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Down at the very bottom, you can enter to win a copy of Learnin’ the Ropes. I’m giving away one e-book copy and one paperback through Rafflecopter, so enter for your chance to win!
Thanks to Louise and Deanna for inviting me over to their blog!
Here is a little excerpt from the Book:
“I overheard a couple of guys talking outside the café. What they were saying wasn’t very nice about you and me…us,” Ty said, trying to keep from getting angry all over again. “I don’t want people to think I’m dating you because of who your dad was or how much money you have. The rumor seems to be that I charmed my way into your good graces just to get an easy ride. That isn’t true, Lexi. I don’t care if you’re penniless. I …”
“You what?” Lexi asked.
“I wouldn’t do that,” Ty said, still trying to keep from revealing his heart to Lexi. If he did, he was afraid there’d be no turning back and he just couldn’t do that to her. He didn’t want her to feel obligated to him in any way.
“I know you wouldn’t,” Lexi said, hugging him and resting her head against his chest. She could feel his heart pounding fast beneath her ear. “I never thought you would, Ty. Why are you wasting so much time and effort in worrying about what other people think? It isn’t any of your business, anyway. The only person you need to worry about is you.”
“I know that, but what other people think can sure make things hard or easy on a person and I don’t want things to be hard for you.”
Lexi took Ty’s face in her hands and breathed in his scent. “Look, buckaroo, if I’m hearing you correctly, you’ve spent the last month making us both miserable in some gallant, though completely idiotic effort to protect me from gossiping nitwits?”
“When you say it like that it sounds stupid,” Ty said, growing agitated. He needed out of this shed. He needed Lexi out of his arms. He needed… to kiss her so very badly.
“What’s stupid is you letting this go on for a month when we could have had this conversation the day you got upset. So, now that I have assured you the gossiping doesn’t bother me at all, are you done sulking?”
“I haven’t been sulking,” Ty argued, turning around and knocking a shovel and rake off the wall. He caught the handles before they smacked into Lexi. It was dangerous to be in the shed locked up in close proximity and that danger had little to do with garden tools and much more to do with his ability to maintain his control with Lexi. “And I can’t date you anymore.”
“Why not? Do you find me that disgusting? Unappealing? Annoying? What is it about me that’s driving you away?” Lexi yelled, slapping at Ty’s chest. She’d been down this road with men before. Eventually something turned them away from her, usually her heritage, although she wouldn’t expect that from Ty. “What, Ty? Just tell me!”
“Nothing, babe,” Ty said, gathering her into his arms and giving in to his desire to kiss her, just one more time. He devoured her lips, drank deeply from the honeyed sweetness that was all Lexi, and felt drunk from the experience. Finally breaking the contact, he put a hand to the back of her head and pulled her against his chest, holding her close. “There isn’t a single thing about you that I don’t find appealing. You drive me wild, Lexi Jo Ryan. Every laugh, every smile, every toss of your raven hair, every swing of that perfect posterior, every touch from your hand, and definitely every kiss. You make me forget anything else exists.”
“Ty,” Lexi breathed his name on a whisper, on a prayer. “Then what’s the problem?”
“Me. The problem is me,” Ty said, letting out long sigh. “There isn’t a single thing, not one, that I can ever give you that you don’t already have or can’t buy yourself. I can’t provide for you. I can’t offer you anything. Except me.”
“That is the only thing I’m ever going to want from you, Ty. Just you. I don’t care about that other stuff. All I want is you.”
“Lexi,” Ty said, lowering his head to hers again, nearing the point of surrender.
