The Seduction of Miss Amelia Bell (31 page)

Dear Reader,

As some of you may already know, the idea for my fictional town of Bramble, Texas,
came from the hours I spent watching
The Andy Griffith Show
. When Barney, Aunt Bee, and Opie were on, my mom couldn’t peel me away from our console
television. The townsfolk’s antics held me spellbound. Which is probably why I made
my characters a little crazy, too. (Okay, so I made them a lot crazy.) But while the
people of Mayberry had levelheaded Sheriff Andy Taylor to keep them in line, the townsfolk
of Bramble have been allowed to run wild.

Until now.

I’m pleased as punch to introduce Sheriff Dusty Hicks, the hero of my newest Deep
in the Heart of Texas novel, A MATCH MADE IN TEXAS. Like Andy, he’s a dedicated lawman
who loves his job and the people of his community. Unlike Andy, he carries a gun,
has a wee bit of a temper, and is blessed with the kind of looks and hard body that
can make a good girl turn bad. And after just one glimpse of Dusty’s shiny handcuffs,
Brianne Cates wants to turn bad. Real bad.

But it won’t be easy for Brianne to seduce a little lawman lovin’ out of my hero.
Dusty has his hands full trying to regain joint custody of his precocious three-year-old
daughter and, at the same time, deal with a con-artist television evangelist and a
vengeful cartel drug lord. Not to mention the townsfolk of Bramble, who have suddenly
gone wa-a-ay off their rockers.

All I can say is, what started out as a desire to give Bramble its very own Sheriff
Taylor quickly turned into a fast-paced joyride that left my hair standing on end
and my heart as warm and gooey as a toaster strudel. I hope it will do the same for
you. :o)

Much love,

Dear Reader,

I love a scruffy-faced, tattooed, motorcycle-riding bad boy as much as the next girl,
so when it came time to write HARD TO HANDLE, I knew what qualities I wanted Aiden
Downey to possess.

For inspiration, I needed to look no further than Charlie Hunnam from the famed TV
show
Sons of Anarchy
. I remember watching Season 1 on Netflix, mouth agape and eyes wide. When Charlie’s
character, Jax Teller, finished his first scene, I looked over at my husband and said,
“
That’s
Aiden!”

In HARD TO HANDLE, Aiden may have been crafted with a bad-boy starter kit: He has
the scruff, the tattoo, the knee-weakening dimples that make him look like sin on
a stick, and yeah, a custom Harley-Davidson to boot. But Aiden also has something
extra special that derails his bad-boy image: a heart of near-solid gold.

When we first met Aiden and Sadie in
Tempting the Billionaire
(and again in the e-novella
Can’t Let Go
), there wasn’t much hope for these two hurting hearts to work out their differences.
Aiden had been saddled with devastating news and familial responsibilities, and Sadie
(poor Sadie!) had just opened up her heart to Aiden, who stomped on it, broke it into
pieces, and set it on fire for good measure. How could they forgive each other after
things had gone so horribly, terribly wrong?

Aiden has suffered a lot of loss, but in HARD TO HANDLE, he’s on a mission to get
his life
back
. A very large piece of that puzzle is winning back the woman he never meant to hurt,
the woman he loved. Sadie, with her walled-up heart, smart, sassy mouth, and fiery
attitude isn’t going to be an easy nut to crack. Especially after she vowed to never,
ever get hurt again. That goes
double
for the blond Adonis with the unforgettable mouth and ability to turn her brain into
Silly Putty.

The best part about this good “bad” boy? Aiden’s determination is as rock-hard as
his abs. He’s not going to let Sadie walk away, not now that he sees how much she
still cares for him. Having been to hell and back, Aiden isn’t intimidated by her.
Not even a little bit. Sadie is his Achilles’ heel, and Aiden accepts that it’s going
to take time (and plenty of seduction!) to win her over. He also knows that she’s
worth it.

Think you’re up for a ride around the block with a bad-boy-done-good? I have to say,
Aiden left a pretty deep mark on my heart and I’m still a little in love with him!
He may change your mind about scruffy, motorcycle-riding hotties… He certainly managed
to change Sadie’s.

Happy reading!

www.jessicalemmon.com

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product
of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events,
locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

Copyright © 2014 by Paula Quinn
Excerpt from
The Wicked Ways of Alexander Kidd
copyright © 2014 by Paula Quinn
Cover design by Diane Luger
Cover art by Judy York
Cover hand lettering by Ron Zinn
Cover copyright © 2014 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.

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First ebook edition: March 2014

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ISBN 978-1-4555-1950-7

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