The Proposal / To Tempt a Sheikh

“Here you are, Jason.”

He liked the sound of his name from her lips and when he took the glass from her hands they touched in the process. Immediately, he felt his stomach muscles begin to clench.

“Thanks,” he said, thinking he needed to step away from her and not let Bella Bostwick crowd his space. But he also very much wanted to keep her right there. Topping the list was her scent. He wasn’t sure what perfume she was wearing but it was definitely an attention grabber, although her beauty alone would do the trick.

“You’re welcome. Now I suggest we sit down or I’m going to get a crook in my neck staring up at you.”

He heard the smile in her voice and then saw it on her lips. It stirred to life something inside of him and for a moment he wondered if her smile was genuine or practiced and quickly came to the conclusion it was genuine. During his thirty-four years he had met women who’d been as phony as a four-dollar bill but he had a feeling Bella Bostwick wasn’t one of them. In fact, she might be a little too real for her own good.

“I don’t want that to happen,” he said, easing down on her sofa and stretching his long legs out in front of him. He watched as she then eased down in the comfortable looking recliner he had bought Herman five years ago for his seventy-fifth birthday.

Jason figured this was probably one of the craziest things he’d ever done, sit with a woman in her living room in the middle of the day and converse with her while sipping tea. But he was doing it and at that moment, he couldn’t imagine any other place he’d rather be.

Bella took a sip of her tea and studied Jason over the rim of her cup. Who was he? Why was she so attracted to him? And why was he attracted to her? And she knew the latter was true. She’d felt it that night at the ball and she could feel it now. He was able to bring out desires in her that she never felt before but for some reason she didn’t feel threatened by those feelings. Instead, although she really didn’t know him, she felt he was a powerhouse of strength, tenderness and protectiveness all rolled into one. She knew he would never hurt her.

“So, tell me about yourself Jason,” she heard herself say, wanting so much to hear about the man who seemed to be taking up so much space in her living room as well as in her mind.

A smile touched his lips when he said, “I’m a Westmore land.”

His words raised her curiosity up a notch. Was being a Westmoreland supposed to mean something? She hadn’t heard any type of arrogance or egotism in his words, just a sense of pride, self-respect and honor.

“And what does being a Westmoreland mean?” she asked as she tucked her legs beneath her to get more comfortable in the chair.

She watched him take a sip of his tea. “There’s a bunch of us, fifteen in fact,” Jason said.

She nodded, taking in his response. “Fifteen?”

“Yes. And that’s not counting the three Westmoreland wives and a cousin-in-law from Australia. In our family tree we’ve now become known as the Denver Westmorelands.”

“Denver Westmorelands? Does that mean there are more Westmorelands in other parts of the country?”

“Yes, there are some who sprung from the Atlanta area. We have fifteen cousins there, as well. Most of them were at the Westmoreland charity ball.”

An amused smile touched her lips. She recalled seeing them and remembered thinking how much they’d resembled in looks or height. Jason had been the only one she’d gotten a real good close-up view of, and the only one she’d held a conversation with before her uncle had practically dragged her away from the party that night.

She then decided to bring up something she’d detected at the ball. “You and my uncle Kenneth don’t get along.”

If her statement surprised him the astonishment was not reflected in his face. “No, we’ve never gotten along,” he said as if the thought didn’t bother him, in fact he preferred it that way.

She paused and waited on him to elaborate but he didn’t. He just took another sip of tea.

“And why is that? ”

He shrugged massive shoulders and the gesture made her body even more responsive to his. “I can’t rightly say why we’ve never seen eye-to-eye on a number of things.”

“What about my grandfather? Did you get along with him?”

He chuckled. “Actually I did. Herman and I had a good relationship that started back when I was kid. He taught me a lot about ranching and I enjoyed our chats.”

She took a sip of her tea. “Did he ever mention anything about having a granddaughter? ”

“No, but then I didn’t know he had a son, either. The only family I knew about was Kenneth and their relationship was rather strained.”

She nodded. She’d heard the story of how her father had left for college at the age of seventeen, never to return. Her uncle Kenneth claimed he wasn’t sure what the disagreement had been between the two men since he himself had been a young kid at the time. David Bostwick had made his riches on the east coast, first as a land developer and then as an investor in all sorts of moneymaking ventures. That was how he’d met her mother, a Savannah socialite, daughter of a shipping magnate and ten years her senior. The marriage had been based more on increasing their wealth instead of love. She was well aware of both of her parents’ supposedly discreet affairs.

And as far as Kenneth Bostwick was concerned, she knew that Herman’s widowed father at the age of seventy married a thirty-something-year-old woman and Kenneth had been their only child. Bella gathered from bits and pieces she’d overheard from Kenneth’s daughter, Elyse, that Kenneth and Herman had never gotten along because Herman thought Kenneth’s mother, Belinda, hadn’t been anything but a gold digger who married a man old enough to be her grandfather.

“Finding out Herman had a granddaughter came as a surprise to everyone around these parts.”

Bella chuckled softly. “Yes, and it came as quite a surprise to me to discover I had a grandfather.”

She saw the surprise that touched his face. “You didn’t know about Herman?”

“No. I thought both my father’s parents were dead. My father was close to forty when he married my mother and when I was in my teens he was in his fifties already so I assumed his parents were deceased since he never mentioned them. I didn’t know about Herman until I got a summons to be present at the reading of the will. My parents didn’t even mention anything about the funeral. They attended the services but only said they were leaving town to take care of business. I assumed it was one of their usual business trips. It was only when they returned that they mentioned that Herman’s attorney had advised them that I was needed for the reading of the will in a week.”

She pulled in a deep breath. “Needless to say, I wasn’t happy that my parents had kept such a thing from me all those years. I felt whatever feud was between my father and grandfather was between them and should not have included me. I feel such a sense of loss at not having known Herman Bostwick.”

Jason nodded. “He could be quite a character at times, trust me.”

For some reason she felt she could trust him … and in fact, that she already did. “Tell me about him. I want to get to know the grandfather I never knew.”

He smiled. “There’s no way I can tell you everything about him in one day.”

She returned the smile. “Then come back again for tea so we can talk. That is, if you don’t mind.”

She held her breath thinking he probably had a lot more things to do with his time than to sip tea with her. A man like him probably had other things on his mind when he was with someone of the opposite sex.

“No, I don’t mind. In fact I’d rather enjoy it.”

She inwardly sighed, suddenly feeling giddy, pleased. Jason Westmoreland was the type of man who could make his way into any woman’s hot and wild fantasies, and he’d just agreed to indulge her by sharing tea with her occasionally to talk about the grandfather she’d never known.

“Well, I guess I’d better get back to work.”

“And what do you do for a living?” she asked, without thinking about it.

“Several of my cousins and I are partners in a horse breeding and horse training venture. The horse that came in second last year at the Preakness was one of ours.”

“Congratulations!”

“Thanks.”

She then watched as he eased his body off her sofa to stand. And when he handed the empty teacup back to her, she felt her body tingle with the exchange when their hands touched and knew he’d felt it, as well.

“Thanks for the tea, Bella.”

“You’re welcome and you have an open invitation to come back for more.”

He met her gaze, held it for a moment. “And I will.”

Two

On Tuesday of the following week, Bella was in her car headed to town to purchase new appliances for her kitchen. Buying a stove and refrigerator might not be a big deal to some, but for her it would be a first. She was looking forward to it. Besides, it would get her mind off the phone call she’d gotten from her attorney first thing this morning.

Not wanting to think about the phone call, she thought about her friends back home instead. They had teased her that although she would be living out in the boondocks on a ranch, downtown Denver was half an hour away and that’s probably where she would spend most of her time—shopping and attending various plays and parties. But she had discovered she liked being away from city life and hadn’t missed it at all. She’d grown up in Savannah right on the ocean. Her parents’ estate had been minutes from downtown and was the place where lavish parties were always held.

She had talked to her parents earlier today and found the conversation totally draining. Her father insisted she put the ranch up for sale and come home immediately. When the conversation ended she had been more determined than ever to keep as much distance between her and Savannah as possible.

She had been on the ranch for only three weeks and already the taste of freedom, to do whatever she wanted whenever she wanted, was a luxurious right she refused to give up. Although she missed waking up every morning to the scent of the ocean, she was becoming used to the crisp mountain air drenched in the rich fragrance of dahlias.

Her thoughts then shifted to something else or more precisely, someone else. Jason Westmoreland. Good to his word he had stopped by a few days ago to join her for tea. They’d had a pleasant conversation, and he’d told her more about her grandfather. She could tell Jason and Herman’s relationship had been close. Part of her was glad that Jason had probably helped relieve Herman’s loneliness.

Although her father refused to tell her what had happened to drive him away from home, she hoped to find out on her own. Her grandfather had kept a number of journals and she intended to start reading them this week. The only thing she knew from what Kenneth Bostwick had told her was that Herman’s father, William, had remarried when Herman was in his twenties and married with a son of his own. That woman had been Kenneth’s mother, which was why he was a lot younger than her father. In fact her father and Kenneth had few memories of each other since David Bostwick had left home for college at the age of seventeen.

Jason had also answered questions about ranching and assured her that the man she’d kept on as foreman had worked for her grandfather for a number of years and knew what he was doing. Jason hadn’t stayed long but she’d enjoyed his visit.

She found Jason to be kind and soft-spoken and whenever he talked in that reassuring tone she would feel safe, protected and confident that no matter what decisions she made regarding her life and the ranch, it would be okay. He also gave her the impression that she could and would make mistakes and that would be okay, too, as long as she learned from those mistakes and didn’t repeat them.

She had gotten to meet some of his family members, namely the women, when they’d all shown up a couple of days ago with housewarming goodies to welcome her to the community. Pamela, Chloe and Lucia had married into the family, and Megan and Bailey were Westmorelands by birth. They told her about Gemma, who was Megan and Bailey’s sister and how she had gotten married earlier that year, moved with her husband to Australia and was expecting their first child.

Pamela and Chloe had brought their babies and being in their presence only reinforced a desire Bella always had of being a mother. She loved children and hoped to marry and have a houseful one day. And when she did, she intended for her relationship with them to be different than the one she had with her own parents.

The women had invited her to dinner at Pamela’s home Friday evening so that she could meet the rest of the family. She thought the invitation to dinner was a nice gesture and downright neighborly on their part.

They were surprised she had already met Jason because he hadn’t mentioned anything to them about meeting her.

She wasn’t sure why he hadn’t when all the evidence led her to believe the Westmorelands were a close-knit group. But then she figured men tended to keep their activities private and not share them with anyone. He said he would be dropping by for tea again tomorrow and she looked forward to his visit.

It was obvious there was still an intense attraction between them, yet he always acted honorably in her presence. He would sit across from her with his long legs stretched out in front of him and sip tea while she talked. She tried not to dominate the conversation but found he was someone she could talk to and someone who listened to what she had to say. She could see him now sitting there absorbed in whatever she said while displaying a ruggedness she found totally sexy.

And he had shared some things about himself. She knew he was thirty-four and a graduate of the University of Denver. He also shared with her how his parents and uncle and aunt had been killed in a plane crash when he was eighteen, leaving him and his fourteen siblings and cousins without parents. With admiration laced in his voice he had talked about his older brother Dillon and his cousin Ramsey and how the two men had been determined to keep the family together and how they had.

She couldn’t help but compare his large family to her smaller one. Although she loved her parents she couldn’t recall a time she and her parents had ever been close. While growing up they had relinquished her care to sitters while they jet-setted all over the country. At times she thought they’d forgotten she existed. When she got older she understood her father’s obsession with trying to keep up with his young wife. Eventually she saw that obsession diminish when he found other interests and her mother did, as well.

That was why at times the idea of having a baby without a husband appealed to her, although doing such a thing would send her parents into cardiac arrest. But she couldn’t concern herself with how her parents would react if she chose to go that route. Moving here was her first stab at emancipation and whatever she decided to do would be her decision. But for a woman who’d never slept with a man to contemplate having a baby from one was a bit much for her to absorb right now.

She pulled into the parking lot of one of the major appliance stores. When she returned home she would meet with her foreman to see how things were going. Jason had said such meetings were necessary and she should be kept updated on what went on at her ranch.

Moments later as she got out of her car she decided another thing she needed to do was buy a truck. A truck. She chuckled, thinking her mother would probably gag at the thought of her driving a truck instead of being chauffeured around in a car. But her parents had to realize and accept her life was changing and the luxurious life she used to have was now gone.

As soon as she entered the store a salesperson was right on her heels and it didn’t take long to make the purchases she needed because she knew just what she wanted. She’d always thought stainless steel had a way of enhancing the look of a kitchen and figured sometime next year she would give the kitchen a total makeover with granite countertops and new tile flooring, as well. But she would take things one step at a time.

“Bella?”

She didn’t have to turn to know who’d said her name. As far as she was concerned, no one could pronounce it in the same rugged yet sexy tone as Jason. Although she had just seen him a few days ago when he’d joined her for tea, there was something about seeing him now that sent sensations coursing through her.

She turned around and there he stood dressed in a pair of jeans that hugged his sinewy thighs and long, muscular legs, a blue chambray shirt and a lightweight leather jacket that emphasized the broadness of his shoulders.

She smiled up at him. “Jason, what a pleasant surprise.”

It was a pleasant surprise for Jason, as well. He had walked into the store and immediately, like radar, he had picked up on her presence and all it took was following her scent to find her.

“Same here. I had to come into town to pick up a new hot water heater for the bunkhouse,” he said, smiling down at her. He shoved his hands into his pockets; otherwise, he would have been tempted to pull her to him and kiss her. Kissing Bella was something he wanted but hadn’t gotten around to doing. He didn’t want to rush things and didn’t want her to think his interest in her had anything to do with wanting to buy Hercules, because that wasn’t the case. His interest in her was definitely one of want and need.

“I met the ladies in your family the other day. They came to pay me a visit,” she said.

“Did they?”

“Yes.”

He’d known they would eventually get around to doing so. The ladies had discussed a visit to welcome her to the community.

“They’re all so nice,” she said

“I think they are nice, too. Did you get whatever you needed?” He wondered if she would join him for lunch if he were to ask.

“Yes, my refrigerator and stove will be delivered by the end of the week. I’m so excited.”

He couldn’t help but laugh. She was genuinely excited. If she got that excited over appliances he could imagine how she would react over jewelry. “Will you be in town for a while, Bella?”

“Yes. I have a meeting with Marvin later this evening.”

He raised a brow. “Is everything all right?”

She nodded, smiling. “Yes. I’m just having a weekly meeting like you suggested.”

He was glad she had taken his advice. “How about joining me for lunch? There’s a place not far from here that serves several nice dishes.”

She smiled up at him. “I’d love that.”

Jason knew he would love it just as much. He had been thinking about her a lot, especially at night when he’d found it hard to sleep. She was getting to him. No, she had gotten to him. He didn’t know of any other woman that he’d been this attracted to. There was something about her. Something that was drawing him to her on a personal level that he could not control. But then a part of him didn’t want to control it. Nor did he want to fight it. He wanted to see how far it would go and where it would stop

“Do you want me to follow you there, Jason?”

No, he wanted her in the same vehicle with him. “We can ride in my truck. Your car will be fine parked here until we return.” “Okay.”

As he escorted her toward the exit, she glanced up at him. “What about your hot water heater?”

“I haven’t picked it out yet but that’s fine since I know the brand I want.”

“All right.”

Together they walked out of the store toward his truck. It was a beautiful day in May but when he felt her shiver beside him, he figured a beautiful day in Savannah would be a day in the eighties. Here in Denver if they got sixty-something degree weather in June they would be ecstatic.

He took his jacket off and placed it around her shoulders. She glanced up at him. “You didn’t have to do that.”

He smiled. “Yes, I did. I don’t want you to get cold on me.” She was wearing a pair of black slacks and a light blue cardigan sweater. As always she looked ultrafeminine.

And now she was wearing his jacket. They continued walking and when they reached his truck she glanced up and her gaze connected with his and he could feel electricity sparking to life between them. She looked away quickly, as if she’d been embarrassed that their attraction to each other was so obvious.

“Do you want your jacket back now?” she asked softly.

“No, keep it on. I like seeing you in it.”

She blushed again and at that moment he got the most ridiculous notion that perhaps this sort of intense attraction between two people was sort of new to Bella. He wouldn’t be surprised to discover that she had several innocent bones in her body; enough to shove him in another direction rather quickly. But for some reason he was staying put.

She nibbled on her bottom lip. “Why do you like seeing me in it?”

“Because I do. And because it’s mine and you’re in it.”

He wasn’t sure if what he’d said made much sense or if she was confused even more. But what he was sure about was that he was determined to find out just how much Bella Bostwick knew about men. And what she didn’t know he was going to make it his business to teach her.

Bella was convinced there was nothing more compelling than the feel of wearing the jacket belonging to a man whose very existence represented true masculinity. It permeated her with his warmth, his scent and his aura in every way. She was filled with an urge to get more, to know more and to feel more of Jason Westmoreland. And as she stared at him through the car’s window as he pulled out his cell phone to make arrangements for their lunch, she couldn’t help but feel the hot rush of blood in her veins while heat churned deep down inside of her.

And there lay the crux of her problem. As beguiling as the feelings taking over her senses, making ingrained curiosity get the best of her, she knew better than to step beyond the range of her experience. That range didn’t extend beyond what the nuns at the private Catholic schools she’d attended most of her life had warned her about. It was a range good girls just didn’t go beyond.

Jason was the type of man women dreamed about. He was what fantasies were made of. She watched him ease his phone back into the pocket of his jeans, walk around the front of his truck to get in. He was the type of man a woman would love to snuggle up with on a cold Colorado winter night … especially the kind her parents and uncle had said she would have to endure. Just the thought of being with him in front of a roaring fire that blazed in a fireplace would be an unadulterated fantasy come true for any woman… . And her greatest fear.

“You’re comfortable?” he asked, placing a wide-brimmed Stetson on his head.

She glanced over at him and she held his gaze for a moment and then nodded. “Yes, I’m fine. Thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

He backed up the truck and then they headed out of the parking lot in silence but she was fully aware of his hands that gripped the steering wheel. They were large and strong hands and she could imagine those same hands gripping her. That thought made heat seep into every cell and pore of her body, percolating her bones and making her surrender to something she’d never had before.

Her virginal state had never bothered her before and it didn’t really bother her now except the unknown was making the naughtiness in her come out. It was making her anticipate things she was better off not getting.

“You’ve gotten quiet on me, Bella,” Jason said.

She glanced over at him and again met his gaze thinking, yes she had. But she figured he didn’t want to hear her thoughts out loud and certain things she needed to keep to herself.

“Sorry,” she said. “I was thinking about Friday,” she decided to say.

“Friday?”

“Yes. Pamela invited me to dinner.”

“She did?”

Bella heard the surprise in his voice. “Yes. She said it would be the perfect opportunity to meet everyone. It seems all of my neighbors are Westmorelands. You’re just the one living the closest to me.”

“And what makes you so preoccupied about Friday?”

“Meeting so many of your family members.”

He chuckled. “You’ll survive.”

“Thanks for the vote of confidence.” Then she said, “Tell me about them.” He had already told her some but she wanted to hear more. And the ladies who came to visit had also shared some of their family history with her. But she wanted to hear his version just to hear the husky sound of his voice, to feel how it would stir across her skin and tantalize several parts of her body.

“You already met the ones who think they run things, namely the women.”

She laughed. “They don’t?”

“We let them think that way because we’re slowly getting outnumbered. Although Gemma is in Australia she still has a lot to say and whenever we take a vote about anything, of course she sides with the women.”

She grinned. “You all actually take votes on stuff?”

“Yes, we believe in democracy. The last time we voted we had to decide where Christmas dinner would be held. Usually we hold everything at Dillon’s because he has the main family house, but his kitchen was being renovated so we voted to go to Ramsey’s.”

“All of you have homes? ”

“Yes. When we each turned twenty-five we inherited one hundred acres. It was fun naming my own spread.”

“Yours is Jason’s Place, right?”

He smiled over at her. “That’s right.”

While he’d been talking her body had responded to the sound of his voice as if it was on a mission to capture each and every nuance. She inhaled deeply and they began chatting again but this time about her family. He’d been honest about his family so she decided to be honest about hers.

“My parents and I aren’t all that close and I can’t remember a time that we were. They didn’t support my move out here,” she said and wondered why she’d wanted to share that little detail.

“Is it true that Kenneth is upset you didn’t sell the land to Myers Smith?” he asked.

She nodded slowly. “Yes, he told me himself that he thinks I made a mistake in deciding to move here and is looking forward to the day I fail so he can say, ‘I told you so.'”

Jason shook his head, finding it hard to believe this was a family member who was hoping for her failure. “Are he and your father close?”

Bella chuckled softly. “They barely know each other. According to Dad he was already in high school when Kenneth was born, although technically Kenneth is my father’s half uncle. My father’s grandfather married Kenneth’s mother who was twenty-five years his junior.”

“Do you have any other family, like cousins?”

She shook her head. “Both my parents were the only children. Of course Uncle Kenneth has a son and daughter but they hadn’t spoken to me since the reading of the will. Uncle Kenneth only spoke to me when he thought I’d be selling the ranch and livestock to his friend.”

By the time he had brought the truck to a stop in front of a huge building, she had to wipe tears of laughter from her eyes when he’d told her about all the trouble the younger Westmorelands had gotten into.

“I just can’t imagine your cousin Bailey—who has such an innocent look about her—being such a hell-raiser while growing up.”

Jason laughed. “Hey, don’t let the innocent act fool you. The cousins Aiden and Adrian are at Harvard and Bane joined the navy. We talked Bailey into hanging around here to attend college so we could keep an eye on her.”

He chuckled and then added, “It turned out to be a mistake when she began keeping an eye on us instead.”

When he turned off the truck’s engine she glanced through the windshield at the building looming in front of them and raised a brow. “This isn’t a restaurant?”

He glanced over at her. “No, it’s not. It’s the Blue Ridge Management, a company my father and uncle founded over forty years ago. After they were killed Dillon and Ramsey took over. Ramsey eventually left Dillon in charge to become a sheep rancher and Dillon is currently CEO.”

He glanced out the windshield to look up at the forty-story building with a pensive look on his face and moments later added, “My brother Riley holds an upper management position here. My cousins Zane and Derringer, as well as myself, worked for the company after college until last year when we decided to join the Montana Westmorelands in the horse training and breeding business.”

He smiled. “I guess you can say that nine-to-five gig was never our forte. Like Ramsey we prefer being outdoors.”

She nodded and followed his gaze to the building. “And we’re eating lunch here?”

He glanced over at her. “Yes, I have my office that I still use from time to time to conduct business. I called ahead and Dillon’s secretary took care of everything for me.”

A few moments later they were walking into the massive lobby of Blue Ridge Land Management and the first thing Bella noticed was the huge, beautifully decorated atrium with a waterfall amidst a replica of mountains complete with blooming flowers and other types of foliage. After stopping at the security guard station they caught an elevator up to the executive floor.

“I remember coming up here a lot with my dad,” Jason said softly, reflecting on that time. “Whenever he would work on the weekends, he would gather us all together to get us out of Mom’s hair for a while. Once we got up to the fortieth floor we knew he would probably find something for us to do.”

He chuckled and then added, “But just in case he didn’t. I would always travel with a pack of crayons in my back pocket.”

Bella smiled. She could just imagine Jason and his six brothers crowded on the elevator with their father. Although he would be working they would have gotten to spend the day with him nonetheless. She couldn’t ever recall a time her father had taken her to work with him. In fact she hadn’t known where the Bostwick Firm had been located until she was well into her teens. Her mother never worked outside the home but was mainly the hostess for the numerous parties her parents would give.