Chasin' Mason — Stacey Joy Netzel

When his father announced his engagement to a gold-digger with a lying, scheming fourteen-year old daughter, seventeen-year old Tripp Warner left Warner Ridge Ranch and never looked back. Until the day he got the phone call that his father had died unexpectedly. Reggie Reed lives with her guilt every day but can't quite work up the courage to track down the son of the man who raised her as his own.

When Tripp shows up at his father's funeral eleven years later--and a hell of a man to be reckoned with--he has no interest in her too-late apology. Worse, they've inherited half shares of the family ranch-but only if they work together to catch Mason's Gold, the stallion a young Reggie let escape and made sure Tripp took the blame for.

Tripp proposes a secret competition to the beautiful witch who stole his life: whoever catches the stallion first gets the ranch all to themselves. It sounds simple, but once they're out on the range, tempers and passions flare in the Texas heat and nothing goes as either of them expects.

EXCERPT:

"I have a proposition for you."

She couldn't help it, her gaze went straight to the bed.  Just as fast she snapped it back up to his face.  "A what?"

He lifted one nicely muscled shoulder in a careless gesture that didn't fool her one bit when she considered the calculating gleam in his eyes. 

"Maybe competition is the better word."

"And what exactly would we be competing for?" she asked.

"The ranch."

Reggie would've laughed, except he was dead serious.  She crossed her arms.  "What have you got in mind?"

"Who ever catches Mason wins everything, simple as that.  Loser leaves."

Her stomach gave a sickening lurch.  This is why he agreed to the terms of the will.  She knew he'd flipped to the other side too fast.  But Ernesto hadn't lied when he said she'd been trying to catch the stallion for years, though how he knew about it, she'd love to know.  No way did she want to go up against Tripp like this, not with the ranch at stake. Mason was smarter than any horse she'd known. 
 
Tripp stepped closer, crowding her personal space as he leaned in and taunted, "Afraid you can't catch him?"