Read Personal Assets (Texas Nights) Online
Authors: Kelsey Browning
Personal Assets (Texas Nights)
Personal Assets
By Kelsey Browning
Sex therapist Allie Shelby has the professional credentials, but she could use a bit more practical experience. Finding the right man to bring out her inner bad girl is tough in a population-challenged Texas town. So when sinfully sexy Cameron Wright rolls back into Shelbyville, Allie wastes no time inviting him to join her in some hands-on research.
Cameron has come home to fulfill his dream of restoring classic cars. Back in high school, he knew the town princess, Allie Shelby, was way out of his league. Today he has even less in common with Allie, so he’s shocked as hell when she propositions him. Still, he’s only human, so he accepts her offer—and with each encounter, she shows him another, wilder side. Before long, he’s thinking about more than just sex.
But while her personal life heats up, Allie’s business is about to crash and burn. And she has to convince Cameron that she’s one princess who’s not looking for a prince to ride to her rescue.
82,000 words
Dear Reader,
I feel as though every month I start my letter the same, gushing over our month of releases and telling you how amazing and fantastic they are. This month, I’m going to change things up and start by telling you that they’re all quite awful. Okay, not really. Poor authors, I wonder how many of them reading this just had a mini heart attack? Of course you should be excited about this lineup of releases, because it’s another wonderful and diverse month.
In the new-and-unique category, this month we have our first ever decide-your-own-erotic-adventure. Christine d’Abo’s
Choose Your Shot
is an interactive erotic adventure that not only lets the reader choose who the heroine ends up with, but what kinky fun the characters get up to along the way.
We’re thrilled to welcome Karina Cooper to Carina Press. She’s moving her steampunk series, The St. Croix Chronicles, to Carina Press—starting with a prequel novella,
The Mysterious Case of Mr.
Strangeway
, in which a young Cherry St. Croix takes on her first bounty, only to find her efforts challenged by a collector whose motives run deeper than a hefty purse. Look for book three in The St. Croix Chronicles,
Corroded
, releasing in September 2013.
We have a strong lineup of contemporary romances this month. Fiona Lowe returns with her next Wedding Fever book,
Picture Perfect Wedding.
Tamara Morgan brings us
The Derby Girl
, in which a roller-derby girl lives up to her “bad girl” image to woo an unattainable plastic surgeon, only to discover that he’s the one man trained to see past the surface. In the humorous contemporary romance category, Stacy Gail’s
Ugly Ducklings Finish First
will be a hit with fans of high-school reunion romances, and with those who like their romance on the more lighthearted side.
I’m also thrilled to welcome
three
debut authors to Carina Press this month, all with contemporary romances. In Kelsey Browning’s
Personal Assets
, book one of the Texas Nights series, a recovering good girl needs the right man to help her find her inner bad girl—which is easier said than done in a small Texas town. Next, when the bank refuses Emma the loan she needs to save her family home, she must turn to her neighbor Mitch McKenna, a sexy real-estate investor whose reputation she’s spent the past six months pulverizing into sand, in
Unexpectedly You
by Lily Santana. And last, but certainly not least,
Knowing the Score
by Kat Latham features a smokin’ hot rugby player with a scandalous past who gives up his vow of celibacy to help a virgin overcome her fear of intimacy. Three debut authors offer up three terrific contemporary romance novels—make sure to give them each a try!
This month we also have three fantastic male/male romances. Kim Knox kicks off a fun-filled science-fiction historical trilogy. As described by the author,
Agamemnon Frost and the House of Death
is
Sherlock Holmes
meets
The Scarlet Pimpernel.
With aliens. Check out further Agamemnon Frost stories in September and October 2013.
John Tristan joins Carina Press with his male/male fantasy romance,
The Adorned.
A beautiful young man indentures himself to a tattooist and becomes a living canvas for the artist and his inhuman patrons. And for those who like their male/male romance in the contemporary genre, Libby Drew’s
Bending the Iron
is sure to hit the mark as she builds a brand for emotional, wonderful male/male romance.
Following book one of her Magick Trilogy,
Magick by Moonrise
, Laura Navarre takes us back into her historical paranormal world. When the Angel of Death falls in love with life, will a secret Tudor princess pay the ultimate price? Tudor England and the celestial realm collide in
Midsummer Magick.
Last,
Love Letters Volume 4:
Travel to Temptation
continues the collection of
A
to
Z
erotic short-story romances penned by Ginny Glass, Christina Thacher, Emily Cale and Maggie Wells. Volumes 1 through 3 are now available. Look for volumes 5 and 6,
Exposed
and
Cowboy’s Command
, on sale in September and October 2013.
As always, we have a significant backlist of books that I hope you’ll browse and take a look at, in genres from horror to mystery to fantasy to female/female and across the ranges of romance. There’s an adventure waiting for every reader!
We love to hear from readers, and you can email us your thoughts, comments and questions to
[email protected]
. You can also interact with Carina Press staff and authors on our blog, Twitter stream and Facebook fan page.
Happy reading!
~Angela James
Executive Editor, Carina Press
www.carinapress.com
www.twitter.com/carinapress
www.facebook.com/carinapress
Dedication
This story is dedicated to my mom.
You knew I could. You knew I would. Even though you’re not here to see the results, you’re with me in every silly thing I do. No cha-cha-cha-chas or multicolored sandals yet, but Bran is ever hopeful.
Acknowledgements
To my husband, thank you for living with a woman who doesn’t always hear you because she’s listening to the voices in her head. Without you, I wouldn’t be me.
Thanks to my editor, Deb Nemeth, for pushing me to take this book from—in her words—very good to
great.
And to the Carina Press team, thank you for giving my Shelbyville series a home.
For my crit partners, super-plotters and sometimes therapy group, Adrienne Giordano, Tracey Devlyn and Theresa Stevens. I wouldn’t still be on the writing road without your support and tough love.
A big you’ve-just-moved-again hug to my CP Jamie Farrell. Thanks for always seeing the humor in my everyday characters and for loving contemporary romance and naughty cookies as much as I do.
To Nancy Naigle, who popped back into my life at exactly the right time. Thanks for your unending cheerfulness and good Southern butt kicks. You’re the reason this manuscript ended up in the Carina submission box.
Thanks to D’Ann Lindun and Kristina Knight, who critiqued this manuscript early on. You took me in when I had no clue what a critique relationship was, and I’ll be forever grateful.
This book was initially conceived in a class taught by Jessica Barksdale Inclán. To her and my UCLA classmates, thank you for being my earliest readers and cheerleaders.
And last, thanks to Smarty Boy for always brainstorming with me and loving books as much as I do. I can’t wait to read your first book!
Contents
Chapter One
What he needed was a fast girl. With the right tools and a little patience, he’d have her stripped down and ready to ride in no time.
That ’69 Pontiac GTO he’d spotted at auction last week was exactly the kind of sweetheart he was looking for. He’d get his hands on one of those babies as soon as possible.
His Cadillac lurched forward with a neck-wrenching crunch and there went his fantasy and his morning. He’d been back in town less than forty-eight hours and some bozo had already rear-ended his car. An omen?
Then came the metallic sound of his bumper hitting the asphalt, and his gut cramped the way it did when he occasionally overindulged in beer weenies.
Cameron sucked in thick Texas air, but the humid stuff did nothing to soothe the sudden burn in his belly. He should’ve crawled back into bed. The signs had all been there. Shower water icy enough to permanently shrink his balls. Nothing but tap water to pour over his cereal. Boxers the color of Pepto-Bismol after a run-in with a red T-shirt in the washing machine.
His mom always warned him to wear clean underwear in case he was ever in a car accident. Cameron might flirt with other types of danger, but he wasn’t stupid enough to disobey Emmalee Wright. He climbed out of his prized possession, a 1963 Caddy convertible with butter-soft leather seats and fins big enough to propel a shark. The car’s door handle caught the back pocket of his jeans, and well-washed cotton gave way with a thread-popping rip.
Of all the days to mind Mom’s advice.
“Welcome frickin’ home,” he muttered. Jesus, bare-assed or half of Shelbyville ogling his pretty-in-pink underwear?
Give me bare-assed any day.
His car sat in two pieces in the middle of his hometown’s busiest intersection, and people were already craning their necks to stare out the front windows of McIntosh’s drugstore and Bitsy Miller’s beauty shop. What a way to kick off his career as a respectable business owner.
He stalked to the back of his car to inspect the damage. Cracked taillights, ruined bumper and buckled trunk.
Goddammit.
Now he definitely wouldn’t pick up the garage keys from Scooter Kaynes on time.
The source of his latest run-in with Monday morning madness, who’d almost run him over in her shiny Escalade, was Alice Ann Shelby. Cameron hadn’t seen her in years, but he’d recognize that white-blond hair anywhere.
Without a doubt, God was a woman. Because a man wouldn’t have thrown him into this mess with the princess of Shelbyville. That big SUV with its oversized grille guard and without one damned scratch was probably her latest indulgence from Daddy, the town’s self-appointed king.
Squashing the urge to cover his butt cheek with his hand, Cameron stepped over the bumper sprawled like shiny roadkill behind his car and headed toward Allie. Why wasn’t she removing her fanny from her car? Surely she realized she’d hit something.
He peered closer. Her forehead was resting on the steering wheel. Jesus, was she hurt?
He rushed over and jerked open the Escalade’s driver’s side door. The fear jumping in his belly boiled over into purely pissed off. Hurt, his ass. She was punching buttons on her cell phone like a madwoman.
