One Last Kiss by Kat Martin
Chapter Two
Sam Bridger stood outside the Vail Valley Jet Center, the executive terminal at the Eagle County Airport, watching a sleek white Citation taxi toward the gate and brake to a halt.
The stairs were put in place, and the door swung open. A well-dressed blonde emerged from the plane, the only passenger aboard. Sam chafed with annoyance as he watched her descend the metal stairs, the spoiled city girl he would be babysitting for the next four weeks.
During the summer, when they opened the ranch to visitors as a means of making extra money, Julio Santiago, his foreman, or Big John Coolwater, his top ranch hand, usually picked up passengers for the hour ride from the airport back to Coffee Springs.
Unlike today, guests usually arrived at the regular passenger terminal, not the fancy private-jet runway. Most of the people with that kind of money flew in during the winter to ski in nearby Vail.
Unfortunately, this was Martin Hale’s niece, and Sam considered Marty a friend. In accordance with the man’s dying request, Sam had agreed to adhere to the terms Marty set out in the video he’d sent. In exchange for employing his niece, the Bridger Ranch would receive fifty thousand dollars, a sum Sam couldn’t afford to turn down.
Not after last year’s drought, the drop in beef prices, and the grass fire that had destroyed two of his best grazing pastures.
Sam would have agreed to Marty’s request without the money. No way would he have refused a friend’s last wish. But Martin Hale wasn’t a fool, and Sam was sure the man knew all about the ranch’s financial situation. The money was Marty’s way of leaving him a bequest.
Sam watched the petite woman with the beautiful face and gorgeous long hair descend the last of the metal stairs and walk toward him across the tarmac. In a short skirt and matching jacket, she was stunning, with shapely legs, a tiny waist, and a full bosom, the kind of woman who could make a man hard just by looking at him.
Unexpected arousal tightened his jeans, and his annoyance grew. Sam wondered if he had made a bargain with the devil.
