Page 4 of Texas Temptation

No sooner had she said it than she began coughing again. Her chest hurt so badly. And she felt flushed. They kept the house too warm, or was it the contrast to the coldness from the storm?

“Who is it Rosita?” a male voice called.

Jordan turned and watched as a stranger strode into the entryway. He frowned when he looked at her and then spotted Caleb.

His hair was dark and cut short. His forbidding expression made him look even more intimidating than his size alone would have done. He was several inches over six feet, muscular and tanned.

For a moment she remembered the skinny college kids who strutted so arrogantly on the beach during spring break. She couldn’t imagine this man ever looking like that. But he could give them all lessons on sex appeal and how to capture a woman’s attention.

Despite feeling terrible because of her cold, Jordan was intrigued.

The rugged jaw told Jordan he wasn’t someone to be trifled with. His tanned skin attested to hours spent in the sun. His fit body didn’t come from some gym. Was he a relative of Cullen’s? Too young to be his father. Was he an older brother? She guessed he wasn’t too much older than thirty.

A cough caught her. Her perusal cut short. She didn’t have time to speculate. She was on a mission—as soon as she could catch her breath.

“I’m looking for Cade Cullen Everett,” Jordan said firmly.

“You’ve found him,” the man said.

She blinked. The world seemed to tilt and sway.

Caleb peeped around her leg and looked up at the man.

“Are you my daddy?” he asked.

It was the last thing Jordan heard before everything went black as she softly sank to the floor.

Cade dashed forward, barely catching her before her head hit the hardwood floor.

“Mommy?”

The little boy clung to his mother’s leg as she sagged in Cade’s arms.

“Mommy, what’s wrong?”

His eyes wide with fear, the child clung to Jordan.

Cade shifted and lifted her.

“Your mom will be okay, son. Let me take her into the living room to lie down.”

He carried her into the spacious room and placed her on the wide sofa. The little boy ran to her head and patted her shoulder.

“Mommy?” Fear laced his tone.

“She’ll be okay,” Cade said again, studying the unconscious woman, hoping she’d come around soon. Color stained her cheeks. Her breathing was raspy. She couldn’t weigh more than a hundred pounds, which on her made her too thin.

“Should I call the doctor?” Rosita asked poised in the doorway, her face full of concern.

“Not yet. Let’s see if she wakes up in a minute on her own,” Cade said, studying the unconscious woman.

Just what he didn’t need, a further complication to an already complicated day.

“I’ll get a cool cloth,” she said, heading for the back of the house.

This wasn’t the best of times for unexpected visitors. Not when his long-term secretary had just informed him she was needed at home for a family emergency and would leave that afternoon. Her mother had fallen and broken her hip. There was no one else to see to the elderly woman but Penny. Still, the timing couldn’t have been worse.

Not when he had a minor crisis building into a major one in Los Angeles.

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