Naked Hunger

By Desiree Holt

Veterinarian Sable Hunter is in Saddle Wells to take over for the retiring veterinarian. She has a reputation to build and can’t afford any distractions—which is definitely what giving into the heat sparking between her and local rancher Ryan Donovan would be. Nope, no time for sexy cowboys when she has to keep focused on work.

Ryan earned his stripes one bull at a time on the rodeo circuit. Now the prize money he saved is all on the line as he breeds bucking bulls. Raising livestock in Saddle Wells isn’t as exciting as the pro circuit, but the sweet new vet in town certainly livens things up. Sable claims she has no time for a relationship, so Ryan suggests they have some friends-with-benefits fun while he convinces her she doesn’t have to choose between career and love. But when a costly mistake puts her career in jeopardy, Sable could lose everything, including the man she’s starting to love.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Macmillan Publishers
• Release date: Nov 13, 2017
• ISBN: 9781640630765

Desiree Holt

A multi-published, award winning, Amazon and USA Today best-selling author, Desiree Holt has produced more than 200 titles and won many awards. She has received an EPIC E-Book Award, the Holt Medallion and many others including Author After Dark’s Author of the Year. She has been featured on CBS Sunday Morning and in The Village Voice, The Daily Beast, USA Today, The Wall Street Journal, The London Daily Mail. She lives in Florida with her cats who insist they help her write her books, and is addicted to football.

Book preview

Table of Contents

Dedication

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

About the Author

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

Copyright © 2015 by Desiree Holt. All rights reserved, including the right to reproduce, distribute, or transmit in any form or by any means. For information regarding subsidiary rights, please contact the Publisher.

Entangled Publishing, LLC

2614 South Timberline Road

Suite 105, PMB 159

Fort Collins, CO 80525

Visit our website at www.entangledpublishing.com.

Select Contemporary is an imprint of Entangled Publishing, LLC.

Edited by Heidi Shoham

Cover design by Fiona Jayde

Cover art from iStock

ISBN 978-1-64063-076-5

Manufactured in the United States of America

First Edition December 2015

Rerelease November 2017

To my wonderful friend, best-selling author Sable Hunter, who was kind enough and gracious enough to allow me to use her name for my heroine in this story. I hope I did you proud.

Chapter One

Big change is a comin’.

Sable Hunter listened to the words of the song blasting from her rental car radio and thought to herself that was certainly the truth. She was making huge, huge, huge changes to her life. For the first time since she’d made the decision to move, a thread of uneasiness wiggled its way through her. Was she out of her mind to leave everything safe and familiar to her and relocate like this?

I have to do it, she’d told her partner, Todd. I’m really ready for a change.

And wasn’t that just the understatement of the year.

Okay, maybe I’m crazy. Certifiable.

But she was tired of West Texas, beautiful as it was. Tired of not being able to do the work she wanted. Tired of Todd calling her the junior partner and telling her she just needed more experience handling large animals so the ranchers would be completely comfortable with her. That was never going to happen as long as he didn’t think she was capable. He certainly hadn’t expected a woman to answer his ad, and she’d spent the past seven years trying to validate his decision to hire her in the first place. She’d waited all that time, way too long, for him to shift half of the large-animal practice to her, and it hadn’t happened. He guarded it as jealously as if it were his wife. Maybe even more so, she thought with a snort.

Sable didn’t think of herself as a stupid person, but somehow it had taken her two years to realize he’d brought her in because he wanted someone besides himself to handle the small animals. The ranchers were his department, and he reminded her of that, gently, all the time. When she did get to assist him, he treated her as if she were still an intern learning her profession. Oh, he did it very smoothly, and probably without even realizing it. But still, it was there, rippling along beneath the surface. Sometimes she’d wondered if he’d let her buy in because she was the only qualified person who’d answered his ad. Not too many people wanted to live out at the back end of beyond, no matter how beautiful it was.

She’d made herself be all right with the situation because she’d needed time. Time for the practice to become lucrative enough that selling him back her share would give her enough to buy in someplace else. When the two of them had reviewed the books to come up with an amount, Todd had not been too happy with the amount her share was worth. Points to him, though, for agreeing to a fair price. So now she had a plump, if not fat, bank account and the prospect of a bright new future.

First, of course, she had to complete the deal waiting for her, praying it was as good as she hoped. Right now, all she had was an online ad and an exchange of emails. The wording of the ad flashed through her mind for the hundredth time. She’d clicked on it so often she had it memorized.

Veterinary practice for sale. Large and small animals. Must be experienced with bulls. Friendly town, friendly atmosphere. Plenty of patients.

A photo of the clinic itself had been included, a stucco building with a neat gravel parking lot, two big shade trees in front and a large fenced yard. She’d hoped it would come with living quarters, but maybe luck would be with her and she could find something affordable in… What was the name of that town again? Oh, yeah. Saddle Wells.

She had also done a search for any local newspapers and discovered the Hill Country Herald. The content was typical small-town Texas and gave her a good idea of what Saddle Wells was all about. She liked small towns. No, she loved small towns. While she enjoyed the small animals she worked with, her real passion was the cattle, especially the bulls. The article she’d read about the man who raised bulls for the rodeo seemed like a good omen to her.

Todd had tried his best to talk her out of leaving. Obviously, he didn’t relish the prospect of tending to dogs and cats now any more than he had when she’d first arrived. Not to mention birds and snakes, of which there were a fair amount of in West Texas. He’d started actively looking for a new partner the day she’d told him she was leaving. She knew it would be so easy for him if she just stayed on, but she needed out and that was that.

You sure you want to do this? Todd had kept asking her. You ready to handle a practice on your own?

He’d never have said that to a man. In veterinary school, she’d run into some chauvinism, but it had been rare. Mostly, she’d been respected for her brains and her ability. Then she’d had such a great internship, not to mention three years in a practice with three terrific guys. She’d never have left there, except with four of them at the practice, there hadn’t been much opportunity to work with large animals. She certainly hadn’t expected this kind of prejudice when she’d showed up in West Texas. Would she find the same thing in Saddle Wells? God, she hoped not, but she’d need to be very careful about that. Not give anyone any reason to question her ability.

Yes. Positive, she’d told Todd. Most definitely.

And she was, as long as the reality turned out to be as good as the ad. A flight to San Antonio, an overnight stay since she’d landed too late to head out of town, a rental car and here she was, on her way to meet her future.

And no looking for a relationship, she reminded herself. This was her first solo practice. She needed to focus on one thing—being the best vet she possibly could. She knew how skeptical ranchers could be with a female vet. Hadn’t she suffered through that in West Texas? She could only give her energy to one thing right now, and that wasn’t a relationship.

As she got closer to the town, she turned on the GPS on her phone and punched up the address she’d programmed in. The directions took her right through Saddle Wells, giving her a chance for a quick glimpse of a very attractive Main Street. Then she hit the outskirts on the other side. Two quick turns and she was pulling up in front of Saddle Wells Animal Practice. The sandblasted sign at the front of the lot included a graphic of a dog and a bull. Yup, this was the right place. She knew it.

Sable parked her rental car to one side, turned off the ignition, took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. She couldn’t believe how badly she wanted this to be exactly what it looked like—the practice of her dreams in the kind of small Texas town where she could live forever. And maybe eventually get her personal life on the right track. Not, of course, until she had her practice to where she was comfortable with it. But she could do it.

She hoped.

Well, get your ass out of the car and go inside, Sable. You won’t get anything accomplished sitting here.

Swallowing back a sudden case of nerves, she stood in the parking lot for a moment, inhaling the sweet scent of an early Texas fall, feeling the soft breeze on her skin cutting the heavy air. Then, with determination, she climbed the two steps to the wide porch and opened the door of the clinic. A bell tinkled, announcing her arrival. The woman sitting at a computer behind a curving counter looked up and smiled.

You must be Dr. Hunter, she guessed, leaping up from her chair. At least, I hope you are.

That’s me. She nodded and reached across the counter to shake hands with the bubbly blonde. And please, call me Sable.

Well, welcome, Sable. I’m Deedee. Dr. Lynch will be so excited you’re here. She grinned. As we all are, of course. Let me just let him know you’re here.

Sable took the moment to look around the waiting room. The first thing