Ramona and the Renegade. Marie Ferrarella

      

      “Are you trying to take advantage of me?” Mona asked

      The question sounded incredibly innocent. The waves of desire that her undeniable nearness was fanning definitely weren’t.

      Every fiber of his being wanted to give in, but he continued to fight it. “No, I’m—”

      The rest of his adamant protest went unspoken. He found it impossible to speak when Mona’s lips were suddenly and firmly pressed against his.

      She was quick—he’d give her that.

      He tasted her moan and felt the blood surge through his veins as if it had been set on fire. Maybe it had been.

      He needed to put a stop to this. In a moment. Just one more moment.

      He promised himself that he would do the right thing in a moment, but right now, just for this erotic half a heartbeat, he wanted to enjoy this completely unexpected turn of events.

      Dear Reader,

      Here we are, back again in Forever, Texas. This time we’re going to explore two people who have loved each other but put up a lot of resistance along the way. Luckily, love does prevail. The neatest part of writing is that I know there will be a happy ending, no matter how rocky the path is for my characters. If life were perfect, my husband, son and daughter would read from the dialogue pages I have given them and act accordingly. But life isn’t perfect, and I have very independent people in my world who make life one surprise after another. Which works, too, and, I have to admit, keeps me on my toes. It also helps me write, because ideas come from all over and my family has appeared over and over again in all my books. You might stumble across my husband here. I’m not saying any more.

      As ever, I thank you for reading, and from the bottom of my heart I wish you someone to love who loves you back.

      Best,

      Marie Ferrarella

      Ramona and the Renegade

      Marie Ferrarella

      ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      Marie Ferrarella is a USA TODAY bestselling and RITA^® Award-winning author who has written more than two hundred books for Silhouette and Harlequin Books, some under the name of Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her website at www.marieferrarella.com.

      To

       Nicholas

       The sky is the limit.

       You just have to believe.

       I do.

      Contents

      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 One

      He recognized the car immediately.

      On his way home, hoping to beat the predicted flash floods, Deputy Sheriff Joe Lone Wolf brought his four-wheel-drive vehicle to a halt the moment he spotted the other car.

      The rain was falling faster and harder with each quarter hour that went by. Because of that, his range of visibility was considerably shortened. It hampered him somewhat, but Joe still would have known the battered Jeep anywhere.

      It was ten years old, silver, with a red door on its passenger side thanks to an unexpected, sudden meeting with a hundred-foot bitternut hickory tree one foggy night. With some effort on his part, Mick Henley, Forever, Texas’s best—and only—mechanic, had managed to find an exact match to replace the Jeep’s mangled door.

      Well, almost exact. It would have needed two coats of silver paint to make it the same color as the rest of the vehicle. But Ramona Santiago had fallen in love with the bold red color and refused to change it once the new door was in place.

      Red suited her.

      It matched her personality, Joe had thought at the time.

      He still did.

      Mona was all things wild and bold. Far from shy and retiring, the raven-haired, green-eyed beauty had all the subdued qualities of a Fourth of July firecracker in the middle of exploding. The green eyes came from her Irish ancestors, the midnight-black hair was a gift from the rest of her heritage—Mexican and Apache.

      They had the last in common.

      Deputy Joe Lone Wolf was an Apache, through and through, born on the nearby Apache reservation where he spent his younger years before his uncle finally uprooted him and transplanted him into Forever proper, thereby rescuing him from an early demise.

      He and Mona had something else in common—she was the sheriff’s younger sister, and he was technically in Rick Santiago’s employ. One of three deputies, Joe had been with Rick and on the job the longest, although only by a matter of a few months.

      If Rick knew that his sister was coming back to Forever tonight, he hadn’t mentioned anything. Joe had a strong suspicion that the sheriff would be just as surprised as he was that Mona was here. The last anyone had heard, Mona was due to reach Forever the day before her brother’s wedding.

      Why the change in schedule? Joe wondered.

      The vehicle’s windshield wipers were already set on maximum speed and were clearly losing the battle for visibility against the rain. He would have had better luck seeing if he just stuck his head out the side window.

      But he’d seen enough, approaching on the gently inclining slope, to know that something was definitely wrong. Mona’s Jeep was stationary in a place where no one would willingly choose to stop. Moreover, Mona wasn’t in the vehicle but was standing outside it.

      Specifically, Mona was in the process of wrestling with a tire iron, cursing the very flat front passenger tire that was, of necessity, the focus of all her attention.

      Though never demure, the Mona he recalled didn’t ordinarily turn the air blue around her. She’d obviously been at this for a bit and, just as obviously, been unsuccessful in her endeavor to change the tire.

      Just the slightest hint of amusement ran through him, even though it made no appearance on his face. He knew better than that. Mona had eyes in the back of her pretty head. At least, she did before she’d gone off to college to become a veterinarian.

      Parking his vehicle several feet away from hers, Joe got out and, braving the rain, approached the sheriff’s sister from behind. She didn’t appear to hear him, but under the circumstances, that was more than understandable. The wind howled, the rain pelted and made its own mournful noise, and Mona, damsel-in-distress in this scenario, was cursing.

      Loudly.

      With all this going on, Joe doubted if she could have heard a train approaching from a distance.

      “Don’t you know you have to sweet-talk a car to get it to cooperate?” Joe asked just as he came to where Mona was standing.

      The next thing he knew, he was literally jumping back, out of her reach, and not a moment too soon. Startled, Mona immediately turned the tire iron in her hands into a weapon and