He's No Prince Charming

At sixteen, Dakota Dunn was America's Pop Princess. Now twenty-five, she's all grown up-and definitely washed up. She decides to head to her parents' lakefront retreat in Tennessee, fixing to write songs and transform her image from squeaky clean to kickin' country.

Turns out her folks have handed things over to sexy, if cranky, cowboy Trace Coleman-a former bull riding champion benched by injuries. He's none too happy about Dakota's arrival-and makes no secret of it. But though Trace is rough around the edges, Dakota feels a pull of attraction she can't quite shake. For all his brooding, Trace has an animal magnetism that may just lead Dakota to dig in her heels and hold on tight...

  “Eeeeeee! Dropping her purse with a thud, Dakota screamed and then shouted, “Get off get off, get off!” While dancing in a circle she slapped at the spider web she had walked into upon entering the musty cabin. “Eeee!” With another squeal she tugged at the cobwebs sticking to her hair and then frantically brushed at her arms. “Oh… oh!” Feeling itchy, she wiggled and squiggled, imagining there were baby spiders crawling all over her body.

“Okay, okay, settle down,” Dakota scolded herself while taking shallow breaths. “Oh-kaaaa…” After a moment her rapid heartbeat calmed a bit but then felt a tickling sensation as if something were crawling between her shoulder blades. “Oh! God!” Wincing, she reached behind her back and slid her hand up her shirt but the tiny tickling persisted just out of her reach. “Grrr…” she grumbled, arched her spine and tilted back her shoulders in a move that would have made Cirque de Soleil proud but then in desperation tugged her T-shirt over her head. She slapped at her back with the sleeve and sure enough flung a big black spider into the air. “I knew it! Okay, now where did you go?” With a shudder, she squinted down at the hardwood floor.

With the curtains drawn the room was in semi-darkness with the only real light slicing in through the open front door. “Aha, there you are!” Nervously twisting the T-shirt in her fists, Dakota crept forward with the intention of smashing the spider beneath her flip-flop. She even went as far as to raise her foot but then stood there balanced on one leg looking as if she were doing a karate pose. Closing her eyes, she swallowed hard and glared at the spider but imagined the emanate pop and squish and her foot remained poised in mid-air. “You can do this,” she whispered fiercely but could not bring herself to perform the deed.

Dakota concentrated hard, dug deep for her killer instinct. “Okay here goes nothing,” she murmured, gritted her teeth and was about to end the life of the spider…

“Are you okay?” A deep voice from out of nowhere questioned.

Jarred from her task, Dakota’s head whipped up and she let out a startled, “Eeeee!” She dropped her shirt, lost her balance and smashed the spider with an audible splat. Her eyes widened at the tall figure standing in the open doorway blocking out most of the waning sunlight. “Oh, God ewe!” She kicked off the flip-flop soiled with spider guts and blinked up at the giant man standing in the shadows. Well he wasn’t a giant, maybe six two or three but to Dakota’s five-foot four… and that’s on a big hair day, he seemed huge and sort of… looming. His dark hair reached nearly to his shoulders and equally dark stubble shaded his square unyielding jaw. A black T-shirt stretched across a well-defined chest and seemed to test the limit of the short sleeves revealing bulging biceps. Faded jeans ripped at the knees hugged muscled thighs.

“What made you scream?”

“Um…” Dakota inhaled a calming breath and was beginning to think she was in over-reacting, fight or flight mode when she noticed, oh dear lord, he had an ax by his side! “I uh…” With a gasp, she started backing away thinking it had been a while since she had come home to Pine Hollow Lake and perhaps things had… changed.