appeared fate had literally dropped this woman into his lap. Or at least dropped her into his Caddie. Josey couldn’t have been more perfect if he’d ordered her from a catalog. The more he thought about it, the more he liked his idea, and he wondered why he hadn’t thought of it before he’d agreed to this visit to the “family” ranch.
He glanced over at her. She had her eyes closed again, her head back, her hair blowing behind her in a tangled wave of sun-kissed copper. She was stunning, but beyond that his instincts told him that this woman wasn’t the type who normally found herself in this kind of position beside a road, and possibly running for her life.
Jack reminded himself that his instincts had also warned him not to pick her up back there.
He smiled to himself. Taking chances was nothing new to him, nor was charming his way to what he wanted. He’d been told that he could talk a rattlesnake out of its venom without even a bite. He knew he could talk this woman into what he had in mind or his name wasn’t Jack Winchester.
But he didn’t figure it would take much charming. He had a feeling she’d go for his proposal because she needed this more than he did.
“So, Josey, how do you feel about marriage?” he asked as they cruised down the vacant two-lane headed toward Whitehorse, Montana.
“Marriage?” she asked, opening one eye.
Jack grinned. “I have a proposition for you.”
Chapter Two
Josey had been taken aback, instantly suspicious until he explained that he was on his way to see his grandmother, who was in her seventies.
“She has more money than she knows what to do with and lives on a huge ranch to the east of here,” Jack said. “You’d be doing me a huge favor, and I’d make it worth your while. The ranch is sixty miles from the nearest town and a good ten from the nearest neighbor.”
A remote ranch. Could she really get this lucky? He was offering her exactly what she needed, as if he knew how desperate she was. Was it that obvious?
“What do you get out of it?” she asked, wary.
“Your company as well as a diversion. Since we’re on our honeymoon I have the perfect excuse to spend less time at my grandmother’s bedside.”
“I take it you aren’t close.”
He laughed at that. “You have no idea.”
Still, she made him work for it. This wasn’t her first rodeo, as they said out here in the West, and Jack Winchester was definitely not the first con man she’d come across in her twenty-eight years.
He was good, though, smooth, sexy and charming as the devil, with a grin that would have had her naked—had she still been young and naive.
She was neither. She’d learned the hard way about men like Jack Winchester back in her wild days.
But she also knew he would be suspicious if she gave in right away.
“One week,” she said, hoping she wasn’t making a huge mistake. Jack had showed up just when she needed him and this marriage charade. No wonder she was feeling this was too good to be true.
But given her lack of options...
He flashed her a sexy grin, and she told herself all she had to do was resist his cowboy charm for a week. No problem.
She closed her eyes and dozed until she felt him slowing down on the outskirts of what appeared to be a small Western town nestled in a river bottom.
“Welcome to Whitehorse,” Jack said with a laugh as they crossed a narrow bridge. “I thought we’d buy a few things for you to wear this week. I’m guessing you don’t have a lot of clothing in that backpack.”
That almost made her laugh as she pulled the backpack closer. “I definitely could use some clothes and a shower before I meet your grandmother.”
“No problem. Just tell me what you need. I’m sure there’s a truck stop at one end of this town or another. It’s the only town for miles up here.”
She looked over at him. He was making this too easy. Was he thinking that with a wife his grandmother would give him twice the inheritance? “You’re sure about this? Because I’m really not dressed to go into a clothing store,” she said, sliding down in the seat as they entered town.
* * *
JACK FELT A CHILL as Josey turned up the collar on her jean jacket and slid down in her seat. Who the hell