In Bed with the Wrangler Read Online Free PDF

world for her to let herself get saddled with a man she didn’t want.
    “Same thing Jared has on you,” she answered softly. “Duty, obligation, guilt.”
    “Jared needs me for a month,” said Royce, not buying into the parallel. “What’s-his-name—”
    “Hargrove.”
    “Hargrove wants you forever.” Royce felt a sudden spurt of anger. “And where the hell are your parents in all this? Have you told them?”
    “They think he’s perfect for me.”
    “He’s not.”
    Amber smiled. “You’ve never even met him.”
    “I don’t have to. You’re here. He’s there.” Royce ranhis brain through the circumstances one more time. “Your cell’s turned off, right?”
    She nodded.
    “Don’t use your credit cards.”
    “I didn’t bring them.”
    “Good.”
    “Not really.” She hesitated. “Royce, I have no money whatsoever.”
    “You don’t need money.”
    “And I have no clothes, not even underwear.”
    Okay, that gave him an unwanted visual. “We have everything you need right here.”
    “I can’t live off your charity.”
    “You’re our guest.”
    “I forced you to bring me here.”
    Royce set the letter back down on the desktop and tucked his phone back into his shirt pocket. “Ask anybody, Amber. I don’t do anything I don’t want to do.” He let his gaze shade the meaning of the words. He’d brought her home with him because she was a beautiful and interesting woman. It was absolutely no hardship having her around.
    “I need to earn my keep.”
    Royce resisted the temptation to make a joke about paying her way by sleeping with him. It was in poor taste, and the last thing he wanted to do was insult her. Besides, the two were completely unrelated.
    He hoped she was attracted to him. What red-blooded man wouldn’t? And last night he had been fairly certain she was attracted to him. But whatever was between them would take its own course.
    Her gaze strayed to the messy desk. “I could…”
    He followed the look.
    “…maybe straighten things up a little? I’ve taken business management courses, some accounting—”
    “No argument from me.” Royce held up his palms in surrender. “McQuestin’s niece, Maddy, usually helps out in the office, but she’s gone back to Texas with him while he recovers.” He spread his arms in welcome. “Make yourself at home.”

Three
    S everal hours later, eyes grainy from reading ranch paperwork, Amber wandered out of the office. The office door opened into a short hallway that connected to the front foyer and then to the rest of the ranch house. It had grown dark while she worked, and soft lamplight greeted her in the empty living room. The August night was cool, with pale curtains billowing in the side windows, while screen doors separated the room from the veranda beyond.
    Muted noise came from the direction of the kitchen, and she caught a movement on the veranda. Moving closer, she realized it was a plump puff ball of a black-and-white puppy. Amber smiled in reaction as another pup appeared, and then a third and a fourth.
    They hadn’t seen her yet, and the screen door kept them locked outside. Just as well. They were cute, butAmber was a little intimidated by animals. She’d never had a pet before. Her mother didn’t like the noise, the mess or the smell.
    Truth was, she dropped out of dressage riding lessons because one of the horses had bit her on the shoulder. She hadn’t told the grooms, or her parents, or anybody else about the incident. She was embarrassed, convinced that she’d done something to annoy the horse but not sure of what it might have been. When a creature couldn’t talk or communicate, how did you know what they wanted or needed?
    The pups disappeared from view, and she moved closer to the door, peeking at an angle to see them milling in a small herd around Royce’s feet while he sat in a deep, wooden Adirondack chair, reading some kind of report under the half-dozen outdoor lamps that shone around the