Reclaiming the Cowboy. Kathleen O'Brien

      

      This cowboy isn’t so easy to catch!

      When Mitch Garwood ran away with Bonnie O’Mara, he thought he’d found forever. But all his dreams crashed the morning he woke alone. Months later, he’s immune to her reappearance. Even if she’s now using her real name—Annabelle Irving—and ready to tell him her secrets, he’s done.

      Too bad the situation is not that simple. Annabelle’s willingness to leave her money and position behind so she can work at Bell River Ranch and be near him surprises Mitch. Despite his resolve, the spark of attraction flares again. The most compelling part? Her determination to win him back!

      Belle’s heart was beating so fast she wasn’t sure she could speak.

      “I tried not to come,” Mitch said. His voice was dull, like a man in a trance.

      “Mitch.” She moved in front of him, reached up and touched his cheek. “It’s all right. I wanted you to come.”

      “It’s not all right,” he said. He shook his head slowly. His stubble was raspy, yet soft, against her fingertips. “It’s all wrong.”

      “Why?”

      “Because I’m here for one thing only.” He looked at her with those glimmering eyes. “Do you get that? I’m here because I want to make love to you. I’m dying, Belle. I’m burning up with it.”

      Her breath suddenly went shallow, as if her lungs were too small.

      “I want that, too.”

Dear Reader,

      Shakespeare once wrote that “what’s past is prologue.” William Wordsworth said, “The child is father of the man.” They, and probably a thousand other great thinkers, obviously believed your childhood sets the stage for your adult life.

      But what if your childhood wasn’t all that great? What if you were horrified to be told old patterns must be repeated forever? That’s how Belle Irving—the mystery woman you met in earlier Bell River Ranch books as Bonnie O’Mara—feels. She’s haunted by memories, terrified she’ll never be able to shake off their shadows.

      She’s been running from her past a long time. Now it’s time to stop. Time to fight. And where better to make her stand than at beautiful Bell River Ranch, where the indomitable Wright sisters have carved out a victory over their own troubled history?

      And where Mitch Garwood, the man she’s loved and lied to for so long, has been waiting…she hopes.

      From your emails and letters, I know that you (just like poor Mitch) have been impatient to learn the truth about Bonnie. It hasn’t been easy for me, either! I’ve been dying to reward this brave, lonely woman with her happily ever after.

      Probably, like me, you believe we all have the power to rewrite our own stories and make them end more happily than they began. So I hope you’ll enjoy watching her find her courage and fight her way to the future she deserves.

      Warmly,

      Kathleen O’Brien

      PS—I love to hear from readers! Come say hi at kathleenobrien.com, facebook.com/kathleenobrienauthor or twitter.com/kobrienromance.

      Reclaiming the Cowboy

      Kathleen O’Brien

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

      KATHLEEN O’BRIEN was a feature writer and TV critic before marrying a fellow journalist. Motherhood, which followed soon after, was so marvelous she turned to writing novels, which could be done at home. After decades of fun with her emotional counterpart—she’s the mushmellow, he’s the stoic—she’s convinced that opposites really do attract, even heiresses and cowboys. The scuffles that inevitably follow? They’re just part of the thrill!

      MILLS & BOON

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      Contents

       Cover

       Back Cover Text

       Introduction

Dear Reader

       Title Page

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

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

       EXTRACT

       Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

      IT WAS A MEAN March midnight, the road a sludgy river of asphalt oozing in slow loops under an icy moon. Mitch Garwood’s