Read A Bride for Jackson Powers (Desire, 1273) for Free Online Page A

didn’t fit into any of his neat pigeonholes. A woman with eyes the color of rainwater and a body like a walking wet dream. A woman who spoke softly and sang husky, off-key lullabies to a stranger’s crying baby.
    A woman who curled up on a hard floor and trustingly thrust her backside into his groin.
    Jax swore silently, pried open the tin of aspirin, chased a couple with a shot from the water fountain and chewed on another antacid tablet. He was no health nut, but all the same, he hoped nobody in this mob was carrying any exotic, multiresistant bugs.With all the coughing and sneezing going on all around them, Sunny could easily catch something.
    “Any news?” Tucking the blanket around the sleeping baby, he watched Hetty slip back through the narrow opening. Her skirt snagged on the Bermuda Cruise sign, pulling taut against her neat little behind for a moment. He tried unsuccessfully not to notice.
    Stress. It made a man do crazy things, all right. Even scarier, it made him think crazy thoughts.
    “I stopped to watch a weather update on TV. You wouldn’t believe what’s going on,” she said breathlessly. “Tornadoes in Tennessee and Arkansas, floods in the northwest and an avalanche somewhere in France. I heard some people a few gates down talking about the apocalypse. One woman kept insisting it was a natural cycle and that contrary to popular belief we’re simply entering another glacial age.”
    “In that case, I guess we might as well settle down for the next few millennia.”
    She nodded with mock gravity. “In other words, this is going to be another tomb, like the pyramids or one of those ancient garbage dumps archeologists are always discovering, full of pots and old bones and arrowheads. Is that what you’re saying?”
    “I think they’re called kitchen middens.”
    “Not this one. All the food stands have closed. They’re saying nobody showed up for work today and, anyway, they can’t get fresh supplies in.”
    “Hardly surprising.” Jax was distracted by the way her hair slid across her cheeks as she settled beside him. He was no expert, but the color, as near as hecould place it, was somewhere between heart cedar and red oak. More red than brown, with golden glints.
    She sighed, loosened the light blanket Jax had just tucked tightly around Sunny’s feet and said, “What do you suppose an archeologist would think if a thousand years from now he came across all this?” She waved her hands expressively. “All of us here and our luggage, all tangled up with rusted airplanes and whatever’s left of the buildings?”
    “That some of us probably starved to death and others succumbed because they didn’t know how to dress for the weather,” Jax said dryly. “Here, put this on.” He handed her his jacket.
    “Are you sure?”
    She reminded him of a gray-eyed doe, which made about as much sense as anything else that had trudged through his mind lately. “Yeah, I’m fine. Warm-natured. You’re starting to shiver.”
    “It feels like there’s a draft, but it might be because I’m cold-natured.”
    “Right. That explains why you’re dressed in summer clothes in the middle of an ice storm.”
    “I told you, I was supposed to go to Florida. I’d have looked silly boarding a cruise liner in my winter coat and woolies.”
    He let it pass. Under the circumstances it was a wonder they weren’t at each other’s throats. People tended to take out their frustrations on those closest, bickering for no good reason at all. He’d seen a fist fight break out a few hours ago over a week-old Wall Street Journal.
    “The muscles at the back of my neck keep tightening up. Do you suppose it’s from sleeping on the floor?” she asked.
    “Relax. Flex your shoulders. Better still, turn around.”
    She turned, and he cupped his hands over the delicate bones of her shoulders and began to work his fingers against the tense muscles. She groaned. “Ahh, that feels wonderful,” she murmured. “It hurts,