His By Any Means

“You said you don’t have a job to go to anymore, right?”

“No, I don’t. I turned in my resignation at the agency.” And hadn’t that felt incredible? She had liked her job well enough, but now that her dream was within her reach, she didn’t mind at all saying goodbye to the private agency. “Until I get my practitioner’s license, I’m officially unemployed.”

“All right then,” he said, coming to some internal decision. “We’ll start day after tomorrow. You come up to my ranch and stay for a few days. We’ll go up the mountain from there.”

“Stay? At your ranch?” Heat sizzled through her veins, and even while a delicious tingle settled deep inside her, Colleen felt a tiny niggle of worry.

He was going to teach her to survive in the mountains. But who could teach her how to survive a broken heart when this time with him was over?

* * *

Logan Whittaker was handsome, friendly and professional. Late thirties, he was tall, with nearly black hair, warm brown eyes and when he smiled, a disarming pair of dimples appeared in his cheeks. He wore a sports coat over a pair of black jeans and a long-sleeved white shirt, black cowboy boots betraying his Texas heritage.

As a partner at Drake, Alcott and Whittaker, he was able to meet with Colleen the next morning, when Walter Drake was busy elsewhere.

She walked into his office and took a quick, admiring look around. The room was huge, befitting a partner. Neutral colors, with navy blue accents, including a navy blue sofa and matching visitor chairs situated on one side of his massive desk. There was a blue-and-white-tiled fireplace on one wall with an empty mantel over it. No family pictures to clutter up his office.

The windows along the hallway boasted electric shades that were in a halfway-down position. It was all very businesslike but hospitable, much like Logan himself seemed to be.

“I really appreciate you seeing me on such short notice.”

“Not a problem,” Logan said, stepping forward to take her hand in a firm shake before steering her toward one of the visitor’s chairs. “Walter and I are sort of working a tag team on the Lassiter will. We’re each dealing with different angles, and sometimes the lines cross.”

She had to smile. The slight hint of a Texas accent flavored his speech, but couldn’t hide the fact that he seemed agitated and a little harried. “Having some trouble with J.D.’s will?”

He blew out a breath, took a seat in his chair behind the wide desk and then shot her a heart-stopping grin. “Is it that obvious?” A short laugh rumbled from his throat as he shook his head. “Let’s just say there are some issues with the estate that I’m not at liberty to discuss and leave it at that.”

“Well, that sounds frustrating.”

“Oh, it is.” He pushed one hand through his hair and said, “But I’ll get it done.”

The look in his eyes was sheer determination, and Colleen didn’t doubt for a minute that he would succeed.

“Now, how can I help you, Ms. Falkner?”

“Colleen, please.” She scooted forward to the edge of the leather chair and leaned her forearm on his desk. “Walter helped me set up a line of credit at a local bank, but—”

“What is it?” He gave her his full attention, and Colleen thought at any other time, she might have been mesmerized by his eyes. The man was exceptionally good-looking and when he looked at a woman with his complete concentration, she could only assume that most women melted into a puddle at his feet. As it stood now, though, Logan Whittaker, as handsome and compelling as he was, couldn’t hold a candle to Sage Lassiter.

Letting go of that train of thought, she brought herself back to the business at hand. The reason she’d come here.

“I really just wanted to make sure everything is going through without any trouble.” Shrugging, she added, “I’m about to sell my condo so I can buy something closer to where I will be working, and—”

He gave her a knowing smile. “And you’re worried that something might go wrong with the dispersal of the will.”

“Exactly.” It was nice that he understood her concerns and didn’t make her feel silly for having them.

“You have nothing to worry about,” Logan told her. “J.D. set this will up in such a way that it would be almost impossible to contest it.”

“Almost?”

He grinned. “Caught that, did you?”

“I did, and it’s a little scary to think about. If someone contested the will, all of the bequests might be nullified, right?”

“It’s possible, yes,” he admitted, then leaned back in his oversize leather swivel chair. “But highly unlikely. J.D. was competent when he made his will. And it was his estate to divide how he saw fit. I know some of the family are upset with what that will said, but there’s not much they can do about it. So to answer your question, I don’t see any problems looming. Go ahead and sell your place. Buy the one you want.”

Colleen released a breath she really hadn’t been aware she was holding. Somehow she felt even more reassured than she had when talking to Walter. Maybe it was because the older lawyer tended to speak more in legal terms, and Logan made the process seem less confusing. “Thanks. I feel better.”

“Happy to help,” Logan said, rising to come around his desk. “I know this must be strange, suddenly coming into so much money. But it’s all real, Colleen. You can trust it.”

She stood up and offered her hand. This was what she’d needed to hear: the confirmation that her new life was about to begin. For some reason, she’d been half expecting someone to pull the rug out from under her and leave her sprawled, broken and bruised, on the floor. Metaphorically speaking, of course.

Now though, she would reach out and grab hold—with both hands—of the changes headed her way.

Logan walked her to his door and smiled. “Try to relax and enjoy all of this, Colleen. J.D. clearly wanted that for you.”

“I think he did,” Colleen agreed as she shook Logan’s hand one last time. “I really appreciate your time.”

“If you have any more worries, feel free to come back.”

But she wouldn’t be worried now. At least not about the bequest. Instead, she would worry about Sage Lassiter and how important he was becoming to her. When just the thought of his name sent an electrical charge buzzing through her, she knew she had plenty to worry about.

Seven

“Wow,” Jenna chirped later that day. “According to Google, Sage Lassiter is worth about ten billion dollars.” She glanced up from the laptop and fanned herself with one hand. “I mean I knew he was rich...but that is seriously rich.”

The two of them were in Colleen’s bedroom at her condo. The room was small but neat, with cream-colored walls, a bright quilt on the bed and dozens of jewel-toned pillows stacked against the headboard. Colleen looked at her friend, sitting cross-legged on her bed. “You’re supposed to be checking real estate on the mountain for me.”

“I am, on another webpage,” Jenna said with a shrug. “But I can multitask. Besides, I had to look him up. You’re going to stay at his ranch for a few days and I want to see what my friend’s getting into. You know, I bet there are rich serial killers, too.”

Laughing, Colleen said, “He’s not a serial killer.”

“No harm in checking,” Jenna told her. “So, according to this website that is all gossip all the time, Sage made his first million by investing in some thingamajig for computers that his college roommate invented.”

“Well, that tells me he believed in his friend, so that’s nice.”

“And made a boatload off that investment,” Jenna continued, scrolling down the page, “which he then invested in several other inventors with great ideas.”

“That’s a good thing. He helped a lot of people get started and they all became successes.” Colleen folded another T-shirt and dropped it into her suitcase. She would drive up to Sage’s ranch in the morning and nerves were beginning to settle in. Three days at his house. God, she could hardly sit across from him in a restaurant without her body erupting in dangerous wants and needs. The next few days were going to be agonizing.

Unless, she thought wildly, something happened between them to release all this tension she felt building inside her. But if they did sleep together, then what? From everything she’d learned from J.D., she knew that Sage wasn’t interested in a real relationship. And even if he were, he wouldn’t want her, she knew that already.

So what would she gain by going to bed with him?

Lovely memories, her brain shrieked. Orgasms galore, her body chimed in.

She shivered again.

This had seemed like such a good idea, having Sage show her the mountains and how to avoid danger.

Which was really funny if you thought about it, because Sage himself was dangerous to her. He was becoming too important to her. While she planned her new life, looking forward to all the exciting things stretching out in front of her, Sage was in those mental images, too. He had become a part of the dream she’d nurtured for so long and she didn’t know how to separate them now.

The only thing she could do was try to protect her heart from the inevitable crash that was headed her way.

“Hello?” Jenna demanded her attention. “Did you know he was that rich?”

In spite of everything, Colleen laughed. “It never crossed my mind to ask J.D. what Sage’s bank account looked like.”

“Well, it just doesn’t seem fair, does it?” Jenna turned the laptop so that Colleen could see the screen, where an image of Sage stared out at her. “A man should not be allowed to be that amazing-looking and rich to boot. Just seems selfish somehow.”

Colleen would have laughed, but she was staring at the image of Sage, drawn from some tabloid site. He looked impossibly handsome in a tux and was glaring at the camera even as the woman on his arm, last year’s Oscar winner, beamed at the photographer as she draped herself against Sage’s broad chest.

There it was, she told herself silently. Proof that whatever was between her and Sage wasn’t permanent. Wasn’t anything more than a temporary fantasy on her part, just a lot of chemistry that sizzled and flashed between them.

So, knowing it was all fleeting, what was she supposed to do? Stay home? Avoid Sage? Or should she accept the fact that this was all transitory and simply enjoy it for what it was? A swirl of expectation swam in her veins, side by side with a few slim threads of reality. It would be interesting to see which sensation finally won out.

“Anyway,” Jenna was saying as she slapped the laptop lid down, shattering the spell Colleen had been under. “I found a couple of cabins for sale. One has a lot of land with it—like thirty acres—the other’s close to a county road.”

“Sounds great.” She smiled appreciatively as Jenna handed over a piece of paper with the addresses. “I’ll see if Sage can take me to look at them.”

“We’re depending on Sage a lot lately, aren’t we?”

Colleen quirked a smile. “Is that the royal we?”

“It’s the you we,” Jenna said, leaning back against the headboard of Colleen’s bed and stretching out her legs to cross them at the ankle. “You’ve really been seeing a lot of him and now you’re off to stay with him at his place.”

“Not with him,” Colleen corrected, though her body hummed at the idea. “Just at his house.”

“Uh-huh.” Jenna just looked at her for a second or two, then she huffed out a breath. “It’s crazy, I know, but I’m worried he’s going to break your heart.”

“What?” Surprised, Colleen stared at her friend.

“Okay, sure, I was caught up in the whole billionaire-suddenly-wanting-to-date-my-friend thing, too. But honestly, now that he’s stuck around for a while, I’m just...uneasy.”

“Why?” Colleen knew why Jenna was uneasy, of course. Because she still couldn’t quite bring herself to believe that Sage was actually interested in her. But she’d like to hear her friend’s reasons.

“Because he’s too damn solitary,” Jenna blurted. “Anybody who’s alone that much? There’s probably a reason and I don’t want to see you get caught up in whatever his issues are.”

Colleen laughed shortly.

“What’s so funny?” Jenna demanded.

“Nothing.” Waving one hand, she said, “It’s just, I thought you were going to say what I’ve been telling myself. That I’m not the kind of woman he usually goes for. Not sophisticated enough or beautiful enough or rich enough for him.”

“Please.” Clearly offended, Jenna sat straight up. “He’d be lucky to have you. You’re plenty beautiful and way better than sophisticated or rich, you’re real. You have a warm and generous heart. Maybe sometimes too generous.”

Colleen reached over and hugged Jenna tight. When she let her go again, she said, “Thanks for that. But don’t worry, okay? I’m pretty sure that whatever this is, it’s short-lived. I’m not going to let my too-generous heart get all gooey and involved. Honestly.”

“You know the too generous thing was a compliment, right?”

“Absolutely.”

“Good.” Jenna nodded. “So...back to mystery mountain man.”

“He’s not a mystery,” Colleen insisted. “And this isn’t some romantic getaway. Sage is going to show me around the mountain and probably try to scare me out of the idea of living alone up there.”

“If only he could.”

“Thank you for your support,” Colleen said wryly.

“Oh, I support you, sweetie.” Jenna sat up, grabbed a T-shirt and folded it as she continued, “But you forget, I’ve lived in Wyoming all my life. I know how dangerous the mountains can be. Beautiful, yes, but also deadly if you’re not careful.”

Colleen started to talk, but her friend cut her off.

“I don’t like the idea of you living in the high country all on your own.” She waved one hand as if to dismiss the argument she didn’t give Colleen a chance to make. “Yeah, yeah, feminists, hear us roar, but just because you can do a thing doesn’t mean you should do it, you know?”

Colleen dropped onto the edge of the bed, pushed the suitcase out of the way and faced her friend. “Fine. I’m a little anxious about being alone up there, I admit it, but I’ll get used to it. And Jenna, I’m not helpless or stupid. I’ll take care and I’ll make sure to get help if I need it.”

“I know.” Jenna nodded and shrugged helplessly. “Maybe I just don’t want you to move away.”

Colleen leaned in and gave her friend another hug. “I’ll miss you, too. But we’ll still see each other.”

“Oh, you bet we will. You’re not going to get rid of me that easy.” Jenna handed her the folded shirt. “But do me a favor. When you see the cabins, even if you fall in love...don’t make a hasty decision. I don’t want you to rush into something that you won’t be able to get out of easily.”

That was good advice. And not just about the cabins. She was about to head off to stay at the home of a man who turned her knees to mush. Was she already in way too deep for her own good? Would she get out now if she could?

No.

Colleen thought about it while she finished packing and realized that if it would be smart to stay far, far away from Sage Lassiter...she’d rather be stupid.

* * *

It had only been a week.

But in that week, Sage had spent a lot of time with Colleen and when he wasn’t with her, she was filling his mind. He still wasn’t sure how she’d managed it, but whenever they were together, she actually got him to talk. He’d opened up to her about his ranch, his plans, his life—something he hadn’t done with anyone else. Not even Dylan or Angelica.

Colleen had slipped up on him. He hadn’t expected to actually like her. Hadn’t thought that he’d want her so badly that every night was a torture and every day was a lesson in self-control. Plus, he was no closer to finding out what he needed to know than he had been before this started.

Was this a deliberate maneuver on her part? Suck him in, distract him with her big blue eyes and then set the sexual tension bar so damn high that he couldn’t think straight?

If that was her plan, it was a damn good one.

Hell, he hadn’t even kissed her. How could he be this torn up and feel so out of control over a woman he hadn’t even kissed?

“And why haven’t you kissed her?” he asked himself in disgust. Because he knew that the moment he tasted her, took that luscious, amazing mouth with his, that there would be no stopping. He’d have to have all of her. And that had not been the plan. But then, he’d expected that he would have answers by now. Since this was going to take longer than he’d thought, the plan had to change.

As that thought settled into his mind, Sage took his first easy breath in a week. Talking to her wasn’t working, so he would seduce any secrets she held out of her. He’d use sex—crazed, hot, sweaty, incredible sex—to find out if she was withholding any information he might need to contest the will.

Then when he had what he needed, he would walk away.

She wasn’t the kind of woman to go for a one-night stand, and once she discovered that was all he was willing to offer her, she’d let him walk.

But first, he would have her. Under him. Over him. And then he’d finally be able to get her out of his mind.

He scrubbed both hands over his face, then adjusted the fit of his jeans, hoping to ease the ache that had locked around his groin for the past week. It didn’t help. Nothing would. The only way to ease that pain was to bury himself inside Colleen and thankfully, that was about to happen. He’d felt the chemistry between them. Knew that she was strung as tightly as he was. Seducing her wouldn’t be difficult.

She was going to be here. Every day. Every night. He could hear her voice in his mind again: Will you show me what I need to know? Oh, there was plenty that he wanted to show her and very little of it had to do with survival.

What the hell had he been thinking, asking her to stay here? “Must be a closet masochist,” he muttered darkly.

Or he had been, before he’d altered his plan. But things were different now. When Colleen finally showed up here at the house today, he was going to do what he should have done days ago: kiss the hell out of her. And then he’d get her into his bed as quickly as possible and scramble her mind so completely, she’d tell him whatever he needed to know.

Gritting his teeth against yet another wave of desire thrumming inside him, he turned into the stable and headed down the long center aisle. The familiar scents of horses, straw and leather combined to welcome him and he sighed in gratitude. One thing he could count on was that being with the horses he bred and raised eased his mind. Here, he could push thoughts of Colleen aside—however briefly.

He paused long enough to greet one of the mares who poked her head through the half door to her stall.

“Belle, you’re a beauty,” he whispered. The chestnut mare butted his shoulder with her head as he stroked her jaw and neck, murmuring soft words that had the animal whickering in delight. It was this he lived for. Being around these animals that he loved. Caring for them, training them. Horses didn’t lie. Didn’t betray you. They were who they were and you accepted them at face value. You always knew where you stood with an animal.

It was people who let you down.

“Hey, boss!”

Frowning at the interruption, Sage gave the horse one last pat and turned to look back at one of the cowboys who lived on his ranch. “What is it, Pete?”

“Thought you’d like to know your sister just drove up.”

Of course she did. Grimacing tightly, Sage muttered, “Okay, thanks.”

So much for looking in on the newest foal born on the ranch. Instead, he gave the mare another long stroke over her neck, then headed back out of the stable. Pushing one hand through his hair, he told himself that it seemed women were destined to plague him lately. Wouldn’t you know his sister would show up on the very day he was at last going to taste Colleen Falkner?

Sage couldn’t even remember the last time Angie had come up the mountain to see him. Hell, usually she was living in L.A., but when she did come home, she stayed at Big Blue and visited her friends in Cheyenne.

But this visit was different, wasn’t it? She’d lost her father, and then lost faith in him. She was upset about the will and having lost control of Lassiter Media, he knew. What he didn’t know was what he could do about it. He and Dylan had talked this through several times and neither of them had come up with a way to challenge J.D.’s will.

So far, it had been made plain to them all that J.D. had definitely been in his right mind when he had the will drafted, and fighting his last wishes might very well invalidate the whole document. Until they could be sure of their next moves, he and Dylan at least had agreed to take this slowly.

Since J.D. was gone now, that made Sage the head of the family—and he had to consider everyone’s inheritances, not just Angie’s. He didn’t want to risk Chance losing the ranch, or their aunt Marlene losing her bequest.

As much as it pained him, Sage couldn’t make this any easier on the sister he loved. All he could really do was listen. A damned helpless feeling for a man more accustomed to having the answers than scrambling unsuccessfully for them. Scrubbing his hands over his face, he pushed those unsettling thoughts from his mind and headed for the main house.

The ranch yard was laid out a lot like Big Blue, he thought as he walked across it. But that wasn’t a homage to J.D., he assured himself. It just made sense. The main house was set back at the end of a curving drive. A landscaped sweep of greenery and flowers spread out in front of it in barely tamed splendor. The barn, stables and cabins for the cowhands who worked and lived on the ranch were set farther back and there was a pool that curved around a rock waterfall, with a stone patio surrounding it.

And from every spot on his property, the views were tremendous. He’d had his architect build the house to accommodate the beauty and become a part of the mountains itself. Acres of wood and glass and stone made the house look as though it had always been there, as if it had grown from the rocks and the forest. Trees were everywhere, and the scent of pine flavored every breath.

In Wyoming, winter held on, sometimes even into summer, especially this high up the mountain. An icy wind tore at Sage’s hair as he walked toward his sister. Angelica was just climbing out of her car when he approached, and one look at her told Sage that she wasn’t in much better shape than she had been when he’d seen her a couple nights ago.

True to their plan, he and Dylan had dropped in on their sister at Big Blue. It still wasn’t easy walking into that house, cluttered with memories, but for his sister, he was willing to bite the bullet.

Evan had been there too, of course, but the tension between the formerly happy couple was unmistakable. Evan was doing his best to make this work, but Angie was so hurt and angry at her father that there wasn’t a lot of give in her at the moment. How they were managing to work together through this was a mystery to Sage. Judging by the tight expression on Angie’s face now, that tension hadn’t eased up any either.

“Sorry to just drop in,” she blurted, shrugging into a navy blue sweater that dropped to midthigh. “I had to get out of the house.”

“You’re welcome here anytime,” Sage told her, mentally letting go of his plans for Colleen—at least until his sister was on her way again. “What’s going on now?”

“What isn’t?” she snapped, then stopped, gave him a sheepish look and said, “I’m sorry, Sage. Seriously, I’m acting like queen bitch of the universe and I can’t seem to stop myself.”

“Hey,” he said, dropping one arm around her shoulder and pulling her in for a hug, “that’s my baby sister you’re talking about.”

Angie wrapped both arms around his waist and held on. Tenderness swamped Sage as he simply stood there holding her, knowing there was nothing he could say to make things better. Since she was a little girl, Sage had done everything he could to protect her. To take care of her. He hated not being able to help her now.