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Since Halloween was always a favorite holiday of mine, how can I not participate in this? All you have to do to have a chance to win is to leave a comment below. Be sure I have a way to contact you and let me know what format you eread in.
To whet your lust for A Knight in Cowboy Boots, here's an excerpt:
For the second time that day, their clothes ended up on the floor. Maddie straddled him as she pushed him down onto the bed.
“You sure you wanna do this?” Zach asked. “I’ll get a lot of depth with you on top.”
She leaned over to kiss him. “You haven’t hurt me yet.”
Zach groaned with pleasure as she lowered herself onto him. She rocked up and back a few times, seating him deep inside her.
“Ride ‘em, cowgirl,” Zach muttered.
Maddie grinned in response. “Yee-haw.”
The words were barely out of her mouth when the front door opened. A freckle-faced girl with strawberry blonde hair was several steps into the room before she saw them. “Holy shit!”
Pandemonium engulfed the bed. Maddie dove into Zach’s chest, her startled scream shrill in his ear, as he grabbed a fistful of the bedspread to drag over the two of them.
Maddie gathered up the other side of the spread as she slid off Zach. Bunching it up in front of her breasts, she struggled to cover all the vital areas before she said, “Peggy! What are you doing here?”
When Maddie called her name, Peggy blushed redder than her hair and spun on her heel. Speaking over her shoulder, she said, “I thought you wanted me to sit for you. Didn’t you say you were covering the last half of Pete’s shift tonight?”
“Oh, crap. I forgot.” Maddie started to scramble off the bed but bounced back when the spread Zach was laying on refused to stretch that far. “Shit, I’m going to be late.” Caught with no good choices, she glanced at Peggy’s back before dropping the spread and scurrying to the wardrobe. The open door blocked Peggy from seeing anything above Maddie’s knees, but there was nothing wrong with the view from the bed. Zach rolled onto his side, the bedspread strategically draped over his hips, and propped his cheek on his palm to watch.
He’d known since puberty that he was an ass-and-legs man. As she hopped up and down, trying to get a leg into a pair of black slacks, Maddie only demonstrated she had the qualities he found most appealing.
Across the room, Peggy started babbling about how someone had been going out the front door as she was coming in and how sorry she was for not ringing the bell to warn Maddie she was on her way up, and how sorry she was to have just walked in, but she knew it was Jesse’s nap time, and she hadn’t wanted to disturb him, and how she’d never had any reason to expect that Maddie might be getting lucky . . .
Maddie appeared to hear none of it as she pulled a raspberry and pink print shirt from the armoire then turned, looking around wildly for a second before her eyes found what she sought near the bed. She shot Zach a pleading look. He scooted over to the edge and stretched until he could hook his fingers around a strap of the bra she’d so hastily discarded earlier.
She mouthed a “Thanks” when he tossed it to her.
Zach continued to watch as she put it on then leaned over to adjust her breasts into the cups. It wasn’t anywhere near what he’d been hoping the afternoon would bring, but it wasn’t a bad consolation prize. Aside from how quickly she dressed—something he would have bet no woman he’d ever known could do—he liked that she was too distracted to realize the show she was giving him.
“You can turn around now,” Maddie tossed at Peggy as she closed the wardrobe. She skirted the bed, scooping up Zach’s jeans as she passed and throwing them at him. Maddie picked up the brush on top of the dresser, flung her hair forward as she bent, and began attacking her mane. Zach sighed with contentment.
Jesse started fussing in his crib as the commotion finally woke him.
“I’ve got him,” Peggy said. She hauled Jesse out of the crib and held him against her chest. “Is he the roses guy?” Peggy whispered loudly, as though Zach couldn’t hear her. From the grin on her face, he suspected he met with her approval.
Maddie tossed her hair back as she straightened, revealing a pinker-than-usual complexion. “Uh—yeah. Peggy, this is Zach.” She pointed the hairbrush from him to the grinning girl. “Zach, Peggy. She’s a neighbor. And Jesse’s sitter.”
“I’m guessing there’s going to be more roses in your future,” Peggy predicted with a grin, the memory of her own embarrassment obviously already fading into the distant past.
Zach silently blessed her for the inspiration. Flowers never came to mind unless he needed to apologize, but if anyone deserved them just because, it was Maddie. Especially after the day they’d just had.
“I’ve got to put on makeup,” Maddie mumbled, heading for the bathroom with Peggy on her heels.
Zach took the opportunity to pull on his jeans. Down on his hands and knees, he searched under the bed for his socks.
“What a hunk!” he heard from the bathroom, followed by Maddie shushing the girl. Zach grinned to himself as he put on his shirt.
Socks in hand, he sat down on the bed. His boots came next.
“You ready, Zach?”
He chalked up another point for Maddie. A new land speed record for applying makeup.
“Yeah. Here’s your bag.”
“Are you going to button your shirt? You look like you’ve been mugged.”
He let Maddie see a lustful twinkle in his eyes. “Oh, I have been. There ain't no buttons left to button.”
“Ooh, Maddie!” Peggy said. “You go, girl.”
For the first time since Peggy walked into the room, Maddie stopped short. “You can’t walk into the hotel like that.”
“Don’t worry about it. I’ve got another shirt in my room.”
“But you can’t walk into the hotel like that,” she persisted.
Zach wasn’t sure where her distress was coming from unless it had to do with his sister figuring out what they’d spent the day doing. He opened his mouth to reassure her again but stopped when she walked slowly across to the wardrobe and pulled out the last hanger. It held a faded blue work shirt like the ones he wore on the ranch.
She held the shirt against herself, and he would have sworn she breathed in the scent of it for a moment before she turned and offered it to him.
“Here. You can wear this.”
“You sure?” Zach asked, his hand closing around the hanger. He didn’t know why he asked, except it seemed as though she didn’t really want to part with the shirt. He was even more sure when she held onto the hanger as she considered the question. Not understanding the undercurrents of her emotions, he waited until she pulled her hand back.
“Yes. Leave your shirt. I’ll find the buttons.”
While she dug in her purse for her car keys, Zach sniffed the shirt. It smelled of sweat but only faintly, as though time rather than washing had faded the scent, but it fit well enough when he shrugged into it.
