UPDATE: All commenters were winners!
This contest is closed!
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Howdy, everyone. I’m so glad to be back on Delilah’s blog today to talk about my latest release, Cowboy Player. It’s the third book in my Cowboy Cocktail novella series, starring the lovelorn MacKinnon brothers and the smart, feisty women who fall for them.
Cowboy Player is a friends-to-lover story starring brother number three, Clark MacKinnon—player, prankster and enormous flirt. Melody Santos, his longtime platonic friend, has zero time for his brand of shenanigans…or does she?
To celebrate the release of Cowboy Player, I’m offering a giveaway of all three Cowboy Cocktail books in your preferred e-book format. See below to play!
Thank you for reading!
This cowboy and cowgirl sell the steak and the sizzle.
Cowboy Cocktail, Book 3
For eight years, Melody Santos played the game of love and lost—big time. Now she’s back in her tiny hometown looking after her younger sister, making ends meet with an assortment of odd jobs. When her childhood best friend hires her to help him sell his family’s grass-fed beef, the last thing she anticipates is falling in lust with the legendary, brown-eyed player.
To put his family’s cattle ranch back in the black, Clark MacKinnon has his sights set on big contracts—gourmet chefs and restaurateurs. If that means long hours traveling from farmer’s market to farmer’s market, Clark doesn’t mind. Particularly since his new assistant is his childhood crush, all grown up and sexy as hell.
One night in bed leaves them breathless and hungry for more. But when his love-’em-and-leave-’em reputation collides with her trust issues, Clark and Melody must face the truth about what they’ve become: not friends, not lovers, but players in a game that’s impossible to win.
Warning: Contains filthy banter, raunchy sex, excessive Johnny Cash references, and hundreds of pounds of raw beef.
WHAT READERS ARE SAYING
“What a sweet and steamy read!…I am intrigued by those Mackinnon brothers and am anxious to read each of their stories.”
—Goodreads review, 5 stars
“Great read. Friends to lovers is one of my favorite tropes. I found the characters easy to fall in love with and the pace didn’t lag at all.”
—Goodreads review, 5 stars
“This is a quick, hot read. [Melody and Clark’s] connection to each other is strong, based in friendship, and becomes a stronger love. The end of the story brought tears to my eyes. I highly recommend this story. I plan to read more of Mia Hopkins.”
—Goodreads review, 5 stars
BUY THE BOOK
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EXCERPT
With a grimace, Melody swallowed down the last of her gin and tonic. One of the bartenders whisked her glass away and asked if she wanted another. Even though she did, Melody shook her head.
Something touched her bare arm. A warm fingertip grazed her skin from elbow to wrist. She looked up.
“Lost in thought again?” Clark leaned close and kissed her cheek, just as he had hundreds of times before. One of the Silver Spur’s waitresses put a beer down in front of him and flashed a sexy grin. He smiled at the woman briefly and turned his attention back to Melody.
She shook her head. “It must be hard to be you.”
“Why do you say that?”
“Women. The endless parade of women fighting for your attention.”
“Oh, it’s not so bad.” Clark took a sip of beer.
“Where are all your brothers? They usually help carry the burden.”
“I’m on my own tonight,” he said. “But let’s talk about you, not me. Why so blue, Mel? Baby sister all grown up?”
They turned to look at the crowd in front of the stage. Harmony had found herself a cowboy admirer. The lucky fellow was holding her close and nuzzling her neck as he led her around the dance floor.
Was Melody sad that Harmony was growing up? No, not exactly. Nostalgic, more like—for a version of herself she wasn’t sure ever existed. Had she ever been that young and optimistic? Had she ever let herself be that free?
“I’m proud of her,” Melody said at last. “It’s been hard. Seeing our mom get sick like that. Lots of kids would’ve dropped out. But she finished school with a 3.8. This is her first night out in a long, long time.”
“A smarty-pants, just like you.”
“Smarter than me,” said Melody. “She learned something useful. Solid paycheck, helping others, all that good stuff.”
“You’re a brilliant teacher, from what I’ve heard.”
“Diagramming sentences isn’t exactly going to save us from the zombie apocalypse, now is it?”
“If there’s a zombie apocalypse, nothing will save us, Mel. The only thing left to do is get drunk and screw.” He held up his beer mug and winked at her. An honest-to-goodness wink.
Melody shook her head. “You can’t help yourself, can you, MacKinnon? You’re a hopeless flirt.”
“Flirting? Thought I was just drinking beer and being myself.” He looked down at the empty coaster in front of her. “What about you? What are you having? Gin and tonic, right?”
He remembered her favorite drink. Melody smiled. “No, I’m good. I’m on sister watch tonight. She really wants to cut loose. Someone’s gotta hold her hair back when the vomit flies. Which it inevitably will.” She waved her hand at him. “You should go have a good time. Get yourself a nice piece. Enjoy your Saturday night.”
Only Clark could make a shrug look so sexy. “But I’m already enjoying my Saturday night.”
Something about the way he said those words made Melody’s skin tingle.
As an experiment, she uncrossed her legs and leaned forward, resting her arms on the bar. For a nanosecond, Clark’s dark eyes darted to her cleavage before resting on his beer. A sudden, electric thrill shimmied down her spine. Her body clenched with pleasure, knowing she could still get the attention of a man as insanely hot as Clark MacKinnon.
But then…guilt.
That’s Clark. Don’t flirt with Clark.
GIVEAWAY
To celebrate the release of Cowboy Player, I’m offering a giveaway of all three Cowboy Cocktail books in your preferred e-book format. To play, answer the following question in a comment below and PLEASE INCLUDE YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS…
Clark MacKinnon is a prankster. What is the best prank you’ve ever witnessed? You can change names to protect all parties involved.
I’ll select one winner at random. Contest closes Tuesday, July 5, 2016 at midnight PST. Good luck!
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Mia Hopkins writes lush romances starring fun, sexy characters who love to get down and dirty. She’s a sucker for working class heroes, brainy heroines and wisecracking best friends. Connect with her on Twitter @miahopkinsxoxo or visit her website at miahopkinsauthor.com.
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Ooh, Mia–I love the sounds of this one! Friends to lovers is one of my favorites!
As for pranks, I’m not much of a prankster, but in college, a bunch of us worked together (with the help of some exhausting walks, clock switching, and theatrical lights borrowed from the drama department) and tricked a friend into thinking it was morning of the next day when it was really around midnight 😉 It was for a good cause–to celebrate his birthday early 8) He was definitely shocked, and well, hey, not everyone gets to be wished happy birthday twice in a day? 😆
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Oh, and dear reader, I married him 😉
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I am not a prankster… have told stories people have believed, but no actual pranks… My sister on the other hand can be funny… one time when we were younger my sister pretended to get a tattoo and showed my parents when they came back from vacation… the reactions were entertaining! 😀 greenshamrock ATcoxDOTnet 😀
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Lol some co workers replaced the hotel toliet paper with a shredded roll from Spencers. The reactions were great
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Hi Mia
I loved reading the excerpt between Melody and Clark. Hot…
Not so much witnessed as instigator. My youngest sister Jennifer, 14 years younger than me. We lived on the main road where all the cops cars, fire trucks & ambulances came thru. When I heard the sirens I would tell Jennifer they were coming to get her. She would run screaming to our mom… Lord that brings back such memories. And because she was blond & blue eyed whereas the rest of us girls were brown hair & eyes, we told her we didn’t know who her daddy was. Mercy
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Ps. Email is gdrobert@samford.edu
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I’m a couple days late, so tell you what…ALL THE COMMENTERS ARE WINNERS! Contact me with your preferred format and I will send those ebooks right away. <3 Hooray! mia.hopkins.writes@gmail.com Thanks for playing.
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😀 Oh boy! Thank you so much Mia!!! I sent off an email!