Wild Horses: Cold Cold Winter

By Asha King

Six months after the events of Wild Horses, blogger Danyiah Jackson happily lives in the country, loving—and often shocking—her broodtastic horse wrangler boyfriend, Adam Cooper.

But her surprise Christmas present for him, done as a prank for her blog and to spring some life-changing news, incites an argument months in the making, bringing the insecurities and vulnerabilities of the pair to the forefront. Adam wants more than he fears she’s willing to give, and Dani has a secret of her own that she fears will tear everything apart.

Is a happily-ever-after really possible for an opposites-attract romance?

• Language: English
• Publisher: Asha King
• Release date: Sep 23, 2013
• ISBN: 9781301088003

Asha King

Asha King likes good-looking men and hot books, and often strives to combine the two in contemporary, paranormal, and suspenseful romantic stories. She lives in the exotic land of Alberta, Canada, where she doesn’t ride a polar bear to work but does drink vast amounts of locally brewed beer and watches hockey. She loves connecting with readers and you can keep up to date with her online at www.AshaKing.com, where you’ll find a list of her books as well as what she’s working on and potential release dates.

Book preview

Wild Horses:

Cold, Cold Winter

A Stirling Falls Novella

Asha King

Also by Asha King

Now Available

Near to You

Bad Moon Rising

Somebody to Love

Wild Horses (Stirling Falls #1)

Wild Horses: Cold, Cold Winter (Stirling Falls #1.5)

Sympathy for the Devil (Stirling Falls #2)

Circle of Friends: How Can You Mend a Broken Heart?

Coming Soon

I Who Have Nothing

Gimme Shelter (Stirling Falls #3)

Circle of Friends: Still in Love with You

Cats in Heat (Cats & Conjure #1)

Cold, Cold Winter

Copyright © 2012 by Asha King

ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.

Edited by Adrienne Jones

Cover Art © 2012 by Asha King

SMASHWORDS EDITION

All rights reserved under the International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. No part of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the author.

This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The unauthorized reproduction or distribution of this or any copyrighted work is illegal. Authors are paid on a per-purchase basis. Any use of this file beyond the rights stated above constitutes theft of the author’s earnings. File sharing is an international crime, prosecuted by the United States Department of Justice Division of Cyber Crimes, in partnership with Interpol. Criminal copyright infringement, including infringement without monetary gain, is punishable by seizure of computers, up to five years in federal prison and a fine of $250,000 per reported instance. Please purchase only authorized electronic or print editions and do not participate in or encourage the electronic piracy of copyrighted material.

Your support of my livelihood is appreciated.

Dedication

To the readers who wanted more Dani, Adam, and their happily ever after.

I hope you enjoy.

Chapter One

Danyiah Jackson stared at her phone, chewing at her bottom lip.

She really, really wanted to set it up on the dresser with the camera running. It would be better to have a visual record of this—way better than how she could tell it. But then she had a conscience, which really sucked sometimes.

Such as when it told her not to secretly record her boyfriend’s reaction to a surprise.

Stupid conscience.

Briefly she navigated to her Twitter app and composed a new tweet in answer to the site’s eternal question: What’s happening?

Waiting for Hot Cowboy. She tapped the keyboard swiftly with her thumbs. Xmas surprise. Wish me luck & I’ll tell u soon.

Immediately several mentions popped up with tweets of encouragement and she grinned. Even if she didn’t have their confidence, she enjoyed the enthusiasm.

Snow tapped on the window and gathered on the sill outside; it was a blustery day in Stirling Falls, both in town and out in the country. An hour ago she’d left the small downtown core covered in old slush and fresh snow. Her apartment was above a kitchen store right in the main four quarters of town, and the traffic outside was especially loud in the winter with tires sloshing in the streets.

The country brought silence, though, which Dani particularly enjoyed.

The dull, gray afternoon outside didn’t take away from the brightness in Adam’s quarters, a one room apartment above the farm’s party hall downstairs—she’d be surprised if anything could make the place drab after what she’d done. Lights around the windows, the walls, hanging from the ceiling. Garland. Tinsel. She had carted in a palm tree from home and decorated it, complete with a star on top and wrapped presents below.

And then there was the...surprise...in the center of the room. She’d moved furniture and everything to accommodate it. One of a couple surprises planned for that not-quite-Christmas evening. Adam had been a little distant recently, tired—she knew—from working long hours on the farm, preparing things for the arrival of winter, and keeping a watchful eye on all the horses. There was a disconnect between them more and more, and she sought to bridge it the best way possible—besides sex. With humor.

Once more she looked at her cell phone, but no, she could restrain herself.

Probably.

A car door slammed outside and the ranch owner Gus’s dog, Jenny, began to bark. Dani moved for the window and leaned over the bed to look outside. Adam was back from the farm store and he was hauling bags of feed to the barn. For a moment she stood there, watching. Even beneath the winter jacket, he