Once Tempted Read Online Free PDF

were on her right, “Silver Creek Ranch” painted on a carved wooden sign that was nailed to the gate. The road became gravel, and the pings of stones flying up and hitting the undercarriage made it seem like her car was under attack. It was certainly acting that way, coughing and wheezing and rattling ominously.
    A plume of smoky dust drifted past her and she frowned, her tension ratcheting up. The road didn’t seem that dusty.
    She was definitely going to have to find a garage as well as a job. When she’d stopped at the last service station, they’d had some info placards posted by the gas tanks about stretches for drivers to ease their tight muscles and sore backs and a chart to help identify different bug-splattered carcasses on a windshield—California humor at its finest—but no mechanic on duty to take a look at her engine.
    She kept her eyes fixed straight ahead, ignoring the long uninterrupted line of wood-and-wire fence running parallel to the private road, ignoring the disturbingnoises erupting from under the car’s hood. Ignoring everything but the fact that ahead of her a large timber and stone building was beginning to take shape. Her destination was in sight. She just had to get there.
    The wheels of her car rumbled over a small wooden bridge, bringing her within a hundred yards of a big circular courtyard with trees and shrubs planted in its center. That’s when she saw the man.
    He was walking up another road that, like the spoke of a wheel, joined the courtyard. He wore blue jeans, cowboy boots, and a denim shirt. A dark beige cowboy hat, pulled down low, shaded his face. She’d noticed a number of men wearing cowboy hats in town, but this guy didn’t look like he wore the jeans and a hat as a fashion statement. He must be one of the ranch hands. Even if the guests at the ranch liked to dress up like cowboys, she doubted they’d have so much dirt on their jeans.
    She eased off the accelerator, slowing to a crawl and then braking. Unfortunately, the car didn’t seem to appreciate idling any more than it did moving. If anything, the racket it made worsened. And those wispy clouds she’d noticed earlier? They seemed to be snaking out from beneath her hood. The sooner she found a place to park, the better.
    She lowered her window. The car was filthy, coated with salt and grime that no amount of squeegeeing could wash away. Now, with the barrier gone, she saw with twenty-twenty clarity the man approaching her.
    She swallowed.
    Wow, that was a lot of muscle. A lot of seriously honed muscle if the way his jeans hugged his long thighs was any indication. His belt buckle was at eye level, a big oval thing just right for gripping. Dismissing this errant thought, she forced her gaze up, past his flat stomach and broad shoulders to the strong column of hisneck. As her gaze reached the flat line of his mouth, it stalled, and she felt her own smile slip.
    “Uh, hi.” For some reason her voice was breathless. It carried no further than a whisper. Nerves, she told herself. This place, the prospect of working here, even this man, they all unsettled her.
    It didn’t help that the car was whining even louder.
    She tried again, repeating more loudly, “Hi. Could you help me? I was wondering where I should park.”
    It happened so quickly she didn’t have time to react. The stranger thrust his arm into the open window, reached across her, and, with a flick of his wrist, killed the engine.
    Aghast, she felt her mouth fall open. His arm was still inside the car, in her space, a space that had shrunk to the size of a mouse hole. With the same arrogant deliberateness he’d just displayed, he withdrew his arm, but this time it grazed her breasts. And it seemed he moved twice as slowly while her heartbeat trebled.
    The shock of feeling his arm brushing against her, of breathing in the scent of this man’s sweat and whatever deodorant he wore, was like being caught in a lightning storm. No wonder her heart was