Hot and Bothered (Rough and Tumble #3) by Crystal Green
March 17, 2015
Check out this new release from Intermix! Yummy cowboy romance. /Cori
SYNOPSIS
On the dusty outskirts of Vegas, there’s a down and dirty saloon where all sorts of lethally charming—and genuinely dangerous—men carouse to seduce the women who happen to venture inside on their way to and from Sin City.
Despite the many women he’s bedded over the years, Gideon Lane has never been able to get Rochelle Burton completely out of his head. He certainly never expected to see the city girl again, now a successful author, all grown up in all the right places and asking for his protection.
After their disastrous night together, Rochelle was determined to put Gideon—and the things he made her want—far behind her. But when an obsessive fan expresses their anger over her latest book in a disturbing way, Rochelle’s overprotective cousins insist she hire the best bodyguard the Rough & Tumble saloon can offer.
Both Rochelle and Gideon intend to keep their relationship strictly professional, but when the threat to Rochelle puts them in close quarters, Gideon can’t help wanting the chance to prove that some things are better the second time around…
EXCERPT
Hot And Bothered (Rough and Tumble #3) by Crystal Green
Release Date: March 17, 2015
When Rochelle Burton first decided to track down Gideon Lane, she’d wondered how much he might’ve changed from the eighteen-year-old man-slut she’d known all those years ago. But when she found him in the middle of the Rough & Tumble Saloon’s courtyard doing what he had always done best, she immediately stopped wondering.
The light from a small fire going in the pit was hitting the brim of his gray Stetson at a slant, hiding his eyes in shadow. But his hat didn’t cover his lazy smile or the smoke from the cigarillo angling out of his mouth that curled into the mild May night air. He was slumped in his seat, resting one square-toed black boot on his knee and draping his arms over the two rickety chairs on either side of him. If he noticed that Rochelle was leaning against the door frame, where whisky-soaked rock ’n’ roll spilled out of the saloon from a nearby jukebox, he didn’t show it.
Then again, she suspected he was much too busy enjoying the private striptease that four fluffy-haired women were putting on for him. And she was damned sure that he hadn’t been hired by these girls to be their bodyguard, even if that was his profession. No, this was an entirely different sort of personal bodywork.
Two of the ladies, who were twins—and bleached blondes, at that—each had one leg straddled over either side of him while the other two felt themselves up, unbuttoning their blouses, laughing and tipsy.
No, Gideon hadn’t changed a bit. He was still a player, even after seventeen years had passed them by, still the only guy who’d ever left her in tears, even though she’d put that behind her a long time ago.
Definitely.
Rochelle eased her sunglasses down her nose, looking at him until he had to sense her stare. She could tell the moment he caught sight of her, and it wasn’t because she could see his gaze under that hat brim. It was because he tensed in his seat, sliding his arms off the backs of the chairs and then taking the cigarillo out of his mouth.
Well, a grand entrance had been pretty simple. She’d see about the rest of this necessary reunion.
The four girls stopped gyrating and glanced back at her. The non-twins shrugged and kept dancing, but the two blond lookalikes kept their legs draped over Gideon, almost as if they were claiming him.
Rochelle didn’t mind. She merely told herself to smile and pushed her sunglasses up and onto her head, where they held back her dark waves from her face.
Was Gideon thinking that she looked different? The same? Or . . .?
Ugh—she wasn’t here to compete for Miss Nevada or his attentions, so she swiped the thoughts out of her head.
“What do you know,” she said instead, smoothly raising her voice over the music. “It looks like things never change in this town.”
He was still tense, still staring. Her belly flipped, although she wasn’t about to let him know that he affeceted her, even after all this time.
How was that even possible when she’d put him in her past? Scratch that—when he’d been only such a tiny, insignificant moment in her past?
One of the blond twins glanced down at Gideon. “You know her?”
He let the cigarillo drop to the ground, then mashed it into the concrete with his boot. He nudged back his cowboy hat, revealing a face that used to make Rochelle’s heart skid and bump through her chest: light brown eyes that could burn a girl, a strong whiskered jaw, a dimple in his firm chin.
Damn, even now her body was reacting like a runaway sports car, an accident just waiting to happen. But she didn’t do accidents these days—those were things that happened to people who let challenges happen to them, not the ones who brought challenges on.
His gaze rolled over her, from her face and then down a body that had developed more than a few curves and swerves since they were just a couple of dumb kids, and she flushed all over.
She sure felt like a kid now, but she blanked out the weakness.
“I’ll be damned,” he finally said in that velvet twang she’d never quite forgotten. “Rochelle Burton.”
BUY LINKS
Kindle $4.27 | B&N $4.99 | Kobo $4.99 | iBooks $4.99
Rough And Tumble Series
Rough and Tumble (Rough and Tumble #1)
Down and Dirty (Rough and Tumble #2)
Hot and Bothered (Rough and Tumble #3)
ABOUT CRYSTAL GREEN
You can call her “Crystal,” “Chris,” or “Christine”—she’s the same person, even though her different pen names reflect different writing personalities.
Under “Crystal Green,” she writes romance. “Chris Marie Green” is in charge of the urban fantasy series Vampire Babylon, which features six full-length books, three novellas, and one short story. Chris Marie has also indie published a New Adult Single Girl/Geek Lit hybrid with illustrations by Billy Martinez called The She Code, along with other shorter works that follow the rules that all girls should know in life.
Crystal used to be an 8th grade teacher of reading, writing, and US History, but she promised herself if she ever sold 3 books in a year, she would take a chance and write full-time. Ten years later, she is still feverishly writing and loving it!
Reading in Pajamas 