Susan Stoker
Justice for Erin
Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes
Release Date Nov. 14, 2017
Blurb:
Part-time bartender Erin Gardner is friendly to everyone who bellies up to her bar, including the local law enforcement and firefighters who keep her city safe. That’s where she meets game warden Conor Paxton, a regular who asks to join a canoeing trip she’s leading for her university day job. When the trip leads to something more, Erin couldn’t be happier.
Conor adores Erin, more than enough to help her continue to get over lingering self-esteem issues from her childhood. He’s thrilled he’s found someone who enjoys spending time in nature as much as he does.
Just when the couple thinks they’re on their way to a happily ever after, Erin finds herself in the wrong place at the wrong time. But there’s no way she’ll just lay down and die. She’s woman enough to save herself―and lead her man to her when she’s done.
Justice for Erin is the 9th book in the Badge of Honor: Texas Heroes Series. Each book is a stand-alone, with no cliffhanger endings.
EXCERPT:
Agreeing to go on
the canoe trip was the best idea ever. Conor happily stood by the gas pumps and
filled the van while Erin went inside to use the restroom.
She was such an
enigma. There were times she seemed so strong and with it, then he’d get a
glimpse of the unsure and vulnerable woman lurking underneath the surface. It
was that woman he wanted to get to know. Oh, he liked the take-charge bartender
and professor, but Conor could tell there was so much more to Erin. She had
such expressive eyes, and when she’d looked at him and admitted that she didn’t
“do” holidays, he wanted to take her in his arms and tell her everything would
be all right, that she could lean on him and he wouldn’t let her down.
He’d been attracted
to her from the first moment he’d seen her. But the more he got to know her,
the more he realized it wasn’t her physical features that turned him on, it was
who she was as a person.
Oh, she was good
looking, there was no doubt. She was tall—he’d always liked tall women. Her
light brown hair was medium length, long enough to leave down and frame her
face, but she usually had it up in some sort of ponytail. Her unique green eyes
shone with laughter when she joked around with Sophie or some of the other
women in his group of friends. She was slender, especially for her height, but
she went out of her way to hide her assets.
Conor knew it was
insane, but he wanted Erin Gardner more than he’d ever wanted anything in his
entire life. He’d watched her at The Sloppy Cow for months now. She was
generous and intuitive. She knew how to diffuse situations that had the
potential to get out of control. She could handle bullies, handsy men, patrons
who had drunk too much, and still had the compassion to bring a plate of food
to the homeless man who occasionally hung around the back of the bar.
But when he tried
to flirt with her, tried to let her know he wanted to get to know her better,
she acted as if no one had ever told her how pretty she was before. Like she
had no idea how to respond. It had taken him a month or so to realize she
wasn’t rebuffing him, but honestly had no clue how to flirt. The more he paid
attention, the more he realized when it came to male-female interaction, she
was as innocent as a teenager just entering the dating fray.
And that made him
feel protective toward her. No, more than that. It made him want to beat the
shit out of anyone who said or did anything out of line when it came to her.
Erin was a breath of fresh air. Innocent. She was a rarity in his world, and he
wanted to cherish her, show her that he could be the kind of man who would
treat her like a queen.
He had no idea what
her story was, but it was more than obvious she had one.
So when she’d taken
a deep breath and invited him to go on the canoe trip with her one night at the
bar, he’d immediately agreed, knowing he’d do whatever it took to get the time
off work to go. It had taken a bit of wrangling, but he didn’t regret it. The
three hours they’d been together so far had been enlightening, and he’d learned
more about her than he’d found out in months of talking to her at the bar.
“If you want to go
inside, I can finish that,” she said from beside him.
Conor turned to see
Erin standing next to him. She was shorter than he was, but not by a lot. He
figured she was probably around five-nine or so. A perfect complement to his
six-one. Her hair was lying down around her shoulders for once. It was slightly
curly, and his fingers itched to reach up and let one of her curls wrap around
his hand. Her unique jade-green eyes looked at him with sincerity.
About the Author:
New York Times, USA Today, and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author, Susan Stoker has a heart as big as the state of Texas where she lives, but this all-American girl has also spent the last fourteen years living in Missouri, California, Colorado, and Indiana. She's married to a retired Army man who now gets to follow her around the country.
She debuted her first series in 2014 and quickly followed that up with the SEAL of Protection Series, which solidified her love of writing and creating stories readers can get lost in.
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