Jade's Dragon
By Maren Smith
Blurb:
Cast out of China, Chin knows all about how hard life in a
foreign country can be, especially for a woman on her own. Given the name Jade
and a job packing in the crowd as an exotic dancer at the Red Petticoat, Chin
thinks she’s finally carved a safe and secure place for herself when, looking
out across the dance hall, she spies the son of the man who murdered her
family. Panicking, she flees into the night, into the worst storm in living
memory.
Struggling on a failing ranch, neither Cullen Drake nor his
brother Garrett has any idea how to combat the illness ravaging their herd. But
the night Cullen finds himself slogging after sick cows during the worst storm
in California’s history, he happens to be in the right place at the right time.
At first, he thinks it’s a child he’s rescued from a flashflood. It’s not until
he gets her home that he realizes Chin is every inch a woman grown… and a woman
on the run.
Chin knows better than anyone the risks of staying too long
in one place or letting people get too close. Yet the harder she tries to
escape, the worse off she becomes until finally, sick and wounded, she finds
herself unable to run and her past is closing in. Fortunately for her, Cullen
has a past of his own and a fearsome determination to protect, whether she
wants him to or not. Unfortunately, he also knows how to handle young ladies
more interested in running than behaving.
Excerpt:
“I am not a little girl,” she spat. “I can go where I will,
when I will and owe no answers to the likes of you, you… you cow poker!”
“Cow poker?” Garrett and Cullen said in unison, the former
surprised at her vehemence while the later growled, low and dangerous.
“I do believe the term is cow poke,” Garrett tried
helpfully, but she cut him off.
“Poke by profession; poker by habit!”
“You little—” Cullen started to rise, but for the first
time, it was she who moved faster. Exactly where she pulled that ivory-handled
dagger from, he had no idea, but he only just caught a glint of light off the
blade before he felt the sharp tip tuck right up under his chin. Cullen
discovered two things then: one, her knife was as tiny as the rest of her, but
it was sharp as hell; and two, she was a whole lot better at hiding her anger
than she was at hiding the smug pleasure with which she lorded this win over
him.
“I may be small,” she told him, sing-song soft as she dug
the tip into the soft skin of his neck, “but even a small woman can carve the
guts from a gwailo!”
“Oh, honey,” Garrett breathed, not smiling now though he
did chuckle. “That was not very smart.”
Cullen didn’t bother saying even that much. “Now it’s the
belt.”
Her black eyes narrowed, but that was all the time he
allowed her to react. He grabbed her wrist, but not before he felt the nick of
her blade drawing blood. He yanked back, clamping fingers over the sting. They
came away tinged in crimson, but the smear wasn’t heavy. Anger held under very
tight control, he wiped his fingers on his pants and checked again.
Fortunately, the bleeding wasn’t anywhere near as bad as the cut felt.
Relieved, Cullen forgot about his neck and turned his full
attention onto the slip of a girl tugging and yanking to free her arm from his
grip. “Poker, am I?” he countered.
“Moo,” she lowed, her black eyes sparking pure defiance.
It was a very close approximation to a cow in heat. Cullen
acknowledged that with a dry smile and a tsk of regret on her bottom’s behalf.
Then he disarmed her, throwing the knife onto the table well out of both their
reaches. She dug in with both feet when he grabbed his belt, the clank of the
buckle preceding the leathery hiss as he whipped it out of pants loops.
“No!” She braced her legs, her butt going nearly all the
way to the floor as she fought his pull. But he was bigger, he was stronger,
and he was right. And right always triumphed, particularly over tiny slips of
misbehaving young ladies in desperate need of what daddy so obviously didn’t
give them enough of.
Purchase Links:
Author Bio
Fortunate enough to have married my Dominant, I am a
wife, administrator at two local BDSM dungeons, resident of the wilds of
freakin’ Kansas (still don’t know how I ended up here) and submissive to the
love of my life. I have penned more than 120 novels, novellas and short
stories, and am the author of the Masters of the Castle series, of which
Kaylee’s Keeper reached #1 on all Amazon.
Visit Maren’s
blog here:
http://badgirlscorner.wordpress.com
Friend me on Facebook here:
http://facebook.com/Maren.Smith.10
Don’t miss
these exciting titles by Maren Smith and Blushing Books!
Masters of the
Castle:
Book 1, Holding
Hannah
Book 2,
Kaylee’s Keeper
Book 3, Saving
Sara
Book 4, Sweet
Sinclair
Book 5, Chasing
Chelsea
Book 6, Owning
O
Book 7, Maddy
Mine
Corbin’s Bend:
Last Dance for
Cadence (Season 1, Book 8)
Have Paddle,
Will Travel (Season 2, Book 7)
A Few Other
Titles:
B-Flick
The Great Prank
Jinxie’s
Orchids
Life After Rachel
The Locket
The Mountain
Man
The Next Ex
Something Has
To Give
Varden’s Lady
