Heartstealer (Women of Character3 Read Online Free Page A

buffer between her and her
family.
    "Have you been skydiving
long?" Sloan asked.
    "Eleven years or so."
    He stared at her incredulously.
"You must have started when you were a kid."
    "Almost." She lifted her
face to the sun. She couldn't talk about her job right now, not without getting
into some maudlin history. "This is like its own little paradise―the
isolation and raw wildness of the mountains," she murmured.
    He looked at her and lifted a dark
brow in amusement. "We’re not really isolated. The closest town is
only twenty miles away."
    She smiled at him. "Having
lived in a city most of my life, this is isolation. It'll suit me."
    There was a skeptical curve to his
mouth. She wondered if he thought she was trying to impress him. As he moved
ahead she eyed his straight, broad back, the lean-hipped jeans, the curl of
dark hair visible along his collar beneath the hat. She bit back a curse when
the toe of her boot caught on a root. Catching herself, she gave him a quick
look that dared him to say a word.
    Apparently undaunted, he said
quietly, "Are you okay? Maybe I could―"
    "Would you like to rub my leg?"
she asked deliberately, tilting one brow, a devil prodding her on.
    His eyes darkened and she bit back
the rest of the words, determined to curb her mischievous streak. "Sorry,
my tongue gets ahead of me. It comes from growing up with only brothers."
    "Should you be jumping out of
planes?" he asked bluntly. "I keep coming back to that."
    "The leg only bothers me when
I'm tired," she said lightly, pushing sweaty wisps of hair from her eyes.
"The brace is for added support."
    She envied him his apparent ease with
his surroundings. His stance was natural, effortless, while she knew she was
almost at the end of her energy reserve. For a moment, she felt overcome by
sheer hopelessness, not a feeling she welcomed. He fit here, with the mountains
and the wide-open spaces. She used to belong in the family business but now she
felt odd-man out. Since the accident it was as if she didn’t belong
anywhere, and she couldn’t blame it all on Brad. The accident had been
partly her fault, but it was too late to fix what was already done. She just
wished she could figure out where she fit in.
    She stared at the cabin as they
drew closer. "It's beautiful," she said.
    Ω
    Sloan couldn’t drag his gaze
away from Jacie. He wasn’t happy about the creep of sexual awareness that
moved along his neck. He wasn’t looking for a complication, at least
that's what he told himself as he watched the smile transform her face. When
she wasn't trying to be flippant, he sensed vulnerability. He reminded himself
he didn’t need to know anything about her, except that she could do the
job she’d been hired to do.
    "I'm glad you like the
cabin." He wondered what else might please her.
    He had annoyed her with his offer
of help but it wasn't in him to be idle if there was a problem. He could see
she was hurting, even though she acted offhand about it.
    Despite the dust, the tendrils of
hair curling around her forehead and the faint shadows beneath her eyes, she
was a knockout. He had always considered guests off limits and he ruthlessly
suppressed the urge to change that rule now. His knee-jerk reaction to her
bothered him. He had the strangest desire to stay and find out all about her.
He reminded himself there were chores to do. God and everybody knew they
wouldn't get done until he saw to them. The ranch might be a resort for guests,
but it was a working environment for him.
    He knew this attraction could be a
dangerous thing.
    "Have you always lived here,
Sloan?"
    "Most of my life. I decided
being in the mountains was my calling. Having lived a time in the city I
wasn’t impressed."
    "I love the city.
There’s always something new."
    He smiled. "I know, lots of
thrills and excitement. I can’t imagine you settling for a place like
this."
    "But I love it," she
protested.
    His fiancé Ilene had thought
she could live here, but in the end the