Michelle Celmer—Playing by the Baby Rules; Exerpt


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ROUND THE CLOCK TEMPTATION

Silhouette Desire
October 2005
ISBN 0-373-76683-1

Gravel and dirt crunching under his tires, Connor pulled his Mercedes up the long drive leading to the Windcroft horse farm. The sprawling, stone façade house looked fairly new considering how long the farm had been in the Windcroft family, with a lot of tall, easily accessible windows--a prowlers dream. He hoped they had a good alarm system, and if they didn’t, they needed one.
Wood rockers flanked both sides of the long, covered front porch and off to one side of the front yard a cedar swing sat on a pristine, green lawn in the shade of a towering oak whose leaves had just begun to turn yellow. Past the house on acres of flat land, he could see barns and outbuildings, corrals dotted with mesquite trees. There was also another smaller, older house several hundred yards back from the main house. He didn’t know much about horse farms, and even less about horses, but this one seemed pretty darn big. Which explained why Nita Windcroft was so charged to get to the bottom of the threats and mischief. The sheer size alone meant he would have his work cut out for him.
The one thing he didn’t see, however, that struck him as odd, was horses.
He parked by the house, grabbed his things from the backseat, and stepped out into the cool, dusty air. Duffle bag in hand, he climbed the stairs to the porch and knocked on the front door. Several minutes passed with no answer so he knocked again.
“ Can I help you?” a feminine voice inquired and Connor turned to find a woman climbing the steps behind him. She was tall and slim, dressed from head to toe in work-faded denim and wore a pair of battered old cowboy boots. A farm hand, he assumed, and a fine looking one at that.
And young. She didn’t look a day past eighteen.
“ Ma’am,” he said, removing his hat. “Names Connor Thorne.”
Hands on her hips, she eyed him up and down from under the brim of a black Stetson, as if she wasn’t quite sure what to make of him. Finally she said, “You’re older than I thought.”
“ Beg your pardon?”
“ You look older than your brother. But being twins, I guess you’re not.”
“ You know my brother?”
“ Of course I do.”
He should have figured. Before Jake settled down, he’d been a shark with the ladies, though this one looked a bit young even for him.
She removed her hat and a mane of long, shiny black hair spilled down around her shoulders. She gazed up at him with a pair of wide, startlingly brilliant violet eyes.
Holy cow, he didn’t even know eyes came in that color. Whoever this girl was, she was a looker. At thirty-eight, he didn’t typically date women young enough to be his daughter, but this girl had a fresh, wholesome quality that intrigued him.
He also had a job to do, one that would leave no time for a roll in the hay with a stable girl.
“ I’m looking for Nita Windcroft,” he said. “She’s expecting me.”
“ Well,” she looked him up one side and down the other, “this is you’re lucky day, cowboy, because you just found her.”

From the book: Round the Clock Temptation

By: Michelle Celmer