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Rachel's Journey by Kelly Dawson		Bracken Ridge by Kelly Dawson

Bracken Ridge
by Kelly Dawson
Anna Fletcher comes home from University back to Bracken Ridge, the equine centre where she grew up, she is stunned to find Jeremy McCrae working as the manager. They were children together and she has had a crush on him forever. The years she's been away, Jeremy has only gotten cuter.

Anna has plans for Bracken Ridge, but before she can implement them, she needs to prove herself. The biggest obstacle in her path is Jeremy. He's the boss - but she can't work for him. He's been her best mate forever, and to cede to his authority now is going against every grain of her nature.

Can Jeremy tame Anna's rebellious spirit before it is too late?

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Content/Theme(s): New Zealand, Equestrian, Horses, Racing, Sports, Domestic Discipline, Spanking
Release Date: January 26, 2015
Publisher: Blushing Books Publications

Excerpt, Rachel's Journey & More

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Bracken Ridge Excerpt:
It had been raining non-stop for days, and the wet weather was grating on everyone’s nerves. Mud was everywhere, and although they were making full use of the indoor arena, when the rain was light enough to venture outside, they did.

Anna didn’t mind riding in the rain. She felt at one with her horse in the rain, more so than she ever did in fine weather. Being bundled up in a full-length oilskin riding coat, water dripping off the peak of her helmet, rain soaking her socks, made the riding experience interesting. Sharon mostly kept to the indoor arena; she wasn’t particularly fond of getting wet. But Jeremy rode everywhere, both indoors and out, just as Anna did. He, too, wasn’t bothered by the wet weather.

It did mean more work for them all though – the horses needed so much more grooming with all the mud on their legs; and adjusting the covers that moved around when they rolled. The horses that were stabled were a bit better, but they didn’t spend all their time in the stalls. They spent a good part of each day out in the weather, on the grass and mud, so they all needed extra grooming. But the chore that Anna found the most annoying was trying to dry the tack. Jeremy liked to wipe it down with an old towel as he took it off his horse, leaving it out to dry thoroughly, and hanging the saddle blanket separately to dry, but Anna could never be bothered. She figured it would all dry in time – if it wasn’t meant to get wet, it would be made out of different material, was her logic. So she just put it all back in its normal place in the tack room, and it was mostly dry by morning. Besides, she was riding half a dozen horses every day – if she spent all her time trying to dry weather-proof tack, she wouldn’t be able to get as much riding done – and the business relied on her consistency in riding a number of horses every day. If the gear was still a bit wet the next time she went to use it, she just used it wet. It didn’t matter to her.

After finding wet tack for the third day in a row, Jeremy had her up about it. She groaned and rolled her eyes as he held the wet saddle blanket out in front of him, flapping it around, watching water drip off it.

“Care to explain this, Anna?” he asked grumpily. “I’ve lost count of how many times I’ve asked you to dry off the gear before you put it away, and at least leave the saddle blanket hanging up out there so it can dry. It’s only going to rot if it stays in this condition.”

“It dries eventually,” she shrugged.

“Dry it, Anna.” Jeremy ordered. “I don’t want to find wet gear in here again.” He strode off, and Anna pulled a face behind his back. Grumpy sod, she thought as his retreating back disappeared from view.

Anna wasn’t in the habit of drying off the gear though, and as the rain kept up, she gradually got nearly every saddle, saddle blanket and bridle on the place wet. She didn’t mind using them wet, but Sharon and Jeremy obviously did. They started to smell musty, and Sharon complained to Jeremy. She was filling up the hay nets when Jeremy called her over.

“This tack,” he swept his arm around the small room, “is all wet. All of it. It’s starting to smell musty. It’s not nice to use, it’s not nice to put on the horses. And all because you are too lazy to dry it. I’ve told you time and again to dry it off, and you refuse to listen. Smell it – it’s going to get ruined. There’s a lot of money tied up in tack!” he told her sternly.

Normally Anna found Jeremy sexy when he was stern, but the relentless rain was getting on her nerves and she found him annoying instead. “Why do you care? It’s not your gear!” she snapped at him. “You aren’t the one paying for it!”

“It doesn’t matter who is paying for it. The fact of the matter is, this gear is expensive, and if it gets ruined through carelessness, the business is going to have to replace it. Prevention is better than cure, Anna. It doesn’t take long to get it dry, if you leave it out when you take it off the horse.”

Anna knew he was right – but there was no way she was going to tell him that. Instead of letting him know how sheepish she felt, she got stroppy with him instead, and tried to use sarcasm to make him laugh. “Blah, blah, blah, are you done now? I have work to do.”

Jeremy grabbed her by the arm. “No Anna, I am NOT done. Your attitude is appalling. What’s so hard about drying the gear?”

“What’s so hard about leaving me alone?” she retorted.

Jeremy narrowed his eyes at her then kicked the tack room door shut with a bang. Grabbing a stirrup leather off the wall, he pushed her forward over an empty saddle horse and held her down with one hand in the small of her back. Stunned, Anna lay there for a minute without resisting, and then she realised what was going on. She tried to stand up, but Jeremy held her down.

“Stay still,” he ordered her sternly. Then he spanked her hard with the stirrup leather.

Anna wriggled and kicked and Jeremy stopped spanking her. “Either you stay in position and take this spanking or you can take your jeans off and we start again. What’s it going to be?”

“I’ll stay still.” The pain from the stirrup leather was intense even through her jeans – no way did she want to feel it without the meagre protection her jeans offered!

“Good.” Jeremy kept his hand there on her back and swung the strap vigorously again. Anna winced, grunting in pain as the strap continued to fall. After a dozen blows, he stopped spanking and let her stand up. “Are you going to behave now?” he asked, looking into her very contrite face. Tears glistened in her eyes, and she reached back to rub her stinging bottom.

“Yes,” she whispered, almost unable to talk. She had fought back the urge to cry out, for fear of Sharon overhearing, but the spanking had been hard, and it had hurt. She rubbed her eyes with her fist, willing the tears to go away. She didn’t want Jeremy to see her cry. It was bad enough that he had spanked her – she didn’t want him to know how much it had hurt.

Jeremy left her standing there as he returned the stirrup leather to the hook on the wall, then he turned back to her and touched her shoulder. “Are you ok?” he asked her tenderly.

She glared at him. “No I am not you brute! You hurt me!”

“Why do you make me be so hard on you, Anna?” he asked gently, almost wistfully. Then his voice hardened. “You deserved it. And you know it.” He put a finger under her chin, tilting her face up, forcing her to look at him. She tried to avoid his eyes – she felt ashamed – she knew he was right. She would never admit it, but she did deserve that spanking.

“Let me get back to work. I’ve got hay nets to fill. And horses to ride. Not that I’m going to be able to ride now, I won’t be able to sit down for a bit.” She glared at Jeremy for good measure, trying to make him feel bad for spanking her. It didn’t work.

“You WILL sit on those horses,” he told her sternly, “and I hope it DOES hurt. Maybe next time I tell you to do something, or pull you up on something you should have done, your attitude might be somewhat improved?” He looked at her with one eyebrow raised, chastising her one last time. Then he patted her butt and laughed as she jumped. “Get to work,” he growled.
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Rachel's Journey
by Kelly Dawson
Rachel was such a loser. Growing up with Tourette's Syndrome has taught her that. Who could possibly want someone who contorted their faces in bizarre twitches or snorted at random? Not even Mike, the man who had promised he loved her, had been able to put up with it. She broke up with him when she caught him cheating on her during their great overseas experience, promptly flying back home to hide and lick her wounds.

James was the manager for the 850 acre farm she and her brother Simon had inherited. She liked James. He'd always treated her nicely, like an honorary little sister, and she'd had a crush on him forever. Not that she could ever tell him. She wasn't going to set herself up for rejection ever again.

But when it seems that someone is out to harm her, can she count on James to come to her rescue?

Set in rural New Zealand, this epic romance will thrill you and keep you captivated, enchant you with charming detail and inspire you, as learning to overcome adversity ultimately is Rachel's Journey

Genre: Contemporary Romance
Content/Theme(s): New Zealand Cowboys, Urban, Domestic Discipline, Spanking
Expected Release Date: June 2, 2015
Publisher: Blushing Books Publications

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Rachel's Journey Excerpt:
The bull riding was exciting. Rachel was glad she had come, even though she hadn’t wanted to. But she was caught up in the action, just like everyone else, and was enjoying herself immensely.

James and the other bullfighter were working well together as a team, backing each other up, their antics daring and impressive. But Rachel could see James starting to tire. He was incredibly fit, there was no doubt about it, but being in cowboy protection for that length of time without a break for a breather was pretty tough.

She found herself clutching the rail she was sitting on with a death-grip, and her heart started pounding in her chest. She was nervous; but why? Was that really a sense of foreboding that she felt, or was it her imagination? She didn’t know the other bullfighter well enough to judge how he was holding up, but his movements seemed to be slowing too. Were they both tired? Maybe she was imagining things.

The next two cowboys rode without incident, and Rachel started to relax. Everything’s fine, she told herself. But it wasn’t.

When the next bull came out, a young cowboy who’d just broke Open earlier that season riding him, it was obvious James wasn’t on the ball as much as he needed to be, and his reactions were slowing. Only slightly, but that was enough. He needed to be in top form to do his job properly, to keep both himself and the cowboy safe; and he wasn’t. The young cowboy didn’t make the eight seconds on the back of Dubbo the bull, and when he bucked off, it was on the wrong side, and his hand was trapped.

Rachel watched, horrified, as the cowboy dangled there momentarily, his feet running in the air, trying to make contact with the ground as his body was flung around like a rag doll. Instantly, James was by his side, trying to free the young cowboys’ hand, backed up by the other bullfighter. From her vantage point on the rail, her knuckles turned white as she gripped the fence even tighter than before, not even daring to breathe, knowing the danger James was in at that very moment, knowing that he was tiring.

It happened so fast it was a blur – one second there were 3 men surrounding the bull, in the next, James went flying through the air with the bull charging after him. There was a sickening, muted scream as the bull pounded James into the dust with his powerful head, and a few seconds of sheer terror in the ring as the second bullfighter struggled to distract the bull away from James.

The other cowboy was hobbling out of the ring, but James was lying prone on the ground, not moving. Men on horses came and herded the bull away with the help of the other bullfighter, and still James didn’t move. The announcer called for St. Johns, and two men in white uniforms rushed in carrying a stretcher, once the bull was safely penned away. Rachel shoved her fist into her mouth to stifle a scream then leapt off the gate, trying to get to James.

Forgotten, were those earlier feelings of anger and bitterness. Forgotten were the painful spankings she’d endured at his hand, forgotten was everything negative she’d ever felt towards James. She just wanted him to be okay.
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