Rain on a Tin Roof: Love in the Mountains Novella Series, #1

By Suzanne Cass

A city girl lost in the mountains and her reluctant rescuer will have to survive a deadly blizzard if they're to find what they've both been looking for all along.

While out on a short ride city girl, Lana falls from her horse and is knocked unconscious. A large search is organised, but a wild storm is on the way and they're no closer to finding her.

The last thing Dusty needs is to help search for a missing woman, he's too busy keeping his struggling farm afloat. Reluctantly, he joins the search and finds Lana dazed and suffering from hypothermia. With the blizzard on the way, he takes her to a tiny hut in the mountains where they can ride out the storm.

What they find out about each other as they spend the night together will shock them both.

**A novelette of approximately 15,500 words.**

Each book in the Love in the Mountains Novella Series follows the journey of a separate couple's love story from different perspectives in the same storyline of a mountain rescue, and can be read as a STANDALONE:

* Rain on a Tin Roof

* Lost and Found

* Rescue his Heart

• Language: English
• Publisher: Suzanne Cass
• Release date: Jan 31, 2018
• ISBN: 9781386411659

Suzanne Cass

Suzanne Cass has always had a fascination with the tough resilience of people who live in our amazing red-dirt country of Australia. Much of her adolescence was spent working as a jillaroo in the Snowy Mountains, forming her love of enigmatic, outback heroes in wild, passionate, dangerous stories. When not writing about the characters inhabiting her head, Suzanne can be found roaming the Perth beaches with her border collie, or encouraging her two sons from the sidelines as they play their respective sports. Her debut novel, Island Redemption won the Romance Writers of Australia award for best unpublished romance novel of 2016. Chasing Bullets is her second published book. For more action romance info and upcoming release dates, free books, or to sign up for the latest newsletter: VISIT HER WEBSITE INSTAGRAM | FACEBOOK

Book preview

RAIN ON A TIN ROOF

Suzanne Cass

Copyright © 2017 Suzanne Cass

All rights reserved.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form, or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without permission in writing from the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are products of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organisations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. All events in this book are a figment of Suzanne’s imagination.

Find out more about this author and upcoming events

At: wwwsuzannecass.com

DUSTY

‘I FOUND HER,’ Dusty said into his two-way radio. ‘She’s alive. Suffering from hypothermia. No other major injuries I can see. Over.’ As he waited for a response from the SES handler he glanced up at the woman hunched over in the saddle on top of his horse. Hell, she was going to fall off Scout if she didn’t stop swaying like a sapling in a breeze and he pushed his shoulder hard against her thigh. Scout shifted uneasily, apprehensive of the strange woman on his back. Dusty had already wrapped his oilskin coat around the woman’s slim shoulders, but he needed to get her somewhere warm and dry. Soon. There was nasty weather on the way, he could see it in the low clouds and feel it in the biting wind.

She was awake when he found her, but glassy-eyed and barely talking, huddled next to an old fallen log like a desperate, wild animal. If Scout hadn’t shied away from her dark shape, half-hidden by the long grass and low scrub, Dusty probably wouldn’t have seen her. She’d been able to mumble something as he’d lifted her off the ground, but then her head lolled against his chest, semi-conscious.

‘Easy,’ Dusty growled and laid his palm flat against the appaloosa’s neck. Scout snorted, but stood still, letting Dusty know he wasn’t happy with this situation by showing the whites of his eyes.

‘I know,’ Dusty soothed the horse. ‘Good boy.’

His two-way radio crackled to life. ‘Message received. Did you say you found her? The missing woman, Ehlana Bingly? Over.’

‘Yep, I’ve got her,’ Dusty repeated. ‘But I’m nearly out of daylight up here. And I think it’s going to snow. I’m taking her to Kidman’s Hut, on the eastern side of Mount Jagungal. Try and get her out of this freezing weather. Can you organize a team to meet us there? Over.’

‘Message received. Is that you, Dusty? Dusty Hillman? Over.’

‘Yes, John, it’s Dusty here. Over.’ John Reedman was well known around town. A big man, friendly and determined, he helped whenever he was needed. John did a good job of manning the Alpine State Emergency Service desk, keeping the volunteers up to date and on track in times of need, like now. He’d rallied the community together to organize this search for the missing woman.

‘Didn’t know you were part of this rescue, Dusty. She’s one lucky lady. Thanks for joining us. Over.’

‘Let me know how long it’s going to take that team to get to us. Over,’ he replied in clipped tones, cutting off any further conversation. It was too damn cold, and he was too damn pissed off to be swapping banter with John right now. Dusty led Scout over to a fallen log and hauled himself up behind the sagging woman. He gathered the reins in one hand and reached his other arm around her waist. Which wasn’t hard to do. It was a tiny waist. Actually, she was a tiny woman, her head sat neatly beneath his chin as they rode.

‘Don’t you bloody well fall off woman. I’m likely to leave you lying there in the grass if you do,’ Dusty growled in a low voice. She made no sign of having heard him. Perhaps she would’ve replied if she knew how close to the truth that statement actually was.

What the hell was he doing here? Christ, he should be back on his farm bringing that last bunch of sheep down to the shelter of the home paddock before this bloody storm hit. He could lose the whole flock if he left them up in the high paddock. And what for? Just so he could rescue some bloody woman from the city. A woman who should’ve stayed in the city and who had no right being out here in the mountains in the first place.

Originally, he’d ignored the call for volunteers to join the search. The first call for help had gone out yesterday afternoon. He heard it when he went back to the house