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    Bare Naked
    Bare Naked
    Bare Naked
    Ebook124 pages2 hours

    Bare Naked

    By Desiree Holt

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    About this ebook

    Georgie Zielinski has invested everything she owns in a dilapidated B&B in Saddle Wells, Texas. She doesn’t have anything left over to hire someone to help her get the place back to its former glory, so when a rough-around-the-edges cowboy offers his handyman services, she listens to her gut and takes him on.

    Cade Hannigan was born with a silver spoon in his mouth, but it’s long since tarnished, and he’s a down-on-his-luck cowboy if there ever was one. All he has now is his beat-up truck and a reputation so bad no one will hire him. Luckily for Cade, newcomer Georgie doesn’t know anything about the man he used to be, and she accepts his help in exchange for room and board.

    As they work together on the old B&B, they start to build a tenuous friendship that soon explodes into wild passion. But not everyone is ready to give Cade a second chance, and their newfound happiness could disappear like smoke.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherMacmillan Publishers
    Release dateNov 13, 2017
    ISBN9781640630727
    Author

    Desiree Holt

    A multi-published, award winning, Amazon and USA Today best-selling author, Desiree Holt has produced more than 200 titles and won many awards. She has received an EPIC E-Book Award, the Holt Medallion and many others including Author After Dark’s Author of the Year. She has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and in The Village Voice, The Daily Beast, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The London Daily Mail. She lives in Florida with her cats who insist they help her write her books, and is addicted to football.

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      Book preview

      Bare Naked - Desiree Holt

      Table of Contents

      Dedication

      Chapter One

      Chapter Two

      Chapter Three

      Chapter Four

      Chapter Five

      Chapter Six

      Chapter Seven

      About the Author

      Discover more Select Contemporary titles…

      The Negotiator

      Nightingale

      Nailed It

      Six-Month Rule

      This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is coincidental.

      Copyright © 2014 by Desiree Holt. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

      Entangled Publishing, LLC

      2614 South Timberline Road

      Suite 105, PMB 159

      Fort Collins, CO 80525

      Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

      Select Contemporary is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.

      Edited by Heidi Shoham

      Cover design by Fiona Jayde

      Cover art from iStock

      ISBN 978-1-64063-072-7

      Manufactured in the United States of America

      First Edition June 2014

      Rerelease November 2017

      To my fabulous beta reader, Margie Hager, for spotting my typos. To the Hill Country 4, Cerise Deland, Brenna Zinn, and Jordan Dane, who help me unscramble my brains. To my wonderful editor, Heidi Moore, who believed in the Naked Cowboys. And to all of my readers everywhere who take my Naked Cowboys home with you. And of course, to the real Matt and Reenie Stark who started this wild ride. Thank you all, more than you will ever know.

      Chapter One

      Cade, I’ll give you one more chance here.

      Ed Ramsey, owner of the Lone Star Bar, stared at Cade Hannigan. Cade stared right back at him, wishing the man would say his piece so he could hide in his room with the two six-packs he’d managed to filch. Lately, it seemed the only way he could get to sleep at night was to drink himself into oblivion. The pittance he got from the saloon for cleaning up in the morning barely covered what he drank at night. So what if he helped himself to some extra now and then?

      He shoved his hands in his pockets and rocked back on his feet, waiting for Ed to spit out what was on his mind.

      What now? he asked.

      I’m short on the bottles of beer again, Ed said, his tone flat. We’ve had this discussion before.

      Yeah, yeah, yeah. Cade fisted his hands in his pockets. So blame the bum, right?

      I’d be a little more concerned if I were you. The bar owner studied him, his gaze sliding over Cade’s skin like sharp glass. I’m about the only one left willing to give you a job and a place to crash.

      And isn’t that just the damn fucking truth.

      Cade wanted to kick something. A year ago, he’d been on top of the world, waving an open checkbook wherever he went, crushing people who annoyed or irritated him. People hung around him because he was Cade Hannigan. The name meant power and money. Now, thanks to his late father’s gambling, it was all gone. People who’d kissed his ass wouldn’t cross the street to kick dirt on him. Or reach out a hand to help him. He was reduced to sleeping in a crappy little room over the Lone Star Bar and cleaning up for scum wages. So what if he copped a six-pack or two now and then? Didn’t he deserve something to cushion his miserable existence?

      Cade? Bob Everett prompted him.

      I hear you. Don’t worry. I won’t steal your crappy beer. At least not more than I already have. Can I go now?

      As long as you remember what I said. And I’m cutting you back to two drinks. Just so you know.

      Thanks for your generosity, Cade growled.

      Listen, you asshole. No one else will even let you drink in their place. So go crawl into your corner, swallow your booze and get the hell out before you scare away the customers.

      Cade pushed his way out of the back room into the bar. Under Ed’s eagle eye, he poured himself a double shot of bourbon and carried it to his usual table in the corner. It was still early in the evening so there weren’t too many people in the bar yet. He hunched over his drink, his jacket collar turned up. If he could make himself invisible he would.

      Sometimes he made the drinks last as long as possible. After all, where did he have to go except the rat hole he was living in? Other times, when he got tired of people looking at him with equal parts of pity and scorn, he scarfed the alcohol down and got the hell out of there.

      Tonight, the place was only about half full and no one seemed to be paying particular attention to him, so he could enjoy his own private pity party. Damn his old man for putting him in this bind anyway. The Hannigans had owned the biggest ranch in this part of Texas and had extensive real estate holdings. Private plane. Big parties. People bowing and scraping. Then his father dropped dead of a heart attack and Cade discovered the old man had gambled away just about everything and the entire estate had to be liquidated to satisfy creditors. He’d been completely humiliated. Not to mention the fact his friends had suddenly disappeared.

      No money, no friendship.

      He had just carried his second drink back to his table when the outside door opened and the atmosphere was filled with the sound of feminine voices and laughter. Cade glanced up and wanted to crawl under the table. It was hard to miss the musical laugh of Amy Stark. Oh, wait. Not Stark any more. What was it? Yeah, Montgomery.

      Son of a bitch.

      Once she’d been Cade’s girlfriend. All his. And he’d made sure everyone knew it. He could still remember the feel of her body against his and the heat of her kisses. And the very public breakup when she caught him with another woman.

      Damn small-minded of her. What did a stray piece of ass matter, anyway?

      Now she was married to someone else and wouldn’t give him the time of day. He still smarted from the confrontation with her asshole husband. Who the hell did that interloper think he was, anyway?

      He knew the other women with her too. Reenie Stark was married to Amy’s brother and Jinx Malone, the publisher of the county newspaper, was engaged to marry Sheriff Dillon Cross. They were all laughing about something and acting as if they owned the damn place.

      Not too long ago, I could have owned the damn place. And the whole county. Come to think of it, we nearly did.

      He forgot for a moment that he needed to nurse the two stingy drinks Ed allowed him and downed a healthy slug. The liquor burned on its way down his throat, but the warmth as it flooded through his system helped to take the edge off his bitterness.

      Glancing at the women again, he watched them take a table in the middle of the room and wave at Ed behind the bar.

      The usual, Amy called, tossing her dark hair.

      Coming right up, sweet cheeks, Ed told her. You sure you girls are old enough to drink?

      That set them off in another fit of laughter.

      Didn’t Ed just think he was so fucking funny?

      Cade ground his teeth and took another sip of his whiskey. Why the fuck did they have to come in here? There were other bars in town where they could hang out. This was his place. At least for a couple of hours a night. The only place that didn’t throw him out as soon as he walked in the door.

      He huddled deeper into his corner, wondering how in hell he was going to get out of here without being seen by them. He hoped they didn’t look his way. Maybe he’d just toss down the rest of his allotted alcohol, find a way to inch out of here and lock himself in upstairs with the last six-pack he’d snuck out of the bar when Ed wasn’t looking. There’d be hell to pay when Ed did his inventory again, but it wouldn’t be the first time the two of them had gone a round. And who else was the man going to get to sweep up the place for the pittance Cade received, anyway?

      …

      Amy. Reenie leaned across the table.

      Amy looked at her friend. What is it? And why are you whispering at me?

      Ssh. Don’t look, but I think that’s Cade Hannigan in a heap in the corner. As Amy turned her head, Reenie grabbed her arm. No, no, no. I said don’t look.

      Too late. Amy had already glanced over her shoulder. At first, she didn’t recognize the heap of clothing in the corner as a person. All she could make out was a sheepskin-lined ranch jacket and a disreputable Stetson. For a moment, it looked as if Ed had dropped stuff on the chair for some reason. Then she saw a hand move and a big knot formed in her stomach.

      Amy hadn’t seen Cade since his

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