Here’s a brand new excerpt of Tame A Wild Bride. Hope you enjoy it. Leave me a comment for a chance to win a $5 Starbucks card. Then when you’re done here, drop on over to MK McClintocks blog for another chance to win a Starbucks card and a copy of Tame A Wild Bride, too. Here’s the link: http://mkmcclintock.blogspot.com/2012/09/tame-wild-bride-on-tour-with-cynthia.html
Rosie took his hand. It engulfed hers with a shock of warmth. Her pale skin stood in stark contrast to his tanned one. Calluses rubbed against her soft palm though the touch was not unpleasant. She looked from their clasped hands up into the bluest eyes she’d ever seen.
“Pleased to meet you, Mr. Harris.”
“Tom. Call me, Tom.”
“And I’m Rosie.”
“Where are your trunks, Rosie?”
“Oh, I don’t have any trunks. I only brought what I thought I would need out here.”
He picked up the two valises at her feet. “Doesn’t seem like much for an Eastern woman. I’m glad to see you’re practical.”
Rosie felt the heat in her cheeks and knew she blushed at his praise, undeserving as it was. “Well, I didn’t think you’d have any balls.”
He cocked an eyebrow.
“No, I didn’t mean…I meant…well, no need for fancy gowns or dresses.” Mortified clear down to her toes, she hoped the platform would just open up and swallow her now. “I’m sorry, I’m rambling. I do that when I’m nervous.”
“Do I make you nervous, Rosie?” His deep baritone swept over her, caressing her, soothing her.
“Yes. No.” She shook her head hoping to jiggle something sensible loose. “It’s the situation which makes me nervous.”
He nodded knowingly. “The wedding ceremony. Well, that is one thing you don’t have to worry about anymore. We’re going to the preacher’s house now to get it done.”
Rosie was surprised. Shocked was more like it. “Now? I mean I thought we might talk a while. Take a couple of days….”
“No time for that. I have to get back to the ranch. We’ll stay tonight at Peabody’s Boarding House. The owner, Mary Peabody, is a friend of mine. The rooms are always clean and she serves the best food in town. I always stay there, if she has an opening, when I come to town. Tomorrow, we’ll go pick up my kids from the McKenzie’s and head to the ranch. By the time we get home you’ll barely have time to cook supper before it’s dark and time to put Ben and Suzie to bed.”
Rosie had hoped they’d have some time to get to know each other before they got married. Heck, she’d have been happy with a bath before her wedding. She understood she couldn’t go live at his ranch without being married to him. It would be unseemly. Her reputation would be in shambles and who would want to marry a woman with a bad reputation? Especially if you had children. It would rub off on you but more importantly, on them. So an immediate marriage was necessary. She understood all of that but it didn’t change what she wished for.
“You can cook. Can’t you? In your letters you said you were a good cook.”
She nodded her head. “I am a good cook. I’ve never had a complaint.”
“Good. Glad to hear it. Shall we go?”
She took a deep breath, scared out of her wits she was making a mistake. “Yes. I suppose we should.”
They walked to the waiting buckboard. He put her bags in the back and then helped her up on to it for the trip to the preachers. She was much relieved to see that his horses were well cared for.
*****
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