Well, it’s almost here! On Tuesday, Laying Down the Law releases. It’s available at all the usual places, but you can click on the cover to find those links. I hope you’ll love it. I don’t see why you wouldn’t. 🙂

Post a comment today for a chance to win one of my backlisted, downloadable Samhain stories!

Seeking sanctuary could be the hottest mistake she ever made.

The TripleHorn Brand, Book 1

A lifetime ago, Zuri Prescott kicked the dirt off her boots and ditched her small-time small town for the glam city life—and lived to regret it. When she’s framed for a bank job, she lights out for home, seeking refuge with her old high school sweetheart while she figures out her next steps. Only she discovers that the boy she left behind is the last man she should trust.

Sheriff Colt Triplehorn knows trouble when he sees it, especially when it comes in the form of a familiar trespasser, caught naked between an angry bull and her underwear. Sure she’s up to her usual no good, he grants her sanctuary at his ranch—the better to keep an eye on her, and purge her from his system once and for all.

Reconnection is sweet and hot, but the heat can’t hide the truth. When Colt inevitably finds out what Zuri’s running from, it’s too late to put the fire out, and he’s got a career-compromising choice on his hands. Follow the letter of the law, or follow his heart.

Product Warnings: When a sheriff captures the girl who got away, expect revenge so hot it leaves brands on two lonely hearts…

Colt knelt beside her clothing, tucked a finger under her skirt and raised it. “This all you have to wear?”

Light shone through a large jagged tear where the bull’s sharp hooves had ground the navy, summer-weight wool skirt. Zuri’s shoulders slumped.

“Do you have something else to put on?”

She shook her head, and Colt stared for a long moment. Then he dropped the ruined skirt to the ground and picked up the blouse. It was grayed from her time in the floodwaters and smudged by the bull’s abuse. Colt shook his head. He dropped the blouse too, heaved a sigh, then stood and began to unbutton his shirt.

“Where are your shoes, Zuri?” he asked, his voice rough as gravel.

“Guess I lost them,” she said, feeling like her mouth was stuffed with cotton.

“You gonna tell me what’s goin’ on?”

She sucked her bottom lip between her teeth because it had started to tremble, but managed a nod, even though she knew she’d wait and see whether she could trust him with all her woes.

“Here,” he said, holding his shirt out for her take.

Only problem was, she’d have to stand and walk out of the water to get it.

Shouldn’t matter that much, anyway, she told herself. Nothing he hadn’t already seen…or tasted and caressed. “Um…I don’t suppose you’d turn around?”

His steely gaze narrowed. “Not a chance.”

“When did you get so mean?”

One dark brow rose, and Zuri felt a flush of heat paint her cheeks and chest.

“You do know you’re bathin’ downstream from a herd of cattle…” he drawled.

Zuri popped out of the water, her hands curling at her sides. “Ugh! And you just stood there?”

His soft chuckle held a note of bitterness and not a hint of amusement. Zuri began to think she’d run into the wrong man.

Slowly, she stood, barely resisting the urge to cover her important parts with her hands. With her head held high, she walked out of the water and snatched at the shirt, but he drew back his arm at the last second and held it just out of reach.

“Colt, this isn’t funny,” she said tightly.

“No, it’s not. Guess I’m just seein’ how much you want it.”

Zuri dropped her hands at her sides and slowly curled her hands into fists. “What’s it gonna take?”

“I don’t know,” he said, his gaze dropping down her body, lingering over her nipples, which tautened with embarrassing speed, then sweeping downward to the ruff of dark hair cloaking her sex. “How ’bout a kiss? For old time’s sake.”

Zuri sucked in a breath, startled at how quickly the tension coiled around them. “Just a kiss?”

“Yes, ma’am,” he said, his gaze at last meeting hers again, and narrowing.

She stepped closer, knowing she was flirting with fire. They’d never stopped at just one kiss. Not once they’d gotten past the hurdle of her virginity.

Swallowing hard, she pressed a hand against his naked chest to steady her weakening knees and lifted up on her toes. Her mouth grazed briefly over his, and she dropped down and took a step back. “The shirt?”

“Call that a kiss?”

“Colt…don’t…” she said, all bravado seeping away as she noted that anger rather than attraction glinted in his storm-cloud eyes.

“Forget how I like it?” he said softly.

* * * * *

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