And Cowboy Makes Three (Cowboys To The Rescue 2) Read Free

curtain, and the elevator jerked to a stop.
    Thrown off balance, Claire lurched against him. Steel arms caught her as his back rammed into the elevator wall. They were thrown sideways, then slammed to the floor. Claire landed hard on top of him, her legs tangling with his, her forehead glancing off his chin.
    Even with the cushion of his body, her landing wasn’t soft. Jacob Anderson was as solid as the Rocky Mountains.
    As they hit the floor, a dim light came on overhead.
    Claire blinked in shock. Slowly she pushed herself up to lean on one hand, the other rising to push back a lock of hair. She could barely make out his features as he gasped for breath. “What happened?”
    “Ah...Ah...”
    The fall had knocked his breath out. She panicked. She couldn’t lose this man now. Then she remembered all the times she’d seen bucking broncs do the same thing to her brothers. Buttons flew as she tore open his shirt and massaged his iron-hard chest. “Breathe! Com‘on, com’on! Breathe!”
    Air finally whipped into the vacuum of his lungs. As he took in great gulping breaths, she slumped forward in relief.
    “Damn.” Jake’s need for air finally satisfied, he closed his eyes and let his heavy head fall against the elevator wall. What the hell just happened? One minute this young woman had been harassing him, the next she was on top of him, ripping off his shirt.
    Memory flooded in as oxygen reached his brain. The storm. It must’ve knocked out the power, then did its damnedest to knock him out. This woman’s quick actions had—while probably not saving his life—saved him from a nasty few minutes trying to get air. “Thanks for the massage.”
    “What happened? You don’t think that storm blew a transformer?”
    Hoping he imagined the faint trace of panic in her voice, he lifted his right shoulder hesitantly, grateful it still worked. “It’s about the only thing that’ll stop an elevator. Don’t worry, everything will be fine.”
    “Fine? We could be stuck in here for hours.”
    “Ms. Eden, the last thing we need to do is panic.”
    Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t patronize me. I’m not a child.”
    “Then don’t act like one,” he said harshly.
    Suddenly she snapped like a thin branch in a strong wind. “You rude, arrogant son of a cross-eyed snake! You’re just like my brothers. No, I take that back. You’re ten times worse. At least they’re civil to people. At least they care. I’ll never have a baby now, but what’s that to you? You’ve got half the money in Colorado. You could get pregnant thousands of times.”
    “What are you talking about?” Though she wasn’t shrieking, her low, angry tones told Jake she’d been pushed over the edge—of what he didn’t know.
    “You don’t care that my car broke down on the way back into town and I’m probably going to have to shell out money to buy a new one just when I need thousands of dollars to get pregnant or never have children. Try that on a small-business accountant’s salary.”
    “Will you please—”
    “You don’t care that my brothers call practically every day and keep breathing down my neck to marry some cowboy they’ve picked out. You—”
    Her tirade broke off with a gasping hiccup. After a shudder that traveled the length of her slender frame, her eyes cleared.
    Then she looked down at him with dawning horror.

Chapter Two
     
    J ake didn’t know what made the young woman’s outburst end as suddenly as it began. He could only be grateful. Then he realized he’d probably be stuck for hours with a crazy woman. A lovely lunatic who wanted a job.
    Everyone wanted something from the head of Pawnee Investments. Lately, he felt as if he’d been picked clean by a flock of vultures.
    He planted his bands on the floor to push up but found himself pinned down by the woman on his stomach.
    “Oh, no, I’m—” She scrambled to her feet,
    Jake ignored the sharp pain in his back as he pulled himself up. He stretched to knock out a