Heartstealer (Women of Character) - By Grace Brannigan Page 0,1

"I hope I didn’t hurt you when I caught you," she said apologetically. "Actually, I guess you caught me." Literally. She suddenly realized her knee was in a rather delicate area.

"It's not every day I can lay claim to stopping a runaway female," the man professed, blue eyes framed by the blackest of lashes.

"Not exactly a runaway," she admitted, tilting her head and grinning widely. "Though it looks like I've made a slight miscalculation in my landing."

He swept his arm up to catch the folds of the parachute and began to pull it off them.

Jacie let her glance linger on his mouth and a barely noticeable dimple. A jolt of sexual awareness hit her. She immediately stifled it, gulping back a groan. The man shifted his legs and sensation rocked her. He was all hard muscles and long limbs. After Brad, she’d vowed no men. . .no way. But for a moment as her glance lingered on a rock hard jaw and wide shoulders, that vow felt about as substantial as fairy dust. The hell with Brad.

She rolled sideways and off him as he fully released them from the parachute's silky folds.

"Aren’t you supposed to take wind shifts into consideration when doing a jump?" he asked. He sat up and dusted off his pants. His legs were encased in snug-fitting denims as faded as his shirt and he had well worn cowboy boots on his feet. He stood over her as he pulled off his gloves and stuffed them in a back pocket. Jacie measured his height against hers. Six three, maybe four to her five feet seven inches.

"Of course I take the wind into consideration." She told herself to focus, but it became impossible when his gaping shirt offered tantalizing glimpses of a man in superb physical shape. She tried to ignore the attraction nipping at her but for the moment gave it up as a losing battle.

His look turned questioning as he proceeded to snap his shirt. "Then you changed your target?" he asked with a hint of impatience.

"Guilty." She lifted her shoulders, thinking he looked like a man who had no time for nonsense. "Seemed like a good idea at the time." She didn’t tell him he’d presented a challenge, standing off by himself like that, as if he wasn’t impressed with her skydiving into the resort.

He did look pretty unimpressed. In fact, she guessed that right about now he was wondering who the fool was that had hired her to skydive into Timber Falls. Natural curiosity prompted her to ask, "Are you a guest at the ranch?"

"No." He looked past her toward the small crowd who had gathered for the jump. "Here come the others." With concern he quickly glanced up and down her scarlet jumpsuit. "You landed pretty hard, are you okay?"

Jacie saw him zero in on the knee support and then felt his sharp glance move up to her neck.

"You’ve hurt yourself," he added, reaching out a hand toward her.

She didn’t wait to see if he would actually touch her neck but jerked her head back. "I'm fine," she said briskly. "The mark on my neck is old." She reached over to pick up a black cowboy hat on the ground. The shaped brim felt smooth under her fingertips. "Yours?"

"Yeah." He took it and held out his other hand to her. She let him pull her up and they stared at each other, each taking the other’s measure. Jacie admitted she liked what she saw.

She stepped back. He put his hat on, tipping the brim forward the slightest bit, virtually hiding his eyes from her.

"Sloan." He shook her hand. "Welcome to the Catskills and Timber Falls."

"Thanks. Jacie Turner." She felt a measure of disgust when her voice came out breathless. She pulled at her sleeves and adjusted them. Men didn’t usually make her nervous.

"Yeah, I know," he said.

That made her pause in buttoning her sleeve. "And do I know you?"

"Nope. My brother hired you." He began to roll her chute, his movements swift and efficient. "Come on, we might as well see if that jump will satisfy the experts."

Jacie’s leg muscles tensed. Back to business. She chewed her lip thoughtfully, knowing the jump hadn’t been one of her better ones. "Your brother is James Wright? He was my contact for this job. Who are the experts?" she asked curiously. "Sounds like you’re not lumping yourself in that category."

"James is my brother. He and his advertising agency are the experts." He threw her a serious