The Ultimate Texas Bachelor. Cathy Thacker Gillen

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      “I don’t mess around for sport,” Lainey whispered. “When I kiss someone it means something.”

      Brad leaned toward her intimately, looking sexy as hell. Every bit the intimidating bachelor he’d been on TV. “Maybe that’s the problem," he returned, grasping her by the shoulders. “Whenever I’ve kissed someone, it’s never once meant anything close to what it should.”

      “What are you trying to say?” Lainey murmured, wishing she didn’t recall quite so vividly how passionately he’d kissed, or how tenderly he’d held her in his arms.

      His gaze drifted over her. “It’s high time my kisses did mean something.”

      He took her into his arms and kissed her deeply. She clung to him, kissing him back. Sensations swirled through her as his hands moved down her spine, working their magic.

      The kiss turned sweeter, more tender. “Brad…we really shouldn’t do—”

      “Do what?” he prompted lazily, kissing her again.

      “This,” Lainey said, kissing him back.

      When he finally let her go, she was so dizzy she could barely stand.

      Dear Reader,

      There is fiction, and there is real life, and when the two come together these days it is called “reality TV.” Like many of you, I have watched programs dealing with survival, business and home decorating. But it’s the programs about romance that fascinate me the most. Can someone really find the love of their life on a semiscripted TV show? Or is it all about the money and achieving fifteen minutes of fame?

      I don’t know the answer to those questions, but I do know it was a heck of a lot of fun creating my own reality television show, Bachelor Bliss, and imagining what would happen if the ultimate Texas cowboy/ladies’ man, Brad McCabe, somehow got roped into signing up to appear on one.

      I figured he wouldn’t find romance there. That would come later—after the experience of chasing fame and fortune had wreaked havoc on his life.

      And I knew it wouldn’t be easy, either. True love never is. Which is why I paired Brad with an old high school classmate he had barely known existed. Someone with ambition of her own—journalistic ambition. For a private guy like Brad, that’s a worst-case scenario.

      How did it all end? Well, to find that out, you’ll have to turn the page….

      I hope you enjoy reading this romantic comedy as much as I enjoyed writing it. If you’d like to know more about this and other books, I invite you to visit my Web site at www.cathygillenthacker.com.

      Happy reading!

      Cathy Gillen Thacker

      The Ultimate Texas Bachelor

      Cathy Gillen Thacker

      This book is dedicated to Joshua Douglas Gerhardt,

      ultimate flirt and total heartbreaker.

      Welcome to the family, little one.

      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

      Epilogue

      Chapter One

      “Come on, Lainey. Have a heart! You can’t leave us like this!” Lewis McCabe declared as he pushed his eyeglasses farther up on the bridge of his nose.

      Aside from the fact she was here under false pretenses—which she had quickly decided she couldn’t go through with, anyway—Lainey Carrington didn’t see how she could stay, either. The Lazy M ranch house looked like a college dorm room had exploded on moving day. Lewis needed a lot more than the live-in housekeeper he had been advertising for, to bring order to this mess.

      Lainey studied the nerdiest—and most technologically brilliant—of Sam and Kate McCabe’s five grown sons and wondered how anyone so rich could still be so out of step with popular culture. Where had he gotten those clothes, anyway? From some 1980s-style shop?

      “What do you mean us?” she asked suspiciously. Was Lewis married? If so, she hadn’t heard about it, but then her knowledge was spotty at best since she hadn’t actually lived in Laramie, Texas, since she left home for college ten years ago.

      The door behind Lainey opened. She turned—and darn near fainted at the sight of the man she had secretly come here to track down.

      Not that she had expected the six-foot-three cowboy, with the ruggedly handsome face and to-die-for body to actually be here. She had just hoped that Lewis would give her a clue where to look, so that she might help her friend Sybil Devine hunt the elusive Brad McCabe down and scrutinize the sexy Casanova celebrity in person.

      “Brad, of course, who happens to be my business partner,” Lewis McCabe explained.

      “Actually, I’m more of a ranch manager,” Brad McCabe corrected grimly, shooting an aggravated look at his younger brother. He knocked some of the mud off his scuffed, brown leather boots, then stepped into the interior of the sprawling half-century-old ranch house. “And I thought we had an agreement, Lewis, that you’d let me know when we were going to have company so I could avoid running into ’em.”

      Lewis shot Lainey an apologetic glance. “Don’t mind him. He’s been in a bad mood ever since he got done filming that reality TV show.”

      Lainey took the opportunity to gather a little background research. “Guess that didn’t exactly have the happily-ever-after ending everyone expected it to have,” she observed.

      Brad’s jaw set. Clearly, he did not want her sympathy. “You saw it?”

      Obviously he wished she hadn’t. Lainey shrugged, not about to admit just how riveted she’d been by the sight of Brad McCabe on her television screen. “I think everyone who knows you did.”

      “Not to mention most of America,” Lewis chimed in.

      Bachelor Bliss had pulled in very high ratings, especially at the end, when it had taken an unexpected twist. Which wasn’t surprising, given how sexy Brad had looked walking out of the ocean in a pair of swim trunks that had left very little to the imagination. He’d been equally appealing on the back of a horse, riding into the mountains at sunset, or dressed in a tuxedo while enjoying a night on the town.

      The only thing she hadn’t liked was the sight of him kissing one pretty woman after another…and he had done an awful lot of that.

      “You shouldn’t have wasted your time watching such bull,” Brad muttered, his scowl deepening as his voice dropped a self-deprecating notch. “And I know I shouldn’t have wasted mine filming it.”

      Lainey agreed with him wholeheartedly there. Going on an artificially romantic TV show was no way to find a mate. “For what it’s worth, I don’t think they did right by you,” Lainey said.

      Brad’s brow arched as if he dared her to go on.

      Lainey gulped but held her ground. “The way they depicted you was not very flattering,” she continued bravely, knowing that if she was going to convince him to open up to her, he was first going to have to realize she did indeed