Author Override is the place where authors take the reins and take you on a journey into their world. Some may allow you into their private writing dens. Others may take you along with them on research trips or interviews. Whatever the case may be, sit back, relax and enjoy the ride because here you’ll get an in-depth look into an author’s musings.
My very wonderful friend Beth Williamson (who also writes as Emma Lang) and I got to talking, and we realized both of our next releases feature a to-die-for hero by the name of Matthew. Both books are westerns, although hers is historic and mine is contemporary.
It was too good a chance to miss. So we’ve arranged a little “Ode to Matthew”—five lovely little tidbits proving these cowboys are very good at a lot of things. We hope you’ll enjoy taking a ride with our boys! (The full list of places to visit to read tidbits is listed at my blog.)
In this post we’re going for Cowboys Are Hard All Over…
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Matthew
Circle Eight, Book 1
By Emma Lang
A man learns to hold what is his…
It is a vast spread in the eastern wilds of the newly independent Republic of Texas, the ranch their parents fought for … and died for. To the eight Graham siblings, no matter how much hard work or hard love it takes, life is unthinkable without family…
In the wake of his parents’ murder, Matthew Graham must take the reins at the Circle Eight. He also needs to find a wife in just thirty days, or risk losing it all. Plain but practical, Hannah Foley seems the perfect bride for him . . . until after the wedding night.
Their marriage may make all the sense in the world, but neither one anticipates the jealousies that will result, the treacherous danger they’re walking into, or the wildfire of attraction that will sweep over them, changing their lives forever.
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Enjoy a snippet from MATTHEW:
She walked through the darkened house with a familiarity she didn’t have a week earlier. It was beginning to feel like home to her. She navigated her way into the kitchen and found a bucket.
“What are you doing?” Matthew’s quiet question didn’t startle her this time.
“Keeping a promise.”
He sat at the table and watched her. Perhaps it was a dream because she wanted him there. The house was so quiet, every move she made seemed to echo. She filled the bucket with warm water, then submerged the nightdress, soaped it up, then rinsed it thoroughly. As she squeezed out the water, Matt made a strange noise.
Hannah peered at him through the darkened room and realized he was shirtless. Her stomach flipped and her body throbbed once, hard and fast. He watched her and groaned over what he saw. What did that mean?
She set the nightdress aside and cleaned the small area on the sheets that had been soiled. The soap was slippery in her hands as she worked. She also kept glancing at her husband out of the corner of her eye. Each movement he made drove her to wonder exactly what he was doing.
After rinsing off the sheet, she picked up the bucket and both clean items. “I’ll be right back. I need to hang these on the line so they’ll be dry by morning.”
He simply nodded, a hazy figure in the gloom. She hurried outside and dumped the bucket, then hung up the nightdress and sheet on the line with shaking hands. The moon was bright, illuminating everything for her.
Something was going to happen; she just didn’t know what it was. Hannah stepped back inside and waited for her eyes to adjust. Matt sat where she’d left him in the chair. Her heart thumped as she approached him, anticipation making her mouth dry and her body tingle.
He wore only a pair of drawers, his hand down the front of them, moving up and down. She stared, fascinated by what she saw.
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Rocky Mountain Desire
Six Pack Ranch, Book 3
By Vivian Arend
Nothing comes easy. You’ve gotta work for it.
Matt Coleman always figured at this point in his life, he’d be settled down with a family. Since his ex split for the big city, though, no way will he give anyone else the chance to drop-kick his heart. Physical pleasure? Hell, yeah, he’ll take—and give—with gusto, but nothing more.
Hope Meridan is working long hours to hold on to her new quilt shop, going it alone since her sister/business partner ran off. Sex? Right, like she’s got the time. Not that she doesn’t have the occasional dirty fantasy about Matt. Fat chance he’d dream of knocking boots with her—the younger sister of the woman who dumped him. Nope, she’ll just have to settle for the F-word.
Friends would be far easier if there wasn’t something combustible going on between them. And when casual interest starts to grow into something more, their tenuous bond strengthens in the heat of desire. But it may not survive the hurricane-force arrival of the last person either of them ever wanted to see again…
Warning: Small-town rivals, men in pursuit and family meddling—in good and bad ways. Look for a cowboy who knows how to rope, ride and rein in a hell of a lot more than eight seconds of sheer bliss.
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Enjoy a snippet from ROCKY MOUNTAIN DESIRE:
Matt closed his eyes for a second, his throat moving as he swallowed hard. Where their bodies touched, his erection had expanded in girth, the hardness very clear as he pressed into her belly, as if refusing to hide. “You’re killing me.”
“Yup, and doing myself in as well.”
“Why aren’t we going to my trailer and getting ourselves over this crazy lust between us?”
“Because…” She had no idea anymore why.
He grabbed her hips and lifted her onto the countertop of the island, batted her legs apart and stepped between her thighs. Instant full-torso contact dragged a gasp from her as he returned to kissing her, his hands delicately cupping her cheeks as he worked his way across her lips methodically, thoroughly.
Hope widened her legs, clutched his shoulders and held on tight. Wrapping her legs around his hips increased the pressure on all the sensitive spots that were aching—again—for him to do more than simply kiss her.
He pulled away from her mouth and dropped a series of kisses along her jaw, moving up to play with the dangling lobe of her ear. His chin whiskers scratched, and she turned her head, letting him tease her further, scraping his teeth along her neck.
She had the top buttons of his shirt undone before she realized what she was doing.
He bit lightly and rocked his hips, and she shuddered. “Oh yeah.”
His lips were warm against her skin, his voice deep and low as he whispered. “I’m thinking we need—”
The door swung open behind them, the glow from the living room hitting them like a spotlight.
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