Texan For The Taking coming in one week!

I'm so excited for my new release Texan For The Taking to hit bookstores next week. This book was so much fun to write. Here's a little snippet of one of my favorite scenes from the book. Both Jock and Delilah have massive egos and are very competitive. This scene happens early on in the book.

“You don’t like TV chefs, do you?” he asked. He could hear it in her voice. When they talked cooking, she was cool but once the Gastro Eats channel stuff came up so did her back.

“I don’t know many of them. Just seems to me that cooking for ratings...well I already said that didn’t I?” she asked.

“Yeah, you did. So, what gives? I cook for the same reasons that you do,” he said.

“Why do you think I cook?” she asked, putting her moonshine down and turning to face him.

He put his hand on the arm of her rocking chair and leaned in closer, looking into her brown eyes. He wished she wasn’t so pretty because it made it harder for him to think. She’d asked why he thought she cooked. He wasn’t as sure as he’d been a moment earlier. This close it was hard to deny that there were depths to Delilah Corbyn that he hadn’t let himself dwell on earlier.

He shifted back in his chair, finished his moonshine in one burning swallow and then stood, putting one hand on his hip. “I think you cook because no one expected you to. You do it because when you’re in the kitchen you can let down your guard and make something that shows all the ways you care for people and most of them never notice.”

She tipped her head to the side, her long blond hair mov- ing against her shoulder and he wanted to touch it. It seemed so light and airy. Made her look ethereal, lit only by the lights inside her house and moonlight above them.

“You think so?”

“I do. You have a tough outer layer but like a crème brûlée I bet there is something soft and gooey underneath.”

She laughed. “I’ll give you that, Jock. Want to know why I think you cook?”

“Sure,” he said, leaning back against the porch railing.

She stood up and got close to him, looking right into his eyes. Her closeness made his senses go on high alert and he had to shift his legs to keep her from noticing. But she wasn’t paying attention to anything but his eyes.

After a few moments she stepped back, tipping her head to the side.

“Hmm...I can’t say for sure but there is a part of you that is doing it for the glory. And...I think there’s another part of you that knows what I do. Food is love and by sharing it with the world, you are inviting them to love you. But will that be enough to satisfy you?”