The Unexpected Bride (Montana Born Brides) (19 page)

Meanwhile, Emma stood with the drawing in her hands.
She looked at it again, and then up at Laurent, her eyes shining. He pulled her into his chest and stroked her hair. “
You
won’t run away from me if I do this, will you,
Mommy
?” He put emphasis on the last word.

Emma shook her head and hugged him hard. “I’m not going anywhere,
Daddy
. I’m staying right here at Copper Creek with my family. And the man I love.”

The excitement is building in Marietta, Montana, with a series of stories centered around the 100
th
Anniversary of the Graff Hotel and—as part of the celebration—an incredible Wedding Giveaway.

Prequel to the Great Wedding Giveaway:
Beauty’s Kiss
by Jane Porter

Buy now!

Book 1 of the Great Wedding Giveaway:
What a Bride Wants
by Kelly Hunter

Buy now!

Book 2 of the Great Wedding Giveaway:
Second Chance Bride
by
Trish Morey

Buy now!

Book 3 of the Great Wedding Giveaway:
Almost A Bride
by Sarah Mayberry

Buy now!

Book 4 of the Great Wedding Giveaway:
The Unexpected Bride
by Joanne Walsh

Coming Soon

The Reluctant Bride
by Katherine Garbera

The Substitute Bride
by Kathleen O’Brien

Game Of Brides
by Megan Crane

Last Year’s Bride
by Anne McAllister

To learn about Montana Born Brides releases, visit:

www.MontanaBornBrides.com

An excerpt from

The Reluctant Bride

by
Katherine Garbera

Stupid.

She wasn’t sure about herself, but Monty; God knew she wished she had his confidence.  There was a marked difference in their reactions to tragedy.  He wanted to cram in as much life as he could…she wanted to hide and protect those she cared about.  His mouth moved over hers with the confidence and surety that she’d ever only experienced with him, and she knew that she wasn’t going to pull back and walk away.  Instead she slid her hand up his chest and curled her fingers around his warm neck,  burrowing between the warm downy collar and the man. 

He was here because he wanted to be her man.

Right now, it felt like he was, as his mouth moved over hers and sent shivers of desire coursing through her body.  It had been a long seven months apart.  She parted her lips and his tongue slipped inside her mouth and she sighed.

He tasted just like she remembered.  It was silly when she tried to define Monty
, but there was something spicy in his kisses and yet, at the same time, something that soothed the restlessness inside of her.  When he wrapped his arms around her, she felt like she’d found the home she’d always wanted.

A safe place to land
. But she wasn’t sure she believed in home any more.

S
he’d always been a rambler.  And even this kiss wasn’t going to be enough to help her put all of her doubts and fears aside.  His tongue rubbed over hers, as his hands slipped lower to cup her buttocks and she stopped thinking.

Stopped trying to analyze this and have it all make sense.

Kisses weren’t supposed make sense, were they?  They were supposed to transport lovers to someplace magical and distant.

And for her, his kisses did.

His hands anchored her to the real world, and his mouth tempted and teased her to follow him.  To leave behind her worries on this dark deserted highway and focus on the one thing that was real: Monty.

He plunged his tongue deeper into her mouth
, and she felt the first stirrings of desire shivering through her nerves and pooling in the center of her body.  She tunneled her fingers through the silky hair at the back of his neck, twisting them to make him move his head the way she wanted.

He did.  Increasing the pressure on her and deepening the kiss until she was aware only of Monty and his mouth
, his arm around her hips which held her to him, and his hand which roamed up and down her back.  His touch was warm, even through the thickness of her coat. 

She pulled her head back and
, from her angle, could look down on his half-closed eyes.  This was the face she’d missed.  The expression that had haunted her dreams.  He was the man she thought she wanted to marry.  The man who she’d taken a leap of faith with and said yes to.

But then he opened his eyes and slowly let her slide down his body
, before he stepped back, spreading his arms out to his sides.  He rubbed one hand over his jaw and his mouth and turned his back to her.

She had no idea what he was thinking
, but could venture a guess that it wasn’t very nice.

Why should it be?

She was playing a game in his eyes. And she had no way of really making him see that her being lost and confused was just as disheartening from her point of view.

“Um…”

“What?”  He glanced back over his shoulder.

Yeah
, what? Time to take a break. Run again…

“Thanks for changing my tire.”

The Reluctant Bride – coming soon!

Joanne Walsh became hooked on romance when her grandma gave her a copy of
Gone with the Wind
for her birthday. The teachers at her strict girls’ school didn’t approve of a ten-year-old reading such a ‘racy’ novel and confiscated it. But Joanne still became a voracious romance reader and, later, an editor for one of the world’s leading women’s fiction publishers, where she could do two of her favorite things: work with her beloved alpha-male heroes and spend time in the USA. These days, Joanne lives in the south of England and divides her time between freelance editing, writing and spending time with her very own real-life alpha…