Tyler Read Free Page A

just enough time to blink, brace himself, and pray his back would hold out. He’d unloaded a truckload of hay before cleaning up to drive out here.
    She settled against him. Hoping he wouldn’t lose his grip, he slid his hands beneath her muscled backside.
    Gwen leaned close and whispered in his ear, “Nice catch, cowboy.”
    He was too stunned to speak.
    “One more thing.” Jolene walked toward where he stood, legs braced apart, holding on for dear life, muscles screaming, tendons straining.
    He hoped to hell he didn’t have to go haul in any full kegs of beer for his next test. Poke him with a fork; he was done!
    “You can set Gwen down now.”
    When he did as she asked, Gwen touched his cheek, smiled, and walked back toward the still open door.
    Distracted and disturbed by what he’d just had to do, not quite sure what it proved, he didn’t see Jolene move until she was crowding him so close he could feel her breath on his chin and feel the tip of her fingernail as it tapped in the hollow of his throat.
    He sucked in a breath and held it, waiting to see what else she’d ask him to do. He hated being at this woman’s mercy. Suck it up, boy. Garahans go down fighting!
    Gee thanks, Grandpa!
    Her gaze met his, and he sensed she knew he was fighting the urge to either step back or step forward. Holding himself as still as the scarecrow in the Circle G’s cornfield, Tyler waited.
    She let her fingernail slide down his breastbone all the way toward his—Aw hell, she wouldn’t.
    She laughed—a sexy, sultry sound—as if daring him to move. “Thirty dollars, plus tips.”
    Thinking of the ranch and the sweat, blood, and tears three generations of Garahans had infused into the land, and not what he’d have to do to earn those tips, he froze. The sweat gathered at his temples began to trickle down the sides of his face, but he held his ground. He pictured his brothers as they rode hell-bent for leather toward the barn at the end of the day, arguing over whose turn it was to rustle up supper. He savored the memory of his mother pulling a huge turkey out of the oven during the holidays and his grandpa giving them all hell while smiling at the brothers with a gleam of pride in his eyes.
    She dipped the tip of her nail in his navel and he jolted.
    But he kept his hands at his sides and his face devoid of expression, even when she shocked the shit out of him, tucked her finger inside the waistband of his jeans, and yanked him flush against her saying the words he’d been both dreading and hoping to hear.
    “You’re hired.”

Chapter 2
    “Hey, Jesse, it’s me.” Tyler jammed his arm into one sleeve, switched the phone to his other ear, and repeated the movement, yanking his shirt back on.
    “Did you get the job?”
    Tyler rubbed at the ache in his temple. “Yeah—” Before he could say anymore, he heard Jesse yelling to Dylan, sharing the good news.
    “When do you start?” his brother asked.
    “Tonight at seven.”
    “Good news, bro,” Jesse said. “Are you coming back to the ranch, or will you kill a few hours and wait in town?”
    Tyler pushed his Stetson further back on his head so he could rub at the ache between his eyes. “I’ve got some forms to fill out.”
    “Uh, Tyler?”
    He heard the sudden change in his brother’s voice and should have realized his brothers would be worried about the money. Tyler had kept the grim reality to himself for too long and had had to lay their finances out on the table last night. The discussion that followed had been anything but brotherly.
    “Yeah?”
    “Will it be enough?”
    Thinking of the way Jolene traced the tip of her fingernail from his throat to his navel, he gritted his teeth. “Yeah… just.”
    “OK. Good.”
    “See you around three o’clock.”
    “Dylan and I’ll get up earlier and feed the stock; you can sleep in.”
    Tyler swore. “I don’t need you to do my chores.”
    “Hell,” Jesse bit out. “You’re the one taking on the night