The Cowboys and the English Teacher [Hot Off The Ranch] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour) by Luxie Ryder Page A

beautiful young Mexican women flirting with them since they arrived, she had trouble believing that their interest in her was genuine.
    Jack seemed out of sorts, too. He stopped in front of her and stared down into her eyes in the weirdest way, as if trying to see through her. ‘Is everything okay?’ she asked, unnerved and squirming under his scrutiny.
    Something in his light green eyes lifted and by the time he spoke again, the easy characteristic charm returned along with that sexy drawl. ‘Sorry. I didn’t sleep well last night. I am so out of it this morning.’
    ‘I see we had another storm,’ she nodded toward the classroom that he must have rebuilt a handful of times in the last month alone. Jack and his brother worked for the same charity as hers, but their work was very different. As part of the construction team, they used their desperately needed skills to restore the main school house and erect and maintain the temporary buildings they held the classes in for the time being.
    He smiled. ‘Sure had a shock when I saw the state of this place.’
    Grabbing onto the distraction with both hands, she allowed him to show her the temporary repairs he had made, making her waste more time that she didn’t have. A bawdy laugh from behind drew her attention and she saw his friends nudging and whispering while gesturing their way. The idiots he worked with were part of the reason she’d never take things any further with him or his brother. The thought of them sharing her intimate details with their work mates if she ever gave in to their attempts at seduction mortified her. She told Jack she’d see him later and scurried away to the safety of the gathering children.
    ‘Buenos Dias, Senorita Perkins,’ they sang a few minutes later in their lovely, lilting accents after she’d gotten them calmed down and seated on the floor.
    Tables and chairs were a luxury the governing body could not afford yet. Rebuilding the school after a season of devastating hurricanes that had battered the country one after the other had to be the main priority. That and giving the shell shocked kids some semblance of normality. Many of their parents were homeless and still sleeping rough. All the charity Betsy worked for managed to do was to give them a place to send the kids everyday, where they would be taken care of and fed while their families tried to rebuild their lives.
    Sitting at home in the UK watching the news report on her TV a couple of months earlier, she’d known she had to do something to help. The change seemed such a huge one, but turning 40 recently had made her question what she’d been doing with her life. So she started a bucket list. The kind where people listed the things they wanted to do before they kicked it. One of those things had been to use her teaching skills for more than simply indulging middle class, spoiled brats at a private school just outside of London. So she’d taken a sabbatical.
    Betsy looked around the classroom at the enthusiastic, shining faces and knew she’d made the right decision. The children were bright, if a little cheeky, and soaked up every bit of information she gave them like a dry sponge.
    Another much older voice joined the general cacophony caused by 30 over excited children. ‘Morning, Miss Betsy.’ She turned to find one of the kid’s grandmothers standing right behind her. As usual, she hadn’t heard her come in.
    ‘Good morning, Perdita,’ she said as cheerfully as she could despite the fact the woman always scared the pants off her. As one of the voluntary helpers at the school, she was hardly a stranger and very welcome, yet Perdita always gave her the willies. She had no idea of her true age, but her guess would have been over seventy. She’d swathed her round body in a floral mu-mu type dress that made her impressive breasts seem even more large and welcoming. Betsy felt sure that many a small child had found comfort in her arms. Perdita had been built for