Harlequin Desire January 2021 Box Set 1 of 2
The Rancher’s Wager
Running Away with the Bride
Scandal in the VIP Suite
Maisey Yates
Sophia Singh Sasson
Nadine Gonzalez
Table of Contents
The Rancher’s Wager
By Maisey Yates
Running Away with the Bride
By Sophia Singh Sasson
Scandal in the VIP Suite
By Nadine Gonzalez
Cricket Maxfield had a hell of a hand. Her confidence made that clear.
And right now, she was looking like far too much of a winner.
Lucky for him, around the time he’d escalated the betting, he’d been sure she would win.
He’d wanted her to win.
“I guess that makes you my ranch hand,” she said. “Don’t worry. I’m a very good boss.”
Now, Jackson did not want a boss. Not at his job and not in his bedroom. But her words sent a streak of fire through his blood. Not because he wanted her in charge. But because he wanted to show her what a boss looked like.
Cricket was…
A nuisance. If anything.
That he had any awareness of her at all was problematic
enough. Much less that he had any awareness of her as a woman. But once this evening was over, he could forget all about ever being tempted to look down her dress during a game of cards.
“Oh, I’m sure you are, sugar.”
“I’m your boss. Not your sugar.”
* * *
The Rancher’s Wager by Maisey Yates is part of the Gold Valley Vineyards series.
Select praise for
New York Times bestselling author
Maisey Yates
“Her characters excel at defying the norms and providing readers with…an emotional investment.”
—RT Book Reviews on Claim Me, Cowboy (Top Pick)
“A sassy, romantic and sexy story about two characters whose chemistry is off the charts.”
—RT Book Reviews on Smooth-Talking Cowboy (Top Pick)
“This is an exceptional example of an opposites-attract romance with heartfelt writing and solid character development…. This is a must-read that will have you believing in love.”
—RT Book Reviews on Seduce Me, Cowboy (Top Pick)
“Their relationship is displayed with a quick writing style full of double entendres, sexy sarcasm and enough passion to melt the mountain snow!”
—RT Book Reviews on Hold Me, Cowboy (Top Pick)
The Rancher’s Wager
Maisey Yates
In Gold Valley, Oregon,
lasting love is only a happily-ever-after away.
Don’t miss any of Maisey Yates’s
Gold Valley tales, available now!
From Harlequin Desire
Gold Valley Vineyards
Rancher’s Wild Secret
Claiming the Rancher’s Heir
The Rancher’s Wager
Copper Ridge
Take Me, Cowboy
Hold Me, Cowboy
Seduce Me, Cowboy
Claim Me, Cowboy
Want Me, Cowboy
Need Me, Cowboy
For more books by Maisey Yates, visit maiseyyates.com.
You can also find Maisey Yates on Facebook, along with other Harlequin Desire authors, at Facebook.com/harlequindesireauthors!
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
CHAPTER ONE
Cricket Maxfield had won any number of specious prizes in the game of life. From being born youngest in her family, barely rating a passing glance from either of her parents and being left to essentially do as she pleased, to being the only Maxfield sister born with both pigeon feet and buck teeth.
The latter was largely solved by braces, the former was mostly dealt with by casts on her feet when she was a baby.
She hardly walked turned in at all anymore.
All the way to a decrepit ranch that had been buried in her father’s portfolio, discovered after his disgrace, and unwanted by anyone else in her family.
She had a feeling, though, that she was about to win the strangest prize of all—six feet and four inches of big, rock solid cowboy.
She couldn’t have planned it better if she’d tried.
Oh, he didn’t think he was going to lose. She knew he didn’t. Because he had been betting like a fool all the way through this hand, and he had no idea that she had just gotten the absolute best hand possible.
No. He was playing like a man with a full house or a straight flush.
But she was a woman with a royal flush.
This final hand was always the most interesting part of this charity fundraiser, and it was the first year that Cricket had ever been in the hot seat for Battle of the Gold Valley Stars charity poker tournament.
This was the grudge game. This was the game for spectators.
Huge amounts of money had already been counted and distributed in previous rounds, all of it donated by businesses as each player had fought tooth and nail against each other, pouring cash into a pot for the sole purpose of giving back to the community. Now came the part where things got interesting.
Rivals tried to get back bits of their own, as hotly contested items that had been tussled over at rummage sales, and family heirlooms that had gone back and forth in this game for decades, were all put in the pot.
Cricket was currently wearing an oversized black leather jacket with fringes—won in the previous round from Elliott Johns, the guy who ran a water filtration company in the area. She also had an oversized black cowboy hat that she had already won from her current target. It was resting low on her head, and smelled vaguely of sweat, which was unnerving, since smelling Jackson’s sweat made her feel strange. Just the idea of it.
It was a bit like that feeling she’d gotten when she was a child, and had been tempted to do something she knew she shouldn’t. A strange tingling low in her stomach, that then went lower and spread down her thighs, making her feel restless and strange. She shifted in her chair, her dress slippery on the material of the seat. Another specious prize. A hand-me-down red gown originally worn by her sister Emerson to this event.
Cricket’s fidgeting was just anticipation. And being so close to Jackson Cooper.
A man she usually avoided.
From afar, she had made a study of the Cooper family over the years. Something she was embarrassed to admit.
She had gotten to know Jackson’s brother, Creed, a little better over the past few months, since he’d become her brother-in-law. She’d acted shocked and appalled
