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A cowboy's marriage of convenience may lead to a deadly honeymoon in the latest from New York Times bestselling author Elle James
With his ranch in financial trouble, cowboy Daniel Colton makes the perfect proposal to Megan Talbot—a marriage of convenience to save his business and ensure she receives her inheritance. But spending night after night with the strawberry blonde beauty tests all boundaries of Daniel's self-control. And when a killer targets his new bride, vying for her estate, it sets off all of his protective instincts. Daniel refuses to trade his honeymoon for a funeral. Now it's a race against the clock to track down the culprit and protect the wife who's starting to be so much more to him than just a business partner.
- Sales Rank: #1260390 in Books
- Published on: 2015-09-01
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: 6.55" h x .59" w x 4.22" l, .24 pounds
- Binding: Mass Market Paperback
- 304 pages
About the Author
Raised an Air Force brat, Elle James got her work ethic from her dad, creativity from mom and inspiration from her sister. As a member of the reserves, she's traveled, managed a career, and raised three children. She and her husband even raised ostriches and emus. Ask her what it's like to go toe-to-toe with a 350-pound bird! Former manager of computer programmers, Elle is happy to write full time in NW Arkansas.
Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Daniel Colton swept the brush over Rider's black coat, comforted by the scent of animal hide, manure and fresh-cut Bermuda. With every swish of the horse's full black tail, hay dust sparkled in the air, reflecting the afternoon sunlight streaming through the open door of the Lucky C breeding barn.
This was home and there was nowhere else Daniel would rather be.
"Are you about done brushing Rider? Halo's practically champing at the bit to get outside for her afternoon run."
Daniel lifted his head and stared over the black quarter horse stud's back at the woman on the other side. She was brushing the beautiful palomino mare, one of Daniel's many successes in his quarter-horse-breeding program at the Lucky C Ranch.
His chest tightened and his breath caught. It wasn't the horse he couldn't take his gaze off. It was the halo effect the sun gave Megan Talbot's strawberry blond hair. The palomino's registered name was Angel's Golden Halo, but the woman deserved the moniker more than the animal. For the first time in the four months since Megan had come to work for him, she'd worn her hair loose. Normally those long, curly locks were twisted into a braid, pulled back from a face sprinkled lightly with freckles. Some would call them flaws in her pale complexion, but Daniel found each freckle adorable and hard to resist.
A light breeze blew through the door, lifting Megan's hair, making it dance in the sunshine. The horse shifted nervously and Megan patted her backside. "Shh. We'll leave soon." She turned and smiled at Daniel with her bright green eyes. "Ready to saddle up? I don't know if Halo can wait any longer. She's more hyper than usual."
Daniel jerked his attention back to his horse, reminding himself that he was the boss, Megan worked for him and he had no business staring at her hair or any other part of her perfectly shaped face or lithe, athletic body.
"Let's saddle these two." He was ready to get out of the barn and gallop across the pastures of his father's ranch. Working around the animals, training, feeding and riding, he was more at home than at the big house with the rest of the Coltons.
Big J Colton was the patriarch of the Oklahoma Coltons and the owner of the Lucky C Ranch. As his bastard child, Daniel had grown up with his half brothers and half sister, accepted by everyone except his stepmother, Abra Colton. Because of her antagonism toward him and the fact that Big J had taken in a child who wasn't hers, Daniel had never felt he quite fit in with the others.
Megan was first to the tack room. When she emerged, she carried a blanket. "Is Greta back from Oklahoma City?" she asked.
"Not that I've heard. Why do you ask?"
With a shrug, Megan threw the blanket over the mare's back and followed Colton into the tack room. "I thought I saw her earlier. I might have been seeing things. With a wedding to plan, I doubt she has time to go back and forth between Tulsa and Oklahoma City often."
Daniel snorted. He grabbed his saddle and a blanket and squeezed by Megan in the confines of the barn. The scent of strawberries wafted in his direction from Megan's hair hanging down around her shoulders. Why did she have to be so darned beautiful? If she wasn't also so efficient and helpful, he might reconsider her employment at the ranch. She was a distraction and growing more distracting every day. "Don't know what takes so long in planning a wedding. All you need is a bride, a groom, a preacher and a ring."
Megan laughed as she lifted her own saddle. "I'm with you. If you know you love someone, why all the fuss, anyway? Married is married whether you have a big wedding or stand in front of a justice of the peace, say I do, sign the papers and call it done."
Daniel chuckled. "And I thought all women were romantics."
Megan's pretty coral lips twisted. "I think it's just me. My parents tried to convince me to earn an M-R-S degree, but I was too busy studying genetics and cell biology to be interested in the boys on the UCLA campus."
"M-R-S?"
Her brows rose. "You know. Mrs. someone." She shook her head. "They wanted me to marry well, be a social butterfly on the arm of my husband and stop playing in yucky stuff like parasites, tissues, and horse and cattle semen." Megan tossed her saddle up onto the mare's back with little effort.
Strong and beautiful, and she knew what she wanted out of life. In Daniel's mind, that was a killer combination. Why waste brains and talent by making her some man's arm candy?
He threw the blanket on Rider's back, followed by the saddle. "Didn't you grow up on a ranch? You know your way around horses like you've been doing this all your life."
Megan reached beneath the horse to grab Halo's girth, threaded the strap through the ring and tightened it. "My parents own a nice spread in California," she answered, pulling hard. "But they didn't let me work with the animals. I was barely allowed to ride. They were afraid those big ol' horses would hurt little ol' me." She laughed, the sound brightening Daniel's day.
Daniel frowned at how he'd grown used to the sound and looked forward to it. As he cinched Rider's girth and looped the leather strap, he concentrated on sticking to facts, not emotions. "You're an excellent rider."
"I didn't get that way because of my parents, but more in spite of them. What they didn't know was that I'd go to my room, saying I wanted to read for a while. Once there, I'd slip out the window, climb down a tree and race off to the pasture. Because I didn't want to get caught, I rode bareback and without a bridle."
An image of a gangly young woman with long strawberry blond hair riding bareback across the hills of California flashed in Daniel's mind. "No bridle? How did you get the horses to go the way you wanted?"
Megan lowered the stirrup and patted Halo's neck. "They could feel the pressure of my legs and responded accordingly. I also bribed them with apples and sugar cubes."
"I'm impressed." Daniel adjusted his stirrup and slipped the bridle over Rider's head. "Your parents didn't know what they were missing. You're very good with the horses."
"They didn't need the help with their horse-breeding program. We had a staff that managed the animals on the ranch." Megan sighed. "I'd love dearly to bring my horses out here someday."
"Why don't you?"
"My parents haven't forgiven me for moving to Oklahoma. Every time I speak with them on the phone, they ask me when I'm moving back. Remember last month, when I went home because my father was sick?"
Daniel nodded. She'd been gone an entire week, and he'd missed her more than he cared to admit. "You could have brought your horses back with you then. We have room here on the Lucky C for them."
Megan gave an unladylike snort. "Don't you think I would have if I could have?" She shook her head. "My father is using them as leverage, threatening to sell them if I don't move back to California."
Daniel shot a glance her way. "And are you?"
Megan blinked. "Am I what?"
"Moving back to California?"
She laughed. "Oh, heavens, no. I love it out here. I love my parents, but they stifle me. I've been calling my father's bluff about selling the horses. I hope he has a change of heart and lets me have them. Besides, I have no desire to live their lifestyle. It's not me."
Grabbing his stallion's reins, Daniel asked, "And what lifestyle is that?"
Megan's mouth twisted. "Servants to do everything for you, smiling at people you don't know at social events you don't really care about. Wearing skirts, heels and makeup all the time. Never getting your hands dirty or breaking a nail."
Daniel studied her fresh, makeup-free, freckled face. With her light red eyebrows and blond-tipped eyelashes, she was beautiful just the way she was. He wouldn't change a thing.
Tearing his gaze away from her, he led Rider out of the barn. He walked away from the woman who was far too often in his thoughts both at work and at night when he lay in bed, trying to sleep through a growing hunger that had nothing to do with food.
Behind him, he heard the sound of hooves pawing the ground and then thumping against the hard-packed dirt.
"Whoa, Halo," Megan said, her voice tight.
Daniel glanced over his shoulder.
Halo, normally calm and gentle, reared, her front hooves pawing at the air.
Daniel took a step back into the barn, his hand still holding Rider's reins.
Megan held on to Halo's bridle, talking softly, soothingly. When the horse came back down on all four hooves, Megan chuckled shakily. "You really are raring to go, aren't you?"
"Need a hand?" Daniel asked.
Her mouth firming, Megan frowned. "I don't need your help. I'm perfectly capable of handling Halo."
A smile tugging his lips, Daniel led Rider out of the barn. "Touchy, are we?"
"I'm not fragile like my father and mother seem to think. Haven't I proven that?" she demanded.
"Absolutely," he said, unable to fight the grin spreading across his face. "If you didn't look so good in your jeans, I'd mistake you for one of the guys."
Megan's frown deepened for a moment, then cleared. Her lips quirked upward along with her brows. "You like the way I look in jeans?"
Daniel was saved from responding by Halo rearing again, jerking Megan up off her feet for a second.
"We'd better get going before Halo takes off without you." Daniel jammed his boot in the stirrup and mounted Rider. He had to remind himself Megan was his employee. He couldn't flirt with the staff. It wasn't right. He leaned down and opened the gate to the pasture, rode through and waited for Megan.
She stuck her boot in the stirrup, but before she could sling her leg over the top of the saddle, Halo spun.
Megan held on, managing to get her leg over the top. "I don't know what's got her riled, but she's not acting right."
"You want to take another horse?"
"No," Megan grunted, fighting to control the horse and aim her toward the open gate. "She needs to get out and run."
Daniel waited for Megan and Halo to pass through before he closed the gate.
Megan released one hand from the reins to pull her hair behind her and tuck it into the back of her shirt. "I should have braided this—"
Before she finished her sentence, Halo reared, tossed her head and yanked the reins from Megan's hands. Before Megan could reach out to retrieve them, Halo leaped forward and bolted across the pasture.
Daniel dug his heels into Rider's flanks and raced after her, his pulse pounding as fast as the horse's hooves. At the speed Halo was going, all it would take was a quick change of direction or halt and Megan would be thrown.
Rider's hooves thundered across the ground. Daniel leaned forward to decrease wind resistance, slapping the reins behind him against the horse's hindquarters, urging him faster.
The stallion's eagerness to be first in the race would have made him move faster even without Daniel's bidding.
Halo had a good head start, but Rider slowly closed the gap.
Megan held on, bending over the horse's neck in an attempt to grab her bridle, without success.
As Daniel rode up beside her, pressing Rider against Halo's side, he yelled, "Grab on!" Reaching out, he looped his arm around Megan's waist.
She grabbed around his neck and held on as he lifted her out of the saddle and slammed her hard against his chest.
His legs clamping tight around the horse, Daniel adjusted his balance for Megan's weight and pulled on the reins. "Whoa, Rider."
The horse strained against the command, determined to catch up and overtake Halo.
His grip loosening around Megan's waist, Daniel's breath caught and held. If he didn't get Rider under control soon, he'd drop her and she could be crushed beneath the horse's powerful hooves.
Megan clung to Daniel.
Rider had been just as spooked by Halo's behavior as she had been. In his mad dash to catch up to the other horse, he was ignoring Daniel's one-handed attempt to bring him under control.
She was deadweight on Daniel. If she could get her leg around to the back… Swinging her leg behind her, she couldn't quite reach the back without Daniel losing his grip on her. The front was closer and had a better angle.
"Whoa!" Daniel yelled at the crazed horse.
Megan made the decision to go for the front. She looped her leg over the saddle horn and straddled Daniel's lap, facing him.
Daniel immediately released her and reached around her to take the reins in both hands.
Trying to make herself as small as possible, Megan pressed her face into his chest so that he could see over her. Daniel's thighs tensed beneath her as he dug his heels into the stirrups and pulled back hard on the reins. Rider slowed, whinnying his protest, as he settled into an agitated trot.
Daniel let off on the reins just a little.
Rider took that as an invitation to leap forward. He was instantly brought back by a sharp tug on the reins.
The horse reared.
Daniel leaned forward, his chest pressing into Megan's, his breath stirring the loose hair at her temples.
Her pulse hammered in her veins, but she kept her cool and held on until Rider stamped to a complete stop, pawing at the dirt.
When she was certain Daniel had the horse settled, she lifted her head, her face inches from Daniel's. Adrenaline spiking through her system, her breaths coming in ragged gasps, she was hyperaware of every point of contact between her body and his, from her legs resting on his muscular thighs to her chest pressed against the hardened planes of his. She could barely breathe.
His arms still around her, holding on to the reins, Daniel breathed out a long sigh. "You had me scared."
Megan let go of a nervous laugh. "You? I could do nothing to stop her. That was stupid of me to let go of the reins." The wind lifted her hair and blew it across her face. Before she could shove it behind her ear, Daniel reached out and did it for her.
"You couldn't have known Halo was going to take off like she did." Daniel's fingers curled the hair behind her ear, and he dragged the backs of his knuckles across her face, tracing a line from her ear to her jaw. "Watching her fly off like that with you on her back the reins dangling."
Mesmerized by his gentle touch, Megan couldn't move away, nor did she want to. Daniel had never made a pass at her, nor had he indicated any attraction toward her in the four months she'd worked for him. Oh, but she'd been attracted to him from the day they met, when she'd interviewed for the job of his assistant.
Now, with her heart racing for an entirely different reason, her breath lodged in her throat and held as she waited for him to make the next move.
Daniel's gaze shifted to her mouth. He cupped her cheek, and his thumb brushed across her lips. "You don't need makeup."
"My mother would disagree. She hates my freckles," Megan whispered, her breath mingling with his.
"I think they are one of your best features." He leaned forward and touched her freckled nose with his lips.
Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
Well-written, intriguing, and an excellent addition to the series!
By Deanna Lynn
*ARC provided by Publisher in exchange for a fair and honest review *
First Impression: Well-written, with two main characters I liked, related to, and wanted to know more about and a suspense plot that intrigued from the start.
It's not always easy to pull off a marriage of convenience story, especially one that started out with a somewhat forbidden love between a boss and employee, even if it was only in the boss's head. But without question, Elle James did that and more in Protecting the Colton Bride, book four in the Harlequin Romantic Suspense series, The Coltons of Oklahoma.
As a born and raised native of Oklahoma and a frequent traveler to Tulsa and Oklahoma City, I'm always kind of leery when people write about my hometown area, and then I jump for joy when they get it right. This book made me miss all the things I love about Oklahoma, and made me long to go back there and see the sprawling ranches and beautiful horses again. I loved all the descriptions and the way the characters saw their surroundings made me love them even more.
In this story, Megan Talbot has taken a job working for Daniel Colton, the illegitimate son of Big J Colton, but thanks to a threat from her father to sell her own horses to a glue factory if she doesn't come back to California and do as he wants, Megan must quit working for Daniel. Until Daniel comes up with the solution for them to marry in Vegas, solving both her problem and his. Because Daniel is trying to move his beloved Lucky C ranch into the horse breeding arena and he can't quite do that if he doesn't get the deal to mate his mares with a prized stud that will take the family ranch operation to the next level. Marriage to Megan could help as she comes from a family of horse-breeders, well-known horse-breeders at that.
I loved and enjoyed this book a lot. I obviously loved the setting because Oklahoma girl here, but I really loved the characters and the suspense in the book, too. All of it was well done and culminated in a really great read for me.
If you love marriage of convenience stories between a boss and employee with danger hovering around the heroine and the hero doing whatever it takes to protect her, Protecting the Colton Bride by Elle James is a fantastic category romance that will make you long to visit Oklahoma and find your own Colton cowboy. Or maybe that's just me? Either way, I recommend reading this book. It's a great series romance, and an excellent addition to the Coltons of Oklahoma series.
4 of 4 people found the following review helpful.
No cliffhanger, can be read as a standalone
By ButtonsMom2003
This book is #4 in the Colton’s of Oklahoma series but it can be read as a standalone. I haven’t read any of the other books in this mini-series and I wasn’t lost at all reading this story.
Daniel is the illegitimate son of Big J Colton and he has been living on the Lucky C Ranch since he was 10, after his mother died. His father and half-brothers have all accepted him as one of the family but his father’s wife has not. He has made his own way on the ranch by setting up a top-notch horse breeding program.
Megan comes from a life of privilege but that’s not the life she wants to live. She moved away from her family in California so that she could be free to do what she wants to do. She began working for Daniel a few months ago, helping him with the breeding program.
Megan’s father has threatened to sell off her precious horses if she doesn’t come home. She would like to buy them but she doesn’t have the money. She will inherit a trust fund from her grandmother but not until she is 30 or married; whichever comes first.
Daniel needs to make a deal with another horse breeder so he can improve his breeding stock. The other breeder is reluctant to sell to him because of his heritage.
Daniel and Megan strike a bargain to get married so that she can gain access to her trust fund and so that she can help boost his standing with the breeder he wants to buy from.
Everything goes according to plan except that – yes, you guessed it – sparks fly between the two of them but neither will admit it to the other. An added complication is that someone seems to be trying to kill Megan.
This story has sexy time (not graphic; it is a Harlequin), suspense and an engaging story. This was a quick read for me and a good way to pass a few hours without having to think too hard about complicated plot lines. Megan and Daniel are enjoyable characters to read about.
I received an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful.
Hunks, heroes and a marriage of convenience!
By Donna Repsher
I received an ARC of this novel in exchange for an honest review and here it is.
Elle James has written yet another solid romantic suspense novel. I've always enjoyed marriage of convenience stories, and this is one of the better ones.
Megan Talbot is working as Daniel Colton's assistant in his fledgling horse breeding operation in Oklahoma. Daniel is the half-Cherokee, bastard son of the owner of Lucky 7 Ranch. Megan Talbot is the only child of a very wealthy, very controlling California ranching family. She left her controlling family behind and on the spur of the moment, took a job at the Lucky 7 as Daniel's assistant, a job she loves. All of that changes after her father threatens to sell the beloved horses she left behind to a glue factory. Daniel is also under the gun--trying to connect with a rich horse breeder in order to buy horse semen to improve his breeding stock. When Megan quits and decides to return to California to save her horses, Daniel comes up with a plan. If they enter into a marriage of convenience, her family name will help him in his negotiations with the wealthy breeder. Megan will benefit too, because according to a stipulation in her grandmother's will, she'll inherit a large sum of money if and when she marries, and that inheritance will help her purchase her beloved horses. But suddenly, there are several attempts on Megan's life, and thus, a really good romantic suspense novel is born.
While I guessed the ending of this whodunit long before it was revealed, it was still an entertaining and engaging read, and one I am happy to recommend.
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