Wednesday, July 13, 2016

#Excerpt: HEARTLAND by Sara Walter Ellwood, Lyrical Press Romances


Excerpt:

Emily glared at the retreating backside of EJ Cowley as he sauntered to his SUV, but her ire at the McAllister County sheriff was soon replaced with an appreciation of the way his ass filled out the tan pants. The scrawny teenage boy who’d pulled on her pigtails and chased her around the Double K when John Kendall wasn’t watching had grown up into a good-looking man.

Too bad he’d turned into a jerk.

She shook her head and rested her hand over the slight swell of her belly. Even if he was the nicest, sexiest man in the world, he was the last thing she needed. She wasn’t looking for a man. Didn’t want one. Her divorce had been final for almost two months, but she wouldn’t ever be completely free of Fabian McPhee despite her not wanting him to be part of her child’s life and his lack of paternal acknowledgement. The only way to escape him was to never let her baby know about him which she wouldn’t--couldn’t--ever do. Regardless of the pain of abandonment and the questions the knowledge of her little girl’s famous father would cause her, Emily could never do to her daughter what her parents did to her. The not knowing and finding out later was worse.

Emily closed her eyes and rested her head on the seat behind her. As she rubbed over the baby growing inside her, she smiled as the memory of when she’d found out she was having a girl entered her mind.

Twelve weeks into her pregnancy, the OB/Gynecologist, Dr. Summers, performed an amniocentesis. The test results came back perfectly normal and revealed the baby’s sex.

Every test the doctors performed had come back showing her baby was healthy. Dr. Summers accredited the good news to the fact Emily found out about her pregnancy early and stopped taking drugs.

“Emily… Miz Kendall? You okay?”

At the sound of EJ’s deep Texas twang, she jerked her eyes open and stopped massaging her belly. No one outside of Trish Russell, Fabian, and her doctors knew about the baby, not even her parents. If he suspected her secret, he showed no signs as he held out a sheet of pink paper--her speeding ticket.

She snatched it out of his hand and tossed it on the seat beside her. “I’m fine. Tired. I’ve been driving for thirteen hours and want to get home to my family.”

He straightened and the buttons on his uniform shirt strained across his chest as he took a deep breath. Did he lift weights? Without warning, she imagined him without the shirt and envisioned a broad chest rippling with muscle.

Irritated at the fantasy as much as by the man, she put her sunglasses back on her face and glared at him. “Are we done?”

He gave her a devilish smile, which turned his ruggedly handsome face superstar gorgeous and sent a tingle through her nervous system. “Yeah. Say hi to your mama and daddy.” As she turned the key in the ignition, he tapped the top of her car. “And drive within the speed limits.”

Her response was to hit the gas hard enough to send up a cloud of dust from the side of the road, but she didn’t speed past forty-five.

As she looked at him through her rearview mirror, she grinned at him shaking his head and standing with his arms crossed as the fine, Texas grit settled around him.



BLURB:
Sex, drugs, and country music. That was the lifestyle for Emily Kendall, a Texas girl who hit it big on the country music charts--until she found herself pregnant and battling addiction. Now out of rehab and seeking a new life for herself and her unborn child, Emily returns to her hometown of McAllister. The last thing she's looking for is trouble, no matter how good it looks in uniform. . .
A widower, single father, and former Army Ranger struggling with PTSD, Sheriff EJ Cowley hashis own demons to battle while keeping folks safe. The last thing he needs is a troubled celebrity speeding through town in her bright red Mazerati. But when someone from Emily's past threatens her safety and the peace of McAllister, EJ has no choice but to protect her. And soon both will learn there's more to the other than meets the eye. And that wounded hearts can love again. . .

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

AUTHOR Bio and Links:
Although Sara Walter Ellwood has long ago left the farm for the glamour of the big town, she draws on her experiences growing up on a small hobby farm in West Central Pennsylvania to write her contemporary westerns. She’s been married to her college sweetheart for over 20 years, and they have two teenagers and one very spoiled rescue cat named Penny. She longs to visit the places she writes about and jokes she’s a cowgirl at heart stuck in Pennsylvania suburbia. Sara Walter Ellwood is a multi-published author and publishes paranormal romantic suspense under the pen name Cera duBois.



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