Tangled in Texas {+ Giveaway}

It’s a pleasure today to share an excerpt from author Kari Lynn Dell’s soon-to-be-released TANGLED IN TEXAS, the second installment in her Texas Rodeo series.

As part of the celebration, Sourcebooks Casablanca is sponsoring a giveaway. You can win a copy of RECKLESS IN TEXAS, the first book in the Texas Rodeo series. Please see the end of the post for more giveaway details.

◊Title: Tangled in Texas

◊Series: Texas Rodeo, #2

◊Author: Kari Lynn Dell

◊Pub Date: February 7, 2017

◊ISBN: 9781492631972

It took 32 seconds to end his career.

But it only took 1 to change his life.

          Thirty-two seconds. That’s how long it took for Delon Sanchez’s life to end. One minute he was the best bronc rider in the Panhandle and the next he was nothing. Knee shattered, future in question, all he can do is pull together the pieces…and wonder what cruel trick of fate has thrown him into the path of his ex, the oh-so-perfect Tori Patterson.

          Tori’s come home after her husband’s death, intent on escaping the public eye. It’s just her luck that Delon limps into her physical therapy office, desperate for help. All hard-packed muscle and dark-eyed temptation, he’s never been anything but a bad idea. And yet, seeing him again, Tori can’t remember what made her choose foolish pride over love…or why, with this second, final chance to right old wrongs, the smartest choice would be to run from this gorgeous rodeo boy as fast as her boots can take her.

TANGLED IN TEXAS can be purchased at the following sites:

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She shouldn’t have gone to the party. She’d dithered until almost eleven o’clock that New Year’s Eve. Stupid, to go by herself. She’d never even been a party person, for the same reason that she didn’t date much. She’d watched too many of her prep-school classmates be victimized by an asshole looking for his fifteen minutes of Internet fame. Only on rare occasions, with boys who were equally protective of their privacy for similar reasons, had she allowed herself to cut loose a little, or let one of those dates extend past her front door.

But this party was right there in her apartment complex. She could hear the music and the shouts, see cowboys and girls wandering in and out. Maybe tonight, when they were laughing, relaxed, a little drunk, they’d give her a chance.

Of course she did it all wrong. Or right, to those who expected her to show up looking like a spoiled, clueless princess. Thousand-dollar hand-stitched boots. Chunky turquoise jewelry. A floaty little silk dress with a top that tied at the neck and middle, but left her back naked down to her sterling silver concho belt.

She’d realized her mistake as soon as she saw the other ropers lounging against a wall. Naturally it would be Shawnee, Violet, and Melanie—the rock solid core of the rodeo team. Violet was the daughter of Jacobs Livestock, even worked the arena as a pickup rider. Melanie was sixth-generation Panhandle ranch stock, and Shawnee’s dad had been a world champion team roper. They wore fancier versions of their usual jeans with colorful blouses. Their jewelry and makeup were as party perfect as Tori’s, though probably not as expensive, and Shawnee had used some kind of product to transform her wild mop of brown hair into less unruly curls. But unlike Tori, they were still Amazons of the arena, still looked like they could kick ass.

And they despised her.

Tori had hesitated, looked around for anyone else to talk to, but these were mostly pro circuit cowboys. Older. Harder. A little scary when they were at this advanced stage of inebriation. She worked her way, keeping her exposed back to the wall, to the corner where the three amigos stood sipping beer.

“Uh, hi.” Tori tried a smile. “Crowded in here.”

Shawnee looked her up and down, then smirked. “Hot damn, if it ain’t Cowgirl Barbie. You got Cowboy Ken waitin’ outside in the pink convertible, or are you lookin’ to git yerself a man who’s actually got something in his shorts?”

Everyone in the immediate area burst out laughing. Tori’s face went beet red. She stammered something about finding a beer and dove into the crowd to escape. Bad move. The apartment was so packed she could barely squeeze between bodies. More than one hand strayed across private parts of her anatomy. A sob of panic bubbled in her throat as the mass of human flesh pinned her in place. She squirmed, trying in vain to make forward progress.

A beefy arm snaked around her hips and a pelvis ground against her butt. The man’s breath was hot against her bare shoulder. “You keep rubbing that fine ass of yours up against me, darlin’, I’ll scratch that itch between your legs.”

She drove her elbow into his gut, exactly as her father’s bodyguard had taught her. He grunted and fell backward, setting off a domino effect. Tori dove through the space he’d vacated, tripped over a tangle of feet, and tumbled face-first onto the love seat. The cowboy sitting there threw up his hands to catch her around the rib cage. She grabbed his shoulders and found herself nose to nose with rodeo’s answer to Zorro, minus the mask. Black shirt. Black hat. Black hair. Chiseled jaw and cheekbones. And those eyes. Were they truly black, too, or was that just the shadow from his hat brim?

He grinned and her heart actually skipped a beat. “Just droppin’ in, or were you plannin’ to stay a while?”

“Sorry. I’ll just…” She tried to push herself upright, but the wave of stumbling bodies had bounced off the opposite wall and sloshed back their direction.

“Hold on.” The man in black lifted her off her feet, turned her sideways, and plopped her down on one of his muscular thighs, leaving his hands on her waist. “Your knee was fixin’ to do permanent damage.”

Her face went a few degrees hotter as she realized her skirt had flared out to drape over his leg, leaving her bare butt in direct contact with the starched denim of his jeans. Teach her to wear a thong. “I, uh…sorry. Again.”

“No harm, no foul.” He craned his neck to examine her back. “You’re coming undone.”

Sure enough, she was on the verge of flashing the entire room. She reached up and behind, shoving her boobs under his nose, but her fingers fumbled the satin strings tangled in her waist-length hair.

“Here. Let me.” He scooped her hair aside and reached around her, his shirt pulling snug across the powerful bulge of muscle in his shoulders and arms. His fingers brushed her bare spine as he moved to the lower tie and sensation exploded at every point of contact, a thousand individual fires flaring to life.

“There.” He gave the strings a firm tug. “I double-tied the bows, just to be safe.”

“Thanks, um…”

“Delon.” One arm tightened around her as he stuck the other out to fend off a drunk who toppled their direction. “And you are?”

“Tori.” She hesitated, then added, “Patterson.”

“Nice to meet you,” Delon said, without a blink.

Hallelujah. One person in the room who didn’t give a damn about her family. He certainly didn’t have to tell her his last name. In early December, Delon Sanchez had competed at his first National Finals Rodeo, leaving with a pocketful of cash and predictions that he’d be the next Panhandle boy to bring home a world championship. As an alumni of the rodeo team—he’d graduated with a two-year associate degree in business the spring before Tori arrived—he had been the hottest topic of conversation at school for weeks.

Especially amongst the rodeo groupies who lingered, like Tori, around the edges of the real cowboy crowd. These girls hunted cowboys the way earlier generations of Patterson men had once stalked lions and water buffalo on the African plains, before it became a hot-button issue. A world champion was the ultimate prize, but nabbing a top fifteen contender earned serious points. A man who looked like Delon must’ve always been a target, but now, as a local boy done good, he’d become the equivalent of bagging a snow leopard.

And, from what Tori had overheard, almost as elusive.

But he didn’t look skittish as he cocked his head, studying her. “We definitely haven’t met.”

“Um, no. And I should get off,” she said, then blushed harder. “Of you, I mean. I was just, um, leaving.”

“Don’t go on my account.” Delon blessed her with another of those heart-tripping smiles, then shifted his gaze to the impenetrable wall of humanity between them and the door. “You’re not getting outta here right now, anyway.”

Not with her clothes and her dignity intact. As if to prove the point, a whoop went up and a shirt came flying out of the middle of the throng, followed by a bra, then a woman was hoisted above the crowd, her boobs bouncing as she pumped her arms to the music. The walls of the room vibrated with cheers of approval. Tori dropped her gaze, unaccountably embarrassed. God, she was such a sheltered twit.

“The boys are getting out of hand.” Delon squeezed her waist, his hand warm through the thin silk of her dress, and gave her a look that set off another explosion, deeper, more centrally located. “You’d better stick with me.”

Author Kari Lynn Dell

Kari Lynn Dell is a ranch-raised Montana cowgirl who attended her first rodeo at two weeks old and has existed in a state of horse-induced poverty ever since. She lives on the Blackfeet Reservation in her parents' bunkhouse along with her husband, her son, and Max the Cowdog, with a tipi on her lawn, Glacier National Park on her doorstep and Canada within spitting distance.

Her debut novel, The Long Ride Home, was published in 2015. She also writes a ranch and rodeo humor column for several regional newspapers and a national agricultural publication.

For more on Kari and her writing, visit her website and blog, as well as connect with her on Facebook and Twitter.

Thanks to the wonderful folks at Sourcebooks Casablanca I have one copy of RECKLESS IN TEXAS by Kari Lynn Dell, the first book in the Texas Rodeo series, to give away. The giveaway is open to residents of the U.S. only (sorry international visitors) and will end at 12 a.m. (EST) on Wednesday, Dec. 28.

To enter the giveaway, just click on the Rafflecopter widget below and follow the instructions. The widget may take a few seconds to load so please be patient. A winner will be selected by the Rafflecopter widget and I’ll send an email with the subject line “Thoughts in Progress Giveaway.” The winner will have 72 hours to reply to the email or another winner will be selected. PLEASE be sure to check your spam folder from time to time after the giveaway ends to make sure the notification email doesn’t end up there. If you win and you’ve already won the book somewhere else or you just decided for whatever reason you don’t want to win (which is fine), once again PLEASE let me know.

Thanks for stopping by today. Hope the excerpt enticed you to check out the series and enter the giveaway (a great way to start the series). Do you enjoy stories about cowboys, cowgirls, and rodeos? Have you attended a rodeo before? If so, did you enjoy it and what was the most fun?

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