Read Online Her Cowboy's Caress (Taken by Cowboys: Part 1) A Billionaire Western Romance by A.L. Loire - Free Book Online Page B

clothes seemed to be the only thing that excited
these women. “They’re all hanging on the usual rack. Be nice and
don’t fight,” Lauren said. She was about to sit down again when she
added, “And try not to bust any seams.” She was staring pointedly
at Jess.
    Jess sharply drew in a breath, her face
burning. She turned back to her computer screen and clicked around,
trying to look absorbed as Lauren’s barb settled in on her. She had
definitely been staring straight at her—there was no question about
that. She was surprised to feel tears stinging her eyes. No ,
she told herself sharply. Stop that at once.
    It wasn’t the first time Lauren, or any of
the other girls at the office, had made comments about her weight.
It was true—Jess was no stick figure. She was a healthy size 10,
and she always liked to think of herself as curvaceous .
Where the other girls had straight lines, she was all curves:
chest, butt, hips, thighs. And yes, she admitted, a little extra
around the middle. So what?
    The thing was, before she’d begun working in
fashion PR, Jess had hardly noticed her weight. She’d gone to
school in Ohio, where the girls came in all shapes and sizes and
hardly cared about what they wore. Here in New York, though, things
were different. It was even worse in PR, where everyone was
expected to be a size 2 and treated you like there must be
something wrong with you if you weren’t. She had lost a lot of
confidence in the course of the last year and a half, she realized.
Lauren’s comments didn’t help.
***
    Jess let herself into the lobby of the old
five-story apartment complex on Seventy-fourth and York and let out
the sigh she didn’t realize she’d been holding. Finally, she was
home. She liked her building a few avenues away from Lexington—the
farther east you got, the cheaper the rents were, so she would take
a few more minutes of walking to catch the subway. The place had
its problems—during a big rainstorm that past fall, water had
literally come gushing through her ceiling—but in general it was
quiet and comfortable. When she was here, she felt safe.
    Her shoulders were aching from hunching over
her keyboard. The afternoon had dragged on, with Lauren piling
three new accounts on her at the last minute, all of them “super
urgent.” What was so urgent about a couple of fashion shows and a
partnership with another overly hyped cupcake bakery, Jess didn’t
know. But then, that was the world of being a junior publicist.
    She stopped by her mailbox and fished out
her key. It was stuffed with the regular mishmash of bills, credit
card applications, and Chinese food menus. As she was shuffling
through the envelopes, a brightly colored piece of paper fell out
and fluttered to the tile floor.
    She stooped to pick it up. It was a
brochure. The picture on the front panel immediately set her nerves
on end—it was a wide-open plain, edged by mountainous peaks and
topped with a vast sky, just like the one in her afternoon
reverie.
    She set the other mail on top of the
mailboxes. “Getaway Guest Ranch,” the brochure read, and below, “A
Western escape for even the most stubborn city slicker.”
    She felt herself smile as she opened the
brochure with shaking fingers. Why did she suddenly feel so
nervous?
    The inside was decorated with stunning
photographs of clear creeks, mountain vistas, crackling campfires
and a simple but elegant dining room with tables piled high with
food. “Come to Getaway Guest Ranch in Big Horn, Wyoming, and stay a
spell,” the text read. “Take a break from the busy life and live in
tune with nature. Get your blood pumping with hiking, horseback
riding, fly-fishing, and even a hot air balloon ride.”
    Whoa , Jess thought. Her head was
spinning as images of herself riding Black Beauty leapt into her
mind. Never mind that she’d never in her life set her rump on a
saddle. She kept reading. “Then, slow the pace down with a swim in
our clear mountain lake, a night