The Cowboy and the Princess (29 page)

BOOK: The Cowboy and the Princess

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By the time she slid behind the wheel she was only breathing from the top part of her lungs. Her diaphragm had shut down, paralyzed, seized. Puff, puff, puff. Short, fast pants swirled through her parted lips.

Hyperventilating.

Real vanilla,
whispered her mammalian brain.

Go home
, commanded her last shred of logic.

She started the engine, put the truck into reverse and stamped her foot to the accelerator. Her worn leather purse rocketed to the floorboard, sending the contents scattering—makeup, hairbrush, wallet, plastic Happy Meal toys.

Dammit! She reached down for her purse.

Instantly, she felt a jolt. Heard the jarring crunch of bending metal. Tasted the wiry flavor of alarm. She lifted her head, saw a big red pickup truck filling her rearview mirror and realized she’d just hit someone.

About the Author

LORI WILDE is the bestselling author of more than forty-five books. A former RITA
®
finalist, Lori has received the
Romantic Times
Reviewers’ Choice Award, the Holt Medallion, the Booksellers Best, the National Readers’ Choice, and numerous other honors. She lives in Weatherford, Texas, with her husband and a wide assortment of pets. You may write to Lori at PO Box 31, Weatherford, TX 76086, or e-mail her via her home page at
www.loriwilde.com
. Lori teaches Romance Writing Secrets via the Internet through colleges and universities worldwide at
www.ed2g.com
.

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www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

By Lori Wilde

The Cowboy and the Princess

The Cowboy Takes a Bride

The Welcome Home Garden Club

The First Love Cookie Club

The True Love Quilting Club

The Sweethearts’ Knitting Club

Forthcoming

A Cowboy for Christmas

Available from Avon Impulse

The Christmas Cookie Chronicles

C
ARRIE

R
AYLENE

C
HRISTINE

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

Excerpt from
A Cowboy for Christmas
copyright © 2012 by Laurie Vanzura

THE COWBOY AND THE PRINCESS
. Copyright © 2012 by Laurie Vanzura. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

EPub Edition AUGUST 2012 ISBN: 9780062047786

Print Edition ISBN: 9780062047779

FIRST EDITION

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

About the Publisher

Australia

HarperCollins Publishers (Australia) Pty. Ltd.

Level 13, 201 Elizabeth Street

Sydney, NSW 2000, Australia

http://www.harpercollins.com.au

Canada

HarperCollins Canada