Craving the Renegade
(2026)(Book 14 in the Renegades of Clearwater County series)
A novel by Bonnie R Paulson
He’s spent seventeen years making sure he never has anything to lose. Then a blizzard traps him with the one woman who makes him want everything.
Zayden Bailey learned young what happens when a man in his family falls in love.
He watched the happiest man he knew bury his wife—and walked away from that graveside with one rule for the rest of his life:
Want nothing. Love no one. And someday, leave Clearwater County for good.
Seventeen years later, Zayden is finally three months away from selling his land and disappearing.
Then the worst storm of the winter traps him in a one-room line shack with Neve Smythe.
Neve is everything Zayden is not. She’s a veterinarian who has built her whole life on staying, fighting for what matters, and refusing to let fear make her choices. She has roots in the county he’s desperate to escape—and absolutely no patience for a man who mistakes running for freedom.
Five snowbound days change everything.
The walls Zayden has spent nearly two decades building begin to crack. He discovers how dangerous a shared fire, a quiet supper, and one stubborn blue-eyed woman can be to a man determined never to need anyone.
And Neve discovers something just as dangerous.
The cold, distant cowboy everyone thinks she knows isn’t cold at all.
He’s starving.
But when the storm clears, Zayden’s old plan is still waiting. So are the family curse, the land sale, and seventeen years of fear telling him to run before love can cost him everything.
Neve refuses to chase him.
If Zayden stays, he has to choose it.
If he leaves, he may finally learn that the road to freedom was the trap all along.
A sweeping Western romance featuring forced proximity, a snowed-in one-room cabin, a runaway cowboy, a stubborn veterinarian, a generations-old family feud, opposites-attract chemistry, deep emotional healing, and a hard-won happily-ever-after about choosing love even when fear says run.
Genre: Romance
Zayden Bailey learned young what happens when a man in his family falls in love.
He watched the happiest man he knew bury his wife—and walked away from that graveside with one rule for the rest of his life:
Want nothing. Love no one. And someday, leave Clearwater County for good.
Seventeen years later, Zayden is finally three months away from selling his land and disappearing.
Then the worst storm of the winter traps him in a one-room line shack with Neve Smythe.
Neve is everything Zayden is not. She’s a veterinarian who has built her whole life on staying, fighting for what matters, and refusing to let fear make her choices. She has roots in the county he’s desperate to escape—and absolutely no patience for a man who mistakes running for freedom.
Five snowbound days change everything.
The walls Zayden has spent nearly two decades building begin to crack. He discovers how dangerous a shared fire, a quiet supper, and one stubborn blue-eyed woman can be to a man determined never to need anyone.
And Neve discovers something just as dangerous.
The cold, distant cowboy everyone thinks she knows isn’t cold at all.
He’s starving.
But when the storm clears, Zayden’s old plan is still waiting. So are the family curse, the land sale, and seventeen years of fear telling him to run before love can cost him everything.
Neve refuses to chase him.
If Zayden stays, he has to choose it.
If he leaves, he may finally learn that the road to freedom was the trap all along.
A sweeping Western romance featuring forced proximity, a snowed-in one-room cabin, a runaway cowboy, a stubborn veterinarian, a generations-old family feud, opposites-attract chemistry, deep emotional healing, and a hard-won happily-ever-after about choosing love even when fear says run.
Genre: Romance