By
NY Times and USA Today Bestselling Author
Cynthia D’Alba

Real bad boys can grow up to be real good men.

Paige Ryan has lost everything important in her life. Her parents, her lover, her horse, her life on the rodeo tour. Lost about her future, she moves to Whispering Springs, Texas to be near her step-brother. But just as her life is starting to get back on track, it’s derailed again when the last man in the world she wants to see again moves into her house.

Cash Montgomery is on the cusp of having it all. Three-time world bull riding championship, fame, financial stability, and finally some respect from his family. But a bad bull ride leaves him injured and angry. His only comfort is found at the bottom of a bottle. His family drags him home to Whispering Springs, Texas, the last place he wants to be. With nowhere to go, he moves temporarily into an old ranch house on his brother’s property surprised the place is occupied.

As Cash rebuilds the dilapidated home and Paige rebuilds her medical career, their old friendship begins to reemerge. But Paige knows that Cash Montgomery is nothing but a heartache waiting to happen. The best idea is to move on but sometimes taking the first step out the door is the hardest one.

Loving a bull rider is dangerous, so is falling for him a second time is crazy?

Cash Montgomery has about hit bottom, he’s drinking too much and has no real idea what he even wants to do. Travis is giving him some brotherly advice not to fall like he himself had. Just before everything goes haywire with Travis’ wife Caroline going into labor, Cash asks if he could move into the old Fitzgerald place. It’s Caroline’s property and has been sitting empty since her father died. With Travis’ approval that’s what he sets out to do.

Paige Ryan has been helping her step-brother Leo with the bar and grill, but soon she will begin working at the hospital and then start her classes to become a Physician’s Assistant. Here’s the first twist, Caroline has offered Paige the house at a reasonable rent while she’s working and going to school.

With all the excitement surround the birth nobody knows that Paige and Cash are both going to be living in the house. Now since these two have history, it’s going to get very interesting. This is a favorite scene, their first encounter in the house.

She stole the first cup of java before the pot finished filling. Her eyebrows shot up with the first sip. Stout, to say the least. She added a little water to the coffee maker’s reservoir then cracked open a can of biscuits. When the preheat bell chimed, she slid a cookie sheet loaded with biscuit dough into the hot oven.

She flipped the bacon and then sat at the table with a notepad and pencil. Other than the sizzle from the bacon and the slight tick of the coffee maker, the peace was comfortable. Leaning back in the high-
backed kitchen chair, she stretched out her legs and took a long sip of black coffee.

Across the table and directly in front of her, the door to the back bedroom banged open and a half-dressed man ran out, a tennis racket raised high above his head, all while he yelled, “What the hell are you doing in this house?”

Paige jumped from her chair, sending it over backwards. She spat the coffee in her mouth across the table while at the same time tossing the mug of hot liquid at her attacker. The man leapt to the side, avoiding most of the scalding java.

“What are you doing here?” she gasped out, barely able to catch her breath from the sudden adrenaline jolt, not to mention the masculine sight standing in front of her. Her heart grabbed her ribs and rattled. She struggled to focus as her mind refused to accept what she was seeing.

Cash Montgomery wore only a pair of white boxer briefs. Angry long scars crisscrossed his chest, abdomen and arms. But even those couldn’t diminish the impact of his naked, chiseled six-pack. Paige swallowed hard against the rising lust.

“I live here,” he answered, lowering his impromptu weapon to his side. Confusion covered his face and his brow furrowed.

“Paige? Paige Ryan?”

She nodded. “That’d be me.”

His gaze roved down her body and back up to her face. “Why are you in my house? And why don’t you have on clothes? Not that I’m complaining, mind you.” A wolfish grin spread across his mouth. “Nice T-shirt slogan.”

Paige looked down and felt the flush of embarrassment as it climbed her neck and face. Both nipples protruded through the thin material far enough to be used as hat pegs. Her gaze flew back to him. “I’ll be right back.”

She hurried from the kitchen, tugging down the hem of her T-shirt over her purple panties. She could barely think about the need for a robe when her mind swirled like a blender, mixing her thoughts and emotions like a smoothie.

What was Cash Montgomery doing in her house?

And more importantly, why was she kind of excited to see him? The man had practically ruined her life. Well, maybe not ruined as much as shoved her onto a new life path. Still, he’d let her fall in love with him, taken her virginity and then treated her like she had meant nothing to him. He’d broken her heart and hadn’t seemed to care one whit.

Of course, she’d felt sorry for him passed out in the bar, just like she’d feel sympathy for any injured animal. And of course, she’d been crushed when she’d heard about his accident, but that didn’t mean she wanted to be in close proximity to him.

Cash Montgomery was a dangerous man. Dangerous to her positive self-esteem, which she needed to prosper in the intensive graduate nursing program she’d be starting in three months. Dangerous to her plans to stay focused only on her career for now. And dangerous to her self-preservation, as her heart tended to overrule her mind when it came to Cash. Nothing good could come of him being here.

She’d thought she would be able to handle seeing him, but she’d possibly misjudged. He had to go before any decisions were made by her heart and not her head.

After grabbing her chenille robe off the bathroom door, she stood in her bedroom collecting herself before walking calmly back to the kitchen. The coffee spewed and thrown at him had been cleaned up. Her overturned chair was back upright and in its place. Cash had put on a pair of jeans and a black T-shirt that stretched to cover his broad shoulders. She’d been wrong when she’d thought he’d looked emaciated the other night. Must have been positional, because every movement had another muscle popping out somewhere new on his body.

He sat at the table, his legs stretched out in front of him, his bare feet crossed at the ankles. He nursed a cup of black coffee like it was any morning in any town, USA. She clutched both sides of her robe, pulling them together like a virginal prude. A battle raged in her mind.

Don’t pull that robe together like you’ve never been with a man before. You’re being ridiculous. He’s seen everything you’ve got.

True, the opposition retorted, but he was pretty drunk that night and seven years have passed since then. And he took your heart and stomped on it with his size-fourteen cowboy boots.

“Are you just going to stand there and stare at me?” Cash asked with a lift of an eyebrow.

Paige whipped around to get another mug from the cabinet. After pouring her second cup of the day, she sat down.

“Let’s get one thing straight,” she said, sounding all the world like a school teacher reprimanding a student. “This is my house. Caroline rented it to me on Monday.”

“Travis told me I could stay here for a while.”

“Well, this isn’t going to work at all,” she said in a stiff voice that would have made a nun proud. “You’ll have to make other arrangements.”

He sat his cup on the table and leaned toward her. If he meant to intimidate her, it wasn’t going to work. She held her position and returned his stare with one she hoped conveyed her determination to stay put in this house.

“You’ll have to make other arrangements,” he said. “My brother owns this house and he gave it to me to live in as long as I want.”

Her heart dropped into her gut. The boa-constrictor-like squeeze around her chest pulled tight. Drawing in air was an effort, as was forming coherent sentences in his presence.

“Sorry, cowboy. I’m here to stay. You’re the one who has to go,” she finally managed to squeak out. “You have family you could stay with until you buy yourself somewhere else to live. Use some of that butt load of money you made riding those damn bulls to get your own place instead of trying to steal mine.”

“Steal? Yours?” He gave her a derisive snort. Using his cup, he pointed around the room. “This house doesn’t belong to you. It’s Montgomery property.”

Shoving her chair back with a loud scrape on the hardwood, she stood. “I’m going to get dressed and run some errands. When I get back, I expect you to be gone. And you can rest assured that I’ll be calling Caroline today.” She turned and marched out of the room.
D’Alba, Cynthia. Texas Twist (Whispering Springs, TX Book 4). Kindle Locations(474-524). Riante Romance, Inc.. Kindle Edition.

So much happens from here, Travis makes Paige an offer, Cash finds something he really likes to do and then there is that crazy attraction between them.

A fun read, with plenty of drama, healing and romance with plenty of heat.

5 Contented Purrs for Cynthia!

Cynthia D’Alba

Hi Y’All! I’m Cynthia D’Alba from Arkansas.Here’s a little about me…New York Times and USA Today Bestselling author Cynthia D’Alba started writing on a challenge from her husband in 2006 and discovered having imaginary sex with lots of hunky men was fun.

She was born and raised in a small Arkansas town. After being gone for a number of years, she’s thrilled to be making her home back in Arkansas living in a vine-covered cottage on the banks of an eight-thousand acre lake. When she’s not reading or writing or plotting, she’s doorman for her two dogs, cook, housekeeper and chief bottle washer for her husband and slave to a noisy, messy parrot. She loves to chat online with friends and fans.