Page 1 of Cowboy Devil's Embrace

PROLOGUE-MAX

Something tickled the periphery of my brain.

I couldn’t identify it. Not yet. Not while sleep still clung to me like the cloying stench of the too-strong perfume the women I’d fucked around with last night wore.

Was someone here?

An animal?

A person?

Whoever it was, they weren’t a threat. At least, not yet.

They were simply hovering there, while I came to slowly, still enjoying my time on the other side of consciousness.

I wasn’t worried, though. If I was in danger, my Devil’s instincts would surely have woken me up before now.

I sighed and stretched, appreciating the cool, dewy grass as it slid across my overheated skin.

It felt even better than the ridiculously high thread count of my Egyptian cotton sheets back inside my bedroom.

But maybe that was because this house, my room, all of it felt like some kind of cage trying to trap me in. I mean, it wasn’t always that way. But just lately.

Fuck. Yeah. Lately.

The September sun was beating down on me from above. I could feel it, but I had yet to greet it properly.

I wondered what time it was. Growling a yawn, I opened one eye, expecting to see maybe one of the women still hanging around from last night, though I was fairly certain I’d told them to leave.

A gentleman made sure his sex partners came once or twice, which I always did. But that didn’t mean I had to extend them an invitation to stay the night.

They already knew that. And when the blonde had asked, I politely declined, informing her I’d rather sleep alone.

The smell greeting me was a woman alright. But not one I wanted to see while I was sporting some morning wood.

An issue that corrected itself the second I blinked the sleep from my eyes and recognized the unhappy mien staring daggers at me.

Fuck my life.

I sat up fast as lightning, and really, it felt like a bolt had just struck me on my ass.

I covered my eyes and shook my head.

This was definitely not okay.

“You’ve got to be shitting me,” I grumbled aloud.

“Maximillian McGregor Lucien Leeds, I assure you I am notshittingyou,” Grandmother Leeds said as she stared down at me.

Her disapproval grew until it was practically a living thing. Sure, I’d spent the night outdoors after another evening of debauchery and sin. And now I was sprawled across the greenery, naked as the day I was born instead of inside my posh bedroom in one of the Leeds’ ritzy family estates.

I suppose I should have covered up. Then again, my grandmama was the one who surprised me, arriving unannounced.

Besides, she was no stranger to nudity.

I could only imagine the number of times she wiped my ass when I was but a babe. But it was too goddamn early for this. And I was in no mood.

“What do you want, Grandmother?” I grumbled and stood up, picking grass out of my hair.

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