The Proposal / To Tempt a Sheikh: The Proposal. Brenda Jackson
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was intense and she could tell he hadn’t appreciated her uncle’s abruptness. And then she saw a smile touch his lips again and she couldn’t help reciprocate by smiling back. Was he flirting with her? Was she with him?
“Jason Westmoreland is someone you don’t want to get to know, Bella,” Kenneth Bostwick said in a gruff tone, apparently noticing the flirtatious exchange between them.
She turned to glance up at her uncle as they walked out into the night. People were still arriving. “Why?”
“He wants Herman’s land. None of the Westmorelands are worth knowing. They think they can do whatever the hell they please around these parts.” He interrupted her thoughts by saying, “There’re a bunch of them and they own a lot of land on the outskirts of town.”
She lifted an arched brow. “Near where my grandfather lived?”
“Yes. In fact Jason Westmoreland’s land is adjacent to Herman’s.”
“Really?” She smiled warmly at the thought that Jason Westmoreland lived on property that connected to the land she’d inherited. Technically that made her his neighbor. No wonder he wants to buy my land, she thought to herself.
“It’s a good thing you’re selling Herman’s land, but I wouldn’t sell it to him under any circumstances.”
She frowned when he opened the car for her to get in. “I haven’t decided what I plan to do with the ranch, Uncle Kenneth,” she reminded him.
He chuckled. “What is there to decide? You know nothing about ranching and a woman of your delicacy, breeding and refinement belongs back in Savannah and not here in Denver trying to run a hundred-acre ranch and enduring harsh winters. Like I told you earlier, I already know someone who wants to buy the ranch along with all the livestock—especially that stallion Hercules. They’re offering a lot of money. Just think of all the shoes, dresses and hats you’ll be able to buy, not to mention a real nice place near the Atlantic Ocean.”
Bella didn’t say anything. She figured this was probably not the time to tell him that as far as she was concerned there was a lot to decide because none of those things he’d mentioned meant anything to her. She refused to make a decision about her inheritance too hastily.
As her uncle’s car pulled out of the parking lot, she settled back against the plush leather seats and remembered the exact moment her and Jason Westmoreland’s eyes had met.
It was a connection she doubted she would ever forget.
One
One month later
“Did you hear Herman Bostwick’s granddaughter is back in Denver and rumor has it she’s here to stay?”
Jason Westmoreland’s ears perked up on the conversation between his sister-in-law Pam and his two cousins-in-laws Chloe and Lucia. He was at his brother Dillon’s house, stretched out on the living room floor playing around with his six-month-old nephew, Denver.
Although the ladies had retired to the dining room to sit at the table and chat, it wasn’t hard to hear what they were saying and he thought there was no reason for him not to listen. Especially when the woman they were discussing was a woman who’d captured his attention the moment he’d met her last month at a charity ball. She was a woman he hadn’t been able to stop thinking about since.
“Her name is Elizabeth but she goes by Bella,” Lucia, who’d recently married his cousin Derringer, was saying. “She came into Dad’s paint store the other day and I swear she is simply beautiful. She looks so out of place here in Denver, a real Southern belle amidst a bunch of roughnecks.”
“And I hear she intends to run the ranch alone. Her uncle Kenneth has made it known he won’t be lifting one finger to help her,” Pam said in disgust. “The nerve of the man to be so darn selfish. He was counting on her selling that land to Myers Smith who promised to pay him a bunch of money if the deal went through. It seems everyone would love to get their hands on that land and especially that stallion Hercules.”
Including me, Jason thought, as he rolled the ball toward his nephew but kept his ears wide-open. He hadn’t known Bella Bostwick had returned to Denver and wondered if she remembered he was interested in purchasing her land and Hercules. He definitely hoped so. His thoughts then shifted to Kenneth Bostwick. The man’s attitude didn’t surprise him. He’d always acted as if he was entitled, which is probably the reason Kenneth and Herman never got along. And since Herman’s death, Kenneth had let it be known around town that he felt the land Bella had inherited should be his. Evidently Herman hadn’t seen it that way and had left everything in his will to the granddaughter he’d never met.
“Well, I hope she’s cautious as to who she hires to help out on that ranch. I can see a woman that beautiful drawing men in droves, and some will be men who she needs to be leery of,” Chloe said.
Jason frowned at the thought of any man drawn to her and didn’t fully understand why he reacted that way. Lucia was right in saying Bella was beautiful. He had been totally captivated the moment he’d first seen her. And it had been obvious Kenneth Bostwick hadn’t wanted him anywhere near his niece.
Kenneth never liked him and had envied Jason’s relationship with old man Herman Bostwick. Most people around these parts had considered Herman mean, ornery and craggy, but Jason was not one of them. He would never forget the one time he had run away from home at eleven and spent the night hidden in Bostwick’s barn. The old man had found him the next morning and returned him to his parents. But not before feeding him a tasty breakfast and getting him to help gather eggs from the chickens and milk the cows. It was during that time he’d discovered Herman Bostwick wasn’t as mean as everyone thought. In fact, Herman had only been a lonely old man.
Jason had gone back to visit Herman often over the years and had been there the night Hercules had been born. He’d known the moment he’d seen the colt that he would be special. And Herman had even told him that the horse would one day be his. Herman had died in his sleep a few months ago and now his ranch and every single thing on it, including Hercules, belonged to his granddaughter. Everyone assumed she would sell the ranch, but from what he was hearing she had moved to Denver from Savannah.
He hoped to hell she had thought through her decision. Colorado’s winters were rough, especially in Denver. And running a spread as big as the one she’d inherited wasn’t easy for an experienced rancher; he didn’t want to think how it would be for someone who knew nothing about it. Granted if she kept Marvin Allen on as the foreman things might not be so bad, but still, there were a number of ranch hands and some men didn’t take kindly to a woman who lacked experience being their boss.
“I think the neighborly thing for us to do is to pay her a visit and welcome her to the area. We can also let her know if there’s anything she needs she can call on us,” Pam said, interrupting his thoughts.
“I agree,” both Lucia and Chloe chimed in.
He couldn’t help but agree, as well. Paying his new neighbor a visit and welcoming her to the area was the right thing to do, and he intended to do just that. He might have lost out on a chance to get the ranch but he still wanted Hercules.
But even more than that, he wanted to get to know Bella Bostwick better.
Bella stepped out of the house and onto the porch and looked around at the vast mountains looming before her. The picturesque view almost took her breath away and reminded her of why she had defied her family and moved here from Savannah two weeks ago.
Her overprotective parents had tried talking her out of what they saw as a foolish move on her part mainly because they hadn’t wanted her out of their sight. It had been bad enough while growing up when she’d been driven to private schools by a chauffeur each day and trailed everywhere she went by a bodyguard until she was twenty-one.
And the sad thing was that she hadn’t known about her grandfather’s existence until she was notified of the reading of his will. She hadn’t been informed in time to attend