In the small town of River Black, Texas, sits
the Triple C—a working cattle ranch that sustains the town. But it also holds
painful memories and shocking secrets for the Cavanaugh brothers....
When the Cavanaugh brothers return home for their father’s funeral, they
discover unexpected evidence of the old man’s surprising double life—a son
named Blue, who wants the Triple C Ranch as much as they do. The eldest son,
Deacon, a wealthy businessman who couldn’t wait to leave the ranch and move on
with his life, is looking to use his powerful connections to stop Blue at any
cost. He never expected the ranch’s forewoman, Mackenzie Byrd, to get in his
way.
Mac knows Deacon means to destroy the ranch and therefore destroy her
livelihood. But as the two battle for control, their attraction builds. Now
Deacon is faced with the choice of a lifetime: Take down the Triple C to feed
his need for revenge, or embrace the love of the one person who has broken down
every barrier to his heart.
Amazon
Excerpt:
Deacon opened his door and
stepped out into the hall. No one was there, and for a second he wondered if
maybe she’d just been passing through on her way downstairs. But then, he heard
her. A few doors down, barking at someone inside her room.
“Goddamn you, Blue!” she called
out in a strange combination of a hiss and shout.
Blue? Deacon mused darkly, instantly on the move. Was the cowboy in
Mac’s room? And why was she so pissed?
“You!” she continued, her voice
echoing down the hall. “This whole thing...you’re acting like a...bullshit.”
Deacon came to her open door
and stopped, frowned, when he saw that she was talking on her cell phone.
Talking and trying to unzip the back of her dress at the same time.
“You know I’m so worried,” she
rambled on loudly, her words slurred.
She’d been drinking.
“I’m worried, Blue. Don’t you
get that? Worried. You better call me back, cowboy. No, you’d better be up and
out at dawn or maybe I’ll fire you.” She pulled at her zipper, managed to get
it halfway down her back before it refused to go any further. She released it
with a frustrated curse. “I wouldn’t fire you, Blue. You know that, right? I
love you.”
Deacon leaned against the
doorjamb, his frown downgrading to a scowl. Why was she saying that? Like that.
All fearful and passionate. Friends didn’t talk like that. Not any of the
people he called friends, at any rate.
“I love you,” she said again,
then punched the end button on her cell, and threw the thing on the bed. She
stared at it, and in a soft voice, she whispered, “And I can’t lose another
person I love.”
For a moment, Deacon
contemplated walking away and pretending he hadn’t seen a goddamn thing. That
would’ve been the right move, the smart move. He didn’t need to engage with a
drunk woman who was grieving the man he despised, and crying out for the cowboy
who could threaten his plans for vengeance. But then she turned and caught
sight of him.
She didn’t even startle, which
was a big clue to how drunk she probably was. She narrowed her eyes and her
upper lip lifted into a sneer. “What do you want, Deacon?” she muttered
irritably.
“I heard you yelling all the
way down the hall,” he said. “Just checking to see if you’re all right.”
She snorted. “As if you care,”
she said, pointing at him, her cheeks flushed.
“I care, Mackenzie, or I
wouldn’t be standing here.”
She snorted again, then started
working her zipper again. “You are a mean upstart.”
“Yes.”
“Greedy, too.”
“Sometimes, I can be, yes.”
“Don’t patronize me, Deacon.”
“Not trying to Mac. I swear.”
Shit, if she did manage to get that zipper down and started undressing in front
of him, things were going to get problematic. He wasn’t a dickhead, but he
wasn’t much of a gentleman either. She was a beautiful woman, and he couldn’t
say he wasn’t curious.
“You shattered this day,” she
said, yanking and pulling. “Wasn’t your day, Deacon. Not every day is your
day.”
If she tugged on that thing any
harder it was going rip in two. He pushed away from the wall and stepped into
the room. “Come on, Mac. I’m only responsible for one of the scandals today.
And, frankly, I’m thinking it’s not the worst of the lot.”
“Your plan to destroy us all is
the ultimate of worsts,” she slurred, turning to look him. She narrowed her
eyes. “Wait a minute. I didn’t invite you in here.”
“Your door was open.”
“Still not an invitation.”
“All right. Say the word and
I’ll leave.”
Her eyes widened, hopeful. “The
ranch? You’ll leave the ranch?”
He laughed. “No.”
She scowled. “Well, then, you
might as well stay. Witness what you’ve come to destroy. What you’ve wrought.”
Her voice dropped to a whisper. “And maybe what Everett wrought a little bit,
too.”
Her eyes filled with tears on
that last bit, and Deacon sighed. Damn woman. Damn Everett. “You been drinking,
darlin?”
“No.”
He went to her and took her by
the shoulders. “Just a little bit?”
Her head dropped back and she
looked up at him. “Maybe.”
“Whether you believe it or not,
I’m not looking to destroy you, Mackenzie.” Her cheeks were flushed, and the color
made her eyes so brilliantly blue it was like staring at the sky round noon on a perfect spring day.
“Beautiful works of art should never be destroyed.”
Deacon realized what he’d said
one second after it was out of his mouth. Where the hell had that come from? he mentally growled. Not from any rational or reasonable place
he knew of. Shit, that was Hallmark card, romantic bullshit territory. He
didn’t deliver that kind of slop with a woman he was interested in.
He released his hold on her.
Mac didn’t move. She was still
staring at him, pursing her full, pink lips at him. “Don’t you try and sweet
talk me, Deacon Cavanaugh. Unlike those beanpoles with fake tits and faker
smiles that you go out with, I know you.” She pointed at his face. “I know the
country boy you were and the heartless man you’ve become. I know everything.”
She didn’t know everything,
Deacon thought. If she had, she’d never have taken Everett up on his offer to
work at the Triple C. And clearly, she’d needed that job. It was a choice he and
Cole and James had made long ago. To keep the truth from her. Losing Cass and
dealing with a drunk for a father had been enough for her to handle. She didn’t
need to take on their pain and humiliation along with it.
“Why do you pick women like
that, Deac?” she verbally stumbled on, reaching behind her back and once again
working her zipper. “You came from real. Why wouldn’t you want real?”
His mouth twitched with
amusement. “Sounds like you’ve spying on me, Mackenzie.”
She cocked her head, trying to
get a better angle on the willful little bit of metal. “Don’t have to. You’re
all over the rags in town. Every time I buy a tub of ice cream, there you are.”
His brow lifted. “A tub of ice cream?”
She glared at him. “You got a
problem with that?”
“Nope.” He chuckled. “No
problem.”
“Good answer,” she growled
softly as she continued to pull on that zipper.
“Need a hand, Mackenzie?”
“I have two.” And she brought
both out from behind her back to show him.
He grinned. “They don’t seem to
be working all that well.”
She ignored him, and kept at it
for the next thirty seconds. Then she let out a frustrated groan and dropped
her hands to her sides. “I think it’s stuck.”
“You think?” he said, laughing.
“Shut up.”
Laughing, he reached for her
waist and turned her around. “Drinking alone isn’t a good idea. You should’ve
waited for me.”
She sighed tiredly. “I got
tired of waiting for you, Deacon.”
The words were spoken softly,
but Deacon heard them clear as day. His fingers went to her dress, wrapped
around the zipper and eased the tiny piece of metal out of the fabric it was
caught on, then down very slowly. Mackenzie Byrd wasn’t some female from the
city who wanted a few nights of uncomplicated fun. She was his past. Or a part
of it. She belonged to a different time, and he didn’t want any part of that
time.
He stared at her back. The
smooth, tan skin, and the back clasp of her pale blue bra. His mouth watered,
his nostrils widened to take in her scent, and the urge to slip his hands
inside the flared material of her dress, feel the heat of her skin against his
palms, was nearly debilitating.
“I wasn’t alone,” she
whispered.
Deacon’s mind couldn’t seem to
process her words or their meaning. His fingers flexed as he uttered, “What’s
that?”
She turned around then, held
her dress up with both hands, and lifted her dark blue gaze to his. There was
heat and confusion within their depths. “I wasn’t drinking alone. I was with
Elena.”
Deacon’s jaw tightened, and
rational thought returned in a quick, jarring manner. The woman his father had
been allegedly having an affair with for years – the woman who had bore
Everett’s child, then kept it a secret. The woman Everett had no doubt turned
to when he should’ve been helping his wife with her grief, and protecting his
sons from the terrifying effects of that grief.
Her eyes still hazy from all
the alcohol she’d consumed, Mackenzie looked at him, studied him, like she was
trying to read his mind. “Does it make you crazy not to have control all the
time?”
His brows came together in a frown.
“I always have control, Mackenzie,” he said, not sure where she was going with
that line of questioning. “Even when it might not appear that way.”
Her cheeks were still very
flushed, but her eyes no longer held the deep sadness from a moment ago. “You
don’t now.”
“Why do you say that?” he
asked.
Without warning, she reached
up, fisted the collar of his shirt in her hand and pulled his face down to
hers. Her lips captured his in a hungry, almost angry, way that made the breath
leave his body, then rush back in at a hundred miles per hour. Holy shit! What the hell? She groaned against him, lapped at him with her
tongue, then nipped at his bottom lip with her teeth as her hands ran up his
jaw and neck, then into his hair.
Author Interview:
MRP would like to extend a very warm welcome to Laura Wright, author of The Cavanaugh Brothers Series. Laura, to begin, can you tell us where you're from, and where/whom did your love for writing come from?
I’m from Minnesota. Midwest girl, baby! J
My love of writing started with the book Knight in Shining Armor. My wonderful
aunt gave me the book and said, “Read this. You’ll love it!” And I didJ
Can you say that your journey to publication was difficult?
If so, what
were the hardest moments to get through? I would say no. Or maybe that’s how I
perceive it because I don’t look at obstacles as anything more than something
to jump over on my way to Awesome Town. I was rejected plenty. But I see that
as taste. I’m not ‘this person’s taste.’ But I might be that person’s taste.
How do you overcome I-Suck-At-This, that little voice in your head that
tells you your writing isn’t good enough?
That’s a great question. I don’t
really know. I think you have to have a compulsion to write that overrides
those moments of self doubt or loathing. Also it’s important to write for
yourself, your own enjoyment first.
What is your dream vacation?
2 weeks on a beach with a hammock and a
margarita. Any beach will doJ
Describe your writing style in five words.
Frantic, Emotional, Sensual,
Honest, Deep.
What movies are you currently excited to see?
DIVERGENT! I want to see
it with my daughter. We read the book together.
What are you currently reading?
WAITING ON YOU by Kristan Higgins.
If you weren’t a writer, what other careers would you pursue?
Something
to do with animals or marketing. Or marketing animals!
If you could create a holiday of your own, what would it be called?
Christmas
2 J or.. Christmas in
July?? Lols..
For people who haven’t read your novel, how
would you summarize the plot?
When the Cavanaugh brothers return home for their
father’s funeral, they discover unexpected evidence of the old man’s surprising
double life—a son who wants the Triple C Ranch as much as they do. Eldest son,
Deacon, a wealthy businessman who couldn’t wait to leave the ranch and move on
with his life never expected the ranch’s forewoman, Mackenzie Byrd, to get in
his way.
What are two of your pet-peeves?
Bad motheringJ
Bad mannersJ
To you, what makes a good story? Deep emotion and lots of sexual
tension. World building rocks me tooJ
What usually turns you off about a story?
Sex without emotion.
If you could collaborate with any author, who would you choose, and
why?
Yes! And I am. Alexandra Ivy and I write the Bayou Heat series. And it’s
amazing. I love herJ
What is on your night stand?
Well, well.. let’s see.. Water, Kindle,
Lip Balm, Lotion…
What is your favorite book?
That’s like asking who my favorite kid is..
snort.. I’m loving Kristan Higgins newest right now. She’s so damn funny!!
Thanks for having me!!
Thank you so much for joining us today, Laura. We really enjoyed the visit. Good luck and great sales with Branded and the whole Cavanaugh Brothers Series.
