match Made in Texas (39 page)

From the desk of Jessica Lemmon

Dear Reader,

I love a scruffy-faced, tattooed, motorcycle-riding bad boy as much as the next girl, so when it came time to write HARD TO HANDLE, I knew what qualities I wanted Aiden Downey to possess.

For inspiration, I needed to look no further than Charlie Hunnam from the famed TV show
Sons of Anarchy
. I remember watching Season 1 on Netflix, mouth agape and eyes wide. When Charlie’s character, Jax Teller, finished his first scene, I looked over at my husband and said, “
That’s
Aiden!”

In HARD TO HANDLE, Aiden may have been crafted with a bad-boy starter kit: He has the scruff, the tattoo, the knee-weakening dimples that make him look like sin on a stick, and yeah, a custom Harley-Davidson to boot. But Aiden also has something extra special that derails his bad-boy image: a heart of near-solid gold.

When we first met Aiden and Sadie in
Tempting the Billionaire
(and again in the e-novella
Can’t Let Go
), there wasn’t much hope for these two hurting hearts to work out their differences. Aiden had been saddled with devastating news and familial responsibilities, and Sadie (poor Sadie!) had just opened up her heart to Aiden, who stomped on it, broke it into pieces, and set it on fire for good measure. How could they forgive each other after things had gone so horribly, terribly wrong?

Aiden has suffered a lot of loss, but in HARD TO HANDLE, he’s on a mission to get his life
back
. A very large piece of that puzzle is winning back the woman he never meant to hurt, the woman he loved. Sadie, with her walled-up heart, smart, sassy mouth, and fiery attitude isn’t going to be an easy nut to crack. Especially after she vowed to never, ever get hurt again. That goes
double
for the blond Adonis with the unforgettable mouth and ability to turn her brain into Silly Putty.

The best part about this good “bad” boy? Aiden’s determination is as rock-hard as his abs. He’s not going to let Sadie walk away, not now that he sees how much she still cares for him. Having been to hell and back, Aiden isn’t intimidated by her. Not even a little bit. Sadie is his Achilles’ heel, and Aiden accepts that it’s going to take time (and plenty of seduction!) to win her over. He also knows that she’s worth it.

Think you’re up for a ride around the block with a bad-boy-done-good? I have to say, Aiden left a pretty deep mark on my heart and I’m still a little in love with him! He may change your mind about scruffy, motorcycle-riding hotties… He certainly managed to change Sadie’s.

Happy reading!

www.jessicalemmon.com

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Contents

1. Cover
   
2. Title Page
   
3. Welcome
   
4. Dedication
   
5. Acknowledgments
   
6. Chapter One
   
7. Chapter Two
   
8. Chapter Three
   
9. Chapter Four
   
10. Chapter Five
    
11. Chapter Six
    
12. Chapter Seven
    
13. Chapter Eight
    
14. Chapter Nine
    
15. Chapter Ten
    
16. Chapter Eleven
    
17. Chapter Twelve
    
18. Chapter Thirteen
    
19. Chapter Fourteen
    
20. Chapter Fifteen
    
21. Chapter Sixteen
    
22. Chapter Seventeen
    
23. Chapter Eighteen
    
24. Chapter Nineteen
    
25. Chapter Twenty
    
26. Chapter Twenty-one
    
27. Chapter Twenty-two
    
28. Chapter Twenty-three
    
29. Chapter Twenty-four
    
30. Chapter Twenty-five
    
31. Chapter Twenty-six
    
32. Chapter Twenty-seven
    
33. Chapter Twenty-eight
    
34. Chapter Twenty-nine
    
35. Chapter Thirty
    
36. Chapter Thirty-one
    
37. Chapter Thirty-two
    
38. Chapter Thirty-three
    
39. Chapter Thirty-four
    
40. Epilogue
    
41. About the Author
    
42. Also by Katie Lane
    
43. Praise for the Deep in the Heart of Texas Series
    
44. A Preview of
    The Last Cowboy in Texas
    
45. A Preview of
    Going Cowboy Crazy
    
46. The Dish: Where Authors Give You the Inside Scoop
    
47. Newsletters
    
48. Copyright
    

Copyright

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 by Cathleen Smith

Excerpt from
The Last Cowboy in Texas
copyright © 2014 by Cathleen Smith

Excerpt from
Going Cowboy Crazy
copyright © 2011 by Cathleen Smith

Cover design by Claire Brown

Cover art by Aleta Rafton

Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

All rights reserved. In accordance with the U.S. Copyright Act of 1976, the scanning, uploading, and electronic sharing of any part of this book without the permission of the publisher is unlawful piracy and theft of the author’s intellectual property. If you would like to use material from the book (other than for review purposes), prior written permission must be obtained by contacting the publisher at [email protected]. Thank you for your support of the author’s rights.

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First ebook edition: March 2014

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ISBN 978-1-4555-7581-7

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