Texas Wild & Beyond Temptation
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Brenda Jackson
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Prologue
A beautiful June day
“OMG, WHO’S THE latecomer to the wedding?”
“Don’t know, but I’m glad he made it to the reception.”
“Look at that body.”
“Look at that walk.”
“He should come with a warning sign that says Extremely Hot.”
Several ladies in the wedding party whispered among themselves, and all eyes were trained on the tall, ultrahandsome man who’d approached the group of Westmoreland male cousins across the room. The reception for Micah Westmoreland’s wedding to Kalina Daniels was in full swing on the grounds of Micah Manor, but every female in attendance was looking at one particular male.
The man who’d just arrived.
“For crying out loud, will someone please tell me who he is?” Vickie Morrow, a good friend of Kalina’s, pleaded in a low voice. She looked over at Megan Westmoreland. “Most of the good-looking men here are related to you in some way, so tell us. Is he another Westmoreland cousin?”
Megan was checking out the man just as thoroughly as all the other women were. “No, he’s no kin of mine. I’ve never seen him before,” she said. She hadn’t seen the full view yet, either, just his profile, but even that was impressive—he had handsome features, a deep tan and silky straight hair that brushed against the collar of his suit. He was both well dressed and good-looking.
“Yes, he definitely is one fine specimen of a man and is probably some Hollywood friend of my cousins, since he seems to know them.”
“Well, I want to be around when the introductions are made,” Marla Ford, another friend of Kalina’s, leaned over and whispered in Megan’s ear. “Make that happen.”
Megan laughed. “I’ll see what I can do.”
“Hey, don’t look now, ladies, but he’s turned this way and is looking over here,” Marla said. “In fact, Megan, your brother Zane is pointing out one of us to him...and I hope it’s me.” Seconds later, Marla said in a disappointed voice, “It’s you, Megan.”
Marla had to be mistaken. Why would Zane point her out to that man?
“Yeah, look how the hottie is checking you out,” Vickie whispered to Megan. “It’s like the rest of us don’t even exist. Lordy, I do declare. I wish some man would look at me that way.”
Megan met the stranger’s gaze. Everyone was right. He was concentrated solely on her. And the moment their eyes connected, something happened. It was as if heat transmitted from his look was burning her skin, flaming her blood, scorching her all over. She’d never felt anything so powerful in her life.
Instant attraction.
Her heart pounded like crazy, and she shivered as everything and everyone around her seemed to fade into the background...everything except for the sound of the soft music from the orchestra that pulled her and this stranger into a cocoon. It was as if no one existed but the two of them.
Her hand, which was holding a glass of wine, suddenly felt moist, and something fired up within her that had never been lit before. Desire. As potent as it could get. How could a stranger affect her this way? For the first time in her adult life, at the age of twenty-seven, Megan knew what it meant to be attracted to someone in a way that affected all her vital signs.
And, as an anesthesiologist, she knew all about the workings of the human body. But up until now she’d never given much thought to her own body or how it would react to a man. At least, not to how it would react to this particular man...whomever he was. She found her own reaction as interesting as she found it disconcerting.
“That guy’s hot for you, Megan.”
Vickie’s words reminded Megan that she had an audience. Breaking eye contact with the stranger, she glanced over at Vickie, swallowing deeply. “No, he’s not. He doesn’t know me, and I don’t know him.”
“Doesn’t matter who knows who. What just happened between you two is called instant sexual attraction. I felt it. We all did. You would have to be dead not to have felt it. That was some kind of heat emitting between the two of you just now.”
Megan drew in a deep breath when the other women around her nodded and agreed with what Vickie had said. She glanced back over at the stranger. He was still staring and held her gaze until her cousin Riley tapped him on the shoulder to claim his attention. And when Savannah and Jessica, who were married to Megan’s cousins Durango and Chase, respectively, walked up to him, she saw how his face split in a smile before he pulled both women into his arms for a huge hug.
That’s when it hit her just who the stranger was. He was Jessica and Savannah’s brother, the private investigator who lived in Philadelphia, Rico Claiborne. The man Megan had hired a few months ago to probe into her great-grandfather’s past.
* * *
RICO CLAIBORNE WAS glad to see his sisters, but the woman Zane had pointed out to him, the same one who had hired him over the phone a few months ago, was still holding his attention, although he was pretending otherwise.
Dr. Megan Westmoreland.
She had gone back to talking to her friends, not looking his way. That was fine for now since he needed to get his bearings. What in the hell had that been all about? What had made him concentrate solely on her as if all those other women standing with her didn’t exist? There was something about her that made her stand out, even before Zane had told him the one in the pastel pink was his sister Megan.
The woman was hot, and when she had looked at him, every cell in his body had responded to that look. It wasn’t one of those I’m-interested-in-you-too kind of looks. It was one of those looks that questioned the power of what was going on between them. It was quite obvious she was just as confused as he was. Never had he reacted so fiercely to a woman before. And the fact that she was the one who had hired him to research Raphel Westmoreland made things even more complicated.
That had been two months ago. He’d agreed to take the case, but had explained he couldn’t begin until he’d wrapped up the other cases he was working on. She’d understood. Today, he’d figured he could kill two birds with one stone. He’d attend Micah’s wedding and finally get to meet Micah’s cousin Megan. But he hadn’t counted on feeling such a strong attraction to her, one that still had heat thrumming all through him.
His sisters’ husbands, as well as the newlyweds, walked up to join him. And as Rico listened to the conversations swirling around him, he couldn’t help but steal glances over at Megan. He should have known it would be just a matter of time before one of his sisters noticed where his attention had strayed.
“You’ve met Megan, right? I know she hired you to investigate Raphel’s history,” Savannah said with a curious gleam in her eyes. He knew that look. If given the chance she would stick that pretty nose of hers where it didn’t belong.
“No, Megan and I haven’t officially met, although we’ve talked on the phone a number of times,” he said, grabbing a drink off the tray of a passing waiter. He needed it to cool off. Megan Westmoreland was so freaking hot he could feel his toes beginning to burn. “But I know which one she is. Zane pointed her out to me a few minutes ago,” he added, hoping that would appease his sister’s curiosity.
He saw it didn’t when she smiled and said, “Then let me introduce you.”
Rico took a quick sip of his drink. He started to tell Savannah that he would rather be introduced to Megan later, but then decided he might as well get it over with. “All right.”
As his sister led him over to where the group of women stood, all staring at him with interest in their eyes, his gaze was locked on just one. And he knew she felt the strong attraction flowing between them as much as he did. There was no way she could not.
It was a good thing they wouldn’t be working together closely. His job was just to make sure she received periodic updates on how the investigation was going, which was simple enough.
Yes, he decided, as he got closer to her, with the way his entire body was reacting to her, the more distance he put between himself and Megan the better.
