Fortune Hunter's Hero. Linda Turner

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      A muscle ticked in his jaw at the thought of Melissa. How could he have been so taken in by her? He’d dated his share of women, and he’d always seen them for what they were…until Melissa looked up at him with those big blue eyes and stole his heart. He’d never seen the mercenary light in those same blue eyes, never realized that she loved what he could give her more than she could ever love him.

      Never again, he thought grimly. He didn’t need a woman, didn’t need another kick in the teeth. He’d welcomed the solitude of the ranch, the time to himself. The last thing he wanted or needed was a woman like Rainey Brewster following him around the ranch, looking for the lost mine and making it impossible for him to ignore her.

      But she was the only one who had a clue where the mine was and she wasn’t sharing that information unless they had a deal. Damn!

      Frustrated, left with no choice, he sighed. “Deal. There. Are you satisfied?”

      She didn’t even attempt to hold back a triumphant smile. “Once it’s in writing, I will be. So…when do we get started?”

      She was serious, he thought with a groan. She was really going to insist on helping him search for the mine. And he’d agreed to the insanity. He must have been out of his mind.

      “Eight,” he said curtly. “I want to get an early start.”

      “I’ll be there,” she assured him, grinning. “You bring the contract, and I’ll pack a picnic lunch.”

      “Just make sure you bring the map,” he retorted. “I want to find this damn thing as quickly as possible.”

      Later, Rainey didn’t know how she slept that night. Her thoughts in a whirlwind, she lay in bed for hours, wide awake, her heart racing with excitement, just like a child waiting for Santa Claus. When her father died, she’d given up any real hope of finding the mine—there were so many things that had to come together when you were searching for treasure, and doing it alone wasn’t easy. But here she was, so close she could practically reach out and touch it.

      If her father had been here, everything would have been perfect. Instead, Buck Wyatt would be at her side, working with her to find the mine.

      Her heart stopped in midbeat just at the thought, and that bothered her far more than she liked to admit. The last man who’d stopped her heart that way had also been incredibly good looking and charming. Carl. Just thinking about him tied her stomach in knots. She was eighteen when she met him and had just graduated from high school. He’d wined her and dined her and, worse yet, he’d said all the right things. He’d claimed he hated working in his family’s hardware business and couldn’t wait for the day when he could quit and join her and her father hunting treasure, and she’d fallen for him—and his story—hook, line and sinker.

      He’d lied.

      No, she corrected herself. He’d done a hell of a lot more than lie. He’d manipulated her and come close to trapping her in a life he was determined to force on her. He’d never had any intention of leaving the hardware store. Instead, he’d pressured her to give up treasure hunting and stay home and have babies. She wasn’t ready for children, and when he promised he would give her time, she thought she could make things work. But the wheels came off the wagon when he not only refused to let her search for a fortune in stolen bank money in Wisconsin, but also washed her birth control pills down the drain with the announcement that he’d decided they were going to have a baby now. She, according to him, didn’t get a vote.

      He couldn’t have been more wrong.

      Just thinking about that day still had the power to infuriate her. Outraged that he’d thought he could dictate to her when she had to have a baby, she’d walked out and filed for divorce the very next day. She’d sworn then that she was done with marriage.

      Never again, she promised herself. She wasn’t setting herself up for that kind of heartache again. She knew who she was and what she was, and she wasn’t letting any man mold her into what he wanted her to be.

      But there was something about Buck….

      Irritated with herself for even letting that particular thought surface, she drove through the entrance to the Broken Arrow and reminded herself that the only reason she was here was because of the mine. Okay, so Buck was one of those men who could walk into a room full of people and draw the eye of every female in sight. That didn’t mean that she intended to give him so much as a second look. She was a professional and planned to stay focused on the treasure. Nothing else mattered.

      Her resolve firmly in place, she felt her heart kick into overdrive as she braked to a stop in the circular driveway in front of the house. She had her map, her notes, but she knew it would take more than that to find the mine. The ranch was huge—it covered thousands of acres of trees and canyons and mountains. How much had the landscape changed since the first missionaries arrived and excavated the mine? There must have been earthquakes and landslides and forest fires that forever altered the face of the land. What if everything she found in Spain no longer applied to any section of the ranch? Then what?

      Lost in her thoughts, she didn’t realize that Buck had opened the front door and was watching her until he stepped over to her VW bug and knocked on her window. Startled, she jumped and glanced up to find him watching her through the window in amusement. “What are you doing?”

      “I was just about to ask you the same thing.” He chuckled. “You’ve been sitting there, staring into space for the last ten minutes. If you’re having second thoughts about searching for the mine with me, don’t feel like you have to. I’ll certainly understand if you want to back out. The land’s pretty rugged—”

      Her chin came up at that. “I’ve searched for buried treasure all over the world and I haven’t had to back out of a search yet. Don’t worry about me, Mr. Wyatt. I can take care of myself.”

      “Buck,” he reminded her with a knowing smile. “The name’s Buck. You don’t mind calling me by my first name, do you?”

      Just that easily, he put her on the spot. For all of five seconds, she considered admitting that she did have a problem with his request, but she couldn’t. Then he would realize that he only had to look at her in a certain way, and she couldn’t think straight. Her heart tripped, her breath caught in her throat and she couldn’t focus. It was totally ridiculous!

      Suddenly realizing he was watching every shift in her expression, she stiffened. “Of course I don’t mind calling you by your first name, Buck,” she said coolly. “Why would I?”

      “Why, indeed?” he asked, grinning. Stepping around her car, he opened the door for her. “Now that we have that settled, we need to plan our search. Have you had breakfast? I was waiting for you. We’ll go over your notes while we eat. How do you like your eggs?”

      “Oh, I don’t usually eat breakfast.”

      “Well, maybe it’s time you did,” he teased as she followed him into the kitchen. “Now…about those eggs. How’d you say you like them?”

      She wasn’t really hungry—she was too excited—but it was probably going to be a long day and there was no McDonald’s out in the middle of the ranch. “Scrambled,” she sighed. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

      “Toast,” he told her, nodding toward the toaster on the counter near the microwave. “I’ll take three. There are also English muffins СКАЧАТЬ