Lone Star Holiday Proposal. Yvonne Lindsay

      

       “And what about you, Raina?

      Don’t you need somebody as well?” Nolan asked. Raina blushed and looked down for a moment.

      “I have JJ,” she said, her voice staunch. “He’s all I need.” Nolan nodded and then stepped a little closer. “I’d really like to see you again.”

      Raina’s breath caught in her throat.

      “Nolan, I’m flattered. B-but I don’t date anymore. I’m sorry.”

      “I understand,” Nolan said, his brown eyes gleaming under the street lamp. “But if you ever change your mind, make sure you let me know, okay?”

      She was well-advised to steer completely clear of Nolan Dane. She’d only met him four days ago and he was already heating her blood. She couldn’t—no, shouldn’t—entertain the idea. And yet, she still found herself wishing she could say yes.

      “How long are you prepared to wait?” Raina joked on a nervous laugh.

      Nolan smiled and gave her a look that sent curls of delight all the way to her extremities.

      “As long as it takes.”

      * * *

      Lone Star Holiday Proposal is part of The Texas Cattleman’s Club: Lies and Lullabies series—Baby secrets and a scheming sheikh rock Royal, Texas

      Lone Star Holiday Proposal

      Yvonne Lindsay

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      A typical Piscean, USA TODAY bestselling author YVONNE LINDSAY has always preferred her imagination to the real world. Married to her blind date hero and with two adult children, she spends her days crafting the stories of her heart, and in her spare time she can be found with her nose in a book reliving the power of love, or knitting socks and daydreaming. Contact her via her website www.yvonnelindsay.com.

      As always, I’m strengthened by the support of my fellow authors when working on a project like this, whether they are directly involved in the continuity or not. In particular I would like to dedicate this book to Soraya Lane to thank her for her constant cheerleading and encouragement, and for challenging me to bigger, better word counts than I ever dreamed I could achieve in a single day.

       Deadlines become so much easier when you’re haranguing me from the sideline! Thank you.

      Contents

       Cover

       Introduction

       Title Page

       About the Author

       Dedication

One

Two

Three

Four

       Five

       Six

       Seven

       Eight

       Nine

       Ten

       Eleven

       Twelve

       Thirteen

       Fourteen

       Fifteen

       Sixteen

       Seventeen

       Extract

       Copyright

One

      Nolan rolled to a stop in the parking area at the Courtyard and looked around. The four-mile drive out of Royal had been pleasant, quite a difference from the Southern California freeway traffic that was a part of his daily grind back home.

      Home. He grunted. Royal, Texas, was really his home, not the sparsely furnished luxury apartment he slept and occasionally ate in back in LA. But he hadn’t lived here in Royal, or even been back, in coming up on seven years. Even now he’d chosen to check into a hotel rather than stay with his parents. The reminders of his old life and old hopes were still too fresh, too raw. He gave his head a slight shake, as if to jog his mind back on track, and pushed open the door to the brand-new SUV he’d hired for his visit. He alighted from the vehicle, grabbed his suit jacket from the backseat and pulled it on before taking a moment to adjust pristine white shirt cuffs.

      The wind cut right through the finely woven wool of his suit. It seemed even Armani couldn’t protect you from a frigid Texan winter breeze. Nor were highly polished handmade shoes immune to the dust of the unsealed parking lot, he noted with a slight grimace of distaste. But when had he gotten so prissy? There’d been a time when even baby spit hadn’t bothered him.

      A shaft of pain lanced through him. It still hurt as if it was yesterday. Nolan buttoned his jacket and straightened his shoulders. He’d known coming back would be hard, that it might rip the scabs off wounds he’d thought already healed. But what he hadn’t expected were these blindsiding moments when those old hurts threatened to drive him back down on his knees.

      Pull it together, he willed silently, clenching his jaw tight. He’d lived through far worse than these random memories that were all that was left of his old life. He could live through this. It was time to harden back up and get to work.

      As private attorney for Rafiq Bin Saleed, Nolan was here to do a job for one of Rafiq’s companies, Samson Oil. He loved his work—particularly loved the cut and parry of entering into property negotiations on behalf of his boss and friend. The fact that doing so now brought him back to the scene of his deepest sorrow was tempered only by the fact that he also got to spend some time with his parents on their home turf. They weren’t getting any younger and his dad was already making noises about retiring. From personal experience working there, Nolan