The cowboy is such a romantic soul

Today's blog is by erotic romance author Desiree Holt, who's 100th book releases in April. Incredible, right? Enjoy! Oh, and don't forget to check out her WEBSITE for a list of all of her other great books.

Every culture needs legends and heroes; the Cowboy is one of America's best. We see honor, leadership, integrity, hard work, strength and freedom in the cowboy. We envy the simplicity of his long day's labor and the wide-open spaces he roams. Little boys want to grow up to be him, and many little girls want to grow up and marry him. He contains the last vestiges of wildness allowed in the new millennium, and as much as our country changes, he remains the same. America needs the Cowboy both to remind us of how far we have come and to bring us back to the simplicity of the values he represents.

From Zane Grey to Linda Lael Miller, authors have painted the cowboy as sexy, romantic, virile, the ultimate alpha male. He ropes horses, fights bad guys, wears jeans that hug him like a second skin and sweeps women off their feet. He dances the Texas Two-Step and the waltz with equal ease, sips aged bourbon or ice cold beer with equal aplomb and can shoot a target dead center from a thousand feet. I mean, what’s not to love?

I live in one of the greatest places of the world, the Texas Hill Country, where I am surrounded by ranches. On a frosty morning I can see the quintessential cowboy mounted on his horse, buttoned into his sheepskin-lined jacket, his Stetson pulled low over his forehead to shield his eyes from the rising son, thighs clenched against the flanks of his mount as he urges him forward after a recalcitrant calf or a wandering cow. He is the idol of dreams, the star of fantasies, as he rides with a smooth gait across the acres of pasture rolling off toward the horizon.


And then, of course, at the end of the day, with the dust of the land showered from his body, he makes mad, passionate, exquisite love to the woman of his heart. Or in some case, the many women of his heart!

And this is why I make the cowboy the central figure in so many of my stories.

Jessie Wade is a tough as nails sheriff until bull rider Kyle Mitchell ends up in her jail. With his bone-melting good looks and seductive voice, he knocks Jessie's defenses down one by one and awakens the sensuous woman she's hidden beneath her uniform. But Jessie can't afford to be soft. Or allow herself to fall for a cowboy who's never in one town longer than it takes to ride a bull. Kyle never backs down from a challenge, but after a passionate night with Jessie, he realizes there's a hell of a woman behind the handcuffs and badge. Can Kyle convince Jessie he can take her for more than an eight-second ride?

Excerpt:

Kyle Mitchell wanted to pry his eyes open but someone was pounding a drum inside his head so hard he was afraid to see daylight. Not only that, but whatever he was lying on was harder than a concrete floor and killing his back. He needed aspirin and coffee in large supply. He tried to raise his hands to press them against his aching temples but something jerked his right hand and prevented him from lifting it.Now he opened his eyes.

And wished he hadn’t.

Unfortunately this wasn’t the first jail cell he’d been in, but he was pretty sure it was the worst. And he was pretty sure it hadn’t been modernized in the last fifty years. One wall consisted of the usual arrangement of bars with a portion of it hinged for a door. The sleeping arrangement, rather than a crummy cot that would have been a vast improvement, was a flat piece of wood with a mattress on it so thin he was sure he’d be able to see through it. And it was the kind that pulled down from the wall on chains.

And speaking of chain, he yanked at his right hand again and discovered he was handcuffed to one length of chain.

Damn! What the hell had happened? What had he gotten himself into now?

Squinting against the brightness of the light from the ceiling lights he looked down the length of his body.

Boots. Check.

Jeans. Check.

He clapped his left hand over his waist in a sudden panic.

Champion belt buckle! Okay! Check.

Shirt. Check.

He rubbed a hand over his square jaw, feeling the stubble of yesterday’s beard growth. Testing everywhere on his face he discovered his nose was tender but not broken, but the rest of his face felt as if a bull had stomped on it.

Wait. Was that what had happened? The last thing he remembered was lasting the full eight seconds on Sodbuster before landing in the dirt of the rodeo arena. Everything else was a blur.

“Well. It looks like you’re finally awake.”

The voice was pure music, soft, with a faint drawl. Squinting through the bars he thought for a minute his heart was going to stop beating. In the hallway looking in at him was about five-foot-four of the most breathtaking woman he’d ever seen. Dark blonde curls tumbled down to her shoulders, framing a lightly tanned face with emerald green eyes peeking out from thick, thick lashes. The stiff fabric of the uniform shirt she wore couldn’t conceal the lush ripeness of her breasts any more than the pants hid her mouthwatering curves.

But what really shook him up was the star gleaming from its place of prominence on her shirt, right over one of those nicely rounded breasts.

Holy hell! This was the sheriff?

He looked at her and something inside turned over. He had an urgent need to see this woman naked in his bed, but not the way he did with the usual women he rolled in the sheets with. Not an eight-second ride and done. No, even in his pitiful condition he could imagine making slow, soul-searing love to her. Everything from his balls to his brain went on instant alert.

Check out Desiree's new release,

Eight Second Ride.

Available now at The Wild Rose Press.

Desiree Holt has lived a life of excitement that brings the color to her writing. She was a summer fishing guide, a summer field hand where she was one of only three women working, a member of a beginning ski team that skied in competition (and no, no broken bones!). She spent several years in the music business representing every kind of artist from country singer to heavy metal rock bands. For several years she also ran her own public relations agency handling any client that interested her. She is twice a finalist for an EPIC E-Book Award, a nominee for a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award, winner of the first 5 Heart Sweetheart of the Year Award at The Romance Studio as well as a CAPA Award, winner of two Holt Medallion Awards of Merit, and is published by four different houses. Romance Junkies said of her work: “Desiree Holt is the most amazing erotica author of our time and each story is more fulfilling then the last.”

You can find her at:
www.desireeholt.com and www.desireeholttellsall.com