Title: Hustlin' Texas
Author: KC Klein
Genre: Suspense, Paranormal Romance
Length: 238 pages
Release Date: December 5, 2013
Published by: eKensington
Only one person in Oak Groves is happy to see bad girl Nikki Logan back in town…
Oak Groves’ most beloved bachelor, Jett Avery, lives by a simple set
of rules. Getting involved with a complicated woman isn’t one of them.
He learned that the hard way two years ago when he spent one of the most
incredible nights of his life with Nikki Logan. But then she hightailed
it out of town, never to be seen again—until now. It might be time to
break one of those rules…
Picking up the pieces of her life, Nikki is back in Oak Groves, face
to face with the one man she’s done her best to forget. But she has her
reasons for being here—and they don’t include winding up in bed with
Jett. Especially since he’ll never forgive her once he finds out the
truth about why she’s back…
Excerpt
Jett nodded, then glanced around the crowded bar. When he turned his
gaze back on her, a person would be hard pressed to describe his eyes as
anything sweet or candy like. “I was hoping you’d be up for a little
game of nine-ball.”
Nikki took a sip from her beer and raised her brow in question.
Nine-ball was the hustler’s game. It was short and quick, without all
the rules of straight pool.
He nodded his head toward the tables in the back. “I heard you played.”
“Then you heard wrong.” She took another sip, eying him the whole time. “I’ve given it up for Lent.”
The corner of his mouth hinted at a smile. “Found God, have you?”
“Among other things.”
Jett glanced to the tables, then back to her. “One game. No money.”
Nikki shook her head. “I don’t play for fun. No thrill in it.”
He swallowed, and she could see his jaw work. “Then we’ll play for a
favor. A debt. You up for a little more red in your ledger?”
She didn’t want to ask, not really, but gambling was too deep in her blood not to hear the stakes. “What’s the favor?”
He smiled, not the golden boy smile she’d come to know, but instead
one that lacked any charm at all. “Well, Texas, that’s the thrill part.
You don’t know until the end. Anything goes. No boundaries.”
Her heart did a funky jump-start in her chest at the possibilities, but her game face was ice-cold. “No limits?”
“None. Unless that’s too much heat for you? We could place some ground rules if you want to play it safe.”
Nikki knew what Jett was doing. It was so obvious, and yet, there was
that achingly familiar thrill that zipped up her spine and buzzed in
her blood. Some families were predisposed toward red hair or
near-sightedness. The Logans were addicts. Throw a dart at the family
tree and you’d hit a vice—drinking, smoking, shopping. You name it, and
the Logans could turn anything into a compulsion. But really, under all
the addictions, there was only one. One vice that was as indicative of a
Logan as dark hair, brown skin, and blue eyes. It was very basic,
really. The Logans were gamblers.
There were stories as far back as her grandfather, if stories in the
Logan family could be believed, who won his first car—a 1950 Cadillac—on
the toss of a coin. Then there was her father, Dakota, who’d bet on
every sports game invented, and even ones that hadn’t, like golf without
clubs. Her father had once bet a hundred dollars on his ability to
throw a golf ball through the eighteen holes. Legend had it, he’d won
that hundred, but lost the money in the same night in an “I can piss
into a can from the second story” contest.
So Jett knew what he was doing. And Nikki was smart enough to know
this was more than a simple favor and way more than a simple game of
pool. She also knew something else. Jett was no match for her in this
game.
She hid her smile with a sip of her drink. The thrill of a “sure
thing” was headier than any shot of tequila, more exciting than a
leather-jacketed man on a motorcycle.
“Oh, I can take the heat,” she said.
“But can you handle this much heat?”
“Oh, I can handle it. Because we both know I can beat you with one hand tied behind my back and blindfolded.”
His eyebrows arched. “Then you’d best start figuring out what your favor will be.”
Nikki put down her bottle, no longer needing the buzz. “Already
have.” Her car fixed…for starters. “You really think you can beat me at
pool?”
God, he was so cocky. It was almost tragic.
His eyes narrowed and there was absolutely no humor in his voice when he spoke. “Oh, I’m betting on it.”
A Little About the Author
KC Klein has lived most of her life with her head in the clouds and
her nose buried in a book. She did stop reading long enough to make a
home with a real life hero, her husband, for over seventeen years. A
mother of two children, she spends her time slaying dragons, saving
princesses, and championing the belief in the happily-ever-after.
Her debut novel, Dark Future, was a 2010 Prism finalist and has been
honored with a reviewer’s choice award. She’s the author of the sexy
cowboy Texas Fever series, Texas Wide Open, and Hustlin’ Texas. She’s
also a contributing author to the fun, sci-fi romance anthology, Hotter
on the Edge series that has won two Night Owl Top Picks and a 2012 RONE
Award.
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