“This is what healing is about. This—”
She reached out and took his hand. Cradling it in hers, she rubbed her fingertips over his palm in a light circular motion, looking into his eyes with unflinching directness. “This is healing. It’s the giving of strength and hope and—love.”
Her last word came on a soft rush of breath, and Jake caught it with his own. They stood poised in twilight’s embrace, his hand in hers, her touch kindling a slow heat. One motion, one word from her, and it would become wildfire in his blood.
She was taking him apart, making him burn inside.
Isabel gradually became aware of how near she stood to him. The realization came like a gentle change—the warm pressure of his hand in hers, the scent of him, the awareness of his size and strength. She tried to breathe easily, to achieve some measure of calm.
But the way he looked at her, his eyes darkening like storm clouds, quickened her heart and coursed a restless ache of longing through her veins.
Dear Reader,
The perfect complement to a hot summer day is a cool drink, some time off your feet and a good romance novel. And we have four terrific stories this month for you to choose from!
We are thrilled to welcome Nicole Foster to Harlequin Historical with her touching Western, Jake’s Angel. Nicole Foster is actually the pen name for the writing team of Annette Chartier-Warren and Danette Fertig-Thompson. This duo has previously published several romances under various pseudonyms. Jake’s Angel is the tender tale of an embittered—and wounded—Texas Ranger on the trail of a notorious outlaw; he winds up in a small New Mexican town and is healed, emotionally and physically, by a beautiful widow.
Jillian Hart brings us a wonderful Medieval, Malcolm’s Honor, in which a ruthless knight discovers a lasting passion for the feisty noblewoman he is forced to marry for convenience. In Lady of Lyonsbridge, a superb story by Ana Seymour, a marriage-shy heiress uncharacteristically falls for the honorable knight who stays at her estate en route to pay a kidnapped king’s ransom.
And don’t miss Judith Stacy’s darling new Western, The Blushing Bride, in which a young lady travels to a male-dominated logging camp to play matchmaker for a bevy of potential brides—only to find herself unexpectedly drawn to a certain mountain man of her own!
Enjoy! And come back again next month for four more choices of the best in historical romance.
Sincerely,
Tracy Farrell
Senior Editor
Jake’s Angel
Nicole Foster
MILLS & BOON
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Available from Harlequin Historicals and NICOLE FOSTER
Jake’s Angel #522
For Jeff, always my hero.
For Ken, thanks for the memories of Paris, Rome,
Amsterdam, London, Oxford, Copenhagen…
but most of all Alassio.
Contents
Chapter One
Whispering Creek, New Mexico, 1874
Jake Coulter limped up to the doors of the Silver Rose leaving a trail of blood and dust behind him. After two days of hard riding with a hole in his leg, no sleep, and nothing but a bottle of bad whiskey for solace, he felt mean enough to shoot the next man who crossed him.
He hadn’t planned on dragging into Whispering Creek looking and feeling like something the vultures left behind; he hadn’t planned on coming to Whispering Creek at all. But Jerico Grey had decided to run home to the New Mexico territory, and Jake hadn’t spent nearly six months tracking him just to let him steal his freedom by crossing the border.
Jake tried to remember how much whiskey he’d drunk when he agreed to take on a job no one else wanted, deciding it was just what he needed to change his luck. His delusion lasted until he’d met up with three bandidos near Santa Fe. The encounter left him with a piece of lead in his thigh and a temper to rival the desert heat.
Pushing his way inside, Jake gave a quick, hard look around the saloon, almost sorry there wasn’t anyone who invited trouble to take out his frustration on.
But