Hot Westmoreland Nights

She didn’t say anything for a moment. Then she opened her mouth, probably to tell him just where he could take his own mouth—legally or otherwise—but instead of saying anything right then, she just clamped her lips together.

He chuckled. “Tightening those lips shut won’t keep me from a kiss, if that’s what I want to do, Chloe.”

Chloe folded her arms across her chest. “Is there a reason for this madness?”

“Is that what this is? Madness?” he asked.

She lifted her chin and glared at him. “You got another name for it?”

“What about
hunger?
”

Dear Reader,

Family is important to me and I love writing about the love and escapades that go on within the family structure. Can you imagine being in your middle twenties and helping a cousin barely a year older than you to raise your other young family members—all thirteen of them?

You’ve met Dillon Westmoreland in
Westmoreland’s Way
. The second oldest of the Denver clan is Ramsey, a man who doesn’t have marriage or love on his mind. Ramsey’s only ambition is to make his sheep-ranching business a success. At least that was his only ambition until he met Chloe Burton. Now he’s faced with something he thought could not happen to him, and that was the possibility of falling in love.

And Chloe has her own agenda, which doesn’t include a serious involvement with Ramsey. She’s done the
serious
thing with a man and it left her deciding it wasn’t worth the trouble. Ramsey becomes a challenge to her peace of mind.

I hope that you find Ramsey and Chloe’s story a very special one, and in the coming months I look forward to venturing into the lives of those other Westmorelands, as well.

Happy reading!

Brenda Jackson

“Pleasant words are a honeycomb,
sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.”

—Proverbs 16:24

Prologue

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Chapter Eleven

Epilogue

C
hloe Burton pressed her face to the windowpane as she watched the man sprint across the street. Her heart began pounding in her chest. He had to be, without a doubt, the most handsome man she’d ever seen.

She stared as he stopped to talk to another man in front of a feed store. He was tall, dark and every inch of sexy from the Stetson he wore on his head to the well-worn leather boots on his feet. And from the way his jeans and western shirt fit his body, it was quite obvious he possessed powerful legs, strong arms, taut abs, tight buns and broad muscular shoulders. He had everything it took to separate the men from the boys.

And when he pushed back his hat, she saw dark eyes and a medium skin tone. Then she looked at his mouth and she couldn’t help licking her lips at the sight of his. His lips were full, firm and luscious. She could imagine those lips and his mouth doing other things.

Just looking at him was enough to corrupt a woman’s mind, she thought. Even from this distance, her body felt flushed, hot and unsettled. Nothing like this had ever happened to her while ogling a man in all her twenty-eight years.

Actually, over the past year the only male who had gotten her time and attention had been her
e-mail
. And that was mainly because her last relationship with Daren Fulbright had been totally unsatisfying, a complete waste of the year she’d put into it, and she was in no hurry to get into another. No doubt there were some who thought she’d given up on love much too quickly, and perhaps that was true since these days she much preferred curling up with a good book during her free time than with someone of the opposite sex. And now, here she was practically drooling at just the sight of a man. He might be major eye candy, but the man was a complete stranger to her. Even so, the way he was standing with both hands in his jeans pockets, legs braced apart, was a pose she would carry to her dreams.

And he was smiling, evidently enjoying his conversation. He had dimples, incredibly sexy dimples in not one but both cheeks.

“What are you staring at, Clo?”

Chloe nearly jumped. She’d forgotten she had a lunch date. In fact she had forgotten everything once her sights had landed on the sexy man across the street. She glanced over the table at her best friend from college, Lucia Conyers.

“Take a look at that man across the street in the blue shirt, Lucia, and tell me what you see. Would he not be perfect for Denver’s first issue of
Simply Irresistible
or what?” Chloe asked with so much excitement in her voice she almost couldn’t stand it.

Chloe was the owner of
Simply Irresistible
, a magazine for
today’s up-and-coming woman. The magazine had started out as a regional publication in the southeast, but had expanded to a national audience during the past few years. By far the magazine’s most popular edition was the annual “Irresistible Man” issue. The feature included a cover shoot and an in-depth story on a man who the magazine felt deserved the honor because he was simply irresistible. As the magazine had expanded, Chloe had convinced Lucia to come on board to manage its Denver office.

When Lucia didn’t say anything, Chloe’s smile widened. “Well?”

Lucia glanced across the booth at her. “Since you asked, I’ll tell you what I see. I see one of the Westmorelands, and in this case it’s Ramsey Westmoreland. And to answer your other question as to whether he would be perfect for the cover man on
Simply Irresistible
, my answer would be a resounding yes, but he won’t do it.”

Chloe raised a brow. “I take it that you know him,” she said watching her friend closely.

Lucia smiled. “Yes, but not as well as I know the younger Westmorelands. There’s a lot of them and he’s one of the oldest. I went to school with his younger siblings and cousins. He has several brothers and male cousins who look just as good. Maybe one of them will agree to do it, but you can forget Ramsey.”

Chloe glanced back out the window and knew two things. First, there was no way that she could forget him. Second, from the sound of things it seemed that Lucia was interested in one of those “younger” male Westmorelands. She could hear the wistfulness in her friend’s voice.

“He’s the one I want, Lucia,” she said with both determination and conviction in her voice. “And since you
know him, then just ask him. He might surprise you and not turn you down. Of course he’ll get paid for his services.”

Lucia laughed and shook her head. “Getting paid isn’t the issue, Clo. Ramsey is one of the wealthiest sheep ranchers in this part of Colorado. But everyone knows what a private person he is. Trust me, he won’t do it.”

Chloe hoped she was wrong. “But you will ask him?”

“Yes, but I suggest you move on and find another man.”

Chloe glanced back out the window. The man was the epitome of what she was looking for in her “Irresistible Man” issue and she was determined to have him.

“Um, I don’t like that look on your face, Chloe. I’ve seen it before and know exactly what it means.”

Chloe couldn’t help but smile. She could only blame her smile on her father, Senator Jamison Burton of Florida, the man who’d raised her alone after her mother died of cervical cancer when Chloe was three. Her father was the one man she most admired and he’d always taught her that if people wanted something bad enough, they wouldn’t give up until they got it.

She glanced out the window and watched as Ramsey Westmoreland ended his conversation and entered the feed store with a swagger that almost made her breathless. She
would
be seeing him again.