A Winter's Rose Read Online Free PDF

do for you, Mr. Reese?”
    â€œJackson,” he corrected. “And I’m here to talk business.”
    He flashed her a bone-melting smile. She swore silently when it did just that. “You disappoint me. I thought, perhaps, you’d come to apologize.”
    â€œFor my boorish behavior?” Jackson tipped his head back and gave a hoot of laughter. “I’m sure that’s the type of treatment you’re accustomed to. Sorry, m’lady, but I never apologize. I came to talk about your job.”
    Her job? The blood rushed to her head, but she lifted her eyebrows haughtily. “Does this means you’re acknowledging I have one?”
    His smile didn’t falter, but it seemed to tighten around the edges. “You gave me no choice. Remember? I’m stuck with you.”
    â€œSo?”
    â€œSo…let’s talk business. What can you do, Bentley Barton Cunningham?”
    Bentley inched her chin up even as panic curled through her. Nothing. “Name it,” she said instead. “Anything.”
    â€œAnything,” he drawled, amusement—and challenge—twitching at the corners of his mouth. “I doubt that.”
    Bentley narrowed her eyes, panic forgotten at his affront, anger replacing it. “Name it,” she said again.
    â€œEver baby-sat?”
    As she met his eyes, he lifted his eyebrows rakishly. She shook her head as realization dawned. His wayward, kicked-out-of-school-again daughter. “That’s not what I came to Galveston for.”
    â€œIt’s a job. Of course—” he lifted his shoulders “—if it’s not a good enough one, not important enough for someone like yourself, you could run back to Mama and Daddy.”
    That was exactly what he wanted. It was what her mother wanted, also. Bentley gritted her teeth, furious. “You are a pig, Mr. Reese.”
    Jackson laughed, the sound rich with amusement. “And you are a princess.”
    Now she understood the origin of the expression spit bullets, Bentley thought. Because at that moment she felt like she could, indeed, spit them.
    She jerked her chin up. This man would not daunt her, could not intimidate her into giving up. She would be the best damn baby-sitter ever. She would tame his unruly, ill-mannered daughter—or die trying.
    â€œHow long?” she asked.
    A frown tugged at his mouth. “Chloe’s been suspended until after the Christmas holidays. But I doubt you’ll last a day, let alone six weeks. Last week Chloe went through three sitters in four and a half days. She can be…difficult.”
    An aching sadness slipped into his expression, and Bentley lifted her hand to comfort him. Realizing what she was doing, she dropped it. “And if I do last?”
    He met her eyes, and she suspected by the softness in his that he had been, for that moment, far away. “Pardon?”
    â€œIf I go the distance with Chloe, will you give me a shot, a real shot at working at Baysafe?”
    Jackson drew his eyebrows together, and considered her through narrowed eyes. “Why Galveston? Why Baysafe?”
    â€œI already told you, I want to work with an environmental group. I heard you’re the best.”
    â€œYeah, you told me. I didn’t buy it then, I still don’t.”
    â€œWhat?” She tilted her head back and met his eyes. “That you’re the best?”
    â€œThat you give a flip about the environment.”
    Bentley’s cheeks heated, and she cursed their color. “That’s your problem, isn’t it? Do we have a deal?”
    Several seconds ticked past, then Jackson nodded and handed her one of his cards. “Here’s my address. Be there by eight and I’ll fill you in.”
    As he started down the hall, she called, “Why me? What makes you think I can handle your daughter, even if only for a day?”
    Jackson stopped and turned to face her. He met her eyes and smiled.