Carrying the Rancher’s Heir

      Charlene Sands

       Secret Son, Convenient Wife

      Maxine Sullivan

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

       Carrying the Rancher’s Heir

      Charlene Sands

       “The baby’s mine?”

      Callie might have expected this. She swallowed past the lump in her throat, hurt that he’d even asked. “Yes.”

      Tagg inhaled sharply. “You were ticked at your father and you what? Seduced me in order to defy him?” He turned to her then, his eyes black with fury.

      “Tagg, listen. You’re wrong. I can explain.”

      “I don’t think so. It all makes sense now.” He spoke with conviction as if nothing in the world could change his mind.

      “I mean that was only part of the reason.” What could she say now, that she’d come face to face with her fantasy man? That she’d seen an opportunity to finally take something she wanted, to go for broke, to do something wild and so out of character for her?

      How could she tell him that? How could she tell him she loved him?

      Dear Reader,

      Have you ever met your fantasy man? Someone that is so perfect for you, deadly handsome and honorable with charm to burn, that his very perfection makes him unattainable in your eyes?

      Lucky for me, I married my fantasy man, but that’s another story for another day, so I figured why couldn’t my heroine, Callie Sullivan, finally meet the man of her dreams?

      Enter Taggart Worth, ex-rodeo rider, rancher, businessman and the owner of Callie’s heart. The Worths are her father’s fiercest competitors and all her life she’s been forbidden to associate with any of them. But a chance encounter with Tagg and a heart full of yearning has Callie going for broke with her sinfully sexy fantasy man.

      Welcome to Red Ridge, Arizona, and Worth Ranch, where skies are blue, the land is vast and mountaintops shine deep crimson.

      I hope you enjoy Tagg and Callie’s story!

       Charlene Sands

      About the Author

      Award-winning author CHARLENE SANDS writes bold, passionate, heart-stopping heroes and always … really good men! She’s a lover of all things romantic, having married her school sweetheart, Don. She is the proud recipient of a Readers’ Choice Award and double recipient of a Booksellers’ Best Award, having written twenty-eight romances to date, both contemporary and historical Western. Charlene is a member of Romance Writers of America and belongs to the Orange County and Los Angeles chapters of RWA, where she volunteers as the Published Authors’ Liaison.

      When not writing, she loves movie dates with her hubby, playing cards with her children, reading romance, great coffee, Pacific beaches, country music and anything chocolate. She also loves to hear from her readers.

      For fun stuff, contests and more, you can reach Charlene at www.charlenesands.com, Goodreads, Facebook and Twitter too!

      To my dear friends and high school buddies, Mary,

      Robin, Allyson, Pam, Denise, Susan, Cindy and Kathy.

      Girls who know a good “crush” when they see one!

      Our friendship has aged well and I love you all!

      A special thank you to Charles Griemsman, my stellar

      editor, for his wonderful insights on this story!

      One

      The subtle sound of hooves pounding earth and good-natured snorts usually put a smile on Taggart Worth’s face.

      But not today.

      Today, his gut was in a twist as he leaned on the corral fence drinking coffee, watching his three prize mares trot around the circular arena, the slight Arizona wind sweeping their manes. Once again, Worth Ranch had lost out on a lucrative cattle deal to Big Hawk Ranch. Hawkins Sullivan had outbid them and won.

       Sullivan.

      He was their neighbor and a big thorn in Tagg’s side. Though Worth Ranch held its own with their biggest competitor, Tagg hated losing this last deal. He’d been led to believe it was a sure thing.

      Tagg took a sip from his coffee mug. The thick brew had grown as cold and bitter as his emotions. He splashed the remaining coffee onto the ground and set the empty cup on the top of the rail post. His thoughts strayed to the one-night stand he’d had with Sullivan’s daughter Callie last month in Reno. For weeks now, she’d been on his mind and that wouldn’t do for the chief financial officer of Worth Enterprises.

      While he should have been outsmarting and outbidding The Hawk, as he was known in the cattle business, Tagg had been thinking about Sullivan’s daughter instead. The devil in him wondered if Hawkins had sent her to that Reno rodeo deliberately to distract him and throw him off balance. Sullivan was known to be ruthless in business but even he wouldn’t go that far—sacrificing his daughter for a cattle deal. Callie didn’t strike him as the type of woman who could be easily manipulated, either, but then Tagg had been wrong before when it came to*** women

      He’d known Callie as a child. Their ranches bordered each other, but he hadn’t seen her in years until she’d pulled him off that bar stool in the Cheatin’ Heart honky-tonk and dragged him onto the dance floor.

      That night had been wild.

      “Dance with me, cowboy. Show me your moves,” she said as she slid her arms around his neck and cozied up real close. Long dark waves fell in a tangle onto her back. She shimmied her body and sent him a smile that beckoned.

      “Can you handle my moves?” He spread his hands on her hips and drew her tight against him. She felt like heaven, warm and willing. He was one whiskey away from pure misery—rodeos did that to him. Made him remember what he’d lost. All-grown-up Callie had caught the brunt of his dangerous mood.

      “Oh, yeah, Tagg. I can handle any move you want to make on me.” Breathless, her lips angled up to his, so close, so tempting. She stared into his eyes with unmistakable invitation. Take me, she had said with that look, tearing his waning willpower to shreds.

      Rational thought had escaped him then. He’d been without a woman for months and Callie seemed to want the same thing as he had, a night of crazy-wild sex. She’d seemed eager for it and Tagg hadn’t an ounce of self-control left. He’d grabbed her hand and taken her to his hotel room, no questions asked. They’d barely made it through the door before they’d tossed each other’s clothes off.

      “She’s a fine-looking filly.”

      Tagg turned to find his older brother standing at the corral fence three feet away from him. Tagg and his two brothers owned seventy-five thousand acres of prime ranch land in Red Ridge County—land that had been in the Worth family for generations. Clay lived at the main house, and Jackson spent most of his time in the penthouse, while Tagg lived up in the hills on the site of the original Worth cabin in a newly built ranch home.

      “Trick?” Tagg nodded, glancing at the youngest of the three mares, a dappled gray. “She’s from good healthy stock. The other females have taken to her just fine.”

      “You named her Trick?”

      “Long story, but she wasn’t easy to acquire. In fact, it was damn tricky. I had to do some fast talking.”

      They watched the horses settle down