"Jennifer Ryan not only has a great way of telling a cowboy story but this lady rocks at Romantic Suspense too. Restless Rancher is a supreme example of Ms. Ryan's incredible talent. I absolutely loved the first book in the Wild Rose Ranch series and I was so excited to get this book in my hands so that I could devour it and devour it I did! " Crystal Goodreads
Published: November 12th, 2019
If you like bad-boy heroes, western settings, and a sexy, sassy heroine you will love Jennifer Ryan's newest Wild Rose Ranch book! Perfect for fans of Diana Palmer, Linda Lael Miller, and Jodi Thomas.
One minute down-on-his-luck rancher Austin Hubbard slept soundly, the next, a sassy spitfire dumped a pitcher of water on his head and woke him up—in more ways than one. Hired to help him rebuild his ranch, Sonya Tucker ends up helping him put the tattered pieces of his life back together. The capable, all-business accountant is on a mission to get the ranch up and running, but can he convince the temptingly beautiful woman to take a chance on him?
Sonya was dismayed that Austin had lost it all: money, family, respectability. Things she—who’d been raised by her mother at Nevada’s notorious brothel Wild Rose Ranch—only dreamed about. But working with the long, lean cowboy shows her that Austin is honorable to his core. Together they slowly grow to see what the love between them might bring.
But then Austin’s powder keg of a family feud explodes, exposing long-buried secrets, and threatening their new-found love…
EXCERPT
TOUR SCHEDULE
CHAPTER ONE
Austin stood in front of the small mirror he’d hung on the stable wall
and drew the razor down his jaw, scraping away shaving cream and two days’
worth of whiskers. He rinsed the blade in a bowl of lukewarm water, ran it down
the last section, then wiped his face clean with a damp towel. His hair could
use a trim. A comb would do it a hell of a lot of good. Eyedrops would erase
the red from his eyes. But not even the four ibuprofen he’d taken an hour ago
could eradicate the headache raging through his skull.
Until two weeks ago, his sleepless nights occurred courtesy of a bottle
of whiskey. But he’d put the bottle down and was on the cusp of piecing his
shattered life back together.
One of those broken pieces from his past walked in through the barn
door that hung off-kilter on one hinge like a drunk propped against a bar.
He’d been that guy. But not anymore.
“Lookin’ good, Austin honey.” Kelly’s voice evoked a lot of memories.
Not all of them good.
Her gaze swept over his chest, down his abs, and landed on the button
on his jeans. “You are a sight to behold.” Her tongue swept over her red
painted lips. For a split second he remembered how those lips used to wrap
around his cock.
But not anymore.
Lust turned to resentment and set his back teeth to grinding.
Wearing a pair of worn jeans barely hanging on his skinny hips and
nothing else, he felt naked under her lascivious gaze. He’d lost some weight
these last many months drinking and living hand to mouth, hoping he came up
with enough money to pay for groceries.
Yes, he’d been humbled, going from living large with money overflowing
his bank account to scraping by. He’d taken any odd job he could find without
his father finding out and retaliating against the person who’d graciously
hired him. Most everyone in these parts wouldn’t dare cross Walter Hubbard. Not
when most of them did business with Hubbard Ranch or worked for Blue Mining.
Those few brave souls who hired him did so because they wanted to take Austin
down a peg or two.
After his grandfather died and left Austin this ranch, his father fired
him from the family business and kicked him out of his home. His father wanted
the ranch with a passion and vengeance Austin never saw coming.
But he held on. The ranch was the one thing that was still his, though
the money ran out and so did Kelly. This dump wasn’t the home Kelly imagined
they’d live in after getting married. She expected the same kind of life he’d
lived at his father’s place, Hubbard Ranch, where the good life and their
future seemed so easy to imagine.
Here at his grandfather’s dilapidated place, you needed a fantastical
imagination to see its potential.
He also needed an investor willing to take a chance on someone who’d
hit rock bottom but dreamed big.
He still had a few people who believed in him, like his best friend
Noah’s girlfriend, Roxy, who thought he could make this place great again. She
was an amazing woman with a huge heart and an even bigger bank account. He
didn’t know what he’d done to deserve it, but Roxy wanted to partner with him and
turn this pile of dirt and rotten wood back into a modern working ranch.
Kelly had walked away because she didn’t believe in the dream or him.
She never gave him a chance to turn this place into what she wanted.
What he’d promised her. Abandoned by his girlfriend and disowned by his father
in a matter of weeks, beaten down by his father sabotaging his chances for
work, yeah, he’d given up and slowly drowned in a bottle and his going-nowhere
life.
“What are you doing here? Last time we spoke, you said you’d never step
foot on this shit pile again.”
Kelly pasted on a pretty pout, not an ounce of regret in her eyes about
what she’d said to him. “I wanted to see how you’re doing. Can’t I come by to
check on a friend?”
“You think we’re friends?” When he lost everything, he found out just
how many friends he truly had, and she wasn’t one of the few who stuck by him.
“Don’t be like that. How can you still be angry at me? I wanted you. I
wanted a ranch and family of our own. You refused to see that this place wasn’t
going to be our place. All I wanted you to do was sell it and give your father
what he wanted. Put a stop to your feud. We could have bought a new home, got
married, and had the life we wanted. It was stupid to hold on to this place out
of spite and nostalgia. It’s just a piece of land.”
That last part struck him like a gut punch. “To you. Not to me.” They’d
had this same argument dozens upon dozens of times. “My father took away
everything from me because he wanted to take the one thing that actually
belongs to me. This land belonged to my mother’s father, and his father before
him. I won’t sell it.”
“Everyone knows you don’t have the money to save it.” The pity look
pissed him off.
“He’s made sure of that.” Bitterness filled his words and every fiber
of his being.
“So you lose it to him anyway. It’s useless and stubborn to keep
holding on to something when it’s already lost.”
He didn’t want her or his father to know about his new partnership with
Roxy. Let them find out when the work finally began and he had his operation up
and running. He’d show Kelly, his father, everyone that he could rise from the
ashes and rebuild this place. He had the skill, the drive, and the money if
Roxy came through the way she’d promised.
“Did you get dressed up and come all the way out here just to call me
names and tell me how stupid I am again?”
He appreciated her sexy legs sticking out the bottom of that flouncy white
skirt and the way her breasts rose above the low-cut dark blue top. He’d bought
her the brown boots with the embossed roses on the sides when he’d had money to
burn. Her blond hair was curled into thick rings and was tousled to look like
she’d just been tumbled good in bed.
He’d messed up her perfectly styled hair and wrinkled her clothes in
all sorts of ways when they were together. He wondered if she’d come here to
rekindle the old fire. Before his brain had time to process what a bad idea
that was, she stepped up close, wrapped her arms around his neck, pressed her
soft breasts against his bare chest, and kissed him with a slow sexy sweep of
her tongue along his bottom lip.
She knew how to tempt him. He’d been living in a sexual drought for a
good long while now. So he didn’t move and enjoyed the brief moment of feeling
desirable and wanted.
She’d burned him in the past, so had many others, and a subtle alert
went off in his mind.
She kept her body plastered to his and leaned back to look at him.
“What’s wrong, honey? You never used to hesitate to take what you wanted.” She
nudged her belly against his neglected, but eagerly growing dick.
He was always ready to bed a beautiful woman, but something didn’t feel
right.
Kelly had never been this . . . calculated.
Why come back now?
Nothing had changed in his life or with his circumstances.
Unless she’d found out about Roxy partnering with him. But he hadn’t
told anyone, and Roxy wanted to keep things quiet. She didn’t need everyone
else in town gossiping about how she used the money she earned from the
notorious Wild Rose Ranch brothel she owned outside of Vegas.
“Why are you here now? I’m still broke and you still don’t want to live
here.”
She leaned in and kissed him again. He tried not to get sucked in by
her familiar scent and lush curves pressed against him.
“This hasn’t changed. I want you. You want me.”
His body wanted the release and relief, but the passion and need he
once felt for her didn’t rise up and drive him to fill his hands with her soft
breasts and thrust his aching cock into her welcoming heat.
Her hand slid over his hard stomach, dipped into his jeans, and ran
down the length of him. She gripped him in her hand and stroked up and down,
her mouth planting hot, wet, openmouthed kisses down his neck and over his
chest. “You know you want more.”
She hooked her leg around his hip and used her free hand to take his
and slide it up her thigh and under her skirt to her bare bottom. All that
silky skin at his fingertips made him grab a handful of ass and press her
closer.
She undid his jeans and freed him. “That’s it. Give it to me.”
His body wanted to give her a good hard fucking right here, standing up
in the dusty barn. But his mind started adding things up. One and one still
equaled two, but her and him doing this right here, right now didn’t add up to
anything good happening after the deed was done.
She never showed up to any of their dates with no panties and
I-can-paint-your-dick-red lips. She flirted but never took an aggressive lead
with him for sex. He’d had to talk her into making love on a picnic blanket
under a tree on a secluded spot on the ranch. She’d been afraid someone would
see them.
All this shot through his mind and his hands went to her hips as one
final thought blared in his brain. She always, always insisted on a condom
because she didn’t want to have children until they were good and married. So a
split second before she encased him in her slick core, he set her away and
zipped his jeans.
“What the hell is going on here?” His mind identified the clues, but he
didn’t see the whole picture.
“Why did you stop?” Her cheeks flushed pink. She took a step toward
him, her hand reaching for his neck.
He sidestepped before she backed him into the wall and faced her,
standing just out of her reach.
Her gaze dropped to his thick erection, then back up to his face. “You
still want me.”
“My dick’s not broke the way I am. I don’t have a dime to my name.
Seems to me, you cared more about that than fucking me anymore, so why don’t
you tell me why you’re all of a sudden all hot and bothered over me to the
point you haven’t insisted I wear a condom.”
“I’m on the pill.”
“Bullshit. We had this talk a long time ago. You can’t use the pill
because it messes up your system so bad. Try again.”
She huffed out a breath and flipped her long blond hair over her
shoulder with a careless flick of her hand. “I can’t believe you remember
that.”
“Important talks like that kind of stick with you, especially when you made it clear no kids before
marriage.”
She pressed her lips together and eyed him before the stiffness left
her shoulders and they slumped. “I want to get pregnant.” Her lips tilted into
a lopsided frown. “We want a baby.”
“We.” For the first time, he
saw the diamond ring on her finger. How he’d missed the dime-sized rock, he
didn’t know. He’d been too stunned to see her and distracted by her attempted
seduction to take in the details that had helped set off that alarm in his
mind.
“I’ve been seeing someone. He’s good to me. He loves me and wants to
give me everything I ever wanted.” Her eyes pleaded with him to understand.
Like it wasn’t personal she loved someone else now.
Despite what happened between them, he wanted her to be happy. “If
that’s the case, why the hell are you here cheating on your fiancé?” His
stomach soured with the thought of touching someone else’s woman. He didn’t do
those kinds of things. He believed in being faithful and telling the truth,
even when it hurt and meant the end if you wanted out.
“He wants another child but he had a vasectomy years ago. He had it
reversed but the doctors told him his low sperm count would make it difficult
to conceive a baby. We talked about alternative ways to get pregnant and he
encouraged me to see you.”
IVF. Surrogacy. Sperm donor. Adoption. Take your pick of available
options. But send your fiancée to another man?
No man who truly loved his woman would share her with another man.
That alert he got earlier turned into a full-on alarm in his head. His
chest tightened with a weight he didn’t want to carry because he suspected
where this was going and he didn’t want to believe it. It couldn’t be true.
“Why me?”
“We have a history. I always
thought we’d make beautiful babies. We’re not together, and things for you
haven’t exactly worked out the way you wanted. I’m ovulating. I thought we’d
have one last good time.”
“And what? You’d never tell me about the baby?” Every breath made him
ache more.
“With the way your life is now, you can’t take on that responsibility
or financial burden.”
He didn’t know this callous, calculating woman.
“My fiancé and I would love and care for the baby. He’d want for
nothing.” She moved closer and put her hand on his chest. “Please, Austin. You
know how much I want this.”
He slapped her hand away. His heart thrashed in his chest and his mind
screamed, No. This could not be
happening. It couldn’t be as bad as it appeared. But he had to know the full
truth and what she’d planned to keep from him as long as she could before it
all came out. Because secrets like this always came out.
“Who put that ring on your finger?” His mind screamed, You don’t want to know.
Her gaze dropped to his boots. “We’ve kept our relationship quiet.”
He pointed to her hand. “Astronauts can see that ring from space. You
really think you’re being discreet?”
“Austin, who I’m with doesn’t change the fact this is what I want. You
don’t have to take responsibility for the child. Ten minutes and your work is
done.” A plea filled her eyes. “I know that sounds insensitive, but men get
women pregnant all the time and don’t have anything to do with the child.”
She sounded like a lunatic.
“And you think I’m that kind of man.” It hurt that someone would
believe that about him.
“I want a baby, Austin. This is the most expedient way to get one. You
and I care about each other, which makes this easier. You’re a good guy. You
want me to be happy. So please, help me have a baby.”
Despite what she thought of him and the hurtful words, though she
really had no idea how much they stung, he did want her to have everything.
Maybe some guys would see the upside of having sex with a beautiful woman and
walking away. But he would never turn his back on a child the way his father
had turned his back on him. That she didn’t see that hurt more.
“No.”
Surprise filled her eyes, but his rejection didn’t squash her
determination. “I’ll pay you.”
The desperate words slammed into him with the force of a knife plunging
into his chest. “Not only no, but fuck you. I’m not some stud for hire.” The
thought sickened him.
For the first time, he understood how Roxy felt when people accused her
of being a prostitute.
“Ten thousand dollars.” She clasped her hands in front of her like she
prayed he’d accept. But her desperation spoke of more than her desire to have a
child.
She needed him to say yes.
He wouldn’t play Kelly’s whore for any amount of money. And he
wondered, like the ring, where she got that kind of cash. “Who is your fiancé?”
She shook her head and backed up a step, too afraid to tell him.
And that’s when the rage exploded inside him as fast as the truth lit
up his mind.
He shot forward, tilted her chin up with the tip of his finger, and
made her look at him. “Who is it? Say it,” he dared her.
Tears filled her eyes. Her gaze strayed over his shoulder and she
whispered, “Your father.” Those two words blasted through his mind and
constricted his chest. He couldn’t breathe for trying to contain the fury
burning inside him.
Before he lost his head, he released Kelly and turned his back on her.
His own father had taken up with his ex-girlfriend and wanted Austin to
sire a child that he’d raise. The thought turned his stomach and sent bile to
the back of his throat.
Over my dead body.
“He wants my child.” He spit
out the vile words.
“You two are so stubborn. You won’t sell. He refuses to leave his
estate or the companies to anyone but family.”
“So long as that family isn’t me.”
“Do you blame him?”
Austin spun around to face her. “Yes! Why do I have to bend and give up
what’s mine? Why do I have to do what he says because he demands it? Why can’t
I have what’s mine and make something of it? I busted my ass working for him. I
did everything he wanted from the time I was a child to running the operations.
But this one thing he can’t let go of. Why?”
Kelly held her hands out and let them drop to the sides of her thighs.
“I don’t know. I tried to change his mind, but he won’t let it go.”
“Instead, he doubles down on humiliating me by seducing my
ex-girlfriend, then sends her here to fuck me for my baby. He hasn’t taken
enough, he wants my child, too!” Anger stung his throat as those ridiculous
words burst out his mouth.
“The child would be his grandson. He’d get everything.”
“And that’s all that matters. You get what you want. He gets what he
wants. What about what I fucking want?” He yelled so loudly he was sure the
rickety rafters overhead vibrated with his rage the way his whole body shook
with it. “I would never—EVER!—give up my child. Anyone who thinks that of me
doesn’t know the real me. And that includes you.” He took a menacing step
toward her, his body rigid and begging for a fight it wouldn’t get. “How could
you come here with his ring on your finger and think I’d ever want to touch
you, let alone have a baby with you? I don’t even want to look at you. Get
out.”
She reached for him again, but he stepped back. The thought of her ever
touching him again sent a shiver of revulsion through him.
“Get out!”
This time he was sure his fury would bring down the roof.
She spun on the heels of the boots he’d bought her, her skirt flaring
out, showing off a lot of thigh. She’d come here hoping he’d knock her up
without a second thought and she’d walk out with his child and raise it with
his father.
He didn’t think Kelly or his father could hurt him more than they had
when they abandoned him, but this twisted deception they’d tried to pull over
on him hit hard and cut deep.
He waited for the sound of her car to fade before he walked out of the
barn and headed for his pathetic bed on the porch of the hoarder house he
couldn’t stand to go in and the bottle he’d left under the cot and hadn’t
touched in two weeks.
He needed a drink.
Or ten.
There might not be enough whiskey in Montana to make him forget what
just happened.
His life couldn’t get any worse than this. Right?
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About the author:
New York Times & USA Today bestselling author Jennifer Ryan writes suspenseful contemporary romances about everyday people who do extraordinary things. Her deeply emotional love stories are filled with high stakes and higher drama, love, family, friendship, and the happily-ever-after we all hope to find. Jennifer lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with her husband and three children. When she finally leaves those fictional worlds, you’ll find her in the garden, playing in the dirt and daydreaming about people who live only in her head, until she puts them on paper. For information about her upcoming releases, sign up for her newsletter.
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