The Untamed Heart. Kit Gardner

      Table of Contents

       Cover

       Excerpt

       Dear Reader

       Title Page

       Kit Gardner

Prologue

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

       Epilogue

       Copyright

      Sloan rose from the bed and started toward her

      Willie thought she’d never seen a more dangerouslooking man. He stopped just inches from her.

      

      She stared at the ridges of his belly and the line of dark hair tapering into the top of his pants.

      

      “Go,” he rumbled, “or I’ll do something we’ll both regret. And there won’t be any taking it back. Only guilt and confusion and heartache. That’s the only promise you’ll get from me.”

      

      He reached around her for the door handle and tugged it wide. She felt the heat of his arm as it stirred the air over her skin.

      

      “Run,” he bit out. “Run before I make you disreputable as hell.”

      

      And she did. For the first time in her life, Willie fled from a man…!

      Dear Reader,

      

      Kit Gardner has written seven terrific historicals for Harlequin, but many of our readers also know her for her equally exciting historicals from Dell written as Kit Garland. This month’s story, The Untamed Heart, a Western with a twist, has a refined English hero who happens to be an earl, and a feisty, ranch hand heroine who can do anything a man can do, only better. Don’t miss the sparks as these two opposites fight their very strong mutual attraction.

      This month also brings us a new concept for Harlequin Historicals, our first in-line short-story collection, The Knights of Christmas. Three of our award-winning authors, Suzanne Barclay, Margaret Moore and Deborah Simmons, have joined forces to create a Medieval Christmas anthology that is sure to spread cheer all year long. Author Susan Amarillas’s new book, Wild Card, is the story of a lady gambler who is hiding in a remote Wyoming town, terrified that the local sheriff will discover she’s wanted for murder in Texas. And talented newcomer Lyn Stone is back with The Arrangement, a unique and touching story about a young female gossip columnist who sets out to expose a notorious composer and winds up first agreeing to marry him, then falling in love with him.

      Whatever your tastes in reading, we hope you enjoy all four books, available wherever Harlequin Historicals are sold.

      

      Sincerely,

      

      Tracy Farrell

      Senior Editor

      Please address questions and book requests to:

      Harlequin Reader Service

      U.S.: 3010 Walden Ave., P.O. Box 1325, Buffalo, NY 14269

      Canadian: P.O. Box 609, Fort Erie, Ont. L2A 5X3

      The Untamed Heart

      Kit Gardner

      

      

www.millsandboon.co.uk

       KIT GARDNER

      at one time in her life masqueraded as an accountant. These days she considers herself a writer and a mother. When she’s not pounding furiously on her computer keyboard, she now can be found on her knees in her perennial gardens, bellowing on the sidelines of a soccer field or blubbering over anything Jane Austen. She’s an eternal enthusiast for all things English but has been known to spend entire Sunday mornings watching reruns of “The Wild, Wild West.” She lives with her husband, three sons and a golden retriever near Chicago. She loves to hear from readers. Write to P.O. Box 510, Plainfield, IL 60544.

       Prologue

       Nebraska

       April 1880

      Sloan Devlin, fifth Earl of Worthingham, held four kings and an ace. The smooth-handed gentleman seated