Heartbreaker Read Online Free PDF Page B

dream job. Only someone in the business knew how stressful and uncertain a career it was. Gain ten pounds, develop a few crow’s-feet, and it was over.
    Then what?
    That was the fear that nibbled constantly at the edges of her mind. She was thirty-five—and she feared it was starting to show. How much longer did she have?
    “Owen, Tim needs to see you. Something about tomorrow’s schedule.” The voice behind them that materialized out of the darkness belonged to Jess. Lynn tensed.
    “Can’t you handle it?” Owen swiveled around to look at his brother.
    “Nope.”
    Concentrating on her cigarette, Lynn didn’t look at either man. But she was conscious of something—a small shimmer of wordless communication—in the air between them. It dissolved as Owen turned back around with a disgusted grunt.
    “I guess I’d better go, then,” he said to Lynn as he stubbed his cigarette out on the heel of his boot and stuck the butt in his jacket pocket. “Don’t forget to use that liniment.”
    “I won’t. Thanks.” Lynn smiled at him. He smiled back at her, stood up, and strode off into the night.
    “What liniment?” Jess walked around the bale and sat down in Owen’s place. Pushing his cowboy hat to the back of his head, he leaned his flannel-clad elbows on his knees just as Owen had, and looked sideways at her. His profile was etched in orange against the distant glow of the fire. The ridge of his nose had a bump on it, as if it might have been broken once. His lips were a shade too thin, his chin and forehead a hair too prominent. He was not quite as good-looking as Brad Pitt, Lynn was pleased to decide. And for her, at least, he was totally resistible.
    “None of your business,” Lynn said, glancing away and blowing a cloud of smoke into the cold night air. “Go away.”
    “You seemed ready enough to talk to my brother.”
    “I like him. I don’t like you.”
    “Now why is that, I wonder? Most people like me fine.”
    Lynn slanted him a glance of disdain. “People? Or women?”
    “Either. Both.”
    “In that case maybe you should start a fan club.”
    “Maybe I will. Wanna join?”
    “In your dreams.”
    Jess laughed. “I guess that means you don’t want me to rub that liniment on for you.”
    “I guess you’re right.”
    “You’ll be sorry in the morning. The second day is a whole lot worse than the first when it comes to being saddle sore.”
    “I’ll live.”
    “You’re wasting time, you know.” The words were soft, provocative.
    Lynn took a final drag on her cigarette, dropped it, and ground it out with the toe of her boot as she exhaled.
    “You lost me. I don’t have the slightest idea what you’re talking about,” she said.
    “We’ve only got eight days left for that vacation fling.” He grinned at her as she stiffened with outrage, then warded off any reply she might have made by bending to retrieve the butt she had discarded. “By the way, you don’t want to leave that cigarette on the ground. It might spark up again, start a fire.”
    Lynn’s lips tightened as she watched him stash the butt in the pocket of his denim jacket. He was right, she knew; she should have remembered how careful Owen had been.
    “I’ll remember that.” The words were abrupt. She stood up, wincing as her sore muscles shrieked a protest. “I think I’ll go check on Rory.” It was all she could do not to rub her thighs, her knees, her butt. God, she ached.
    “Give the kid some space, why don’t you?” Jess stood too, looking down at her. Like his brother, he was tall. Lynn felt more vertically challenged than usual in her flat riding boots. At work, and nearly everywhere else as well, she always wore three-inch heels.
    “I don’t need your advice about my daughter. All I want you to do is stay away from her.”
    “You’ve got a dirty mind, you know that?” His voice was almost a drawl.
    “Only when it’s warranted.”
    “And you think it’s warranted with me?”
    “Lynn, there you