Cowboy Who Came For Christmas

Hers for the holidays

Nothing stands between ranger Adan Harrison and justice. Guided by his principles, swayed by no one, he’ll do anything to protect the law. Even if it means tracking a suspect through a winter storm to quirky Crescent Mountain, Arkansas. But Sophia Mitchell, a woman with secrets in her eyes and a shotgun in her hands, stops him cold.

Sophia puts Adan’s suspicion and attraction on high alert. Being snowed in with a lovely stranger isn’t his holiday wish, but whatever she’s hiding could help him locate a criminal. Or it might reveal that she’s someone the law—and his heart—has been searching for.

“I want to kiss you.”

Adan’s mouth was near her as he said it. “Which doesn’t make a bit of sense,” he added.

“I know,” Sofia said on a raspy protest that fizzled and faded. He somehow did feel the same way, which gave her hope and scared her silly. “I know.”

“We have to keep moving,” he replied, not moving.

“Yes.” She snuggled closer.

“Don’t do that.”

“What?”

“Look at me like that, touch me like that.”

“You’re the one holding me.”

He grunted then pulled her closer. “Let’s get this out of the way.”

His lips moved over hers in a blazing heat that would surely melt a spot in the snow. Sophia returned the kiss with a deep longing that pooled into liquid warmth with each touch of her lips to his. Had she ever really been kissed before?

No. Not like this.

Dear Reader,

Some people carry a secret with them to their grave. But most of us usually tell our secrets to someone we can trust, if for no other reason than to get it off our chest.

Adan Harrison comes to Crescent Mountain, Arkansas, right before Christmas to find a dangerous criminal. But before he can finish his mission, he gets all tangled up with Sophia Mitchell and her well-meaning but interfering neighbors. Adan soon learns that everyone on this remote mountain has some sort of secret. But he believes Sophia has the biggest secret of all. Could she be harboring a fugitive?

Sophia’s worst fear comes back to haunt her as she realizes Adan is trying to find the man she believed to be dead. A man who has come to the mountain to get his revenge on Sophia. And now on her protective friends, too.

I loved the quirkiness of this story. It seemed to take many twists and turns before Adan and Sophia realized they could trust each other and help each other. The tight-knit community of Crescent Mountain turned out to be like any community where the neighbors watch out for one another and sometimes just watch each other. But this story begs the question—do we ever really know our neighbors or what they are plotting behind closed doors?

I hope you enjoy Adan and Sophia’s story. It’s all about mystery and secrets but it does have a true Christmas story tied into all of that, too. I promise.

Lenora Worth

Cowboy Who Came for Christmas

Lenora Worth

LENORA WORTH writes for Harlequin’s Love Inspired and Superromance lines. Her books have won national and regional awards. Her Love Inspired Suspense book Body of Evidence made the New York Times bestseller list. With more than fifty-five books published, she writes Southern stories set in places she loves such as Atlanta, Georgia, the North Georgia and Arkansas mountains, Texas and Louisiana, including Dallas and New Orleans. Lenora is married and has two grown children.

To my Arkansas friend

Valerie Hansen with love.

Contents

Cover

Back Cover Text

Introduction

Dear Reader

Title Page

About the Author

Dedication

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

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

CHAPTER NINETEEN

CHAPTER TWENTY

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT

CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE

Extract

Copyright

CHAPTER ONE

THE BARREL OF a shotgun pressing into his back stopped him in his tracks.

“Don’t take another step.”

The feminine voice surprised Adan Harrison. He had not been expecting that. What he had been expecting was a wanted fugitive he’d been tracking for three long, cold days.

“I’m not here to harm you,” he said, hoping she’d put the shotgun down. He held his hands up and went to reach inside his sheepskin-lined coat. “I’m...an officer of the law. I’ll show you my badge and ID.”

“Don’t do that.”

Adan stopped, waited. He could hear her shifting in the slush and the snow. Freezing in his boots, he didn’t dare turn or make a move for his own gun. He’d been around enough prickly females to know you didn’t mess with a woman with a loaded shotgun. Especially if you were in the deep woods of a treacherous mountain terrain in western Arkansas.

“Let me show you my badge,” he said. “Look, I got lost and it’s cold and I didn’t think anyone was inside the cabin.”