One Good Cowboy. Catherine Mann

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       “What are you doing?”

      “You said you didn’t want to talk.” Sure he knew they weren’t really going to have sex on his desk, but he reveled in the regret in her eyes that she couldn’t hide in spite of her scowl.

      “You’re being outrageous.”

      “Good.”

      “Stop. Now,” she said firmly.

      Okay, he’d pushed her far enough for today, but he could see that while their love for each other might have burned out, their passion still had plenty of fire left.

      He buttoned his shirt again and tucked in the tails. “Spoilsport.”

      She brushed papers into a stack. “The pilot’s waiting.”

      “Damn waste of an empty desk,” he said with a smile.

      * * *

       One Good Cowboy

      is part of the Diamonds in the Rough trilogy:

      The McNair cousins must pass their grandmother’s tests to inherit their fortune—and find true love!

      One Good Cowboy

      Catherine Mann

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      USA TODAY bestselling author CATHERINE MANN lives on a sunny Florida beach with her flyboy husband and their four children. With more than forty books in print in over twenty countries, she has also celebrated wins for both a RITA® Award and a Booksellers’ Best Award. Catherine enjoys chatting with readers online—thanks to the wonders of the internet, which allows her to network with her laptop by the water! Contact Catherine through her website, www.catherinemann.com, find her on Facebook and Twitter (@CatherineMann1) or reach her by snail mail at PO Box 6065, Navarre, FL 32566, USA.

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      To my husband, Rob, always my hero.

      Contents

       Chapter One

       Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Chapter Eleven

       EXTRACT

      One

      “Gentlemen, never forget the importance of protecting your family jewels.”

      Unfazed by his grandmother’s outrageous comment, Stone McNair ducked low as his horse sailed under a branch and over a creek. Gran prided herself on being the unconventional matriarch of a major jewelry design empire, and her mocking jab carried on the wind as Stone raced with his cousin.

      Alex pulled up alongside him, neck and neck with Stone’s quarter horse. Hooves chewed at the earth, deftly dodging the roots of a cypress tree, spewing turf into the creek.

      Even as he raced, Stone soaked in the scents and sounds of home—the squeak of the saddle, the whistle of the wind through the pines. Churned earth and bluebonnets waving in the wind released a fragrance every bit as intoxicating as the first whiff of a freshly opened bottle of Glenfiddich whiskey.

      This corner of land outside of Fort Worth, Texas, had belonged to the McNairs for generations, their homestead as they built a business empire. His blood hummed when he rode the ranch. Ownership had branded itself into his DNA as tangibly as the symbol of the Hidden Gem Ranch that had been branded onto his quarter horse’s flank.

      Outings on the ranch with his grandmother and his twin cousins were few and far between these days, given their hectic work schedules. He wasn’t sure why Gran had called this little reunion and impromptu race, but it had to be something important for her to resort to pulling them all away from the McNair Empire.

      His other cousin, Amie, galloped alongside Stone, her laughter full and uninhibited. “How’re the family jewels holding up?”

      Without waiting for an answer, Amie urged her Arabian ahead, her McNair-black hair trailing behind her just like when she’d been ten instead of thirty. Rides with their grandmother had been a regular occurrence when they were children, then less and less frequent as they grew older and went their separate ways. None of them had hesitated when the family matriarch insisted on an impromptu gathering. Stone owed his grandmother. She’d been his safe haven every time his druggy mother went on a binge or checked into rehab.

      Again.

      Damn straight, he owed his grandmother a debt he couldn’t repay. She’d been there from day one, an aggressive advocate in getting the best care possible to detox her crack baby grandson. Gran had paid for her daughter to enter detox programs again and again with little success. Year after year, Gran had been as constant as the land they called home—for his cousins, too.

      And she’d given each one of them a role to play. Alex managed the family lands—Hidden Gem Ranch, which operated as a bed-and-breakfast hobby ranch for the rich and famous. Stone managed the family jewelry design house and stores. Diamonds in the Rough featured high-end rustic designs, from rodeo belt buckles and stylized bolos to Aztec jewelry, all highly sought after around the country. If everything went according to plan, he intended to expand Diamonds in the Rough with international offices in London and Milan, making the big announcement at a wild mustang fund-raiser this fall. And Amie—a gemologist—was already working on designs for new pieces to meet the expected increase in demand.

      Yes, the world was finally coming back together for him. After his broken engagement knocked him for a loop seven months ago...

      But he didn’t want to think about Johanna. Not today. Not ever, if he could avoid it. Although that was tough to accomplish,