Coral Hearts
The Morgan Brothers Book 1
By Avery Gale
© Copyright January 2016 by Avery Gale
ISBN 978-1-944472-26-9
All cover art and logo © Copyright 2016 by Avery Gale
All rights reserved.
Cover Design by Jess Buffett
Published by Avery Gale Books
C
oral would recognize
the sound of his walk anywhere. The distinctive scrape of well-worn Ariat boots and the metallic clink of spurs against the hardware store’s aged wide plank flooring left no doubt Sage Morgan was stalking down the store’s wide center aisle. The man never simply
walked
anywhere. He was either stomping like an angry bull in a china closet, swaggering like he had the world in his pocket—which was pretty close to the truth, or he was stalking some unsuspecting fool who’d messed up his order.
Holy Mother Mary and sweet baby Jesus, don’t let it be me—not today.
Sighing softly to herself, Coral simply didn’t have the energy to deal with Sage if he was aggravated with her. She couldn’t remember making an error on his last order, but then again, she hadn’t been getting enough sleep to remember much of anything. Coral tried to stand perfectly still at the top of the ladder where she was currently teetering. She hoped like hell he didn’t notice her. The man was sex on two legs and her traitorous body reacted to him in ways that were downright embarrassing. Sage Morgan had the starring role in each and every one of her erotic fantasies. And, the more rumors she heard about his sexual predilections the hotter those fantasies became.
Even though they’d eaten lunch together a few times recently, Coral was sure it had simply been a matter of convenience in the crowded diner. She needed to remember he’d simply been polite, and it didn’t mean he’d actually want to fulfill those hot porn clips playing out in her imagination any time she thought about him. Something about Sage Morgan tugged at her very soul and she wasn’t even sure what it was about him that called to her. He was tall, dark, and intimidating, but there was a softer side to the shrewd businessman others seemed focused on.
Coral enjoyed their conversations, and Sage seemed to enjoy bantering with her as well. She’d been amazed at his wide range of interests even as they’d teased each other about differing opinions on a few things. Sage always listened attentively to her views and never criticized her even when he hadn’t agreed with her. And damn if that wasn’t just one more another thing that made him insanely sexy in her eyes. Knowing he respected her opinion warmed her heart—no one had ever cared about anything except what she could do for them.
For the most part, over the past year Sage had seemed content to just watch her from a distance—their interactions had been intermittent at best. She’d chalked it up to luck. It was as if she’d somehow acquired her own guardian angel in the flesh…and some mighty fine flesh she’d bet it was too. Rolling her eyes at her own sass, Coral tried to keep still as Sage drew closer.
A few weeks ago things seemed to shift—although the change had been so subtle she’d worried she was imagining it. Coral noticed Sage was almost always at the diner when she came in for lunch. At first, she’d been hesitant to accept when he motioned her over to his table, after all, he was one of the largest ranchers in the state. Sage Morgan was well respected and from a good family.
Coral’s own reputation was intact—mostly. The only thing tainting it was her family. Well, her family and the fact she had a job that wasn’t ever going to make her rich. She loved her employer, but the truth was there wasn’t really any room for advancement. Without any sort of formal education, she was probably going to be stuck working as a sales clerk forever. Sighing to herself, Coral wondered how she had managed to get painted into what seemed like an ever-shrinking corner.
Before Sage started eating lunch at the diner, several other local men had seemed interested in her, but now they all walked a polite, but very wide circle around her. It wasn’t as if Coral’s lunches with Sage meant she was giving up a banging social life, but she had finally started making friends and had hoped to begin dating again. And even though she’d been fantasizing about Sage Morgan almost every night since she’d met him, he had never asked her out on a date—why she’d clung to the fantasy for so long she wasn’t sure. Of course, Murphy’s Law was always in full effect when it came to Coral, so the minute she decided to begin looking elsewhere for companionship—the calls started.
And now, after the third week of those
I-know-where-you-are
phone calls, she was probably going to have to move on again soon—and wasn’t that a depressing thought. She needed to get a little bit more money put together so she’d actually be able to get all the way to Portland this time. She hated to leave, but she didn’t want her boss getting caught in the crossfire either. Charlotte O’Donnell had treated her like a daughter, and it was going to break her heart to have to leave, but she wanted the older woman be safe—and
that
meant moving on. Coral felt her eyes fill with tears she didn’t dare let fall.
Crying never fixed a damned thing, Coral Ann.
“Good afternoon, Charlotte.” Coral was brought back to the moment by Sage’s deep voice as he greeted her boss.
For God’s sake, why don’t I just swoon and fall off the ladder? Yep, falling in a heap at his feet will prove why you’re a bad bet as date material.
Charlotte O’Donnell had given Coral a job and a place to live when she’d needed it the most, and the elderly woman was the closest thing to a mother Coral had ever known. Coral thought back the evening late last summer when her car had decided to tank outside downtown Pine Creek, Montana’s only small diner. That mechanical mishap turned out to be the biggest blessing she’d ever received. Just like that, recalling the events that led her to that moment made Coral shudder.
Shit! Hold still you idiot, he’s going to hear the damned ladder rattle and know you’re up here.
The conversation that had been taking place below her paused, and Coral held her breath. If it was possible for someone to
think
themselves invisible she would have vanished into thin air.
Just hold on for a few more seconds. He’ll sign his ticket and move on.
Sage and his brothers were among Charlotte’s most loyal customers. At least one of them was in every day, and usually Coral saw more than one of the Morgans at some point before the store closed. O’Donnell Hardware was a throwback to an earlier era when small mom and pop businesses lined the main streets of small towns. A time when everyone in town knew everyone else, and kids played outside until the streetlights came on and no one worried.
Coral hated the fact so many of those small businesses had closed their doors, but their inability to compete with superstores was making places like O’Donnell’s few and far between. Coral knew Charlotte was trying to keep the store profitable until she finally decided to retire. The elderly woman probably could have retired a decade ago, but for a woman who had worked hard all her life, retirement was meant for those who
couldn’t
work. And as long as she
could
work, she planned to. She’d told Coral several times retirement didn’t have anything to do with age.
“What was that?” Sage’s question cut through Coral’s musings but not the black spots dancing in her vision.
Fuck a fat fairy. I have to stop holding my damned breath every time that hot cowboy walks into this store. He’s going to think I’m a Froot Loop. Damn it, I’m going to end up with fricking brain damage from a lack of oxygen. Why doesn’t he just go? How long can it take to buy rope anyway?
At least her subconscious mind had been paying attention.
That’s awfully soft rope. Wonder what he plans to do with that?
Even the black dots didn’t obscure the erotic picture that flashed through Coral’s mind.
Leapin’ lizards I really do have to stop reading all those erotic romances.
The disaster that came next would have made Lucille Ball proud. Just as Coral realized her fingers were slowing slipping from the ancient wooden ladder’s smooth top rung, Sage’s commanding voice cut through the fog, “Coral? What the hell are you doing up there? Come down here before you…” was the last thing she heard before everything around her faded from her vision, and the world dropped out from under her. Those pesky black spots melted together blocking out every single defense she’d erected and Coral let herself fall into a sweet blissful void of nothingness.
Sage had come
into the hardware store hoping to bump in to the most interesting woman he’d ever met. Coral Williams had seemed intent on keeping him at arm’s length ever since she’d arrived in town, but Sage had finally decided to step up his pursuit of the skittish little mare who had caught his eye. There was something about her that called to him, and he’d spent months trying to pinpoint what it was before finally admitting it was everything. She was the very definition of petite. Hell, if she was more than an inch or two over five feet he’d eat his Stetson. Slender, but with sweet curves in all the right places, he spent more time than he cared to admit wondering what she would look like out of those worn out Levis.
Coral’s dark chestnut colored hair was streaked with gold highlights making him think it had been painted by the angels before they’d sent her into his path. Every person who’d been in the diner the day she arrived had told him the first thing they’d noticed was the way she almost seemed to glow as she stepped through the door. Hell, Sage had yet to meet a single person who didn’t think Coral hung the moon and stars—and in Big Sky Country
that
was saying a lot.
He really needed to get this figured out—she was turning him into a sap. If he wasn’t careful he was going to end up sounding like a fucking Hallmark card. And he really wanted his damned brothers off his case. Jesus, Joseph, and Mary they were teasing him relentlessly about the way he was “not-handling” the situation. They hadn’t been impressed by his slow progress, citing his lunches with her as worthy of a junior high school crush rather than a man who had been trained as a Master for more years than he could remember. Evidently, all the training in the world as a sexual Dominant didn’t matter a twit when you were hit by a bolt of pure lust-lightning.