Texas Wild (2 page)

One

Three months later

“D
r. Westmoreland, there’s someone here to
see you.”

Megan Westmoreland’s brow arched as she glanced at her watch.
She was due in surgery in an hour and had hoped to grab a sandwich and a drink
from the deli downstairs before then. “Who is it, Grace?” she asked, speaking
into the intercom system on her desk. Grace Elsberry was a student in the
college’s work-study program and worked part-time as an administrative assistant
for the anesthesiology department at the University of Colorado Hospital.

“He’s hot. A Brad Cooper look-alike with a dark tan,” Grace
whispered into the phone.

Megan’s breath caught and warm sensations oozed through her
bloodstream. She had an idea who her visitor was and braced herself for Grace to
confirm her suspicions. “Says his name is Rico Claiborne.” Lowering her voice
even more, Grace added, “But I prefer calling him Mr. Yummy…if you know what I
mean.”

Yes, she knew exactly what Grace meant. The man was so
incredibly handsome he should be arrested for being a menace to society. “Please
send Mr. Claiborne in.”

“Send him in? Are you kidding? I will take the pleasure of
escorting
him into your office, Dr.
Westmoreland.”

Megan shook her head. She couldn’t remember the last time Grace
had taken the time to escort anyone into her office. The door opened, and Grace,
wearing the biggest of grins, escorted Rico Claiborne in. He moved with a
masculine grace that exerted power, strength and confidence, and he looked like
a model, even while wearing jeans and a pullover sweater.

Megan moved from behind her desk to properly greet him. Rico
was tall, probably a good six-four, with dark brown hair and a gorgeous pair of
hazel eyes. They had talked on the phone a number of times, but they had only
met once, three months ago, at her cousin Micah’s wedding. He had made such an
impact on her feminine senses that she’d found it hard to stop thinking about
him ever since. Now that he had completed that case he’d been working on,
hopefully he was ready to start work on hers.

“Rico, good seeing you again,” Megan said, smiling, extending
her hand to him. Grace was right, he did look like Brad Cooper, and his
interracial features made his skin tone appear as if he’d gotten the perfect
tan.

“Good seeing you again as well, Megan,” he said, taking her
hand in his.

The warm sensation Megan had felt earlier intensified with the
touch of his hand on hers, but she fought to ignore it. “So, what brings you to
Denver?”

He placed his hands in the pockets of his jeans. “I arrived
this morning to appear in court on a case I handled last year, and figured since
I was here I’d give you an update. I actually started work on your case a few
weeks ago. I don’t like just dropping in like this, but I tried calling you when
I first got to town and couldn’t reach you on your cell phone.”

“She was in surgery all morning.”

They both turned to note Grace was still in the room. She stood
in the doorway smiling, eyeing Rico up and down with a look of pure female
appreciation on her face. Megan wouldn’t have been surprised if Grace started
licking her lips.

“Thanks, and that will be all Grace,” Megan said.

Grace actually looked disappointed. “You sure?”

“Yes, I’m positive. I’ll call you if I need you,” Megan said,
forcing back a grin.

“Oh, all right.”

It was only when Grace had closed the door behind her that
Megan glanced back at Rico to find him staring at her. A shiver of nervousness
slithered down her spine. She shouldn’t feel uncomfortable around him. But she
had discovered upon meeting Rico that she had a strong attraction to him,
something she’d never had for a man before. For the past three months, out of
sight had meant out of mind where he was concerned—on her good days. But with
him standing in the middle of her office she was forced to remember why she’d
been so taken with him at her cousin’s wedding.

The man was hot.

“Would you like to take a seat? This sounds important,” she
said, returning to the chair behind her desk, eager to hear what he had to say
and just as anxious to downplay the emotional reaction he was causing.

A few years ago, her family had learned that her
great-grandfather, Raphel Stern Westmoreland, who they’d assumed was an only
child, had actually had a twin brother, Reginald Scott Westmoreland. It all
started when an older man living in Atlanta by the name of James Westmoreland—a
grandson of Reginald—began genealogy research on his family. His research
revealed a connection to the Westmorelands living in Denver—her family. Once
that information had been uncovered, her family had begun to wonder what else
they didn’t know about their ancestor.

They had discovered that Raphel, at twenty-two, had become the
black sheep of the family after running off with the preacher’s wife, never to
be heard from again. He had passed through various states, including Texas,
Wyoming, Kansas and Nebraska, before settling down in Colorado. It was found
that he had taken up with a number of women along the way. Everyone was curious
about what happened to those women, since it appeared he had been married to
each one of them at some point. If that was true, there were possibly even more
Westmorelands out there that Megan and her family didn’t know about. That was
why her oldest cousin, Dillon, had taken it upon himself to investigate her
great-grandfather’s other wives.

Dillon’s investigation had led him to Gamble, Wyoming, where
he’d not only met his future wife, but he’d also found out the first two women
connected with Raphel hadn’t been the man’s wives, but were women he had helped
out in some way. Since that first investigation, Dillon had married and was the
father of one child, with another on the way. With a growing family, he was too
busy to chase information about Raphel’s third and fourth wives. Megan had
decided to resume the search, which was the reason she had hired Rico, who had,
of course, come highly recommended by her brothers and cousins.

Megan watched Rico take a seat, thinking the man was way too
sexy for words. She was used to being surrounded by good-looking men. Case in
point, her five brothers and slew of cousins were all gorgeous. But there was
something about Rico that pulled at her in a way she found most troublesome.

“I think it’s important, and it’s the first break I’ve had,” he
responded. “I was finally able to find something on Clarice Riggins.”

A glimmer of hope spread through Megan. Clarice was rumored to
have been her great-grandfather’s third wife. Megan leaned forward in her chair.
“How? Where?”

“I was able to trace what I’ve pieced together to a small town
in Texas, on the other side of Austin, called Forbes.”

“Forbes, Texas?”

“Yes. I plan to leave Thursday morning. I had thought of
leaving later today, after this meeting, but your brothers and cousins talked me
out of it. They want me to hang out with them for a couple of days.”

Megan wasn’t surprised. Although the Westmorelands were mostly
divided among four states—Colorado, Georgia, Montana and Texas—the males in the
family usually got together often, either to go hunting, check on the various
mutual business interests or just for a poker game getaway. Since Rico was the
brother-in-law to two of her cousins, he often joined those trips.

“So you haven’t been able to find out anything about her?” she
asked.

“No, not yet, but I did discover something interesting.”

Megan lifted a brow. “What?”

“It’s recorded that she gave birth to a child. We can’t say
whether the baby was male or female, but it was a live birth.”

Megan couldn’t stop the flow of excitement that seeped into her
veins. If Clarice had given birth, that could mean more Westmoreland cousins out
there somewhere. Anyone living in Denver knew how important family was to the
Westmorelands.

“That could be big. Really major,” she said, thinking. “Have
you mentioned it to anyone else?”

He shook his head, smiling. “No, you’re the one who hired me,
so anything I discover I bring to you first.”

She nodded. “Don’t say anything just yet. I don’t want to get
anyone’s hopes up. You can say you’re going to Texas on a lead, but nothing else
for now.”

Presently, there were fifteen Denver Westmorelands. Twelve
males and three females. Megan’s parents, as well as her aunt and uncle, had
been killed in a plane crash years ago, leaving Dillon and her oldest brother,
Ramsey, in charge. It hadn’t been easy, but now all of the Westmorelands were
self-supporting individuals. All of them had graduated from college except for
the two youngest—Bane and Bailey. Bane was in the U.S. Navy, and Bailey, who’d
fought the idea of any education past high school, was now in college with less
than a year to go to get her degree.

There had never been any doubt in Megan’s mind that she would
go to college to become an anesthesiologist. She loved her job. She had known
this was the career she wanted ever since she’d had her tonsils removed at six
and had met the nice man who put her to sleep. He had come by to check on her
after the surgery. He’d visited with her, ate ice cream with her and told her
all about his job. At the time, she couldn’t even pronounce it, but she’d known
that was her calling.

Yet everyone needed a break from their job every once in a
while, and she was getting burned out. Budget cuts required doing more with
less, and she’d known for a while that it was time she went somewhere to chill.
Bailey had left that morning for Charlotte to visit their cousin Quade, his wife
Cheyenne and their triplets. Megan had been tempted to go with her, since she
had a lot of vacation time that she rarely used. She also thought about going to
Montana, where other Westmorelands lived. One nice thing about having a large
family so spread out was that you always had somewhere to go.

Suddenly, a thought popped into Megan’s head, and she glanced
over at Rico again to find him staring at her. Their gazes held for a moment
longer than necessary before she broke eye contact and looked down at the
calendar on her desk while releasing a slow breath. For some reason she had a
feeling he was on the verge of finding out something major. She wanted to be
there when he did. More than anything she wanted to be present when he found out
about Clarice’s child. If she was in Denver while he was in Texas, she would go
nuts waiting for him to contact her with any information he discovered. Once
she’d gotten her thoughts and plans together, she glanced back up at him.

“You’re leaving for Texas in two days, right?”

He lifted a brow. “Yes. That’s my plan.”

Megan leaned back in her chair. “I’ve just made a decision
about something.”

“About what?”

Megan smiled. “I’ve decided to go with you.”

* * *

Rico figured there were a lot of things in life he
didn’t know. But the one thing he did know was that there was no way Megan
Westmoreland was going anywhere with him. Being alone with her in this office
was bad enough. The thought of them sitting together on a plane or in a car was
too close for comfort. It was arousing him just thinking about it.

He was attracted to her big-time and had been from the moment
he’d seen her at Micah’s wedding. He had arrived late because of a case he’d
been handling and had shown up at the reception just moments before the bride
and groom were to leave for their honeymoon. Megan had hired him a month
earlier, even though they’d never met in person. Because of that, the first
thing Rico did when he arrived at the reception was to ask Zane to point her
out.

The moment his and Megan’s gazes locked he had felt desire rush
through him to a degree that had never happened before. It had shocked the hell
out of him. His gaze had moved over her, taking in every single thing he saw,
every inch of what he’d liked. And he’d liked it all. Way too much. From the
abundance of dark curls on her head to the creamy smoothness of her mahogany
skin, from the shapely body in a bridesmaid gown to the pair of silver stilettos
on her feet. She had looked totally beautiful.

At the age of thirty-six, he’d figured he was way too old to be
that
attracted to any woman. After all, he’d
dated quite a few women in his day. And by just looking at Megan, he could tell
she was young, that she hadn’t turned thirty yet. But her age hadn’t stopped him
from staring and staring and staring…until one of her cousins had reclaimed his
attention. But still, he had thought about her more than he should have since
then.

“Well, with that settled, I’ll notify my superiors so they can
find a replacement for me while I’m gone,” she said, breaking into his thoughts.
“There are only a few surgeries scheduled for tomorrow, and I figure we’ll be
back in a week or so.”

Evidently she thought that since he hadn’t said anything, he
was okay with the idea of her accompanying him to Texas. Boy, was she wrong.
“Sorry, Megan, there’s no way I’ll let you come with me. I have a rule about
working alone.”

He could tell by the mutinous expression on her face that he
was in for a fight. That didn’t bother him. He had two younger sisters to deal
with so he knew well how to handle a stubborn female.

“Surely you can break that rule this one time.”

He shook his head. “Sorry, I can’t.”

She crossed her arms over her chest. “Other than the fact that
you prefer working alone, give me another reason I can’t go with you.”

He crossed his arms over his own chest. “I don’t need another
reason. Like I said, I work alone.” He did have a reason, but he wouldn’t be
sharing it with her. All he had to do was recall what had almost happened the
last time he’d worked a case with a woman.

“Why are you being difficult?”

“Why are you?” he countered.