Vicki Thompson – Thunderstruck (страница 1)
The lone cowboy...
Damon Harrison never gets too involved. A cowboy at heart, Damon has turned his commitment phobia into a living—flipping houses. The only exceptions to that rule? His foster family at Thunder Mountain Ranch. And now those “exceptions” have talked Damon into working on a new project with a carpenter named Phil...
Only, “Phil” is a nickname for Philomena Turner. She has a wicked way with carpentry and an even wickeder way of turning Damon’s head. And the chemistry is like a lightning bolt of lust. But Phil wants a family and a home, and no hotshot cowboy—even a tantalizingly sexy one—will change that. All she can steal are a few nights of sizzling passion before she has to set this lone cowboy free...
Praise for Vicki Lewis Thompson
“Cowboy Up is a sexy joyride, balanced with good-natured humor and Thompson’s keen eye for detail. Another sizzling romance from the RT Reviewers’ Choice Award winner for best Blaze.”
—RT Book Reviews
“Vicki Lewis Thompson has compiled a tale of this terrific family, along with their friends and employees, to keep you glued to the page and ending with that warm and loving feeling.”
—Fresh Fiction on Cowboys and Angels
“Intensely romantic and hot enough to singe...her Sons of Chance series never fails to leave me worked up from all the heat, and then sighing with pleasure at the happy endings!”
—We Read Romance on Riding High
“If I had to use one word to describe Ambushed! it would be charming.... Where the story shines and how it is elevated above others is the humor that is woven throughout.”
—Dear Author
“The chemistry between Molly and Ben is off the charts: their first kiss is one of the best I’ve ever read, and the sex is blistering and yet respectful, tender and loving.”
—Fresh Fiction on A Last Chance Christmas
From the moment I was given a set of Lincoln Logs for Christmas many (cough, cough) years ago, I’ve had a thing for log cabins. I must have some pioneer blood in me because the idea of building a house by fitting notched logs together sounds brilliant. I’ve always longed to try it.
But I live in the desert, and mesquite trees are not log cabin material. So, next best thing, I was able to live out that fantasy while writing Thunderstruck. When you meet Damon, the cowboy who also knows his way around power tools, you’ll realize I lived out a few other fantasies besides the log cabin one. Yes, this is a fun job, and don’t let anybody tell you otherwise!
Thunderstruck is the second installment of my new series, Thunder Mountain Brotherhood, so maybe you picked up the first one, Midnight Thunder, which showed up last month. If not, no worries! Come meet the gang in this book and then go back to the other one. I’m sure you can navigate just fine, and I promise you’re gonna fall in love with these cowboys. I have!
Yours in cowboy country,
Vicki Lewis Thompson
A passion for travel has taken New York Times bestselling author VICKI LEWIS THOMPSON to Europe, Great Britain, the Greek isles, Australia and New Zealand. She’s visited most of North America and has her eye on South America’s rain forests. Africa, India and China beckon. But her first love is her home state of Arizona, with its deserts, mountains, sunsets and—last but not least—cowboys! The wide-open spaces and heroes on horseback influence everything she writes. Connect with her at vickilewisthompson.com, at facebook.com/vickilewisthompson and on Twitter, @vickilthompson.
To my sister and brother-in-law, Karen and David Santa Maria. I don’t know the first thing about building a log cabin, but they know the first, second, third and probably the tenth thing! And they shared that knowledge, thank goodness.
Contents
Praise for Vicki Lewis Thompson
FOLLOWING AN AFTERNOON of painting eaves, Damon Harrison was looking forward to a long shower and a cold beer. Southern California’s current heat wave would make working at his foster parents’ ranch in Sheridan, Wyoming, next week a treat. He peeled off his T-shirt as he walked into the master bedroom on his way to the shower.
This was the room he’d used almost exclusively while living in the house he was renovating. He kept the furnishings minimal—a queen bed on a metal rolling frame, collapsible shelving for his clothes, one floor lamp, a small TV and a computer desk on wheels so he could sit on the edge of the bed to type. He unfolded a TV table for meals.
When he began a renovation, he brought basic furniture, linens and kitchen supplies. All of it fit in his construction trailer once he was finished. Then he’d haul it to the next house and start all over again.
Damon loved flipping houses. He’d always gravitated toward construction work, and turning a trashed house into a showplace was immensely satisfying. The moment when he handed over the keys to the new owner gave him a rush of accomplishment that he hadn’t found in anything else.
Passing the desk, he refreshed his laptop screen out of habit. Sure enough, there was an email from Phil Turner. Phil was a Sheridan carpenter who’d agreed to help him build a log cabin at Thunder Mountain Ranch over Fourth of July weekend.
Ordinarily, he preferred to work alone, but he could only spare a week to build the cabin, which wasn’t enough time to do it right without help. His foster mother, Rosie, had recommended Phil, and Damon had exchanged emails with him for a couple of weeks. Phil was giving them a head start by ordering the materials and preparing the site.
After all their communications, Damon was confident they’d be on the same page and ready to go when he arrived in Wyoming. Working solo meant he hardly ever talked shop with anyone. Until now he hadn’t realized he liked doing that.
He and Phil had discussed the project in depth. They’d settled on a concrete foundation, which would be poured today so it would be cured by the time he got there on July second. Phil seemed to have exacting standards, which made sense. After all, Rosie had recommended him.
When Damon arrived, the building permits would be approved and the electric box installed. All the materials would be on site, along with a rented forklift and a compressor. Phil had been good about sending pictures, so he’d probably emailed one of the concrete foundation.
Damon opened the email and downloaded the attached picture. The foundation looked perfect, exactly as he would have wanted it, with sill logs laid in squared-off precision around the perimeter to anchor the walls. The cabin wouldn’t have any plumbing, the same as three others that had been built on Thunder Mountain Ranch years ago. No plumbing made construction a whole lot easier and cheaper.
Damon had been fifteen when he’d moved into the first cabin along with Cade Gallagher and Finn O’Roarke. About a year after Rosie and Herb Padgett had started a foster program at the ranch, they’d realized that their five-bedroom house would soon be bursting at the seams. Damon, Cade and Finn were the oldest boys and the ones who’d been at the ranch the longest, so they’d had the privilege of occupying the first cabin.
Remembering move-in day still gave him a charge. The three of them had been so excited, even though they’d had to trek out to a bathhouse instead of going down the hall like they’d been used to. The taste of freedom was far more important than indoor plumbing.