The Undercover Cowboy Read online

  They’d kissed and hugged and petted but hadn’t yet gone past third base. Tonight was the night. She was on the pill. He brought a box of condoms. They were ready and eager. Kelsey reached for him, grabbed hold of his wrist, and tugged him to his knees. Their first time. Both eager virgins who’d dreamed of this for weeks.

  Souls wide open. Hearts overflowing. Bodies eager and ready.

  “Come . . .” she coaxed. “Don’t worry, it’s after midnight. Everyone is snug in their cabins.”

  Allowing her to draw him back beside her, Noah branded her with his mouth and covered her trembling body with his own.

  Hot hands.

  Electric touch.

  Three-dimensional!

  The night was sticky. Raw with heat and hunger. Calloused fingertips stroked velvet skin. The boards of the dock creaked and swayed beneath their movements as he untied her bikini top.

  Footsteps.

  Solid. Quick. Determined. Immediately, Kelsey recognized those footsteps.

  Filomena!

  From nowhere, her mother was on the dock beside them, grabbing a fistful of Kelsey’s hair in her hand, and yanking her to her feet. Kelsey’s bikini top flew into the lake.

  Angry shouts.

  Ugly accusations.

  Threats.

  Curses.

  Regular life stuff with her mother when things didn’t go Filomena’s way.

  Mom, dragging her to the car parked on the road. She must have driven up with the headlights off. How had her mother known they would be there? Blindsided by the realization that Filomena must have been keeping tabs by tracking her every move via her cell phone, Kelsey’s fears ratcheted up into her throat.

  A hard shove and Filomena stuffed Kelsey into the car’s backseat and shook an angry fist at Noah who’d followed them. Warned him to stay away. Promised litigation and other dire consequences if he dared to contact Kelsey ever again.

  “Noah!” Kelsey had cried as her mother hit the childproof door locks to prevent him from opening the door and springing her free.

  Pounding on the car window, Noah demanded her mother get out and have a rational conversation with him.

  Stone-faced, Filomena started the car.

  “I’ll come for you,” Noah yelled to Kelsey. “I’ll find you, and we will be together. We won’t let her win.”

  Kelsey clung to that flimsy promise. Took it to mean something. Fervent hopes. Girlish dreams.

  “Over my dead body,” Filomena yelled.

  “Please Noah, just go,” Kelsey had said, half-afraid her mother would run over him. “We were just a summer fling.”

  All the fight had drained out of him then, and he’d stood in the darkness, fists clenched, face gone pale, shaking from head to toe.

  Sobbing and shivering, Kelsey sat nearly naked in the backseat of her mother’s Cadillac as Filomena sped all the way back to Dallas.

  And Kelsey never saw Noah again.

  Years later, out of curiosity, Kelsey searched for Noah and found him on social media, learning that he was a successful point guard in the NBA and married to a drop-dead gorgeous model—something she’d have already known if she had any interest in basketball. She did not friend him. It was far too late to rekindle childhood flames.

  Lost hopes.

  Empty dreams.

  Ancient history.

  Soon afterward, she’d met Clive, and that was that. But now, here she was, dumped and half-drunk, with nothing to look forward to but her mother’s predictable holiday harangue. Plenty of reasons to hate the holidays. This year, she had little choice but to review her life’s mistakes.

  Ho, ho, ho. Merry freaking Christmas.

  About the Author

  LORI WILDE is the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestselling author of eighty-seven works of romantic fiction. She’s a three-time Romance Writers of America RITA® Award finalist and a four-time Romantic Times Readers’ Choice Award nominee. She has won numerous other awards as well. Her books have been translated into twenty-six languages, with more than four million copies of her books sold worldwide. Her breakout novel, The First Love Cookie Club, has been optioned for a TV movie.

  Lori is a registered nurse with a BSN from Texas Christian University. She holds a certificate in forensics and is also a certified yoga instructor.

  A fifth-generation Texan, Lori lives with her husband, Bill, in the Cutting Horse Capital of the World, where they run Epiphany Orchards, a writing/creativity retreat for the care and enrichment of the artistic soul.

  Discover great authors, exclusive offers, and more at hc.com.

  By Lori Wilde

  The Stardust, Texas Series

  Love of the Game

  Rules of the Game

  Back in the Game

  The Cupid, Texas Series

  To Tame a Wild Cowboy

  How the Cowboy Was Won

  Million Dollar Cowboy

  Love with a Perfect Cowboy

  Somebody to Love

  All Out of Love

  Love at First Sight

  One True Love (novella)

  The Jubilee, Texas Series

  A Cowboy for Christmas

  The Cowboy and the Princess

  The Cowboy Takes a Bride

  The Twilight, Texas Series

  The Christmas Dare

  The Undercover Cowboy (novella)

  The Christmas Key

  Cowboy, It’s Cold Outside

  A Wedding for Christmas

  I’ll Be Home for Christmas

  Christmas at Twilight

  The Valentine’s Day Disaster (novella)

  The Christmas Cookie Collection

  The Christmas Cookie Chronicles:

  Carrie; Raylene; Christine; Grace

  The Welcome Home Garden Club

  The First Love Cookie Club

  The True Love Quilting Club

  The Sweethearts’ Knitting Club

  Available from Harlequin

  The Stop the Wedding Series

  Crash Landing

  Smooth Sailing

  Night Driving

  The Uniformly Hot Series

  Born Ready

  High Stakes Seduction

  The Right Stuff

  Intoxicating

  Sweet Surrender

  His Final Seduction

  Zero Control

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

  Excerpt from The Christmas Dare copyright © 2019 by Laurie Vanzura.

  the undercover cowboy. Copyright © 2019 by Laurie Vanzura. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins Publishers. For information, address HarperCollins Publishers, 195 Broadway, New York, NY 10007.

  Digital Edition SEPTEMBER 2019 ISBN: 978-0-06-231153-5

  Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-231154-2

  Cover design by Nadine Badalaty

  Cover photograph © Jacobs Stock Photography Ltd/Getty Images

  Avon Impulse and the Avon Impulse logo are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America.

  Avon and HarperCollins are registered trademarks of HarperCollins Publishers in the United States of America and other countries.

  first edition

  About the Publisher

  Australia

  HarperCollins Publis
hers Australia Pty. Ltd.

  Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street

  Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

  www.harpercollins.com.au

  Canada

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd

  Bay Adelaide Centre, East Tower

  22 Adelaide Street West, 41st Floor

  Toronto, Ontario, M5H 4E3

  www.harpercollins.ca

  India

  HarperCollins India

  A 75, Sector 57

  Noida

  Uttar Pradesh 201 301

  www.harpercollins.co.in

  New Zealand

  HarperCollins Publishers New Zealand

  Unit D1, 63 Apollo Drive

  Rosedale 0632

  Auckland, New Zealand

  www.harpercollins.co.nz

  United Kingdom

  HarperCollins Publishers Ltd.

  1 London Bridge Street

  London SE1 9GF, UK

  www.harpercollins.co.uk

  United States

  HarperCollins Publishers Inc.

  195 Broadway

  New York, NY 10007

  www.harpercollins.com