A Buckhorn Summer Read online

  In a sexy new Buckhorn Brothers novella, New York Times bestselling author Lori Foster welcomes readers back to the small town that’s big on romance...

  Lisa Sommerville’s wild one-night-stand was completely out of character for the workaholic businesswoman. So when she arrives in Buckhorn, Kentucky to spend a summer rethinking her career, she’s stunned to find that Gray Neely has stepped out of her steamy memories and taken up residence in her hometown. What’s more, the laid-back ex-cop wants to pick up where they left off.

  Lisa has been on Gray’s mind every day since that mindblowing encounter. He was reeling from a tragedy in the line of duty, and their connection was instant and intense. Still is. But sleepy Buckhorn is a million miles from her corporate world. And he has one sweet, hot summer to prove they have a future there, together...

  And don’t miss the bonus novella Back to Buckhorn, also included in this volume!

  Dear Readers,

  Welcome back to Buckhorn!

  Though I know an actual Buckhorn exists, mine is an entirely fictional town in beautiful Kentucky. My first Buckhorn story was published back in 2000 and the series has become a true reader favorite. For me it seemed a natural fit to combine my need to help stray cats and dogs by continuing the series with a new generation of the leading family in Buckhorn.

  Through a special contract with my publisher, the advance and all royalties on A Buckhorn Summer will go directly to the Animal Adoption Foundation, a local no-kill animal shelter that does an amazing job healing, protecting, and loving cats and dogs until a “forever home” can be found for them.

  I hope you enjoy the story, and I especially hope you enjoy knowing that by purchasing this story, you’ve helped a dog or cat in need. And don’t miss Back to Buckhorn, my 2014 benefit novella, included as a bonus in this collection!

  To see other “benefit books,” visit lorifoster.com/benefit-books/.

  And to see other books in the Buckhorn series, visit lorifoster.com/connected-books/#buckhorn.

  From the bottom of my heart, thank you!

  Also available from Lori Foster

  and HQN Books

  The Ultimate series

  “Hard Knocks” (ebook novella)

  No Limits

  Holding Strong

  Love Undercover

  Run the Risk

  Bare It All

  Getting Rowdy

  Dash of Peril

  Men Who Walk the Edge of Honor

  “Ready, Set, Jett” (in The Guy Next Door anthology)

  When You Dare

  Trace of Fever

  Savor the Danger

  A Perfect Storm

  “What Chris Wants” (ebook novella)

  Other must-reads

  Heartbreakers

  All For You

  Charade

  Up in Flames

  Turn Up the Heat

  Hot in Here

  Love Bites

  All Riled Up

  The Buckhorn Legacy

  Forever Buckhorn

  Buckhorn Beginnings

  Bewitched

  Unbelievable

  Tempted

  Bodyguard

  Caught!

  Fallen Angels

  Enticing

  And don’t miss a

  brand-new Ultimate novel from Lori,

  also coming soon

  Tough Love

  LORI

  FOSTER

  A Buckhorn Summer

  Table of Contents

  A BUCKHORN SUMMER

  BACK TO BUCKHORN

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  EXCERPT

  A

  BUCKHORN

  SUMMER

  To the Animal Adoption Foundation,

  www.AAFPets.org.

  Thank you for all you do to help dogs and cats in need.

  I know my contributions are always put to very good use.

  It’s been a true pleasure watching the AAF grow!

  Contents

  CHAPTER ONE

  CHAPTER TWO

  CHAPTER THREE

  CHAPTER FOUR

  CHAPTER FIVE

  CHAPTER SIX

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  CHAPTER EIGHT

  CHAPTER ONE

  ONE MONTH AGO TODAY, she’d awakened disoriented in a posh hotel in Chicago. Exhausted. Tired of travel.

  Lonely.

  For the longest time she’d stared at the ceiling, getting her bearings and knowing she needed a break. Her stomach had burned from too much stress. Her neck hurt from the small, flat pillow.

  Lisa Sommerville had known instinctively that she needed a change, so she’d gotten up, dressed, gone down to the bar and...

  “Lighten up,” her cousin Shohn said from behind her as he turned the small outboard motor on the fishing boat, steering around a sunken log and aiming toward the marina where they’d gas up and grab bait. “You’ll have fun. Guaranteed.”

  On the seat in front of her, the bright morning sunlight making a halo of his fair hair, her brother, Adam, grinned. “No thinking about work, remember? If we catch you drifting off, Dad gave us permission to drop you in the lake.”

  Lisa looked over the side of the boat. The water was green and cool and this early in the day, fairly smooth. “I wasn’t.”

  “Fibber,” Adam said.

  “That’s all you think about,” Shohn agreed. “But not today.”

  She didn’t bother to correct them, to explain that her thoughts had been on her very out-of-character behavior from a month ago. On the sizzling night she’d had. On the fantasy that had come to life and still, every other minute, replayed in her mind.

  “Lisa,” Adam warned, again mistaking her quiet.

  She looked up at the blinding sunrise splashing colors across a cloudless sky. “I’ll probably take a dip on my own later.” She slanted a look at her brother. “On my own, without your help, after I’ve put on my suit.”

  “You could swim in that,” Shohn said, indicating her outfit of shorts and a blue T-shirt.

  She turned her narrowed gaze on him, prompting him to grin like the sinner she knew him to be. They all three had dark eyes, but the similarities ended there. She was medium height, with medium-length honey-blond hair and a medium figure. Shohn and Adam both topped six feet. Adam’s hair was far fairer than hers, and Shohn’s was inky black.

  Both men lived and worked in Buckhorn, Shohn as a park ranger, Adam as a gym teacher.

  She loved Buckhorn as well, but until that fateful night in Chicago, she’d also loved traveling the country, working 24-7, earning her barracuda rep in the business world.

  Icy water hit her legs, making her gasp.

  “Concentrate,” Shohn said, flicking his now wet fingers at her face, “or I’ll grab a bucketful of water instead of just a handful.”

  “I was concentrating!” She brushed water droplets off her heated thighs.

  “On fun,” Adam stressed. “Not work.”

  Because they’d just reached the dock, Lisa didn’t reply. Without waiting for the boat to steady, she stood and leaped out, a rope in hand, and secured the front of the small boat to a cleat.

  Shohn did the same to the back. Adam, holding their bait bucket, hauled himself out behind her.

  Every woman around stared. Always. Her cousin and brother had that effect wherever they went. Between them, she felt insubstantial, inadequate, even bland.

  Which in part e
xplained why she’d glommed onto business. In a family full of prime physical specimens, male and female alike, she was just so-so.

  Except for when it came to brains and drive. Then she excelled.

  Or used to. Now she considered changing it all. She could join her family in the slower, easier life of Buckhorn County, Kentucky. Doing what, she didn’t yet know.

  Fishing today. But tomorrow? She was not an idle person.

  “We lost her again.”

  Sure, she needed to slow down. Her health and her very recent aberrant behavior proved she needed that change. No one in her family yet knew of her tension, her migraines, her sleepless nights.

  Only that one man, a man she’d never see again—

  She screeched when Shohn scooped her up and headed to the side of the dock. “Ohmigod, don’t you dare!”

  “You need to be dunked.”

  Knotting one hand in his dark hair, the other in his worn T-shirt, she growled, “Try it and you’re going in with me. Or at least your hair is.” She gave a tug to prove her point.

  Wincing, laughing, Shohn said, “I’ll jump us both in.”

  “No!” Okay, sure, her lake clothes, as she called them, wouldn’t be harmed, but she’d braided her hair and didn’t want it soaked. “Seriously,” she said more calmly. “No.”

  Standing beside them, Adam crossed his arms over his bare chest. “Then no more brooding over business.”

  Lisa blew out a huff of breath. “If you must know, I wasn’t.”

  “Bull.”

  “I was thinking of...a guy.” There, she thought. Chew on that.

  Both men laughed.

  Laughed.

  Was it so unheard of for her to be socially interested and interesting? Admitting the pathetic truth, she knew that yes, it was. At thirty, she’d never had a single serious romantic relationship.

  She’d had some dates. She’d had some sex.

  She’d had that one amazing night that would forever leave her warm and wanting...for more, more, more.

  But she’d never been involved. And damn it, that hurt.

  Mouth tight and brows angled down, Lisa turned her face away.

  The laughter died.

  Shohn slowly lowered her to her feet, obliging her to release his hair.

  Without a word, Adam slung an arm around her shoulders and again got them heading along the dock to the gravel lot alongside the boat launch and then up the worn path to the small renovated structure that sold anything and everything boaters might need.

  Hoping to clear the air, Lisa asked, “When did this change?” She remembered the structure being smaller, more weatherworn and utilitarian. Now it looked like a regular two-story house, complete with flowers planted around the exterior.

  The double front doors, standing open, and the picnic tables placed all around the area made it clear the store remained, but otherwise it could have been any other home in Buckhorn.

  “Rosemary sold the marina some years back to a married couple who did the additions. But they sold it a few weeks ago and retired to Arizona to be nearer to their grandkids. A new guy stepped right in and the place never closed, not even for a day. It was pretty seamless.”

  “Huh.” So it had changed hands twice and she’d been unaware. Crazy how detached she’d been from her home. “I like the addition of a second level. Does the owner live here?”

  “I dunno,” Shohn said. “I’ve only met him a few times. He’s friendly, but not real talkative, which I guess makes sense given he’s a retired cop.”

  “You’ll probably like him,” Adam teased. “All the single ladies seem to.”

  Sure enough, as they stepped into the building, Lisa saw a trio of bikini-clad women huddled around the front counter and register, giggling in amped-up flirt mode.

  She snorted. It was barely eight a.m., but the ladies were already on the prowl. The new guy must be interesting. Then again, Buckhorn was such a small, intimate town that anyone new got plenty of attention.

  Shohn headed for the live bait selection, Adam went to fill the cooler with drinks and she moseyed down an aisle to pick up sunscreen. As a kid, she’d kept a light tan. As a woman who’d spent most of her time traveling from one business meeting to the next, her skin rarely saw prolonged exposure to the sun.

  She remembered fishing trips from her youth and knew the guys would keep her out for hours, maybe right through lunch. She grabbed the sunscreen and a straw hat.

  Heading for the snacks, she turned, took two steps—and gasped.

  So did the man standing in front of her.

  The big, sinfully gorgeous man.

  The man with the amazing bod and killer smile and devour-you sex drive.

  The man from a month ago.

  Her...fantasy.

  * * *

  GRAY NARROWED HIS EYES, but the vision didn’t change. Big brown eyes locked on his. Those sweet, lush lips parted. Color filled her cheeks.

  It was her, but an all-new version of her. A softer, sexier version, though how that was possible, he didn’t know, because every night for a freaking month he’d remembered her as so damned sexy, he felt obsessed.

  Neither of them spoke. Hell, he didn’t know what to say.

  Let’s go for round two didn’t seem appropriate.

  Shohn Hudson and Adam Sommerville, cousins he’d met before, suddenly flanked her.

  Cocking a brow, expression cautious, Shohn asked, “Problem?”

  Yeah, about a hundred of them. Gray didn’t know her name, didn’t know why she was here, didn’t know if she remembered him or was horrified at seeing him again or if, God willing, she’d like to get reacquainted.

  Adam slipped his arm around her and, yeah, that was another problem. Don’t let her be married. Or even involved. In any way.

  “You’re new,” Gray finally said, regaining his voice, rough and low as it sounded. His interest must’ve been obvious given how both Adam and Shohn looked at her again, almost as if they’d never seen her before.

  She cleared her throat, worked up a very bright, false smile, and stepped away from the two men with her hand extended. “Hello. I’m Lisa Sommerville. Adam’s sister.”

  Related? Now that she’d said it, he could see it. She and Adam shared similar dark eyes. And if they were siblings, that’d make Hudson her cousin. Nice. Only related, not involved. He could work with that.

  Tucking a small box of candy bars under his left arm, Gray accepted her hand and held on. “Gray Neely.” Her hands were as small and soft as he remembered, her skin just as warm.

  Her scent every bit as stirring.

  She tugged, and he had no choice but to let her go. “Actually,” she said, now a little breathless, “I’m local. You’re the new one.”

  An accusation? “So you live here?” That’d be too much of a coincidence—the first good luck he’d had in a year.

  Her chin lifted. “Yes.”

  A slow smile growing, Adam looked between them. “Lisa’s a shark, usually away wheeling and dealing with the big dawgs in business.”

  “She’s settling back in for a spell, though,” Shohn added.

  “Maybe just the summer,” she was quick to say.

  Tipping his chin, Shohn asked, “You two know each other?”

  Gray waited, and sure enough Lisa—pretty name—said too quickly, her voice a little high, “No.”

  Okay, he got that. Their time together wasn’t really the sort you discussed with a brother or cousin.

  “Not yet,” Gray corrected, and watched her face go warm. He nodded at the hat she held. “Good idea. Going to be a scorcher today.” And with that he continued on his way, restocking the candy bars on the shelf.

  He heard whispering, curiosity from the guys, insistence from Lisa.<
br />
  Damn, he really liked that name. It suited her.

  Nice that he could now add it into the repeat fantasy that played in his head every other minute. That fantasy had been his recent salvation.

  He’d met her on a desperate night during a time when nothing made sense and he hadn’t known which way to turn. She’d been fighting her own demons and things had just...happened.

  Scorching-hot things that had burned away his indecision and the pain of forced changes. For the remainder of the night they’d stayed tangled in erotic activity. He’d finally passed out, exhausted, sated, his brain blessedly clear of guilt and anger, her slim body held in his arms.

  When he woke in the morning, she was gone.

  But he’d tackled the day with a new outlook on life, and ended up in Buckhorn.

  Now she was here, in the flesh, close at hand.

  Glancing up, he saw the guys were teasing her and felt safe approaching again. “So how many of you are there in the area? Your family is large, right?”

  Lisa moved on, pretending to consider the healthy snacks, but Adam and Shohn remained. “There’s a bunch of us,” Adam said, launching into a recitation of the many relatives, some of whom Gray had met, some he hadn’t.

  They were an impressive lot, and from what he could tell, they influenced a lot of the town. “I need to take notes to keep you all straight.”

  “Amber could help you with that. She’s Garrett’s sister.”

  “Met her,” Gray said. Amber Hudson was beautiful, with dark hair and bright blue eyes and a smile that’d win over the darkest heart.

  She also scared the pants off him. She had a bold manner and a controlling streak that kept him two cautious steps away. Not that two steps had been far enough. Within five minutes of meeting him she’d managed to get more info out of him than the rest of her relatives combined.

  When Lisa looked up at him, he felt it. Her brows were slightly pinched, her expression uneasy. Because he’d met Amber?

  Needing her to understand, to know his intent, he stepped away from Shohn and Adam and approached her. “If you stay, what will you do?”

  She breathed a little faster. “Do?”