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  KISSED BY A COWBOY

  Jenna took Blue’s hand. “Will you walk me out to my truck? I really have to go or Uncle Ron will be calling Nate to round up a search party.”

  Jenna led Blue out into the cold night air and down the steps to where her truck was parked. He let her lead, which was a first, and stopped obediently beside her as she went to open the door.

  “Thanks for a great—”

  The rest of what she had been going to say was devoured by his kiss, which tasted of peaches and hot man—a combination that was rapidly becoming her all-time favorite. Her back was against the truck and his body covered her completely, one of his hands anchored around her hips and the other tangled in her hair.

  She fought to free one hand from between them and wrapped it around his neck, holding on to all that lean-muscled power for dear life. God, he was beautiful. It was like petting a jaguar. There was nothing else in her vision than Blue’s face and the feel of his mouth moving over hers. Eventually, even she had to breathe and she broke off the kiss and buried her face in the crook of his neck . . .

  Books by Kate Pearce

  The House of Pleasure Series

  SIMPLY SEXUAL

  SIMPLY SINFUL

  SIMPLY SHAMELESS

  SIMPLY WICKED

  SIMPLY INSATIABLE

  SIMPLY FORBIDDEN

  SIMPLY CARNAL

  SIMPLY VORACIOUS

  SIMPLY SCANDALOUS

  SIMPLY PLEASURE (e-novella)

  SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE (e-novella)

  The Sinners Club Series

  THE SINNERS CLUB

  TEMPTING A SINNER

  MASTERING A SINNER

  THE FIRST SINNERS (e-novella)

  Single Titles

  RAW DESIRE

  The Morgan Brothers Ranch

  THE RELUCTANT COWBOY

  THE MAVERICK COWBOY

  Anthologies

  SOME LIKE IT ROUGH

  LORDS OF PASSION

  Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation

  THE MAVERICK COWBOY

  KATE PEARCE

  ZEBRA BOOKS

  KENSINGTON PUBLISHING CORP.

  http://www.kensingtonbooks.com

  All copyrighted material within is Attributor Protected.

  ZEBRA BOOKS are published by

  Kensington Publishing Corp.

  119 West 40th Street

  New York, NY 10018

  Copyright © 2017 by Kate Pearce

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

  To the extent that the image or images on the cover of this book depict a person or persons, such person or persons are merely models, and are not intended to portray any character or characters featured in the book.

  If you purchased this book without a cover you should be aware that this book is stolen property. It was reported as “unsold and destroyed” to the Publisher and neither the Author nor the Publisher has received any payment for this “stripped book.”

  Zebra and the Z logo Reg. U.S. Pat. & TM Off.

  ISBN: 978-1-4201-4002-6

  ISBN-10: 1-4201-4002-7

  eISBN-13: 978-1-4201-4003-3

  eISBN-10: 1-4201-4003-5

  VD1_1

  Table of Contents

  KISSED BY A COWBOY

  Also by

  Title Page

  Copyright Page

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  For Blue Morgan

  THE LAST GOOD COWBOY Teaser

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

  A big thank you to husband and wife team Sam and Kat for helping me out with all things Marine. (Any mistakes are definitely my own.) And thanks to my trusty beta readers: Sidney Bristol, Genevieve Turner and Zara Keane.

  Chapter One

  Humboldt-Toiyabe National Forest, California

  Marine Corps Mountain Warfare Training Center

  “Holy shit!”

  The sight of a one-hundred-and-thirty-pound Marine flailing around like a chicken—a Marine Blue Morgan was tethered to on the side of a sheer cliff face—was not good. With a yell, the idiot lost his grip, and his booted feet scrabbled for purchase, narrowly missing Blue’s head. The only thing keeping them from plummeting to the bottom of the canyon was the steel pin driven into the rock. It still meant Fielding swung out on his rope like a pendulum, jerking his unfortunate instructor up to meet him.

  Blue barely had time to brace himself before he smashed into the other man. His head did a weird flick-flack and then mercifully everything went black.

  * * *

  “Gunny? You okay?”

  Blue opened one eye and saw two versions of Mel, his fellow instructor, dancing against the bright Californian sky. He winced and retreated back into the darkness.

  “Gunnery Sergeant Morgan?”

  “Yeah.” He managed to croak. “Is Fielding okay?”

  “He’s fine. Blubbing like a baby, but nothing broken. You took the hit for him.”

  “Tell me about it.” Blue attempted to roll onto his side and broke out into a sweat as nausea engulfed him.

  “Take it easy. The corpsman’s coming.” Mel patted Blue’s shoulder. “I got you down. You two were unconscious for a while and swinging back and forth like a brace of pheasant.”

  “Funny,” Blue muttered. “It wasn’t Fielding’s fault. He startled some kind of bird.”

  “He still panicked, though.”

  “Which is why this is called Basic Cliff Assault Training, so he’ll learn not to do it somewhere important.”

  A shadow came over his other side and someone touched his shoulder. The smell of antiseptic swept over Blue, making him shudder.

  “It’s Ives. Do you know where you are?”

  “Still in the Marines?”

  Ives chuckled. “Specifically at this moment.”

  “Flat on my back with the headache from hell.”

  “What’s your name and rank?”

  “Gunnery Sergeant Morgan.”

  “What day is it?”

  “Tuesday.”

  “Good. I’m going to check you over and take you back to the hospital, okay?”

  Hospital.

  Blue had seen quite enough of them to last a lifetime. He only had six months left in the military. He’d hoped to see it out peacefully in his home state. This was his last training course. He’d managed to complete his final deployment in the sandbox, without a scratch, and now this.

  Sometimes life sucked.

  Ives placed a collar around his neck and Blue was gently lifted onto a board. He assumed the other six guys who had been climbing with their group had already been taken back to base. He was loaded into a vehicle and Ives got in behind him. Two others followed and the doors were shut.

  Blue tried to relax, but the pain behind his eyes kept growing.

  “Sorry, Gunny.”

  That was definitely Fielding, the little shit. Blue didn’t have the ability to reply as his head started to pound and he literally saw stars. He set his jaw, aware that if he
puked he was strapped to a board and couldn’t even turn his head. He’d been in far worse situations than this. There was nothing left to do but hang on and hang in there.

  * * *

  “Concussion, whiplash, two broken ribs, and a black eye.” The doc shook his head. “The newbie boot got a little graze on his widdle nose when he collided with your helmet.”

  “Figures,” Blue muttered. “When can I leave?”

  “You’ll need to stay overnight so we can check on that concussion. You’ve had a couple in the last few years, so we’ve got to be extra careful. We’ll see how you’re feeling in the morning, okay?”

  The doc was way too cheerful and loud for Blue’s liking, but that might be his headache talking. Pretty much everything was too much at this point.

  “Can I sit up?”

  “In an hour or so we’ll raise the head of the bed.”

  “Do I have to keep the collar on?”

  “For a couple of weeks minimum. We called your grandmother.”

  “God, no,” Blue groaned.

  “She says to give you her love, and she’ll see you soon. Command are working on a security pass for her.”

  “Great.”

  The thought of Ruth descending on him was half-comforting and half-terrifying. She’d never been one to let her grandkids sleep in and was highly suspicious of any attempt to get out of chores. On the other hand, if you were really hurt she would coddle you like a newborn calf...

  Blue drifted off to sleep again, only to be woken up by a nurse because—concussion. He’d been there before and wasn’t looking forward to a night filled with fitful sleep and wake-up calls. He longed for the peace and quiet of his bed at the ranch where the only sounds were the livestock, his grandma’s TV, and his brother and January getting too loud in their bedroom.

  He could do without the last one. But Chase only grinned when Blue reminded him to keep it down and suggested he was jealous. Blue thought about that. Was he jealous that Chase had found the right woman?

  Nah.

  He liked his life just as it was. He was in control, and no one was ever going to take that away from him. Twelve years in the Marines had made him a man to be reckoned with. It hadn’t been easy. When he’d enlisted he’d been something of a hothead, and soon learned that didn’t work in the Corps. They’d knocked him into shape and taught him everything he needed to know about how to survive.

  But he had a new purpose now—to save Morgan Ranch and make it profitable again. Ruth and Chase were relying on him, and he was looking forward to the challenge.

  * * *

  “Blue, darling?”

  The smell of apples and cinnamon drifted over him and he opened his eyes to see his grandmother sitting beside his bed. The lights were still too bright and it was now dusk outside.

  “Ruth. You smell like pie.”

  “That’s because I was making them when the call came through.”

  The nurse raised his bed so he could see his grandma’s worried face. She had the same blue eyes as him and Chase, and her lined skin was baked brown by the harsh sun. She barely topped five feet, but she was still formidable.

  “You look terrible, BB.”

  “Thanks.”

  She patted his hand. “What were you doing dangling off a cliff? Didn’t I teach you not to do stupid stuff? I would’ve thought the military would have drummed that into you by now.”

  Jardin, his nurse, gave a snort of laughter and winked at him as she arranged his pillows.

  “It’s my job, Ruth. I was trying to teach some idiot how to climb.”

  “Well, stop doing it.”

  Blue raised an eyebrow, and even that hurt. “I can’t just stop when I feel like it—although I’m pretty much done here anyway.”

  “Why?” Her sharp gaze moved over him. “Is there something they didn’t tell me?”

  “Nope, I’m good. It was my last training exercise.”

  A voice came from the bottom of the bed. “Mrs. Morgan? I’m Blue’s physician. He’s going to be just fine, but he will be on light duty. Best guess, his command will probably just put him behind a desk until he separates.”

  “Might as well shoot me now,” Blue groaned.

  “Can I take him home?” Ruth asked.

  “Not yet. We have to keep him here because of the concussion, but I’m sure he’ll be able to come visit you soon. It’s nice that you’re so close.”

  Ruth sighed. “Well, that’s a pity. I brought Chase’s big truck so I could put him in the back.”

  Blue tensed. “Wait a minute. You didn’t drive that monster all the way up here, did you?”

  She fixed him with a quelling look. “I’m quite capable of driving anything I want, young man. I brought January with me. She’s waiting in the truck.”

  “Okay, then.” Blue subsided back onto the pillow, which suddenly seemed very welcoming. Holding his head up was hard work. “I don’t suppose you brought some of that pie?”

  “There’s a hamper beside your bed with three different kinds of pie in it. I knew you’d be asking.” She stood up and gently kissed his forehead. “Now you take care of yourself, BB, and no more getting into trouble, you hear me?”

  “Yes, Grandma,” Blue murmured as she smoothed a hand through his short hair as if he was five again. “Tell January to drive carefully.”

  She kissed him one last time and then went off chatting to his doctor. He closed his eyes and heard a scraping noise, which brought him instantly alert.

  “What are you doing with my pies, Jardin?”

  The nurse patted his knee. “I’m just going to put them in a safe place until you are allowed to eat solid food.”

  “Like the staff refrigerator?” He snorted. “They’re fine right there.”

  “Sorry, the cooler’s a fire hazard sticking out like that. Don’t worry, I’ll save you a piece.”

  He already knew that Ruth would’ve brought enough pie to feed fifty, so he didn’t really mind the hijack.

  “Peach,” he murmured as he started to fall asleep again. “That’s my favorite.”

  “You’ve got it.” Jardin’s voice faded and he let himself fall into the blackness.

  * * *

  “Well, this isn’t good.”

  Blue rubbed his aching temple and studied his desk, which in his five-day absence had acquired about ten two-foot-high stacks of paper. He’d been released from the hospital, his ribs were taped up, and it hurt when he breathed too hard. His black eye was determined to capture every color of the rainbow, and he had at least another week in the neck brace. He was going to ditch that sucker as soon as no one was around to see him do it.

  Carly Hughes, his liaison from admin, smiled sympathetically. “The separation process for leaving the service is paved with more paperwork than a very messy celebrity divorce.” She moved one stack closer to another. “And while you’re doing all that you’ll be attending classes to prepare you for reentry into civilian life and help to find you a new career.”

  “I already know what I’m doing next.”

  She glanced at him. “Really?”

  “Yeah. My family owns a cattle ranch near here.”

  “So you’re a cowboy?”

  He shrugged. “More of a rancher, but I can ride a horse.”

  “And you rope cattle and all that kind of dirty, messy manly stuff?”

  She sounded all kinds of breathy. Was she one of those women who thought cowboys were romantic? Blue put more space between them. “I do what needs to be done.”

  She sat down on the corner of his desk and studied him carefully. “That’s good to know.”

  He picked up the nearest folder and looked inside. There were about ten forms in there alone. He hastily put it back on the stack.

  “As I can’t climb and I’m on my way out, I’ve also got to help the other instructors with scheduling and lesson plans.” Which was about as exciting as it sounded. The other guys had been delighted to pass all the shit jobs over to hi
m.

  “Then you’re going to be a busy man.” She stood up and brushed down her skirt. “Let me know if you need any extra help.”

  “Will do.”

  She waited a second longer than necessary, but he slid into his chair and started firing up his laptop. Carly was a great-looking woman, but he’d already set his sights on the next phase of his life, and getting involved with someone still in the service wasn’t going to work out. Getting involved with someone period was going to have to wait a few years until he’d established himself at the ranch.

  He had a plan, and nothing was going to stop him from making Morgan Ranch the best historical dude ranch in the state of California, if not the world. He was a Marine. When he set his mind to something, he never failed.

  Taking a deep breath, Blue took another file, scanned the contents, got a pen and started to fill in the blanks.

  * * *

  “Mom . . .” Jenna McDonald sighed and held the phone farther away from her ear as her mother started in on an all-too familiar theme. “Let’s not do this right now, okay? I just called to wish you happy birthday.”

  She closed her eyes. “Yeah, I wish I was with you, too. No, I don’t want you to look for a safer job for me where you live. I’m really happy here with Uncle Ron and Aunt Amy. Yeah. I also know that when Faith gets back, I might be out of work.”

  Her mom kept talking and eventually Jenna just let it flow over her. It was almost three and afternoon clinic was due to start, which meant she needed to move things along. Adopting her most cheerful, nonaggressive, super-validating tone—the one she’d learned in family therapy—she cut across what her mom was saying.

  “I know you worry because you care, Mom. I understand your position perfectly, and I will think about every single thing you have said to me today. Now why don’t you go and have a nice dinner with Dad? Call me tomorrow and tell me all about it, okay?”