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The Cowboy and the Angel
The Cowboy and the Angel
The Cowboy and the Angel
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The Cowboy and the Angel

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All her life Angel had been secretly in love with Alex Harrison, but would she be able to overcome her shyness and her father's plans for her future to tell him before he married another woman?

If you enjoyed this, you may like "Seth and Priscilla" the second book in the series

LanguageEnglish
PublisherL. R. Wards
Release dateMar 8, 2012
ISBN9781465996916
The Cowboy and the Angel
Author

L. R. Wards

L. R. Wards was born in Germany on a Canadian air force base. After travelling all over Europe, her family settled in Canada. First on the West Coast, and then on the East Coast. She now resides in Northern Canada with her husband and spends her days reading, writing and looking after her animals on her farm.

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    The Cowboy and the Angel - L. R. Wards

    The Cowboy and the Angel

    By L. R. Wards

    Smashwords Edition

    Copyright 2012 L. R. Wards

    Smashwords Edition, License Notes

    This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author

    This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, businesses, places, events and incidents are either the products of the author’s imagination or used in a fictitious manner. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.

    CHAPTER ONE

    Oh Angel, quit sulking, Priscilla scolded knowing exactly what it was about. She had dragged her sister to the Harrison’s practically by her hair. She knew she didn’t want to go, but she didn’t want to show up alone. She did feel a little guilty because she knew exactly why Angel didn’t want to be there tonight.

    Angel cast her sister a disapproving look and plopped herself on the taupe suede sofa in the study. Normally Priscilla’s antics didn’t affect her but she was irritated because she dragged her along to the gala at Bea Harrison’s ranch. She tucked a brunette strand of hair behind her ear that escaped her tight bun. She looked up at her sister who was pacing impatiently in the room while her slinky black calf length dress swirled about her elegant legs. Her eyes narrowed. All Priscilla ever thought of was herself, and although she loved her older sister, it got tiring after awhile. I really didn’t want to come. I have a paper due next week.

    Actually she told a little lie. It had nothing to do with her paper. It wasn’t because of Priscilla or because of their hostess. It was the hostess’s son that made her leery and she knew he had to come tonight because his brother was coming home after a long absence. This was an important party. Half the town showed up to support him.

    Her sister straightened the bust of her dress drawing her disproving gaze back to her. How are you supposed to meet a man if you never go anywhere besides work and have your nose in a book?

    Meet a man? That was easy for her to say. Priscilla was beautiful, blonde and blue eyed. She was very popular in school and still was since she graduated four years ago, whereas, Angel who was two years younger may have had the same eyes, but her hair was mousy brown, she was shorter by at least six inches and was a little chubbier compared to her sister who had a figure fit for a runway model. It worked very well for her too. She could bat her eyelashes and have practically any man fall at her feet, except Seth Harrison, and it was driving her crazy. It seemed to give her sister that obsessive streak where he was concerned and it was no secret among her friends and probably most of the townspeople that she was crazy about him. Priscilla was quite open about things she wanted and he was one of them. Angel on the other hand had a problem controlling her heart rate around the other one.

    Alex Harrison.

    Alex and Seth Harrison were their neighbors and along with their mother Bea, owned one of the biggest ranches in North Carolina with a stunning view of the Blue Ridge Mountains and raised Santa Gertrudis cattle. Their parents had been good friends with the Harrisons since before Angel was born.

    It may not have been a secret that Priscilla wanted Seth, but Angel never told anyone how she felt about Alex. She couldn’t. She wasn’t much to talk about her feelings with anyone, even her sister.

    Angel always felt in her sister’s shadow and tonight was a good example in the way they were dressed. Priscilla had on a designer label low neckline dress which showed off her best attributes whereas, she wore a drab blouse and an ankle length skirt. Again she would be invisible next to her. Not that she really cared. She was not as outgoing as her sister and preferred to remain invisible. Most times she was quite clumsy. I don’t want a man, she finally mumbled.

    Priscilla ignored her sister’s comment and walked to the big bay window that overlooked the party on the back terrace around the pool while sweeping her long fair hair off her shoulders. It’s exciting that Seth is coming home, she said flashing her sister a stunning smile. I can’t wait to see him. It seems like he’s been gone forever.

    Actually he has, thought Angel studying her sister’s anxious excitement. The man had left home when he was twenty to go to med school and specialize in a field. It had been eight years, except during the summer when he came home to visit. On the other hand Alex never came home as often when he was away at Princeton. Angel had always found that odd because she knew he loved the ranch.

    However, she remembered one summer when she was sixteen and they both ended up being home. She’d never forgotten it.

    It was one of the days she went over to the Harrison’s to use the pool during a hot spell. Bea always let the girls come visit for that purpose. She said she never had any girls of her own and doted on the both of them.

    Angel didn’t realize that Alex was home too or she wouldn’t have been swimming in their pool, and more importantly, she wouldn’t have been wearing what she was wearing. She wore a bikini, it was modest, but she felt naked at that moment.

    She had spent the better part of an hour in the cool blue water when she decided she had enough. As she started to get out of the pool her eyes spotted Alex. He stood there, tall dark and sinfully gorgeous.

    Her mouth suddenly went dry.

    The sun was glistening off his bronzed skin. He wasn’t wearing a shirt, just khaki shorts that hung low on his finely sculpted hips. He never said a word and just stared at her. She probably would have drooled at that sexy image he gave off if her mouth wasn’t so parched or if she didn’t feel so ashamed at being caught in the slinky garment.

    She stood stark still with her eyes fixated on him. As the seconds passed, she began to feel more insecure under that potent gaze of his. For all she knew he was there the whole time watching her swim and she didn’t know it. He was standing in such a relaxed pose that indicated he’d been there for awhile. He was also casually smoking a cigarette. By the looks of it, it was half gone and Bea didn’t let the men smoke in the house, which meant he’d been there long enough to light it and smoke most of it while watching her. To make things worse, she was pulling herself out of the shallow end by use of the rails with one foot on the poolside slate when she spotted him. She was still in that position a full minute later, giving him a good look at her half naked.

    Even though she was slightly red from being in the sun, she was sure that the full body blush she felt then was completely visible to him especially with what she was wearing.

    Normally she’d wear her once piece suit, but it was dirty from swimming in the creek the day before, so she borrowed her sister’s white bikini. There was no way on God’s green earth she would have done such a thing if she knew Alex was going to be there. She felt as though she was a little ‘chunky’ compared to Priscilla and she didn’t care if Bea or Prissy saw her wearing her sister’s bikini. However Alex was the last person she’d want to expose her body too. Yet, almost as if God was punishing her for some unknown reason, there he was, as big as life.

    His body was darkly tanned and every inch of him was covered in thick sinewy muscle. She was so stunned, that she couldn’t even lift her arms to cover herself.

    Neither one of them said anything and another minute passed. She couldn’t because her tongue suddenly became inanimate, and he just chose not to. But that didn’t stop his eyes from slowly going down over her body and then back up again as if he didn’t find his blatant stare the least but shameful. It felt as if all the water just evaporated off her skin and she began to heat up all over again. This time it had nothing to do with the sun or her embarrassment. He could affect her so easily especially with that sinful stare. What’s worse, she didn’t know what he was thinking. His expression was void of emotion. For all she knew he was laughing on the inside.

    She could no longer hold his gaze and guided her eyes to his naked expansive chest. Then she was done for. It was then she finally was able to move again. At least her jaw did because it fell. The man had a body built like a Greek warrior. He possessed a thick muscular chest covered with a healthy spray of dark hair. Her eyes moved down to his washboard abs and narrow hips. His abdomen was dissected by a line of dark hair reaching below the waistband of his swim trunks leaving no thought to the imagination of what it led to.

    It was no wonder he carried himself with such arrogance. He was perfect! Years later, Margo, a woman she knew from work pegged him well. She referred to Alex Harrison as a ‘walking hunk of sex’. At the time she wouldn’t have understood what that meant, but now that she was older, it perfectly made sense. He was that, in spades.

    That day by the pool stuck in her mind because she was so embarrassed at him finding her so scantily clad and then to make things worse she heard her name while she was looking down his body and flicked her eyes back up to his ruggedly handsome face. He was smiling! It was a subtle stretch of those masculine lips, but no mistaking, it was a smile.

    Oh God she’d been ogling him and he knew it!

    Quickly she found her strength to jump out of the pool and rush to a lounge chair get her towel. She struggled clumsily trying to wrap it around herself while dashing by him murmuring and apology. She could feel his eyes on her as she rushed through the patio doors into the house. She felt like a complete idiot.

    After she changed she found Prissy, who was watching Seth lunge a horse with a dreamy look on her face, and insisted that she take her home. It was hard to forget that day, not just because of the shocking glimpse of masculine perfection, but Prissy didn’t speak to her for almost a week. They didn’t live too far away, so the drive home was short and Angel remembered locking herself in her room for the rest of the day, too embarrassed to come out. She never told anyone about that incident, and doubted she ever would. She had never used the pool since. On top of that Alex seemed to treat her with an edge of cynicism. He was never like that before and she chalked it up to his disappointment at seeing her body. Obviously she didn’t measure up like her sister did.

    Her family had a wealthy spread too, but not as nice as the Harrisons’. On top of the ranch, Alex had other businesses that made him rich. Although, the man was over six feet and built like he wrestled steers just for a living, you would never know when looking at him that he had some sort of degree in physics from Princeton. He retired at thirty of all things after he developed some patens in oil refinery or something like that and rumor was it had set him for life. Yet, he certainly didn’t portray the geeky type because he was tall, masculine and thick with muscle from physically working the ranch as she found out first hand four years ago by the pool. However, he seemed at home here and she heard him tell her boss Jason Garrett, who was Alex’s best friend, that it was where his roots were. Even though he had more money than he knew what to do with, he still got neck deep into hard work. Angel knew from living next to them for the past twenty years that he never asked any of his employees to do something he wouldn’t do himself and he had the scars to prove it. Little did he know that she really respected that about him. Actually a lot of people in Reidsville respected that about him if you hear the talk around town.

    His brother Seth was younger than Alex by about four or five years, and that was who Priscilla was waiting for tonight. He’d just finished his specialization in Pediatrics and was planning on setting up a practice in town with another physician who was overwhelmed with his client load. She had been chasing the man as long as she could remember and as far as she knew, hadn’t caught him yet, despite how beautiful she was.

    If anyone ever mentioned the brothers, they would tell you that Seth was more handsome than Alex, but Angel didn’t think so. Alex had a quiet magnetism about him and she couldn’t help but be attracted to him even if he was almost twelve years older than her. Not once did she mention that secret to anyone. Unlike Priscilla, Angel was shy and nervous around men. Moreover, she was sure Alex didn’t know she existed even if she dyed herself purple, stripped naked, tripped and landed at his feet. That day with the pool incident proved it.

    However that didn’t stop her from watching him when he wasn’t looking. That was the only time she was brave enough. He had a bit of a temper. Having a degree in physics certainly did not suit his persona.

    Still, he wasn’t always short tempered. Something happened to him when he was away from the Ranch. Rumor had it that it had something to do with a woman, and it was no secret that he didn’t want to get married or even have much use for them although that didn’t stop them from chasing him. Just because he wasn’t as handsome as Seth, didn’t mean he was ugly by any means. He just had a rough look about him, not one with a movie star smile, like Seth. Both men had jet black hair and light green eyes. Although Seth’s lacked the gold flecks that his brother possessed. Regardless, either one of them could bring any woman to their knees with those sloppy Harrison smiles of theirs.

    Alex and Seth’s father died of a heart attack four years ago, but her mother and Bea were still practically inseparable. It was ironic that it was Grant Harrison that died of a heart attack, when Bea was the one with heart problems. It was unexpected and the whole family was hit hard over his death. Bea grieved for quite few years and even today if you mentioned her husband’s name she would start to cry. Who could blame her, Grant was a big man, evident in the size of his sons, but he was a teddy bear and Angel missed him too. She never forgot the hugs he used to give her and Prissy all the time. Their own father wasn’t as openly affectionate and Angel admitted that she liked the attention he gave them. Not that she didn’t love her own father, she did. She just wished he was more affectionate. On the other hand, Grant was quite strict with his sons, but from the stories she’d heard about their hell raising days, they probably needed it.

    When they were little her mother used to take them with her when she went to visit Bea. The boys were old enough so they didn’t need to watched, but even

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