Round-the-Clock Temptation Read Free

not.”
    â€œYou know my brother?”
    â€œOf course I do.”
    He should have figured. Before Jake had settled down, he’d been a shark with the ladies, though this one looked a bit young even for him.
    She removed her hat and a mane of shiny black hair spilled down around her shoulders. She gazed up at him with a pair of wide, startlingly brilliant violet eyes.
    Holy cow, he didn’t even know eyes came in that color. Whoever this girl was, she was a looker. At thirty-eight, he didn’t typically date women young enough to be his daughter, but this girl had a fresh, wholesome quality that intrigued him.
    He also had a job to do, one that would leave no time for a roll in the hay with a stable girl.
    â€œI’m looking for Nita Windcroft,” he said. “She’s expecting me.”
    â€œWell—” she looked him up one side and down the other “—this is your lucky day, cowboy, because you just found her.”

Two
    S alvation manifested itself in many forms.
    This particular brand had showed up in tight jeans, a flannel shirt and cowboy boots.
    And he was looking at her as though her hair had caught fire.
    â€œ You’re Nita Windcroft?”
    â€œThat’s what it says on my birth certificate.”
    He shook his head, as if he couldn’t believe it. Connor may have been Jake’s identical twin, but they were complete opposites. Sure, they looked alike—the same height, the same dark brown hair, though Connor’s was cut military short. They both had eyes the color of the Texas sky at dusk on a cloudless day—deep, relentless blue. But Connor seemed darker somehow, more intense.
    The lines bracketing his eyes were carved deeper inhis skin, the worry lines in his forehead more pronounced. This man had obviously done his fair share of frowning. In their depths his eyes held the life experience of a man twice his age.
    The things that man must have seen to have eyes like that.
    â€œYou’re really Nita?” he asked, looking down one side of the porch, then the other, as if he expected the real Nita suddenly to appear.
    â€œNot what you were expecting, huh?”
    His eyes roamed over her, slowly. Deliberately. Something about the way he looked at her, the way he studied her features, made her feel self-conscious and exposed.
    â€œNot exactly.”
    More like, hell no , considering the look on his face.
    â€œI thought you would be…older,” he said.
    â€œIf you got your information from the old biddies in town, you probably thought I was some nasty hag.”
    She could tell by the look of guilt in his eyes, that’s exactly what he’d thought, but he was apparently too polite to tell her so.
    â€œIf you’d like, I could show you my driver’s license.”
    He finally cracked a smile—even though it was just a little one—and the change in his face, the softening of his features knocked her for a loop. “No, ma’am, that won’t be necessary.”
    â€œYou can call me Nita,” she said, extending a hand for him to shake.
    He gripped it firmly. Not the sissy shake some men used on a woman, as if the slightest pressure would snap her like a dry twig. On the other side of that coinwere the men who felt they had something to prove, the ones who turned the shake into some kind of contest of brute strength. Connor’s handshake was just right.
    Having him stay here, getting in her way, might not be so bad after all.
    â€œI guess we should get this show on the road,” Nita said. “I had Jane, our housekeeper, make up the bedroom in the guesthouse so you’ll have some privacy.”
    He paused. “I’d prefer to stay in the main house if that’s not a problem.”
    The only empty bedroom in the main house was right next to hers. The thought of this man sleeping within shouting distance gave her an unexpected little shiver of excitement. She wondered what he looked