A Wife for a Westmoreland / Claiming His Royal Heir: A Wife for a Westmoreland

“Yes, well, I had planned to ask you out then, but Mr. Conyers gave me a look that reminded me of the conversation we’d had years before and that his opinion of me pursuing you hadn’t changed.”

She couldn’t help but laugh and it felt good. He had actually wanted to talk to her then, too. “I can’t believe you were afraid of Dad.”

“Believe it, sweetheart. He can give you a look that lets you know he means business. And it didn’t help that he and Bane had had a run-in a few years before when Bane swiped a can of paint on display in front of the store and used it to paint some not-so-nice graffiti all over the front of Mr. Milner’s feed store and signed off by saying it was a present from your father.”

Lucia wiped tears of laughter from her eyes. “I was away at college, but I heard about that. Mom wrote and told me all the details. You’re right, Dad was upset and so was Mr. Milner. Your cousin Bane had a reputation for getting into all kinds of trouble. How are things going with him and the Navy?”

“He’s doing fine at the Naval Academy. It’s hard to believe he’s been gone for almost two years already, but he has.”

“And he hasn’t been back since he left?”

Derringer shook his head sadly. “No, not even once. He refuses to come back knowing Crystal isn’t here, and he’s still angry that he doesn’t know where she is. The Newsomes made sure of that before they moved away. We are hoping he’ll eventually forget her and move on, but so far he hasn’t.”

In a way, she knew how Bane felt. She hadn’t looked forward to returning to Denver either, knowing she was still harboring feelings for Derringer. It was hard running into him while he was dating other girls and wishing they were her. And now to find out they could have been her. Her father had no idea what he’d done and the sad thing was that she couldn’t get mad at him. Bane hadn’t been the only Westmoreland with a reputation that had made it hard on the other family members. Derringer’s younger brothers—the twins, Adrian and Aidan—as well as his baby sister Bailey had been Bane’s sidekicks and had gotten into just as much trouble.

Needless to say, it had gotten to the point everyone in town would get up in arms when they saw any Westmoreland headed their way. But she had heard her father say more than once lately that considering everything, he thought Dillon and Ramsey had done a pretty good job in raising their siblings and in keeping the family together, and that he actually admired them for it. She knew that several people in town did. All the Westmorelands were college-educated and in some sort of business for themselves or holding prestigious jobs. And together they were the wealthiest family in the county and the largest landowners. People no longer feared them, they highly respected them.

“Just look how things turned out, Derringer,” she heard herself say. “The twins are at Harvard. Bailey will be finishing up her studies at the university here in a year, and Bane is in the hands of Uncle Sam. Ramsey mentioned that Bane wants to become a Navy SEAL. In that case, he has to learn discipline, among other things.”

Derringer chuckled. “For Bane, even with Uncle Sam, that won’t be easy to do.” He picked up his glass to take a sip of his iced tea. “So do we have a date for Saturday night or what?”

A date with Derringer Westmoreland …

She couldn’t stop herself from feeling all giddy inside. She almost trembled at the thought. But at the same time she knew she had to be realistic. He would take her out on Saturday night and probably some other girl on Sunday. He’d asked her out to the movies, not a trip to Vegas to get married.

She would take the date for what it was and not put too much stock in it. She hadn’t been born yesterday and she knew Derringer’s reputation around town. He dated a lot, but let it be known that he didn’t like women who clung or got too possessive.

Still, she couldn’t help but smile at the thought that he was attracted to her and had been since she was eighteen. Didn’t that account for something? She decided that it did.

“Yes, I’d love to go to the movies with you Saturday night, Derringer.”

Four

Derringer frowned the moment he pulled into his yard and saw his sister Bailey’s car parked there. The last thing he needed was for her to drop by to play nursemaid again. Megan was bad enough, but his baby sister Bailey was worse. She had only been seven when their parents had gotten killed. Now at twenty-two, she attended college full-time, and when she didn’t have her nose stuck in some book it was stuck in her five brothers’ personal affairs. She liked making it her business to know anything and everything about their comings and goings. Now that Ramsey was married, she’d given him some slack, but she hadn’t let up with him, Zane and the twins.

He wondered how long she’d been there waiting on him and figured she probably wouldn’t like the fact that he hadn’t been home and had driven into town. Since she wasn’t out on the porch, that meant she had let herself inside, which wouldn’t be a hard thing to do since he never locked his doors. His sister flung open the door the moment his foot touched the step. The look on her face let him know he was in trouble. She was there when the doctor restricted him from doing almost anything, other than breathing and eating, for two weeks.

“Just where have you been, Derringer Westmoreland, in your condition?”

He walked past her to put his hat on the rack. “And what condition is that, Bailey?”

“You’re injured.”

“Yes, but I’m not dead.”

He regretted the words the moment they left his mouth when he saw the expression that suddenly appeared on her face. He and his brothers knew the real reason Bailey was so overprotective of them was that she was afraid of losing them the way she’d lost their parents.

But he could admit to having the same fears, and if he were to analyze things further, he would probably conclude that Zane had them as well. All of them had been close to their parents, aunt and uncle. Everyone had taken their deaths hard. The way Derringer had managed to move on, and not look back, was by not getting too attached to anyone. He had his cousins and his siblings. He loved them, and they were all he needed. If he were to fall in love, give his heart to a woman, and then something were to happen to her—there was no telling how he’d handle it, or even if he could. He liked things just the way they were. And, for that reason, he doubted he would ever marry.

He crossed the room and placed a hand on her shoulder when he saw her trembling. “Hey, come on, Bail, it wasn’t that bad. You were there at the hospital and heard what Dr. Epps said. It’s been almost two weeks now and I’m fine.”

“But I also heard him say that it could have been worse, Derringer.”

“But it wasn’t. Look, unless you came to cook for me or do my laundry, you can visit some other time. I’m going to take a nap.”

He saw the sad look on her face turn mutinous and knew his ploy had worked. She didn’t like it when he bossed her around or came across as if she was at his beck and call. “Cook your own damn meals and do your own laundry, or get one of those silly girls who fawn all over you to do it.”

“Whatever. And watch your mouth, Bailey, or I’ll think you’re slipping back to your old ways and I’ll have to wash your mouth out with soap.”

She grabbed the remote off the table, dropped down on the sofa and began watching television, ignoring him. He glanced at his watch and fought to hide his smile. “So, how long are you staying?” he asked. Because she hadn’t yet inherited her one hundred acres, she had a tendency to spend time at any of their places. Most of the time she stayed with Megan, which suited all her brothers just fine because Bailey had a tendency to drop in unannounced at the most inconvenient times.

Like now.

She didn’t even look over at him when she finally answered his question. “I’m staying until I’m ready to leave. You have a problem with it?”

“No.”

“Good,” she said, using the remote to flip to another channel. “Now go take your nap and I hope when you wake up you’re in a lot better mood.”

He chuckled as he leaned down and planted a brotherly kiss on her forehead. “Thanks for worrying about me so much, kid,” he said softly.

“If me, Megan and Gemma don’t do it, who will? All those silly girls you mess around with are only after your money.”

He lifted a brow in mock surprise. “You think so?”

She glanced up at him and rolled her eyes. “If you don’t know the truth about them then you’re in real trouble, Derringer.”

Derringer chuckled again thinking yes, he knew the truth about them … especially one in particular. Lucia Conyers. He didn’t think of her as one of those “silly girls” and knew Bailey wouldn’t either. He would be taking Lucia to the movies Saturday night. He intended to return her panties to her then. He looked forward to the moment her mouth fell open and she realized he knew what she’d done and had known all this time. He couldn’t wait to see what excuse she would come up with for what she had done.

Before heading up the stairs, he decided to feel his sister out about something. “I ran into Lucia Conyers a few moments ago at McKay’s.”

Bailey didn’t take her gaze off the television and for a moment he thought that possibly she hadn’t heard him, but then she responded. “And?”

He smiled. “And we shared a table since McKay’s was crowded.” He paused a moment. “She’s pretty. I never realized just how pretty she is.” The latter he knew wasn’t true, because he’d always known how pretty she was.

He watched as Bailey slowly turned toward him with a frown on her face. “I hope you’re not thinking what I think you’re thinking.”

He smiled. “Oh, I don’t know. What do you think I’m thinking?”

“That you plan to hit on Lucia.”

He grinned. “If by ‘hit on her’ you mean ask her out, I’ve already done so. We have a date to go to the movies this Saturday night.”

Bailey’s eyes widened. “Are you crazy? That’s Chloe’s best friend.”

Now it was his turn. “And?”

“And everybody around these parts knows how most of the single male Westmorelands operate. You’re used to those silly girls and wouldn’t know how to appreciate a woman with sense like Lucia.”

“You don’t think so?”

“I know so and if you end up doing something stupid like hurting her, Chloe would never forgive you for it.”

He shrugged at the thought. Chances were, Chloe had no idea what her best friend had pulled that night. And as far as what Bailey said about Lucia’s having sense, he didn’t doubt that, which made him uneasy about just what she would gain from tumbling into bed with him.

“Lucia is an adult. She can handle me,” he said. He wouldn’t break it down and tell her that Lucia had handled him and had done a real good job doing so. He got a hard-on every time he thought about that night.

“I’m still warning you, Derringer. And besides being Chloe’s best friend, Megan, Gemma and I like her as well.”

He cocked an amused brow. “I guess that means a lot. The three of you never like any of the girls I date. I’ll have to keep that in mind.”

Without giving his kid sister time to say anything else, he quickly moved up the stairs for his nap.

Lucia couldn’t wait to get back to her office to give Chloe a call and tell her about her date on Saturday night with Derringer.

“I’m happy for you,” Chloe said with a smile in her voice that Lucia heard. “Falling off that horse must have knocked some sense into him. At least you know why he never approached you before. I can see your dad warning him off. I heard the Westmorelands had quite a reputation back in the day.”

Lucia nodded. “And you think I did the right thing in agreeing to go out with him?”

“Come on, Lucia, don’t you dare ask me that. You’ve loved the guy forever. You’ve even gone so far as to sleep with him.”

She drew in a deep, ragged breath. “But he doesn’t know that. At least I don’t think he does.”

“You honestly think he doesn’t know?”

“I assumed he did and that was the only reason he wanted to share my table.”

She heard Chloe bristle at that assumption. “Why do you continue to think you’re no match for Derringer when you’re classier than all those other women he messes around with?”

“But that’s just it, Chloe. I’m not the kind of woman he prefers, the kind he has a history of dating. I can’t hold a candle to someone like Ashira Lattimore. And everyone knows she has been vying for his attention for years.”

“I’ve met her and she’s spoiled, self-centered, possessive and clingy. Definitely not wife material.”

“Wife material?” Lucia laughed. “A wife is the furthest thing from Derringer’s mind. You know that as well as I do.”

“Yes, but I’m sure a lot of people said the same thing about Ramsey before I arrived on the scene. So that means a man’s mind can change with the right woman. All you have to do is convince Derringer you’re the right woman.”

Lucia cringed at the thought of trying to do that. She wouldn’t even know where to begin. “That’s easy for you to say and do, Chloe. You’ve always been sure of yourself in everything you did.”

“In that case, maybe you ought to try it for yourself. Just think, Lucia. Evidently Derringer is on your hook and now you have the chance to reel him right on in. You know how I feel about missed opportunities. How would things have turned out had I accepted Ramsey’s refusal to be on the cover of my magazine? I saw what I wanted and decided to go after it. I think you should use that same approach.”

“I don’t know,” Lucia said on a heavy sigh. This wasn’t the first time Chloe had made that suggestion. A part of her knew her friend was right, but what she was suggesting was easier said than done. At least for her it was.

“Think about it. Saturday is only two days away and if I were you, when Derringer arrived at my place to pick me up I’d make sure he would take one look at me and know he would enjoy every minute of his time in my presence. Now’s your chance, Lucia. Don’t let it go by without taking advantage of it.”

A few moments later, after hanging up the phone with Chloe, indecisiveness weighed heavy in her chest. More than anything she would love to pique Derringer’s interest, but what if she failed in her efforts to do so? What if she couldn’t get the one man she loved to want to love her back? Was there a possibility that she was wrong about the type of women Derringer actually preferred?

One thing Chloe had said was true. No one would have figured that Ramsey Westmoreland would have fallen for any woman. The man had been set in his ways for years and the last woman he’d attempted to marry had announced she was pregnant from another man in the middle of the wedding. Yet, he had fallen in love with Chloe, whether he had wanted to or not. So maybe there was hope for all those other single Westmorelands; but especially for Derringer.

“I’ve heard you’re interested in women’s undergarments these days, Derringer. Is there a reason why?”

Derringer slowly turned away from the pool table with a cue stick in his hand to gaze at each man in the dimly lit room inside his basement. Now that he knew who his late-night visitor had been, he wouldn’t tell anyone, not even Zane, her identity.

“No reason,” he answered his cousin Canyon who was four years younger.

Canyon smiled. “Well, you never got around to asking me anything, but just so you know, the women I date don’t wear underwear.”

Derringer shook his head and chuckled. He didn’t find that hard to believe. He studied the other men who had gone back to sipping their beers while waiting their turn at shooting pool—his brother Zane and his cousins Jason, Riley, Canyon and Stern. They were as close as brothers. Zane knew more than the others about the situation with him and the underwear, but Derringer was confident his brother wouldn’t say anything.

“So, what’s this I hear about you going on a date with Lucia? I thought old man Conyers pretty much scared you off her years ago,” Jason said, chuckling.

Derringer couldn’t help but smile. “He did, but like you said, it was years ago. Lucia isn’t a kid anymore. She’s an adult and old enough to make her own decisions about who she wants to date.”

“True, but she’s not your type and you know it,” Riley piped in.

Derringer lifted a brow. That was the same thing Bailey had alluded to earlier that day. “And what, supposedly, is my type?”

“Women who wear black panties,” Canyon said, chuckling.

“Or no panties at all,” Riley added, laughing.

“Hmm, for all you all know, my taste in women might have changed,” he said, turning back to the pool table.

Zane snorted. “Since when? Since you got thrown off Sugar Foot’s back and hit your head?”

Derringer frowned as he turned back around. “I didn’t hit my head.”

“Makes us wonder,” Riley said. “First you’re going around asking about women’s underwear and now you’re taking Lucia Conyers out on a date. You better treat her right or Chloe will come gunning for you.”

“Hell, we’ll all come gunning for you,” Zane said, taking a sip of his beer. “We like her.”

Derringer turned back to the pool table and proceeded to chalk his stick. At the moment, he didn’t give a royal flip how his family felt about Lucia. He still planned to deal with her in his own way and if they didn’t like the outcome that was too bad.

Five

By the time seven o’clock came around on Saturday night, Lucia was almost a nervous wreck. She had pulled her father aside that week to verify what Derringer had told her. With a sheepish grin on his face, Dusty Conyers hadn’t denied a thing, and had laughingly agreed he had intentionally put the fear of God in Derringer. He didn’t regret doing so and was glad it had worked.

He did agree that now she was old enough to handle her own business and wouldn’t butt in again. She had ended up giving him a kiss on his bald head after telling him how much she loved him, and that he was the best dad in the whole wide world.

His confirmation meant that what Derringer had said the other day was true. He had shown interest in her years ago, but her father had discouraged him. Although she knew she would always wonder how things might have gone if her father hadn’t intervened, she was a firm believer that things happened for a reason. Besides, at eighteen she doubted she would have been able to handle the likes of Derringer Westmoreland and was even doubtful she could have at twenty-two. She wasn’t even confident she had the ability to handle him now, but was determined to try. She was convinced there was a reason she had shared his bed that night.

She just wished she had a clue what that reason was.

She was grateful that one didn’t have anything to do with the other. The reason he had asked her out had nothing to do with them sleeping together and she felt good about that. She had played the details of their night together over and over in her mind so many times that she knew practically every single movement by heart.

All week she had found herself going to bed but unable to sleep until she replayed in her mind every sensation she’d felt that night. It didn’t take much to remember how it felt to grip his iron-steel shoulders beneath her fingers while he thrust in and out of her. The thought of making love with a man like Derringer sent sensuous chills up her spine.

She knew the exact moment Derringer pulled into her driveway. From the smooth hum of the engine she could tell he was driving his two-seater sports car instead of his truck. That meant the car’s interior would be that much cozier. The thought of being in such proximity to Derringer stirred all kinds of feelings inside.

She had spoken to Chloe earlier and her best friend had said the Westmorelands were torn as to whether or not her dating Derringer was a good idea, considering his history with women. Bottom line was that no one wanted to see her get hurt. But what they didn’t know was that she had loved Derringer so long that to her tonight was really a dream come true. And if he never asked her out again that would be fine because she would always have memories of tonight to add to those she had of that Monday night. Not that she expected things would get as heated tonight as they had in his bedroom, mind you. But she couldn’t wait to see what was in store for her tonight. Just knowing she was Derringer’s date made her feel good inside, and knowing he had no ulterior motive in taking her out made it that much more special.

Derringer smiled when he pulled into Lucia’s driveway, thinking her house was the brightest on the block with floodlights in every corner, the porch light on and a light pole shining in the front of the yard. He thought it was a real nice neighborhood with beautiful trees on both sides of the street and the silhouette of mountains in the background. But he felt crowded. One of the pitfalls of being a Westmoreland was that because each of them owned a hundred acres of land, living anywhere else would seem restrictive and too confining.

As he walked up to the porch, he felt as if he was under the bright lights and wouldn’t be surprised if some of her neighbors were watching him. In fact, he was certain he saw the front curtain move in the house across the street. He chuckled, thinking if she could deal with her nosy neighbors then he certainly could.

Besides, he had enough on his plate dealing with his own nosy relatives. Maybe it had been a bad idea to mention his date to Bailey. She hadn’t wasted time spreading the word. He’d gotten a number of calls warning him he had best behave tonight—whatever that meant. And yet, the one call he’d expected, the one from Chloe, had never come. That made him wonder if she knew a lot more than he thought she did.

He glanced at his watch before ringing Lucia’s doorbell. It was seven-thirty exactly. He’d made good time and since he’d already reserved tickets online, they wouldn’t have to stand in line at the theater. He had thought of everything, including when would be the best time to drop the bomb on her about that night. He had decided that they would enjoy the movie first before dealing with any unpleasantness.

He heard the lock turn on her door and then seconds later she was standing there, illuminated in the doorway. He blinked in surprise when he gazed down at her. She looked different. She’d always been a pretty girl, but tonight she looked absolutely stunning.

Gone was the ponytail. Instead, her hair was curled and fell in feathered waves to her shoulders. And she had done something with her eyes that made them look more striking and the entire look somehow showcased her dazzling sophistication.

And then there was the outfit she was wearing. Not too daring, but enough to keep him on the edge all evening. Her sweater dress was a plum color and she had black suede boots on her feet. She wasn’t overly dressed for the movie and he thought her attire was perfect … and it fit her just that way, emphasizing her small waist, and falling above the knees, it definitely showed off a beautiful pair of thighs encased in tights.

A second passed and then several before he was able to open his mouth to speak, and from the smile that touched her lips she was well aware of the effect she was having on him. He couldn’t help but smile back. She had definitely pulled one over on him. Gone was just the “pretty” Lucia and in her place stood a creature so gorgeous that she took his breath away.

“Derringer.”

He exhaled an even breath. At least he tried to. “Lucia.”

“I just need to get my jacket. Would you like to come in for a second?” she asked.

He felt another smile pull at his lips. She was inviting him in. “Sure.”

When he brushed by her, he almost buckled to his knees when he took a whiff of her perfume. It was the same scent he had awakened to that Tuesday morning. The same scent that was all in his head. She was the one woman who had him sleeping each night with her panties under his pillow. He took in a deep breath to pull more of the fragrance into his nostrils. There was just something potent about the scent of a woman.