Welcome to Sneak Peek Sunday!

I’m excited to be a part of Sara Walter Ellwood’s Sneak Peek Sunday where the rules are simple. Post a six paragraph excerpt. So, with no further ado, this is from Broken Vows, a marriage of convenience Western set in 1878 Fort Worth, Texas.

There was more to that handsome gun than she wanted there to be…

Meet our hero, Caleb Delaney, an ex-bounty hunter who’s hung up his guns. All he wants now is to earn enough stake money to buy some land and live in peace. Easier said than done. Cal’s got the kind of past that’s hard to leave behind.

***

Lacey Holloway, saloon waitress and fallen angel, pulled a rumpled bed sheet over her plump breasts and rolled onto her side. She propped up her blond head with one hand and sighed the sleepy, languid sigh of a sated woman as she watched Cal Delaney, naked and splendid, sit up next to her and reach for a cheroot from the battered night table.

He struck a match and lit his smoke with what Lacey considered very fine grace. This was no surprise. As far as Lacey was concerned, Cal did most everything with thoroughly practiced skill—everything—and now, as he climbed out of bed to retrieve his clothing from the floor, Lacey couldn’t suppress a grin as she admired the square line of his jaw and the tousled, sandy blond hair that brushed the nape of his neck. He needed a shave, but that didn’t take away from his appeal. In fact, Lacey thought it added to it. She was tickled that for the last two nights—ever since he’d blown into town—he had chosen her to keep his bed warm.

As he climbed into his denims, Lacey allowed her gaze to meander one last time over long legs and lean muscle. Why, if it weren’t for the scars—half a dozen or more—the man would be downright perfect. When he turned his back to cross the room to a dresser, her attention settled curiously on two in particular, a pair of nasty-looking slashes that gleamed angry pink against sun-bronzed skin. Though the wounds themselves had healed, those scars were still tender and new. She suspected they had one humdinger of a story to tell.

“What’s your hurry, honey?” she asked. “The sun’s barely up.”

“It’s nine o’clock, Lacey.”

“Ain’t that what I said?”

***

Next week . . . Cal Delaney meets his match.

For more sneak peeks, hop on over to Sara Walter Ellwood’s  SNEAK PEEK SUNDAY here!

Broken Vows is available now for Kindle at AMAZON.