Taming Jesse James by RaeAnne Thayne Read Free Book Online Page B

must think she was completely insane, the kind of woman who boiled pet rabbits for kicks.
    Maybe she wouldn’t even see him.
    Maybe the vehicle belonged to a totally different officer.
    Maybe an earthquake would hit just as she reached the doors to the school and she wouldn’t be able to go in.
    No such luck. Inside, she found Jesse standing in the glass-walled office taking notes while Chuck Hendricks—the principal of the school and the bane of her and every other Salt River Elementary teacher’s existence—gestured wildly.
    Whatever they were talking about wasn’t sitting well with Chuck, judging by his red face and the taut veins in his neck that stood out like support ropes on a circus tent.
    Jesse didn’t see her, she saw with relief. She should have hurried on to her classroom, but the temptation towatch him was irresistible. The man was like some kind of dark angel. Lean and rugged and gorgeous, with rough-hewn features and those unbelievably blue eyes.
    She pressed a hand to her stomach, to the funny little ache there, like a dozen tiny, fluttering birds.
    â€œHe’s yummy, isn’t he?”
    Coloring fiercely, Sarah jerked her gaze away as if she’d been caught watching a porn movie. She had been so engrossed in watching Jesse that she hadn’t even heard Janie Parker walk up and join her.
    â€œWho?” she asked with what she sincerely hoped was innocence in her tone.
    The art teacher grinned, showing off her dimples. “Salt River’s favorite bad-boy cop. Jesse Harte. The man makes me want to run a few stop signs just so he’ll pull me over. He can write me all the tickets he wants as long as I can drool over him while he’s doing it.”
    Janie was probably exactly his type. Petite and curvy and cute, with a personality to match. Sarah had a quick mental picture of the two of them together, of Jesse looking down at the vivacious teacher with laughter in those blue eyes, just before he lowered that hard mouth to hers.
    The image shouldn’t depress her so much. She quickly changed the subject. “What’s got Chuck’s toupee in such a twist?” she asked.
    It was exactly the kind of thing the Before Sarah would have said, something glib and light and casual. But it was obvious from Janie’s raised eyebrows that she didn’t expect anything remotely glib from the stiff, solemn woman Sarah had become.
    The rest of the faculty must think she had no senseof humor whatsoever. How could she blame them, when she had given them little indication of it?
    She also hadn’t tried very hard to make friends. Not that she hadn’t wanted friends—or, heaven knows, needed them—but for the first time in her life, she hadn’t been able to work up the energy.
    This was one of the things she could change, if it wasn’t too late. Starting today, she would go out of her way to be friendly to her fellow teachers. If anybody dared invite her anywhere after she had spent six months rebuffing all their efforts, she wouldn’t refuse this time.
    â€œSomebody broke in to the school last night,” Janie finally answered.
    Sarah immediately regretted her glibness. “Was it vandals?”
    â€œNothing was damaged as far as anybody can tell, but they got away with the Mile High Quarter Jar.”
    She suddenly realized that was the reason the foyer in front of the office looked different. Empty. “How? That thing must have weighed a ton!”
    As a schoolwide project, the students were collecting money for the regional children’s medical center and were trying to raise enough quarters to cover a mile if they were laid in a straight line.
    They still had a way to go, but had raised nearly fifteen hundred dollars in quarters.
    Janie shrugged. “Either we’ve had a visit from a superhero-turned-bad or they must have used a dolly of some kind.”
    â€œHow did they get in?”
    â€œA broken window in