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WILD AT HEART
Healing Harts #4
T.J. Kline
Released February 9th, 2016
Avon Impulse
Bailey Hart has never felt like she measures up to her cousins at Heart Fire Ranch. It doesn’t help that her rocker attitude has made her a black sheep in her small town. So when her band gets their big break in Los Angeles, “Wild Hart” can’t run fast enough…If only there weren’t so many reasons to stay.
After a harrowing stint in the Oakland Police Department, sheriff’s deputy Chase McKee has returned home a hero, and yet he feels anything but. And when he finds out Bailey might be leaving for good, the feelings he’s always harbored for his best friend’s cousin just won’t stay hidden. He knows she wants to get the heck out of Dodge, but he’s hoping to show her where she really belongs—with him.
Will this Wild Hart turn her back on love, or will she realize her heart really belongs closer to home?
Excerpt:
Chase
picked up on the roar of the engine long before the motorcycle actually came
into view. Reaching for the radar gun, he aimed it in the direction of the
sound.
Ninety-two miles per hour. Did this
guy have a death wish?
There were
far too many twists and turns ahead on the highway to warrant that kind of
speed, even for one of the locals. He tossed the gun to the seat and dropped
the car into gear, pulling onto the two-lane highway as the bike came into
view. He’d no more tapped the gas on the cruiser when the motorcycle blazed
past him in a midnight-blue streak. He flipped on his lights and siren and the
bike immediately slowed as the rider glanced backward before pulling onto the
shoulder.
At least he has some respect for the law, he thought acerbically as he stopped behind
the motorcycle and ran the plates.
The
registered owner’s name came up on his computer screen and his eyes shot back
to the rider.
“Damn it,”
he muttered, rolling his shoulders back and preparing for the battle he had no
doubt was coming. Chase rolled his eyes and climbed out of the vehicle with a
sigh of resignation. Crossing his arms, he greeted the most beautiful woman—and
the biggest troublemaker—he’d ever met as she slid her helmet off her head and
brushed stray hairs back into her low honey-colored ponytail.
“Funny
seeing you here, Bailey. When did you get this thing, and are you trying to
kill yourself with it?”
She turned
her dazzling pearly whites on him, her blue eyes flashing with mischief as she
set the helmet on the seat behind her. Chase had been dying to ask her out ever
since his return to town almost two years ago but she had no idea and,
unfortunately, he needed to keep it that way. Her cousin Justin was one of his
best friends, and if he knew Chase thought of Bailey as anything other than
Justin’s “little sister,” Chase would probably have to arrest his friend for
assaulting a police officer. Not to mention that he’d need to check himself
into the hospital. It was better this way. He wasn’t emotionally stable enough
to offer anyone more than a few meaningless dates and, while Bailey had a
reputation of blowing through guys the way a gambler blew through singles, it
would never be enough for him. Bailey was trouble, but she was the best kind of
trouble, the kind that made you want to return again and again.
The truth
was, he’d had a thing for Bailey as long as he could remember. At first it had
started with helping Justin protect her from other kids at school, bullies who
picked on the littlest Hart. But he’d watched her grow up, too fast, into a
blue-eyed beauty as wild as the pastures of Heart Fire Ranch. She’d somehow
managed to keep up with her cousins, including Justin’s football buddies, never
one to be shown up just because she was a girl. Bailey was always the first one
to jump from the rope swing into the river, the first to take off in a horse
race, and last to make an excuse for the stupid stunts they’d done growing up.
Unfortunately, as far as she was concerned, he was nothing but Justin’s
straightlaced friend who bailed her out, both literally and figuratively, and a
verbal sparring partner when she was bored.
“Just
picked it up last week.” Her fingers ran lovingly over the blue gas tank
between her thighs, and he felt his body immediately react. He stifled the
response. “I guess I’m still getting used to how much power it has.”
“Ya think?”
He couldn’t help but chuckle at her understatement as he clicked the top of his
pen and started writing out a speeding ticket. “I need your license and
registration.”
“Aw, come
on, Chase. Really?” She bit her lower lip, looking up at him from under her
thick, dark lashes, and he felt the heat of desire trickle down his chest and
center low in his belly. “I’ll slow down. I swear.”
“And you’ll
never do it again, right?” He didn’t believe her for a second. Everyone knew
Bailey’s reputation as the wild child of the Hart family. She didn’t just march
to the beat of her own drum, she conducted the entire orchestra to a tune of
her design. He held out a hand, waiting for her to retrieve the items for him.
“Great!
This is the last thing I needed today, you know,” she grumbled as she reached
for her paperwork in the storage compartment. “I’m already late.”
“At this
rate, you’ll kill yourself before you ever get where you’re headed.” Chase bit
back a grin. “Late for what?”
“Nothing.
I’ll just call and reschedule.” She glared at him for the briefest of moments
before her eyes turned innocent. “You’re going to keep this between us, right?”
Chase
didn’t even bother to look up from the ticket form he was filling out. “What
you really want to know is whether I’m going to tell Justin.”
He saw her
shrug one shoulder in his peripheral vision. “I mean, I don’t really care if
you do, I just don’t want to hear him bitching at me more than he already does.
You know how he gets, and that’s the last thing Julia needs to hear in her
condition.”
“How’s
Julia doing?” he asked, glancing at her. “I haven’t seen her since the trial.”
He’d been the arresting officer when Julia’s ex-boyfriend had kidnapped her,
and Chase had testified at his trial. He’d seen Dylan, several times during
various calls since he was working as a paramedic in town now, but he hadn’t
run into Julia recently.
“She’s
good. At least, as good as someone whose due date passed a few weeks ago can
be,” she clarified. “You know, you should come by for dinner tonight. I’m
fixing enchiladas for them. We’re hoping the spicy food will put Jules into
labor. There’ll be plenty if you want to stop by.”
A
flirtatious smile spread over her full lips and her eyes sparkled like
sapphires. Chase felt the sizzle of heat come to life again. If he didn’t know
her better, he’d think she was flirting. That was the last thing he needed
right now. He turned the pad toward her and handed her the pen, indicating she
should sign the line. She stared up at him expectantly, practically batting her
eyelashes.
Chase
cocked his head to the side and gave her a lopsided grin. “Plying me with
dinner isn’t going to get you out of a ticket, Bailey.”
Her eyes
narrowed as he tapped the pad again. Bailey jerked it from his hand and scribbled
her name, slapping the pen against it irritably when she finished. He ripped
her copy of the citation from the pad and handed it back to her with the other
documents. “You do realize trying to
bribe an officer is a felony, right?”
She cocked
a brow at him as she slid her helmet back over her head and slipped her
sunglasses on, starting the engine. “Who said anything about bribing you? Maybe
I was trying to poison you.”
Chase
couldn’t help but laugh as she eased the bike back onto the road. “Murder One
is a felony, too,” he yelled after her.
Damn, that
woman could turn him on faster than she did that bike.
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T. J. Kline was raised competing in rodeos and rodeo queen competitions
since the age of 14, She has thorough knowledge of the sport as well as the
culture involved. She has had several articles about rodeo published in the
past in small periodicals as well as a more recent how-to article for
RevWriter. She is also an avid reader and book reviewer for both Tyndale and
Multnomah.
since the age of 14, She has thorough knowledge of the sport as well as the
culture involved. She has had several articles about rodeo published in the
past in small periodicals as well as a more recent how-to article for
RevWriter. She is also an avid reader and book reviewer for both Tyndale and
Multnomah.
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