His High-Stakes Bride

By Martha Hix

Win, lose—or fall in love . . .
 
After losing her mama and all she has, vagabond Patience “Patty” Sweet dreams of reuniting with her father in the New Mexico territory. So she teams up with a no-good gambler whose winnings enable her to get her closer to her destination. Patty hates hanging around saloons and poker parlors, pulling dishonest deeds. But when a game of five-card draw goes wrong in Lubbock, Texas, Patty gets offered up as collateral—to a handsome stranger who’s about to turn the
tables . . .
 
Lawyer Grant Kincaid has no intention of claiming his prize—a nearly nineteen-year-old petite beauty with sweet eyes—who has a hold on him he can’t deny. But as he tries to help Patty untangle herself from her shady partner, he discovers she’s not as innocent as she seems. For starters, she’s already stolen his hardened heart . . .
 
 “Real chemistry.” —RT Book Reviews on His Make-Believe Bride

• Language: English
• Publisher: Lyrical Press
• Release date: Aug 29, 2017
• ISBN: 9781601839398

Martha Hix

Martha Hix -- author of 15 romance novels, one medieval novella, and a section of the Lair of the Wolf continuing story at Romance Communications that will soon be published by Leisure Books -- finds herself amazed that life can be this grand. Recently one of the six writer-celebrity emcees in the Mr. Romance Cover Model Pageant, sponsored by ROMANTIC TIMES Magazine aboard Carnival Cruise Line's m/s Celebration, as well as being the organizer of the RT Spice Girls, Martha enjoys a splendid personal life along with an amazing career...for, she says, "a fat girl." Martha's newest book addresses the issue of being fat and being satisfied with it. Terrific Tom, a Silhouette Special Edition available in mid June of this year, has received fantastic support for looking the issue of weight in the eye and saying, "So what?" Her books have been translated into an assortment of foreign languages, some of them very foreign--like Japanese, Mandarin, Greek, and Turkish. Her historicals, Destiny's Magic and Mail Order Man, were finalists in the HOLT Medallion competition, an award for literary excellence determined by readers across the nation. "The best 'literary excellence,'" Martha says, "comes from the wonderful letters I receive from readers." A Texas native and resident whose family has been in the Lone Star State since the 1840s, Martha says with her trademark grin, "I enjoy writing. I get to be in charge." She has a couple of daughters, a couple of grandkids, and a couple of pets, but only one husband. She says, "He's great. I don't know how he puts up with me, not to mention my moods and antics. But I'm glad he does." If Martha could have three wishes on a magic lamp? "Great health for my family. Great health for myself. And that chocolate eclairs weren't fattening. But since they are, so what?" On a trip to the Copper Canyon in Mexico, Martha and her traveling companion, Evelyn Rogers, put their Spanish to the test, asking everyone, "What famous person, living or dead, would you most like to meet?" We asked Martha the same question, and she replied, "Golda Mier. She was an American woman of simple origins, not beautiful, yet she rose to lead Israel. I'd love to ask what fired her soul, what made her happy and sad. Why Israel was important to her." Recently Martha became pals with multi-published author and cover model, the gorgeous and talented SUSAN PAUL. Martha and Susan have formed the Podners writing team to explore various forms of fiction.

Book preview

Cover Copy

Win, lose—or fall in love . . .

After losing her mama and all she has, vagabond Patience Patty Sweet dreams of reuniting with her father in the New Mexico territory. So she teams up with a no-good gambler whose winnings enable her to get her closer to her destination. Patty hates hanging around saloons and poker parlors, pulling dishonest deeds. But when a game of five-card draw goes wrong in Lubbock, Texas, Patty gets offered up as collateral—to a handsome stranger who’s about to turn the tables . . .

Lawyer Grant Kincaid has no intention of claiming his prize—a nearly nineteen-year-old petite beauty with sweet eyes—who has a hold on him he can’t deny. But as he tries to help Patty untangle herself from her shady partner, he discovers she’s not as innocent as she seems. For starters, she’s already stolen his hardened heart . . .

Visit us at www.kensingtonbooks.com

Books by Martha Hix

Magic and the Texan

Destiny’s Magic

Mail-Order Man

River Magic

Mexican Fire

Wild Texas Rose

Magnolia Nights

The Texan Brides Series

His Make-Believe Bride

His Rip-Roarin’ Bride

His High-Stakes Bride

The McLoughlin Series

The Cattleman Takes a Wife (previously published as Caress of Fire)

Lone Star Loving

Wild Sierra Rogue

Published by Kensington Publishing Corporation

His High-Stakes Bride

Texas Brides

Martha Hix

LYRICAL PRESS

Kensington Publishing Corp.

www.kensingtonbooks.com

Copyright

Lyrical Press books are published by

Kensington Publishing Corp. 119 West 40th Street New York, NY 10018

Copyright © 2017 by Martha Hix

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any means without the prior written consent of the Publisher, excepting brief quotes used in reviews.

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Lyrical Press and the L logo are trademarks of Kensington Publishing Corp.

First Electronic Edition: February 2017

eISBN-13: 978-1-60183-939-8

eISBN-10: 1-60183-939-1

Printed in the United States of America

Dedication

To The Marvelous Women Who Keep Me Propped Up…

Gail Goyette, Jackie Watson and Natalie Weller

Eileen Boulogne

Barbara Catlin

The Slackers and the WINOS

Chapter 1

Lubbock, Texas, 1910

Under a full moon

It is a sad day in a woman’s life when she comes to grips with weakness of character. Today might have been that way for Patience Eileen Sweet, but she couldn’t dwell on something like that. Not this day, which had turned into a warm autumn night in 1910. Not when she intended to escape the mess of her own making. Her papa would have told her, Patty Cake, proceed with caution. He always claimed full moons bring babies, lunatics, and any number of disasters, particularly mine cave-ins.

Tonight would bring change; that she knew beforehand. This night unfolded for Patty in a saloon. By the midnight hour the floozies had served their last drinks and were nowhere to be seen, most of the customers having cleared out. The bartender did nothing to cover his yawns. Cigar smoke still curled toward the tin ceiling. Gaming chips still pinged. Three gamblers refused to give in or give up.

Still and all, it would be over soon.

Looking up from her mending, she meant to steal a glance at her stepbrother, but she locked gazes with one of the gamblers instead, and not for the first time this evening. The three were close enough that she could get a good look—he was the handsomest man she’d ever seen. As he had the other times, he nodded once. There was a puzzled, curious look to his fine features, certainly not the nasty-old-pervert leer that Dorinda had warned her to look out for.

She did like this man’s black-haired, blue-eyed looks. He wore the garb of a West Texan—a yoked shirt with mother-of-pearl buttons and denim britches that hugged him just right. His boots were the same kind that cowboys wore, only this ’poke’s weren’t scuffed or worn out. His clothes looked too clean, his hair and chin too smooth for a man of the land. He looked rich.

Patty moved her line of sight to her partner-in-crime, Chet Merkel. It was his turn to deal, and she could tell he was losing at five-card stud. They couldn’t afford for him to lose, not even for one evening, yet she prayed for his bad luck.

She knew what his next move would be. He’d barter her virginity. For the third time.

Twice before to two different men in two different towns.

Tonight it was Scarlet Garter Jenny’s Saloon. The winner would be a short, dark sheriff wearing a big, thick wedding ring. Or else the winner might be that curious fellow—the smooth-shaven pretty boy that the drunkards, gamblers, and preening waitresses called counselor and mouthpiece, with Grant or Kincaid thrown in from time to time. Well, the painted ladies usually said Sugar.

Neither of these men looked as gullible as the previous winners of her so-called prize.

Anyway, Patty knew how to get out of being the night’s reward. Did she even want to? Just looking at Grant Kincaid had her in a tizzy. One way or another, things would be different tonight. She was cutting all ties to her double-dealing snake of a stepbrother, Chet Merkel.

Definitely, she wouldn’t be rendezvousing with Chet later.

* * * *

Grant Kincaid spent many nights at the poker table. As a bachelor uninterested in ice-cream socials or musical recitals performed by the boring flowers of Lubbock society, he lacked choices beyond reading and visiting friends or relatives. Not that he had any local relatives, beyond the Kincaids of the High Hopes farm and ranch and their relatives, the Craigs. He hailed from the shoals of the Tennessee River in northwest Alabama.

Besides, he enjoyed playing cards. After the last hand of an evening, he sometimes got lucky with one of the tarts, two if he was really lucky. He liked ’em ripe, filled out, and hotter than a thin-skinned jalapeño pepper under the broiling Texas sun.

Tonight, he’d been leery of the tinhorn already at the Garter when Grant arrived for Thursday night poker. The odd-looking fellow, who’d shown up with an adolescent sister in tow, wanted to join the game between Grant and the general store proprietor, a local rancher, noted baker Mrs. Jewel Craig, and Sheriff Wes Alington, who played whenever his mother went visiting in San Angelo.

The last seat was occupied by a cotton-gin salesman from Dallas. Since the High Hopes Ranch showed that cotton could be successfully grown in West Texas, cotton had become a popular way to make money in the previous decade.

Tonight, the table cleared early with the less-than-dapper newcomer—he introduced himself as Chet Merkel—taking several hands. Jewel the baker bowed out first. Next went the general store man and the rancher. The cotton-gin representative took his leave after his third bad hand. That left Alington, Grant, and the tinhorn.

Luck started going Grant’s way, then the sheriff’s.

Always cool and quiet at the table, the compactly built lawman wore black and a shiny silver star, but never a sign of his wealth. His history with card playing didn’t reach far back. After he’d married a Valkyrie from the Hill Country, he’d taken up gaming. His mother had and would object to just about anything that might have enjoyment tacked to it, but the missus advised Alington just to do what he wanted, as long as he was smart enough to hide it from Mother Dear and it didn’t involve cavorting with other women. That was laughable. The sheriff had eyes only for his Lisa-Ann. Grant hoped when he found a wife that he could love her even half as much as Alington idolized the blonde from The Divide.

Do you plan to answer my bet, Mr. Merkel? Wes Alington pointed to the five green chips he’d slid to the center of the baize-covered table.

A bead of sweat popped on Merkel’s temple. Carelessly flicking cigar ashes on the floor, he cast a glance at his sister who sat primly in a straight chair in the corner, mending a garment that looked to be a shirt.

Grant eyed the girl, as he had several times. This dimple-cheeked young lady had long titian-hued hair held up in a big white bow. Dressed in the