Kentucky Blue Bloods
(Book 8 of the Bluegrass Reunion series)
by Jan Scarbrough
Publisher:
Resplendence Publishing
Release date:
November 5, 2014
AIN: B00P9IFDKU
No one crosses Parker Stuart, caretaker to his family’s
thoroughbred racing empire. Parker retaliates against anyone who dares slight
him or his blue-blooded British family, especially Regina Ward and her
poker-playing father. The previous spring, Reggie had had the nerve to walk out
on him after a torrid, three-week affair. Now, when Parker arrives in Kentucky
to collect his family’s winnings, he’s determined to settle the score with the
lovely Ms. Ward.
Regina Ward doesn’t consider herself a damsel in distress.
After all, this is America, and she’s accustomed to depending upon herself.
However, when her father loses four of the yearlings from their central
Kentucky horse farm in a poker game, Reggie knows it’s up to her to save what’s
left of her family’s homestead and her proud Kentucky heritage. Can she do it
when Parker Stuart, the most arrogant and infuriating Brit she’s ever met,
shows up in the Bluegrass?
Chapter One
Early September
Bourbon County, Kentucky
Bloody hell?
Parker Stuart cast a disbelieving
gaze at the woman who’d met him at the airport. What was he, the youngest son
of a proud British, thoroughbredracing family, doing in a mudcaked pickup
truck sitting beside a woman who resembled a caricature of a mountain
hillbilly? His chauffeur certainly looked nothing like the young woman he
remembered from London—the woman he’d flown across the Atlantic to
seduce...again.
Women didn’t dump him without
regretting it.
Especially not the woman he’d
fallen in love with and had planned to marry.
Revenge wasn’t a pretty
sentiment, but it was just what he had in mind.
Love her and leave her. Like
she’d left him. But he’d take four of her prized thoroughbreds home with him.
He should have known he was
making a mistake, but three weeks spent in a haze of good sex— her body naked,
writhing beneath him, driving him wild with desire—had fogged his brain. He had
fallen in love, succumbing to an emotion he’d avoided for twentynine years.
Too bad she hadn’t stuck around
after their short fling. In fact, she had run out on him, leaving him sitting
in the restaurant for two hours, engagement ring in his pocket, before he’d
finally checked his text messages. There’d been nothing sweet about her “dear
John” goodbye.
For God’s sake, she’d dumped him
in a text!
No, the woman driving this bloody
pickup looked nothing like the charming woman he’d met in
London in the spring. That woman
had possessed a quiet assurance and natural reserve. She’d had a genuine
sweetness about her and a timeless beauty. Dressed in a classically feminine,
floralprint cotton dress, she had worn a widebrimmed, Southern Belle hat on
her thick, blond hair when he’d taken her to Ascot in June. She’d called it her
“Derby” hat but had meant her derby, the one in Kentucky. Her American accent
with its lovable Southern drawl charmed him, but most of all, he’d fallen in
love with her shy, sensitive eyes, ones he couldn’t forget.
Eyes now hidden by dark
sunglasses.
Parker looked away. The central
Kentucky countryside whizzed past, but he hardly saw it.
Granted, the moment he stepped
off the jet at the airfield in Lexington, he had admired her curvy figure,
fully appreciating those long, shapely and tanned legs. Yet, there was
something
objectionable about her dress, or
lack thereof. She was wearing short, blue jean cutoffs with frayed cuffs, a
skimpy white tank top that left nothing to his more than vivid imagination, and
ankle- length barn boots—clunky, muddy, laceup boots that smelled as if they’d
tramped around a stable only minutes before his arrival.
Her apparel was an affront to
him. To their time together. More than any burst of anger or recrimination, it
told him exactly what to expect from this trip. She was thumbing her nose at
him
with her improper dress. She’d
played him. He’d been a fool.
Not any longer.
Regina Ward, granddaughter of
Corbin Ward, breeder of multiple stakes winners, had blood as
blue as anyone in Kentucky but
not as blue as his aristocratic, British blood. Tainted only by the
introduction of an American
grandmother, Parker’s blueblooded family was heir to the fabled,
Stuart racing stable, acres of
prime London real estate, a historic estate in Kent, and a hereditary peerage
granted to an ancestor by a reigning monarch five generations earlier.
No, this hayseed couldn’t raise a
candle to him. Her family was nothing. Her breeding operation
was negligible. And he was going
to drive a stake into the last of it.
Three years ago, Reggie’s drunken
father had beaten his older brother in a game of poker, winning one of the
Stuart’s prize stallions. Now, the stallion, Stuart’s Legacy, was dead after
only three years in Kentucky. Although any horse could die from colic, Legacy’s
death was another mark against Reggie and her smalltime horse breeder father,
Sam Ward.
Parker blinked hard. Focus. Don’t
let her get to you.
The countryside was not as lush
and green as his homeland. He knew the Maury silt loam, with its underlying
limestone base, made the soil perfect for raising horses. But thanks to the
summer heat, the nutrientrich grass looked dry. Inhospitable. Just like his
welcome to the Bluegrass State.
Barreling down a Kentucky back
road, flanked by black or white wooden fences and an occasional stone wall
built by ScotchIrish settlers with a mad woman behind the wheel, who he barely
recognized, didn’t set right with Parker. Was he taking his life in his hands
by being there?
He glanced again at Reggie.
“Does everyone in Kentucky drive
this fast?” Parker added a touch of upperclass disdain to his
She glanced at him and grinned,
gum popping in her mouth. “Until we get caught.”
He lifted an eyebrow. God, he
hated women chewing gum. That more than anything put him off.
She must have recognized his
distaste, for she grinned and smacked her gum louder.
Parker cleared his throat. “How
far is it to your farm?”
She flicked the turn signal and
spun the steering wheel right, throwing him against the passenger
“We’re here,” she said and popped
her gum once more for good measure.
They bounced down a poorly paved
country lane bordered by tall oak trees, up a gentle knoll and pulled around a
circular drive, halting in front of a stately, Greek Revival house.
“Welcome to Richlawn Hall built
in 1830,” she said with a touch of pride then opened her door
and left him sitting alone in the
cab.
Heat and humidity sucked the air
from his lungs the minute he climbed from the truck. Parker put his hands on
the small of his back and arched, stretching his cramped muscles.
Reggie came around the front of
the truck and saw him. He couldn’t read her eyes behind her
sunglasses, but he had her
attention. He played to his audience, prolonging his stretch, and thought her
gaze may have been fixed on the button fly of his classic Paul Smith jeans.
“Our house is on the historic
register,” she informed him with an impish toss of her fiftiesera
“So is mine,” he came back then
perversely added, “several of them.”
She fisted her hands at that. In
the glare of the hot sun, standing in front of him, legs spread, hands on hips,
she looked smug and selfassured, almost as if she was ready to do battle with
an opponent. Him.
Brilliant! No matter how she
tried to put him off with her gum popping and hillbilly attire, he was
ready to take on this woman.
Parker set his jaw and returned her stare.
Miss Regina Ward had no clue he
was about to even the score—and enjoy himself wholeheartedly while doing it.
ABOUT JAN SCARBROUGH
Jan Scarbrough is the author of the popular Bluegrass
Reunion series, writing heartwarming contemporary romances about family and
second chances, and if the plot allows, about another passion—horses. Living in
the horse country of Kentucky makes it easy for Jan to add small town, Southern
charm to her books, and the excitement of a horse race or a big-time,
competitive horse show.
Jan also contributes to the Ladies of Legend series,
collaborating with writers Maddie James, Janet Eaves and Magdalena Scott. Set
in fictitious Legend, Tennessee, these romances bring together the small town
family atmosphere so many readers enjoy.
Leaving her contemporary voice behind, Jan has written a
medieval romance MY LORD RAVEN, and FREELY GIVEN, sensual Medieval short
romances. Her Gothic romance, TANGLED MEMORIES, was a Golden Heart finalist.
TIMELESS is her newest Gothic romance.
A member of Novelist, Inc., Jan has published with
Kensington, Five Star, ImaJinn Books, Resplendence Publishing and Turquoise
Morning Press.
You can also follow Jan on Twitter
@romancerider
Like Jan’s Facebook page: http://on.fb.me/1pZW7oy
You might also enjoy these other books in the Bluegrass Reunion series
by
Jan Scarbrough
published
by Resplendence Publishing:
Bluegrass Reunion:
They thought the men they loved were out of their lives. They were wrong.
The Bluegrass Reunion series are heartwarming, contemporary
romances about family and second chances. Each romance stands alone.
The Bluegrass Reunion
Series was published in this order:
●
Kentucky Cowboy—Bull rider/veterinarian—She dumped him
in high school, because he was a risk-taker.
●
Kentucky Woman—Banker/exercise rider—She loved him when
she was a teenager, but they never connected.
●
Kentucky Flame—American Saddlebred Horse trainers—She
had his baby, but he left not knowing the truth.
●
Kentucky Groom—Teacher/software designer and Saddlebred
groom—She can’t afford to fall in love with a lowly groom.
●
Kentucky Bride—American Saddlebred Horse
trainer/CEO—She rejected him once, but he’s willing to try again.
●
Kentucky Heat—Country music singer/artist—She doesn’t
need to take on another project, but he won’t take no for an answer. (Sequel to
Kentucky Bride.)
●
Kentucky Rain—Divorced single mom/security
consultant—She has responsibilities to her daughter and herself, not to the
handsome guy next door. (Mentions characters from Kentucky Cowboy.)
●
Kentucky Blue Bloods—Kentucky horse breeder/British
thoroughbred breeder and owner—She wants to save the family horse farm, but he
has other ideas.
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