The Maverick Fakes a Bride! Read online

  Do You Take This (Faux) Fiancée?

  Rust Creek Ramblings

  All the single ladies in Rust Creek Falls know Travis Dalton. And they all know the sexy, rascally rancher is not the marrying kind. So how is it that our town’s most notorious bachelor has wound up engaged on a Western reality TV show?

  We here at the Gazette are pleased The Great Roundup has chosen our hometown heartbreaker as a contestant. And we are definitely rooting for Travis’s unexpected union with childhood friend Brenna O’Reilly, the one girl we believe can keep this cowboy on his toes. But is it true this betrothal is strictly a fabrication for the cameras? Pass the popcorn, dear readers. We suspect this made-for-TV romance could be headed straight for a Hollywood happy ending!

  “We’re not giving up now,” Brenna said. “Don’t even think it.”

  “But are you...?”

  “We are doing this.” Her eyes had stars in them. “And we are taking home the prize.”

  “Brenna...” She smelled of flowers and fresh-cut grass. Travis really wanted to kiss her.

  “Do it,” she whispered, clearly reading his mind. “We need to do it. How can we pretend that we’re headed for forever when you’ve never even put your lips on mine?”

  Was she right? Did he really need to kiss her to make their fake relationship seem real? All he could think was that he’d never kissed her—and he had to kiss her.

  He lowered his head a fraction closer and she surged up.

  His mouth touched hers.

  With a sigh, she let go of his shirtfront. Her hands slid up to clasp the back of his neck. “Travis...” She stroked his nape with her soft fingers as she whispered his name, kissing it onto his lips.

  So good. So right. She tasted of honey, of ripe summer fruit—peaches and blackberries, watermelon. Cherries. She tasted of promises, sweet hopes and big dreams. She tasted of home.

  Someone yelled, “Kiss her, cowboy!”

  Neither Travis nor Brenna paid their hecklers any mind. The brims of their hats collided. His fell and then hers. Neither of them cared.

  MONTANA MAVERICKS: THE GREAT FAMILY ROUNDUP—Real cowboys and real love in Rust Creek Falls!

  Dear Reader,

  Welcome back to Rust Creek Falls, Montana. This year, Travis Dalton, the fun-loving Dalton who always seemed allergic to settling down, has decided it’s time to build his own house on the family ranch and step up to more responsibility, too. For that, he needs a nest egg.

  And he knows just how to get what he needs. He’s going to snare a spot on a brand-new cowboy reality show, The Great Roundup, which is filming this summer in Montana.

  Brenna O’Reilly fell in love with Travis when she was six years old. It didn’t work out. At first, when she was six and he was fourteen, he was too old for her. And later, well, Travis just wasn’t the kind of guy looking to settle down. And you know what? Brenna’s no settler either. She’s always been the one inclined to leap before she looks—at least until lately, when she’s started thinking a little settling wouldn’t be bad. She wants to run her own business in the hometown she loves. But for that, she would need a nest egg.

  And, as it turns out, Travis is just the man to help her with that. To succeed, they’ll need to pretend to be something they’re not: forever lovers. But, hey. No problem. Whatever it takes.

  You know they’ll get way more than they bargained for, right? Because if there did just happen to be a spark of attraction between them, pretending to be lovers who can’t keep their hands off each other is no way to avoid starting a fire.

  I love both Brenna and Travis, a pair of bold-hearted souls, both ready for anything. I hope you enjoy their wild and crazy journey to true love in The Maverick Fakes a Bride!

  All my best,

  The Maverick Fakes a Bride!

  Christine Rimmer

  Christine Rimmer came to her profession the long way around. She tried everything from acting to teaching to telephone sales. Now she’s finally found work that suits her perfectly. She insists she never had a problem keeping a job—she was merely gaining “life experience” for her future as a novelist. Christine lives with her family in Oregon. Visit her at christinerimmer.com.

  Books by Christine Rimmer

  Harlequin Special Edition

  The Bravos of Justice Creek

  A Bravo for Christmas

  Ms. Bravo and the Boss

  James Bravo’s Shotgun Bride

  Carter Bravo’s Christmas Bride

  The Good Girl’s Second Chance

  Not Quite Married

  The Bravo Royales

  A Bravo Christmas Wedding

  The Earl’s Pregnant Bride

  The Prince’s Cinderella Bride

  Holiday Royale

  How to Marry a Princess

  Her Highness and the Bodyguard

  The Rancher’s Christmas Princess

  Montana Mavericks: The Baby Bonanza

  Marriage, Maverick Style!

  Visit the Author Profile page at Harlequin.com for more titles.

  Join Harlequin My Rewards today and earn a FREE ebook!

  Click here to Join Harlequin My Rewards

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  For MSR,

  always.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  Excerpt from Serenity Harbor by RaeAnne Thayne

  Chapter One

  It was a warm day for March. And everyone in Bee’s Beauty Parlor that afternoon had gathered at the wide front windows to watch as Travis Dalton rode his favorite bay gelding down Broomtail Road.

  The guy was every cowgirl’s fantasy in a snug Western shirt, butt-hugging jeans, Tony Lama Boots and a black hat. One of those film school graduates from the little theater in nearby Kalispell, a video camera stuck to his face, walked backward ahead of him, recording his every move. Travis talked and gestured broadly as he went.

  “My, my, my.” Bee smoothed her brassy blond hair, though it didn’t need it. Even in a high wind, Bee’s hair never moved. “Travis does have one fine seat on a horse.”

  There were soft, low sounds of agreement and appreciation from the women at the window—and then, out of nowhere, Travis tossed his hat in the air and flipped to a handstand right there on that horse in the middle of the street.

  The women applauded. There was more than one outright cry of delight.

  Only Brenna O’Reilly stood still and silent. She had her arms wrapped around her middle to keep from clapping, and she’d firmly tucked her lips between her teeth in order not to let out a single sound.

  Because no way was Brenna sighing over Travis Dalton. Yes, he was one hot cowboy, with that almost-black hair and those dangerous blue eyes, that hard, lean body and that grin that could make a girl’s lady parts spontaneously combust.

  And it wasn’t onl
y his looks that worked for her. Sometimes an adventurous woman needed a hero on hand. Travis had come to her rescue more than once in her life.

  But he’d always made a big deal about how he was too old for her—and okay, maybe he’d had a point, back when she was six and he was fourteen. But now that she’d reached the grown-up age of twenty-six, what did eight years even matter?

  Never mind. Not going to happen, Brenna reminded herself for the ten thousandth time. And no matter what people in town might say, she was not and never had been in love with the man.

  Right now, today, she was simply appreciating the view, which was spectacular.

  Beside her, Dovey Jukes actually let out a moan and made a big show of fanning herself. “Is it just me, or is it really hot in here?”

  “This is his, er, what did you call it now, Melba?” Bee asked old Melba Strickland, who’d come out from under the dryer to watch the local heartthrob ride by.

  “It’s his package,” replied Melba.

  Dovey snickered.

  Bee let out her trademark smoke-and-whiskey laugh. “Not that kind of package.” She gave Dovey a playful slap on the arm.

  “It’s reality television slang,” Melba clarified. “Tessa told me all about it.” Melba’s granddaughter lived in Los Angeles now. Tessa Strickland Drake had a high-powered job in advertising and understood how things worked in the entertainment industry. “A package is an audition application and video.”

  “Audition for what?” one of the other girls asked.

  “A brand-new reality show.” Melba was in the know. “It’s going to get made at a secret location right here in Montana this summer, and it will be called The Great Roundup. From what I heard, it’s going to be like Survivor, but with cowboys—you know, roping and branding, bringing in the strays, everyone sharing their life stories around the campfire, sleeping out under the stars, answering challenge after challenge, trying not to get eliminated. The winner will earn himself a million-dollar prize.”

  Brenna, who’d never met a challenge she couldn’t rise to, clutched the round thermal brush in her hand a little tighter and tried to ignore the tug of longing in her heart. After all, she’d been raised on the family ranch and could rope and ride with the best of them. She couldn’t help but imagine herself on this new cowboy reality show.

  True, lately, she’d been putting in some serious effort to quell her wild and crazy side, to settle down a little, you might say.

  But a reality show? She could enjoy the excitement while accomplishing a valid goal of winning those big bucks. A few months ago, Bee had started dating a handsome sixtyish widower from Kalispell. Now that things had gotten serious, she’d been talking about selling the shop and retiring so she and her new man could travel. Brenna would love to step up as owner when Bee left.

  But that would cost money she didn’t have. If she won a million dollars on a reality show, however, she could buy the shop and still have plenty of money to spare.

  And then again, no. Trying out for a reality show was a crazy idea, and Brenna was keeping a lid on her wild side, she truly was. The Great Roundup was not for her.

  She asked wistfully, “You think Travis has a chance to be on the show?”

  “Are you kidding?” Bee let out a teasing growl. “Those Hollywood people would be crazy not to choose him. And if the one doing the choosing is female, all that man has to do is give her a smile.”

  Every woman at that window enthusiastically agreed.

  First week of May, a studio soundstage,

  Los Angeles, California

  Travis Dalton hooked his booted foot across his knee and relaxed in the interview chair.

  It was happening. Really happening. His video had wowed them. And his application? He’d broken all the rules with it, just like that book he’d bought—Be a Reality Star—had instructed. He’d used red ink, added lots of silly Western doodles and filled it chock-full of colorful stories of his life on the family ranch.

  He’d knocked them clean out of their boots, if he did say so himself. And now here he was in Hollywood auditioning for The Great Roundup.

  “Tell us about growing up on a ranch,” said the casting director, whose name was Giselle. Giselle dressed like a fashion model. She had a way of making a guy feel like she could see inside his head. Sharp. That was the word for Giselle. Sharp—and interested. Her calculating eyes watched him so closely.

  Which was fine. Good. He wanted her looking at him with interest. He wanted to make the cut, get on The Great Roundup and win himself a million bucks.

  Travis gave a slow grin in the general direction of one of the cameras that recorded every move he made. “I grew up on my family’s ranch in northwestern Montana.” He was careful to include Giselle’s question in his answer, in case they ended up using this interview in the show. Then they could cut Giselle’s voice out and what he said would still make perfect sense. “My dad put me on a horse for the first time at the age of five. Sometimes it feels like I was born in the saddle.”

  Giselle and her assistant nodded their approval as he went on—about the horses he’d trained and the ones that had thrown him. About the local rodeos where he’d been bucked off more than one bad-tempered bull—and made it all the way to eight full seconds on a few. He thought it was going pretty well, that he was charming them, winning them over, showing them he wasn’t shy, that an audience would love him.

  “Can you take off your shirt for us, Travis?”

  He’d assumed that would be coming. Rising, Travis unbuttoned and shrugged out of his shirt. At first, he kept it all business, no funny stuff. They needed to get a good look at the body that ranching had built and he kept in shape. He figured they wouldn’t be disappointed.

  But they wanted to see a little personality, too, so when Giselle instructed, “Turn around slowly,” he held out his arms, bending his elbows and bringing them down, giving them the cowboy version of a bodybuilder’s flex. As he turned, he grabbed his hat off the back of his chair and plunked it on his head, aiming his chin to the side, giving them a profile shot, and then going all the way with a slow grin and a wink over his shoulder.

  The casting assistant, Roxanne, stifled a giggle as she grinned right back.

  “Go ahead and sit back down,” Giselle said. She wasn’t flirty like Roxanne, but in her sharp-edged way she seemed happy with how the interview was shaking out.

  Travis took off his hat again. He bent to get his shirt.

  “Leave it,” said Giselle.

  He gave her a slight nod and no smile as he settled back into the chair. Because this was serious business. To him—and to her.

  “Now we want to know about that hometown of yours.” Giselle almost smiled then, though really it was more of a smirk. “We’ve been hearing some pretty crazy things about Rust Creek Falls.”

  Was he ready for that one? You bet he was. His town had been making news the past few years. First came the flood. He explained about the Fourth of July rains that wouldn’t stop and all the ways the people of Rust Creek Falls had pulled together to come back from the worst disaster in a century. He spoke of rebuilding after the waters receded, of the national attention and the sudden influx of young women who had come to town to find themselves a cowboy.

  When Giselle asked if any of those women had found him, he answered in a lazy drawl, “To tell you the truth, I met a lot of pretty women after the great flood.” He put his right hand on his chest. “Each one of them holds a special place in my heart.”

  Roxanne had to stifle another giggle.

  Giselle sent her a cool look. Roxanne’s smile vanished as if it had never been. “Tell us more,” said Giselle.

  And he told them about a certain Fourth of July wedding almost two years ago now, a wedding in Rust Creek Falls Park. A local eccentric by the name of Homer Gilmore had spiked the wedding pun
ch with his special recipe moonshine—purported to make people do things they would never do ordinarily.

  “A few got in fights,” he confessed, “present company included, I’m sorry to say.” He made an effort to look appropriately embarrassed at his own behavior before adding, “And a whole bunch of folks got romantic—and that meant that last year, Rust Creek Falls had a serious baby boom. You might have heard of that. We called it the ‘baby bonanza.’ So now we have what amounts to a population explosion in our little town. Nobody’s complaining, though. In Rust Creek Falls, love and family is what it’s all about.”

  Travis explained that he wanted to join the cast of The Great Roundup for the thrill of it—and he also wanted to be the last cowboy standing. He had a fine life working the Dalton family ranch, but the million-dollar prize would build him his own house on the land he loved and put a little money in the bank, too.

  “I’m not getting any younger,” he admitted with a smile he hoped came across as both sexy and modest. “One of these days, I might even want to find the right girl and settle down.”

  Giselle, who had excellent posture in the first place, seemed to sit up even straighter, like a prize hunting dog catching a scent. “The right girl? Interesting.” She glanced at Roxanne, who bobbed her head in an eager nod. “Is there anyone special you’ve got your eye on?”

  There was no one, and there probably wouldn’t be anytime soon. But he got Giselle’s message loud and clear. For some reason, the casting director would prefer that he had a sweetheart.

  And what Giselle preferred, Travis Dalton was bound and determined to deliver. “Is there a special woman in my life? Well, she’s a...very private person.”

  “That would be yes, then. You’re exclusive with someone?”

  Damn. Message received, loud and clear. He wasn’t getting out of this without confessing—or lying through his teeth. And since he intended to get on the show, he knew what his choice had to be.

  “I don’t want to speak out of hand, but yeah. There is a special someone in my life now. We...haven’t been together long, but...” He let out a low whistle and pasted on an expression that he hoped would pass for completely smitten. “Oh, yeah. Special would be the word for her.”