Hot Westmoreland Nights

by Brenda Jackson

  Ramsey lifted a brow. “About what?”

  “Why would a woman with her looks take a job where she’ll have to live here in the middle of nowhere for two solid weeks. Doesn’t she have any family?”

  Ramsey considered Callum’s question. To be honest Chloe’s personal life hadn’t crossed his mind, mainly because he hadn’t intended for her to stay. In fact, he had planned to call the employment agency when it opened this morning to see how soon they could send a replacement. But Callum had posed a good question. Evidently she did have a place in town because she had returned last night with her luggage in tow.

  “What if she’s on the run and took the job to hide out here?”

  Ramsey looked over at Callum. “On the run from what?”

  “An abusive husband. A psycho fiancé. A possessive boyfriend. Hell, I don’t know, Ram. But if I were you I would find out.”

  Ramsey’s frown hardened at the thought that Chloe might be running from a demented stalker. But then when he’d mentioned to her yesterday that she was hired as a live-in cook she’d seemed surprised. And last night she claimed that she’d only returned after deciding she didn’t want to risk being late this morning. What if there was more than that?

  “I don’t think she’s married or engaged because she’s not wearing a ring and there’s no indentation around her finger to indicate that she’s worn one in the past,” he said.

  Callum chuckled. “You’re as bad as Eric and Thel if you noticed all of that about a woman’s finger.”

  Ramsey shrugged his shoulders, refusing to let Callum bait him. “Whatever.”

  “Well, it might be whatever if you don’t find out. If you make her leave, then you could very well be sending her to her death.”

  Ramsey rolled his eyes. “Spare me the dramatics.”

  Callum stood. “Don’t say I didn’t warn you if something were to happen to her.” He headed for the door.

  Ramsey watched him about to leave. “Hey, where are you going? We haven’t had our meeting yet.”

  Callum smiled over at him. “And we won’t. At least not this morning. I smell homemade biscuits and both bacon and sausage. If you’re still thinking about getting rid of her, then I need to make sure I eat well this morning. No telling what we might end up with for lunch.”

  Ramsey had always been a man who’d prided himself on two things: strength of mind and self-control. He felt both take a flying leap when he walked into the dining area an hour later. His men were gone and Chloe was clearing off the table. She glanced over in his direction and the moment he looked into her eyes, he wanted to cross the room and pull her to him and kiss her until she was nothing more than a limp body in his arms.

  “You missed breakfast, but I kept you something warming in the oven. The eggs will be made to order,” she said.

  He nodded, surprised she had thought of him. “Thanks.” He had deliberately remained in his office, trying to concentrate on finishing reports he had failed to do last night. His men’s voices had carried to his office and he could tell from their conversations that they had enjoyed breakfast and were looking forward to lunch.

  “Your men were wondering why you didn’t eat breakfast with them.”

  He glanced over at her as he poured a cup of coffee, wondering if his men had been the ones speculating or if it had been her. “Were they?”

  “Yes.”

  When he didn’t say anything but sipped his coffee while watching her, she said. “If you’re ready to eat I’ll get your plate out of the oven.”

  “Thanks. I’d appreciate it.”

  He moved toward the table and after sitting down he watched her and wondered if Callum’s speculations were true. Was she living here at the ranch as his cook because she was on the run from someone? He sipped his coffee thinking that he was not one to overreact, but what if some of what Callum assumed was true?

  “How do you want your eggs, Ramsey?”

  He blinked, realizing she had asked him a question. “Excuse me? What did you say?”

  “Your eggs. Do you prefer scrambled, sunny-side up or over easy?”

  It was on the tip of his tongue to say he preferred them over her so he could lick them off, but thought better of it. She was wearing another short dress and like last night she had spoiled the effect by a pair of leggings. What was with those things? Why the hell were women wearing them under their dresses? He enjoyed seeing bare skin. Nothing was wrong with seeing a nice piece of feminine flesh on occasion. And although he’d never seen her legs, he had no reason to believe they weren’t gorgeous, a real arousal-getter just like the rest of her.

  The lower part of his body was already throbbing with the way her outfit fit over her bottom, showing a perfect shape. He could just imagine lying in bed with that backside curved against his front in spoon fashion, dipping his head to nibble on her neck and to place marks of passion there before moving toward…

  “Ramsey?”

  He blinked again. “Yes?”

  “How do you want your eggs?”

  “Sunny-side up will be fine.”

  He watched how she handled the frying pan. There was no doubt in his mind she knew what she was doing. And the way she cracked the egg was sure and precise. He couldn’t help wondering about her cooking skills. Had she gone to culinary school? If so, why wasn’t she working at a first-class restaurant somewhere? Why was she here on a sheep ranch on the outskirts of Denver? There was only one way to find out. He’d discovered that with some women if you got them talking they would tell you just about anything you wanted to know. It worked with Bailey, although it hadn’t been a proven trick with Megan or Gemma.

  As she cooked his eggs he studied her. She didn’t look like a woman under any sort of duress. She seemed calm and looked cool. And she appeared to enjoy what she was doing.

  His gaze moved to her face. She didn’t have normal features. She was beautiful. Soft-looking brown skin, a sensual pair of eyes, a cute nose and a pair of lips he longed to taste. Her dark brown hair was shoulder length, lustrous curly strands. It didn’t take much to imagine that hair spread across a pillow. His pillow. And those sensual dark eyes shimmering with arousal right as she shifted her body to spread her thighs, open her legs to fill the air with her scent while he stared down at her feminine mound, moist, ready, waiting for him to sample.

  The surge of desire that swept through him at that moment was so fierce it almost took his breath away. He needed something stronger than a cup of coffee and was tempted to pull a beer out of the refrigerator. Instead he drew in a long, deep breath, shifted his gaze to look out the window. Think about something else. The bill that was soon to come due on his new tractor. The fact that Gemma was bugging him about decorating the rest of his house. Anything except making hot, carnal love to Chloe.

  Trying to regain control of his libido and senses, he looked over toward her. She might know how to wield a frying pan and all that, but there was a refined air about her that disconnected her ability in the kitchen with the way she carried herself. It was as if she should be getting served instead of being the one doing the serving. “Are you married?”

  She glanced over at him but only for a second. She went back to concentrating on cooking his eggs. “No.”

  “You sure?”

  Her head lifted and she stared at him, gave him a look like he’d suddenly grown two heads or something. “Of course I’m sure.” She held up her left hand. “See, no ring.”

  He shrugged. “That doesn’t mean anything these days.”

  She frowned as she slid his egg from the frying pan onto the plate. “It would mean something to me.”

  “Okay, so you’re not married. Are you involved in a serious relationship?”

  She set the plate in front of him and gave him a pointed look. “Is there a reason for these questions?”

  He smiled. Because she asked he might as well go ahead and tell her. She was mature enough to handle it. “Yes, there’s a reason. When I get around to kissin
g you I’ll feel better knowing your mouth doesn’t belong to any other man. Legally or otherwise.”

  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 tightened her lips together.

  He chuckled. “Tightening those lips shut won’t keep me from prying them apart for 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 as he began eating.

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

  “What about hunger?”

  She frowned. “Hunger?”

  “Yes, hunger of a sexual nature. I need to get you out my system and I figured I’ll start by kissing you to see if that will work.”

  Chloe dropped her hands by her side. Not believing he’d said such a thing. And not believing her heart was thumping rapidly in her chest at the thought of him making good on his threat. “You’re nothing like Daren.”

  He raised a dark brow. “Who’s Daren?”

  “The last guy I was involved with.”

  Ramsey ignored the twinge of jealousy that invaded his gut. “Is not being like Daren good or bad?”

  She shrugged. “Not sure. Although, I think it would have been nice if he would have had even a fraction of that hunger thing.”

  He immediately caught on to what she’d insinuated. “I can’t imagine any man hanging around you for long without wanting to gobble you alive. He must have been a real idiot.”

  Chloe kept herself from smiling and refused to admit she’d thought the same thing. “He had his own ideas about what down to earth lovemaking was about. He suggested that we participate in a threesome.”

  Ramsey frowned. He could handle the fact that her ex-boyfriend hadn’t had a passionate bone in his body, but the thought that the man had actually wanted to share her with someone else was as demented as it could get. No man in his right mind would share her.

  “Then he wasn’t just an idiot,” Ramsey spoke up to say. “He was a crazy idiot. Any man who could get it into his mind to share you evidently doesn’t have the brain he was born with. There’s no way I would consider doing such a thing. I would want you all to myself.”

  His gaze roamed over her. “It would be me and me alone who would leave a satisfied smile on your lips, Chloe.”

  Chloe felt a tightening in her stomach as his gaze slowly swept over her, lingering in certain places and bestowing a visual caress in others. And his deep seductive voice was stirring all kinds of sensations to life inside her.

  “How long were you with this guy?”

  She wondered why he wanted to know. “A year.”

  “And how long have the two of you been apart?”

  Chloe wasn’t sure why he wanted to know that, either. Why she’d even shared anything with him about Daren in the first place was a mystery to her. But she had and evidently he was curious. “Two years. Now if you will excuse me I’m about to tackle the dishes.”

  Ramsey watched her walk off over to the sink and, since she was doing her best to ignore him, he dug into his meal. Not surprisingly, everything was delicious and for the first time in a long while, he was enjoying his food. He was also enjoying watching Chloe while he ate. If she only knew all the things that were running through his mind while chewing on a piece of bacon and swallowing his toast.

  She refused to look over at him which was probably a good thing. Instead she was trying to keep busy and continued to ignore him in the process. By the time he had finished breakfast and drained the last of his coffee, she had stacked all the dishes on the counter to load into the huge dishwasher. She wiped down the countertops until they gleamed.

  Getting up from the table he crossed the kitchen to the sink to place his plate and cup in the sudsy water. And when he turned toward her she made a quick move to get out of his way. She wasn’t fast enough and he reached out and took hold of her hand.

  A shiver immediately rushed down Chloe’s spine and she sucked in a sharp breath the instant Ramsey touched her. She tilted her head and looked up at him. He was standing in front of her and his gaze, she noticed, was intense as ever and centered directly on her lips. Then his eyes moved slowly up her face to her eyes. He smiled and then slid his gaze back down to her lips again.

  She knew at that moment he was about to make good on his threat to kiss her. Heat began formulating at the center of her thighs, and the way he was staring at her lips made her hot. Wet. Then something within her began to ache. It was a hollowed emptiness she just realized was there. He moved a step closer and his scent inflamed everything within her, pulling her into the depths of his masculinity, swirling her about and drawing her under into his sensual spell.

  She studied him, became enmeshed in the starkly strong features of his face. He was a very handsome man, so much so that her senses were betraying her, refusing to let her do the right thing and demand he remove his hand from hers. Instead she felt herself easing toward him at the same time he shifted his body even closer to hers.

  Chloe found herself pinned between him and the counter, felt the hardness of his erection come to rest between her thighs like it had every right to be there. For the first time in her life she felt totally in sync with a man, fully aware of who he was and what he could do. And the thought of what he could do, what he would do sent an intense shiver up her spine. It made her anxious to the point where she felt her nerves beginning to quiver. She swallowed deeply and when that didn’t help her she took her tongue and swiped it across her lower lip.

  Not a good move.

  She looked into his face and saw the effect doing such a thing had on him. By no means was she trying to encourage him and when she saw heat flare in his eyes, she knew something elementally male was taking place and he had no intention of fighting it.

  He leaned forward and before she could catch her next breath, he bent his head and captured her lips.

  Five

  Ramsey had told Chloe this wasn’t madness, but at that moment he knew that quite possibly it was worse. There was no way to explain why the moment his lips touched hers he’d felt something he couldn’t name or define slid up his spine. And her taste—rich, honeyed and sweet—drove him to stroke his tongue all over her mouth, sample her everywhere, taste her, and with a greed that made him groan. And when he released his hold on her wrist to place his hands at the center of her back, he shifted positions as fire spread through him.

  Energy he didn’t think he had, especially after a sleepless night, raced through him, gripped him hard, made his erection swell that much more. He wanted to think this was ludicrous, but he knew this was as sexual as it could get, as he took her mouth in a hot and urgent kind of way. He was determined to make her feel all the things he was feeling at that moment. And when she took hold of his tongue, he knew he’d succeeded.

  The hands at her back became possessive, they lowered to cup her backside and she moaned at the same time she moved against him. They were chest to breast, hip to thigh, with mouths locked tight and tongues mingling wildly. He’d said he was sexually hungry and he was proving just how famished he was.

  And the way his hands were now moving over her, as if outlining the shape of her bottom, was driving him insane. He was becoming acquainted with her curves and all her soft yielding flesh. There was no doubt in his mind that while he took her mouth with a passion, she could feel his aroused body part pressing deeply into the juncture of her legs as if that was where it belonged.

  He heard the moans coming from her throat and every time one escaped he deepened the kiss that much more. He was tempted to spread her out on the kitchen table at that very moment and have his way with her. Take her with a passion until he was too weak to stand.

  “We could always leave and come back later.”

  The heavy voic
e made them jump apart like kids who’d gotten caught with their hands in the cookie jar. Filled with both anger and protectiveness Ramsey moved in front of Chloe while glaring at his brothers, Zane and Derringer, and his cousin Jason.

  “What the hell are the three of you doing here?”

  Derringer smiled. “We had a meeting. You told us to be here at seven. Sharp. Threatened us with dire straits if we were late. Did you forget?”

  He had.

  “We can understand if you did forget,” Zane said. He was two years younger than Ramsey and known as a smart-mouth.

  “It’s no big deal, Ram,” Jason said. Jason was the easygoing cousin and his trademark smile was genuine. “It would be nice if you introduced us,” Jason added.

  “Yeah,” Zane said grinning. “Any reason you’re hiding her behind your back?”

  Cursing quietly, Ramsey realized he was doing that very thing. He stepped aside and the moment his brothers’ eyes lit on Chloe, all three gave her an appreciative male perusal. He loved every member of his family, but at that moment thoughts of doing these three in actually made him want to smile.

  “Chloe, I want you to meet my brothers, Zane and Derringer, and my cousin Jason.” And then to his brothers and cousin, he said. “Guys, this is Chloe Burton, my new cook.”

  Chloe had never been so embarrassed in her entire life and actually felt the color stain her already-dark skin. From the way the three were staring at her she could only assume that they’d never walked in on Ramsey kissing a woman before.

  She extended her hand to them. “How do you do?”

  Their handshakes were firm and as she locked eyes with each of them she saw a friendliness in their dark depths. And there was no doubt in her mind that when placed in the same room with a crowd anyone could easily guess they were related. They all had the same chiseled jaw, dark brown eyes, dimpled smile and creamy brown skin. They were extremely handsome men. Her gaze was momentarily drawn back to Derringer, the man who had her best friend’s heart and he didn’t even know it.