Today’s guest is Charlene Raddon, and she’s sharing her
book, Taming Jena, with us.
Hi Roses and readers. So glad to be here and share a peek into my book. I will give a free e-book from my backlist and a $5 gift card to a randomly chosen commenter.
THE WRONG MAN
Deserted by her father at the
tender age of seven, Jenna Leigh-Whittington had taught herself to ride, shoot,
brawl…and steer clear of the opposite sex. But now, in a lonely Utah canyon,
the Pinkerton agent has drawn her gun on a rugged stranger—only to discover
that, far from the dangerous outlaw she’d been tracking, he is Branch McCauley,
hired gun…and the most irresistible rascal ever to tempt and torment a woman!
THE RIGHT WOMAN
If there’s one thing McCauley
trusts less than a female, it’s a female who packs a six-gun. But what a woman!
Vowing to bring the sensuous hellcat to heel, McCauley has no inkling that
their passionate battle of wills has just begun. Taming Jenna will be the most
seductive—and satisfying—job he’s ever taken on.
TAMING JENNA EXCERPT
Jenna scowled as she studied the man by the
flickering glare of his campfire. He had the right build and appeared close to
thirty, Mendoza's age. But something didn't fit.
The Denver police chief had described her quarry as a
spoiled aristocrat, too busy wooing Lady Luck and every other female to be much
of a train robber, let alone a killer. But the rogue in front of Jenna looked too
lean and hard to be spoiled, too wary and aloof to be a ladies' man.
To Jenna he seemed the perfect gunslinger: cold,
tough, and ready to spring. Like a big yellow cougar perched on a ledge. Or a
rattler, tightly coiled. Either way, his bite would be deadly.
In spite of the cool night breeze, sweat oozed from
her pores. She couldn't forget that lightning draw. Why had she come here? How
had she expected to take an outlaw Pinkerton's other agents had failed to bring
in? No, she refused to think that way. She was every bit as capable as any man
to capture Mendoza. She had to believe that, the same way she had to do what
she'd set out to do. Only one question remained: Was this Mendoza or not?
"Who are you, mister?"
"Who am I? Hell, who are you? "
Blast! Did no male exist in this empty wilderness who
wasn't so taken with himself that he couldn't cooperate for a change?
She took a calming breath. A body could catch more
flies with honey than vinegar, old Charley Long Bow used to say. Jenna figured
flies might fancy the hairy creature facing her, so she decided to try being
friendly. "Listen, I smelled your coffee and hoped you might spare a cup,
is all. You can understand me being a mite leery of walking into a stranger's
camp without knowing who I'm hooking up with."
Firelight glinted on the man's straight white teeth
as his whiskers parted in a cold smile. "Don't recall inviting company,
but I'll play your game. Name's Branch McCauley. Now it's your turn."
His smile unnerved her. It held no humor, only a
lethal sort of grimness that cannoned her stomach into her throat and made her
wish she'd wired William Pinkerton for instructions instead of going off
half-cocked this way. "I'm Jim...Jim White," she lied.
"All right, Jim, how about some honesty? You
come here looking for me?"
"I'm not looking for anyone named Branch
McCauley. If that's who you are, you've nothing to worry about."
The wide, innocent eyes McCauley studied held
honesty. He relaxed. "In that case...be glad to pour you some
coffee." He reached for the battered graniteware pot. His visitor's next
words froze him in a half-stoop: "I'd feel more welcome if you'd set aside
your gun first."
Cool as Montana sleet, McCauley straightened, hand
poised above his holster. "Reckon you would. Wouldn't do much for my sense
of well-being, though."
So much for trying to be friendly, Jenna thought.
What now? She clenched her knees together to still their shaking and swallowed
the fear knotted in her throat.
"Look." McCauley shifted his weight to one
leg. "Why don't you put your gun away and have a sit? Could be I might
know something about the hombre you're hunting.
Hombre. Sounded Spanish. Like Mendoza. It must be
him. She had to get his gun away from him. Surprise seemed the best means. She
squeezed the trigger of the .44 Starr. The bullet kicked dirt onto the man's
scuffed boots. He jumped and let out a yelp as though she'd set his feet afire.
"Dammit, kid, going up against me won't get you
anything but a six-foot hole in the ground."
"Shut up and toss over your gun or I'll turn
them boots into sieves. 'Course, my sights might be a bit off." She raised
the muzzle toward his groin.
"You made your point," he growled as he
unbuckled his gun belt and tossed it over.
Instead of the fancy weapon she had expected a
gunslinger to own, an ordinary, six-gun lay at her feet. No ivory handle or
engraved barrel. Only an ordinary .44 Peacemaker, crafted and worn for one
reason—to kill. The thought did funny things to her innards.
"All right," she said, getting back to
business. "You aren't going to like this, mister, but I don't know any
other way to be sure who you are. Drop them trousers to your ankles."
"Do what?"
About Charlene:
Charlene Raddon began her fiction
career in the third grade when she announced in Show & Tell that a baby
sister she never had was killed by a black widow spider. She often penned
stories featuring mistreated young girls whose mother accused of crimes her sister
had actually committed. Those were mostly therapeutic exercises. Her first
serious attempt at writing fiction came in 1980 when she woke from a vivid
dream that compelled her to drag out a typewriter and begin writing. She’s been
at it ever since. An early love for romance novels and the Wild West led her to
choose the historical romance genre but she also writes contemporary romance.
At present, she has five books published in paperback by Kensington Books (one
under the pseudonym Rachel Summers), and five e-Books published by Tirgearr
Publishing.
Charlene’s awards include: RWA
Golden Heart Finalist, Romantic Times Reviewer’s Choice Award Nomination,
Affair de Coeur Magazine Reader/Writer Poll for Best Historical of the Year.
Her books have won or place in several contests.
Currently, Charlene is working on
her next release.
