Wyoming Tough - Diana Palmer [0]
New York Times and USA TODAY
bestselling author
DIANA PALMER
“Palmer demonstrates, yet again,
why she’s the queen of desperado quests
for justice and true love.”
—Publishers Weekly on Dangerous
“Nobody does it better.”
—New York Times bestselling author Linda Howard
“The popular Palmer has penned another winning novel,
a perfect blend of romance and suspense.”
—Booklist on Lawman
“Palmer knows how to make the sparks fly…
heartwarming.”
—Publishers Weekly on Renegade
“Diana Palmer is a mesmerizing storyteller who captures
the essence of what a romance should be.”
—Affaire de Coeur
Also by Diana Palmer
Magnolia
Renegade
Lone Star Winter
Dangerous
Desperado
Heartless
Fearless
Her Kind of Hero
Nora
Big Sky Winter
Man of the Hour
Trilby
Lawman
Hard to Handle
Heart of Winter
Outsider
Night Fever
Before Sunrise
Noelle
Lawless
Diamond Spur
The Texas Ranger
Lord of the Desert
The Cowboy and the Lady
Most Wanted
Fit for a King
Paper Rose
Rage of Passion
Once in Paris
After the Music
Roomful of Roses
Champagne Girl
Passion Flower
Diamond Girl
Friends and Lovers
Cattleman’s Choice
Lady Love
The Rawhide Man
Coming soon
The Savage Heart
DIANA PALMER
WYOMING TOUGH
To my friend Kitty H.
with gratitude and much affection
WYOMING TOUGH
CONTENTS
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
PREVIEW
CHAPTER ONE
EDITH DANIELLE MORENA BRANNT was not impressed with her new boss. The head honcho of the Rancho Real, or Royal Ranch in Spanish, near Catelow, Wyoming, was big and domineering and had a formidable bad attitude that he shared with all his hired hands.
Morie, as she was known to her friends, had a hard time holding back her fiery temper when Mallory Dawson Kirk raised his voice. He was impatient and hot-tempered and opinionated. Just like Morie’s father, who’d opposed her decision to become a working cowgirl. Her dad opposed everything. She’d just told him she was going to find a job, packed her bags and left. She was twenty-three. He couldn’t really stop her legally. Her mother, Shelby, had tried gentle reason. Her brother, Cort, had tried, too, with even less luck. She loved her family, but she was tired of being chased for who she was related to instead of who she was inside. Being a stranger on somebody else’s property was an enchanting proposition. Even with Mallory’s temper, she was happy being accepted for a poor, struggling female on her own in the harsh world. Besides that, she wanted to learn ranch work and her father refused to let her so much as lift a rope on his ranch. He didn’t want her near his cattle.
“And another thing,” Mallory said harshly, turning to Morie with a cold glare, “there’s a place to hang keys when you’re through with them. You never take a key out of the stable and leave it in your pocket. Is that clear?”
Morie, who’d actually transported the key to the main tack room off the property in her pocket at a time it was desperately needed, flushed. “Sorry, sir,” she said stiffly. “Won’t happen again.”
“It won’t if you expect to keep working here,” he assured her.
“My fault,” the foreman, old Darby Hanes, chimed in, smiling. “I forgot to tell her.”
Mallory considered that and nodded finally. “That’s what I always liked most about you, Darb, you’re honest.” He turned to Morie. “An example I’ll expect you to follow, as our newest hire, by the way.”
Her face reddened. “Sir, I’ve never taken anything that didn’t belong to me.”
He looked at her cheap clothes, the ragged hem of her jeans, her worn boots. But he didn’t judge. He just nodded.
He had thick black hair, parted on one side and a little shaggy around the ears. He had big ears and a big nose, deep-set brown eyes under a jutting brow, thick eyebrows and a mouth so sensuous that Morie hadn’t been able to take her eyes off it at first. That mouth made up for his lack of conventional good looks.