âI donât mess around for sport,â Lainey whispered. âWhen I kiss someone it means something.â
Brad leaned toward her intimately, looking sexy as hell. Every bit the intimidating bachelor heâd been on TV. âMaybe thatâs the problem," he returned, grasping her by the shoulders. âWhenever Iâve kissed someone, itâs never once meant anything close to what it should.â
âWhat are you trying to say?â Lainey murmured, wishing she didnât recall quite so vividly how passionately heâd kissed, or how tenderly heâd held her in his arms.
His gaze drifted over her. âItâs high time my kisses did mean something.â
He took her into his arms and kissed her deeply. She clung to him, kissing him back. Sensations swirled through her as his hands moved down her spine, working their magic.
The kiss turned sweeter, more tender. âBradâ¦we really shouldnât doââ
âDo what?â he prompted lazily, kissing her again.
âThis,â Lainey said, kissing him back.
When he finally let her go, she was so dizzy she could barely stand.
Dear Reader,
There is fiction, and there is real life, and when the two come together these days it is called âreality TV.â Like many of you, I have watched programs dealing with survival, business and home decorating. But itâs the programs about romance that fascinate me the most. Can someone really find the love of their life on a semiscripted TV show? Or is it all about the money and achieving fifteen minutes of fame?
I donât know the answer to those questions, but I do know it was a heck of a lot of fun creating my own reality television show, Bachelor Bliss, and imagining what would happen if the ultimate Texas cowboy/ladiesâ man, Brad McCabe, somehow got roped into signing up to appear on one.
I figured he wouldnât find romance there. That would come laterâafter the experience of chasing fame and fortune had wreaked havoc on his life.
And I knew it wouldnât be easy, either. True love never is. Which is why I paired Brad with an old high school classmate he had barely known existed. Someone with ambition of her ownâjournalistic ambition. For a private guy like Brad, thatâs a worst-case scenario.
How did it all end? Well, to find that out, youâll have to turn the pageâ¦.
I hope you enjoy reading this romantic comedy as much as I enjoyed writing it. If youâd like to know more about this and other books, I invite you to visit my Web site at www.cathygillenthacker.com.
Happy reading!
Cathy Gillen Thacker
The Ultimate Texas Bachelor
Cathy Gillen Thacker
This book is dedicated to Joshua Douglas Gerhardt,
ultimate flirt and total heartbreaker. Welcome to the family, little one.
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
Epilogue
âCome on, Lainey. Have a heart! You canât leave us like this!â Lewis McCabe declared as he pushed his eyeglasses farther up on the bridge of his nose.
Aside from the fact she was here under false pretensesâwhich she had quickly decided she couldnât go through with, anywayâLainey Carrington didnât see how she could stay, either. The Lazy M ranch house looked like a college dorm room had exploded on moving day. Lewis needed a lot more than the live-in housekeeper he had been advertising for, to bring order to this mess.
Lainey studied the nerdiestâand most technologically brilliantâof Sam and Kate McCabeâs five grown sons and wondered how anyone so rich could still be so out of step with popular culture. Where had he gotten those clothes, anyway? From some 1980s-style shop?
âWhat do you mean us?â she asked suspiciously. Was Lewis married? If so, she hadnât heard about it, but then her knowledge was spotty at best since she hadnât actually lived in Laramie, Texas, since she left home for college ten years ago.
The door behind Lainey opened. She turnedâand darn near fainted at the sight of the man she had secretly come here to track down.
Not that she had expected the six-foot-three cowboy, with the ruggedly handsome face and to-die-for body to actually be here. She had just hoped that Lewis would give her a clue where to look, so that she might help her friend Sybil Devine hunt the elusive Brad McCabe down and scrutinize the sexy Casanova celebrity in person.
âBrad, of course, who happens to be my business partner,â Lewis McCabe explained.
âActually, Iâm more of a ranch manager,â Brad McCabe corrected grimly, shooting an aggravated look at his younger brother. He knocked some of the mud off his scuffed, brown leather boots, then stepped into the interior of the sprawling half-century-old ranch house. âAnd I thought we had an agreement, Lewis, that youâd let me know when we were going to have company so I could avoid running into âem.â
Lewis shot Lainey an apologetic glance. âDonât mind him. Heâs been in a bad mood ever since he got done filming that reality TV show.â