Hot and Bothered Read Free

part of the peninsula were rare. But Pedro had said she wanted to rent a trailer … and Pedro had rented her the worst.
    He knew he ought not to care, but he couldn’t help looking in on the
Americana
.
    He headed to the heart of the village, to the trailer in question … and stopped to stare. The woman had a wild red paisley bandanna wrapped around her hair. Her face was as red as the material. She awkwardly applied a wet rag to the dirty inside front door of the trailer. Her outfit had undoubtedly cost a fortune and was covered in streaks of dirt and grease so black, the stains would never come out. She looked taller up close, with well-defined curves. Her breasts jiggled as she worked, and he found himself unable to look away from the delicious sight.
    Holy hell, he thought, feeling as if someone had just punched all the air out of his body. Whoever she was, she caused a physical reactionin him all out of proportion to the situation. Maybe he’d been isolated for too long and that was why she could generate such a response in him. Probably any woman could.
    Rosa emerged from the interior and his flaring pulse immediately returned to normal. He looked back at the
norteamericana
, and his pulse started pounding again. Okay, so Rosa was like a kid sister.
    Rosa had a pail full of black water. The woman took the pail from Rosa and tossed the water onto the ground. She didn’t pour it over a plant or somewhere else where it could do some good. Instead, the woman poured it right smack into the dirt, where it did nothing. Paul’s entire body went into a spasm of shock, and Rosa gave a squeak of protest. Water was precious in the Baja. He should know. He paid a hundred and fifty dollars a month in rent and three times that for water trucked in during the same period.
    “That’s costing you a fortune,” he said to the American woman.
    She glanced up. Her eyes widened. He could see her makeup, once perfectly applied to perfect creamy skin, was as streaked as her outfit. Perspiration trickled down her temples. Not sweat, he thought. This wasn’t the kind of woman who would sweat. Her eyes were a blue-gray and feathered with thick lashes. Her face wasn’t model thin, but it didn’t need to be. She had a kind of sexy Earth Mother look to her that appealedto a man in a way runway sophistication never would.
    “You’re American!” she exclaimed, smiling in relief.
    “Yes.” To his horror, Rosa headed to the public cistern, obviously to fill up again. He was about to protest, knowing the truck wouldn’t come for another week, but the
Americana
interrupted.
    “Oh, it’s so lovely to see a familiar face,” she said, her smile broadening. “I’m Judith—”
    “But I don’t know you” was all he could get out, while staring at her mouth. It looked so soft and sweet … and vulnerable to a man’s plundering. Damn, but he wanted to plunder.
    “Of course you don’t,” she said. “I should say it’s good to hear a familiar accent here—”
    Paul bristled. “Not everyone has Harvard vowels—”
    “Of course not. I don’t mean to insult anyone. It’s just that I know only a few words of Spanish and feel like I’m talking at cross-purposes.”
    Paul blinked. He wondered who wasn’t speaking the English language well, and had a feeling it wasn’t he. Still, this Judith must be from the North or east of the Rockies, despite her car’s California license plate. Most southwesterners spoke a fair amount of Spanish. He got down to the matter at hand. “You shouldn’t be wasting water.”
    “Oh.” She glanced around, then frowned. “But I have to clean this place. It really needs it.”
    “Are you having car trouble or something?”
    She shook her head. The bandanna slipped a little, revealing strawberry-blond hair streaked with red-gold. “No.”
    “Fishing vacation?” He couldn’t imagine it with her clothes and car.
    “Oh, no.” She smiled again, sending his blood flowing warmly in his