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T-R-O-U-B-L-E

by Sable Hunter




Story
Excerpt (PG)




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Kyler
Landon smoothed the supple leather with a large, roughened hand. The saddle was
almost completed. This particular saddle would go to the Houston Livestock
Rodeo and be presented to the current World Champion cowboy. It was solitary
work, but work he enjoyed.  Tooling
patterns on the leather was his favorite thing, this one had a vine pattern,
and the brand of the cowboy's ranch figured prominently in the design. Letting
his mind wander, he found himself caressing the leather, remembering the last
time he touched the velvety skin of a woman.  Stop! He tried to turn his mind away from sex. He tortured
himself night after night with images of a soft, sweet woman who would welcome
him between her thighs. He wanted a woman who would let him love her as much
and as often as he wanted. A woman that would enjoy his loving as much as he
enjoyed loving her.




It
had been a long time, too damn long. Dallying with the local girls could get
you into a whole passel of trouble—especially a man in his position.




The
sound of a vehicle stopping at his front gate pulled him from his sensual
reverie. He imagined it was the mysterious little black car from down the road,
but he knew better. This was a bigger engine. Sometimes, when he was working
out in the front yard, that car would go by and slow down to a crawl. The
windows were tinted completely black, a great deal darker than was legal, he
knew. So, he was at a disadvantage. He couldn't see who was behind the wheel,
but whoever it was could sure the hell see him. And they had looked, long and
hard. He could actually, physically, feel their gaze on his skin.




Hell,
he had even fantasized about who was driving that sexy little car. Once, when
he had been working on the front fence without a shirt, the driver had actually
run off the road. That fact had made him smile. Whoever it was, he was getting
to them. As his luck ran, however, the driver was probably a woman in her
seventies or a man in his forties. But one could dream. He sat there too long,
dreaming. He heard the vehicle leave. Rising from his chair, he made his way
out of the Saddlery shop and across the yard to the main house. A package sat
by the front door. "Must have been UPS," he thought. Good! He had been waiting
on some custom silver belt buckles for a special order. Taking the six front
steps in two leaps, he grabbed the package from the floor, opened the door, and
let himself in.




Laying
the cardboard box on the coffee table, he grabbed a beer and headed back to the
yard. The belt buckles would have to wait. One of these days, a cold front
would head this way and he would want to put a fire in the fireplace, so wood
needed to be split. He opened his mouth to call the dogs, but then remembered
he had taken them to the vet for their annual check-up and shots.




Today,
it would just be him. Alone again. Going to the side of the house, he retrieved
his axe. Chopping wood would go a long way to working off some of his sexual
frustration. Maybe. Hell, it was worth a try. The wood was piled out front near
the gate, a mix of red oak and hickory, as good for barbeque as it was for
heat. He swigged the beer, and then set the bottle up on top of a fence post.
Ky had employees who could have done this work for him, but he like to keep in
shape and there was nothing better than real physical labor to put on layers of
muscle—it beat the crap out of a gym, any day.




It didn't
take long for him to find his rhythm and even a shorter time for him to get hot
and decide to shed his shirt. As he worked, he reviewed his plans for the next
few days. Tomorrow was his day to put time in at his animal shelter, Saturday
was Angel Pantry day and not a woman in sight for the best date night of the
week. Shit!




* * *
*




Cooper
drove slowly by the Landon place. Ah, sweet Lord! There he was. And the fact
she had been a good girl was paying off in spades. The powers-that-be had seen
fit to reward her by letting the sun beat down hot enough to cause Gorgeous to
shed his shirt. She slowed to a crawl.




Sometimes,
he would stop working and watch her drive by. Today, he appeared too busy to
notice. A movement at the side of the woodpile caught her eye. What in the
world? Cooper was alarmed to see a huge snake crawling out of the stacked logs.
The vibrations of the axe on the wood had obviously disturbed it. This couldn't
be good.




Cooper
pulled over and stopped. Trying to be as quite as possible, she opened the car
door but did not shut it. The snake was right behind her neighbor and she was
afraid to call out, for fear, any sudden movement on his part would cause the
snake to strike. The rhythmic movement of the man and the axe had the snake,
seemingly, hypnotized. She walked as silently as she could, until she was at
the fence, right behind the snake. He was coiled and ready to strike. Cooper
knew snakes, having grown up on in the deserts of southwest Texas. She quickly
recognized that either the rattler had somehow lost his rattles in an accident,
or someone had intentionally caught it and removed them for a hat decoration or
whatever.




It
was now or never. Putting aside her normal reservations about being so close to
a man, she decided his safety was more important than her own. Climbing slowly
up on the fence, she spoke softly. "Don't move, Mr. Landon. Don't move a
muscle." The snake was huge! Coiled up, it was hard to judge, but it could
easily top five feet.




The
beautifully muscled man slowed his movements, until he was still. "Is this a
hold-up?" He asked the question softly, with a touch of humor in his voice.




"No,
but there is a major-sized rattlesnake right behind you, and it's getting ready
to strike."




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The next stop on the tour is Practical Frugality













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Author Contacts




Website: http://sablehunter.com/

Twitter Handle: @huntersable

Email: [email protected]

Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/#!/profile.ph...







Buy Links




All Romance eBooks:

http://www.allromanceebooks.com/produ...





Amazon (Kindle Edition):

http://www.amazon.com/T-R-O-U-B-L-E-T...





Barnes & Noble:

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/troub...



BookStrand.com:

http://www.bookstrand.com/t-r-o-u-b-l-e




Secret Cravings Publishing:

http://store.secretcravingspublishing.com/index.php?main_page=book_info&cPath=28&products_id=98