“J.D. was a bastard.

“What he did was terrible,” Colleen said. “But he did it because he loved you.”

“He betrayed me,” Sage insisted.

“Can’t you say J.D. did you a favor, too?”

“I’m not ready to thank him. But I can say that if he hadn’t stuck his nose in, I might not be standing here with a woman who turns my blood to fire with a look.”

“Sage …”

“I’ve been trying to stay away from you—”

“I know,” she said. “Why?”

“Because I want you too much. You’re in my blood, Colleen.”

“You’re in mine, too.”

They kissed, but just as the kiss was spiraling out of control, Sage pulled back. “Damned if we’re going to be together in an old cabin, then in an equipment shed. Today, we’re going to try an actual bed. Come with me.”

* * *

The Black Sheep’s Inheritance

is a Dynasties: The Lassiters novel—

A Wyoming legacy of love, lies and redemption!

The Black Sheep’s Inheritance

Maureen Child

www.millsandboon.co.uk

MAUREEN CHILD writes for the Mills & Boon® Desire™ line and can’t imagine a better job. Being able to indulge your love for romance, as well as being able to spin stories just the way you want them told is, in a word, perfect.

A seven-time finalist for the prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA® Award, Maureen is the author of more than one hundred romance novels. Her books regularly appear on the bestseller lists and have won several awards, including a Prism, a National Readers’ Choice Award, a Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence and a Golden Quill.

One of her books, The Soul Collector, was made into a CBS TV movie starring Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Greenwood and Ossie Davis. If you look closely, in the last five minutes of the movie, you’ll spot Maureen, who was an extra in the last scene.

Maureen believes that laughter goes hand in hand with love, so her stories are always filled with humor. The many letters she receives assures her that her readers love to laugh as much as she does.

Maureen Child is a native Californian, but has recently moved to the mountains of Utah. She loves a new adventure, though the thought of having to deal with snow for the first time is a little intimidating.

To Stacy Boyd and Charles Griemsman, two editors who make writing Desires such a terrific experience

Contents

Chapter One

Chapter Two

Chapter Three

Chapter Four

Chapter Five

Chapter Six

Chapter Seven

Chapter Eight

Chapter Nine

Chapter Ten

Epilogue

Excerpt

One

The lawyer’s office at the firm of Drake, Alcott and Whittaker was too crowded for Sage Lassiter’s tastes. He much preferred being out on his ranch, in the cold, crisp air of a Wyoming spring. Still, he had no choice but to attend the reading of his adoptive father’s will.

J.D. Lassiter had been dead only a couple of weeks and Sage was having a hard time coming to grips with it. Hell, he would have bet money that J.D. was far too stubborn to actually die. And now that he had, Sage was forced to live with the knowledge that now he would never have the chance to straighten things out between himself and the man who had raised him. Just like J.D. to go ahead and do something whether anyone else was ready for it or not. The old man had, once again, gotten the last word.

Sage couldn’t have said when the tension between him and J.D. had taken root, but he remembered it as an always-there kind of feeling. Nothing tangible. Nothing that he could point to and say: There. That was it. The beginning of the end. Instead, it was a slow disintegration of whatever might have been between them and it was beyond too late to think about it now. Old hurts, old resentments had no place in this room and nowhere to go even if he had let them take the forefront in his mind.

“You look like you want to hit something.” His younger brother Dylan’s voice came in a whisper.

Shooting him a hard look, Sage shook his head. “No, just can’t really take in that we’re here.”

“I know.” Dylan pushed his brown hair off his forehead and gave a quick look around the room before turning back to Sage. “Still can’t quite believe J.D.’s gone.”

“I was just thinking the same thing.” He shifted, folded his arms across his chest and said, “I’m worried about Marlene.”

Dylan followed his gaze.

Marlene Lassiter had stepped in as surrogate mother to Sage, Dylan and Angelica after Ellie Lassiter died during childbirth with Angie. She’d been married to J.D.’s brother Charles, and when she was widowed, she’d come home to Wyoming to live on Big Blue, the Lassiter ranch. She’d been nurturer, friend and trusted confidante for too many years to count.

“She’ll be okay, eventually,” Dylan said, then winced as they watched Marlene hold a sodden tissue to her mouth as if trying to stifle a wail of agony.

“Hope you’re right,” Sage muttered, uncomfortable seeing Marlene in pain and knowing there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

Marlene’s son, Chance Lassiter, sat to one side of her, his arm thrown protectively around her shoulders. He wore a leather jacket tossed on over a long-sleeved white shirt. Dark blue jeans and boots completed the outfit, and the gray Stetson he was never without was balanced on one knee. He was a cowboy down to his bones and the manager of J.D.’s thirty-thousand-acre ranch, Big Blue.

“You have any idea what the bequests are?” Dylan asked. “Couldn’t get a thing out of Walter.”

“Not surprising,” Sage remarked with a sardonic twist of his lips. Walter Drake was not only J.D.’s lawyer, but practically his clone. Two more stubborn, secretive men he’d never met. Walter had made calls to all of them, simply telling them when and where to show up and not once hinting at what was in J.D.’s will. Logan Whittaker, another partner in the firm, was also working on J.D.’s will but he hadn’t been any more forthcoming than Walter.

Sage wasn’t expecting a damn thing for himself. And it wasn’t as if he needed money. He’d built his own fortune, starting off in college by investing in one of his friends’ brilliant ideas. When that paid off, he invested in other dreamers, and along the way he’d amassed millions. More than enough to make him completely independent of the Lassiter legacy. In fact, he was surprised he had been asked to be here at all. Long ago, he’d distanced himself from the Lassiters to make his own way, and he and J.D. hadn’t exactly been close.

“Have you talked to Angelica since this all happened?” Dylan frowned and glanced to where their sister sat beside her fiancé, Evan McCain, her head on his shoulder.

“Not for long.” Sage frowned, too, and thought about the sister he and Dylan loved so much. Her much-anticipated wedding had been postponed because of their father’s death and who knew when it would happen now. Angelica’s big brown eyes were red rimmed from crying and there were lavender shadows beneath those eyes that told Sage she wasn’t sleeping much. “I went to see her a couple of days ago, hoping I could talk to her, but all she did was bawl.” His scowl deepened. “Hate seeing her like that, but I don’t know what the hell we can do for her.”

“Not much really,” Dylan agreed. “I saw her yesterday, but she didn’t want to talk about what happened. Evan told me she’s not sleeping, hardly eating. She’s taking this really hard, Sage.”

Nodding, he told his brother, “She and the old man were so close, of course she’s taking it hard. Not to mention, J.D. collapsing at her rehearsal dinner adds a whole new level of misery. We’ve just got to make sure she gets past this. We’ll tag team her. One of us going to see her at least every other day...”

“Oh,” Dylan said, chuckling, “Evan will love having us around all the time.”

“He’s the one so hell-bent on marrying into the Lassiter family,” Sage pointed out wryly. “If he takes one of us, he gets all of us. Best he figures that out now anyway.”

“True.” Dylan nodded then sat back in his chair. “Okay, then. We’ll keep an eye on Angelica.”

Dylan kept talking, now about his plans for the restaurant he was opening, but Sage had stopped listening. Instead, he watched Colleen Falkner, J.D.’s private nurse, slip quietly into the room, then make her way to the front, where she took a seat beside Marlene. The older woman gave her a watery smile of welcome and took her hand in a firm grip.

Sage narrowed his gaze on Colleen and felt a hard jolt of awareness leap to life inside him—just as it had the night of the rehearsal dinner. The same night J.D. died.

That night, he’d really noticed her for the first time. They’d met in passing of course, but on that particular night, there had been something different about her. Something that tugged at him. Maybe it had been seeing her long, amazing hair loose, cascading down her back in beautiful shimmering waves. Maybe it had been the short red dress and the black heels and the way they’d made her legs look a mile long. All he knew for sure was when he’d caught her eye from across the room, he’d felt a connection snap into place between them. He had started toward her, determined to talk to her—then J.D.’s heart attack had changed everything.

She wasn’t wearing party clothes today, though. Instead, she wore baggy slacks, a sapphire-blue pullover sweater and her long, dark blond hair was pulled back into a braid that hung down between her shoulder blades. She had wide blue eyes that were bright with unshed tears and a full, rich mouth that tempted a man to taste it.

If he hadn’t seen her in a figure-skimming red dress at the party—a dress that remained etched into his memory—Sage never would have guessed at the curves she kept so well hidden beneath her armor of wool and cotton.

He hadn’t had much interaction with Colleen, since he and J.D. hadn’t exactly been on the best of terms, so Sage didn’t spend much time on Big Blue. But that night at the party, she’d intrigued him. Not only was she beautiful, but when J.D. collapsed, she had sprung into action, shouting orders like a general and taking charge until the paramedics showed up.

She had been devoted to J.D., had earned the family’s affections—as evidenced by the way Marlene reached out to take the woman’s hand—yet through it all had remained a bit of a mystery. Where was she from? Why had she taken a job working for a grumpy old man on a remote, if luxurious, ranch? And why the hell did he care?

“Colleen do something to you?”

He glanced at Dylan. “What?”

“Well, you’re staring at her hard enough to set her hair on fire. What’s up?”

Irritated to have been caught out, Sage muttered, “Shut up.”

“Ah. Good answer.” Dylan just smiled, shook his head and leaned forward to ask Chance something.

Sage let his gaze slide carefully back to Colleen. She bent her head to whisper something to Marlene, and he watched that long, silky braid slide across her shoulder, baring the nape of her neck. Soft blond curls brushed against her skin and he suddenly had the urge to touch her. To stroke that skin, to slide his fingers through her hair, to— He cut that thought off as fast as he could and scowled to himself.

The only possible reason she had for being here was if she was mentioned in J.D.’s will. Sure, J.D. had needed a nurse over his last few months, with his health failing, but such a beautiful one? Was that why she’d taken the job of caring for the old man? Had she been hoping for a nice payoff someday? Maybe he should spend a little time looking into Colleen Falkner, he thought. Do some checking. Make sure—

“You’re looking at her again,” Dylan pointed out.

Glaring at his brother and ignoring the smile on the man’s face, Sage grumbled, “Don’t you have something else to do?”

“Not at the moment.”

“Lucky me.”

“I just think it’s interesting how fascinated you seem to be by Colleen.”

“I’m not fascinated.” Much. He shifted uncomfortably in his chair and told himself to stop thinking about her. How could the woman have gotten to him so easily? Hell, he hadn’t even really talked to her.

“Not what it looks like from where I’m sitting.”

“Then maybe you should sit somewhere else.” He wasn’t fascinated. He was...interested. Attracted. There was a difference.

Dylan laughed shortly. True to form, Sage’s younger brother was almost impossible to insult. He was easygoing, charming and sometimes Sage thought his younger brother had gotten all the patience in the family. But he was also stubborn and once he got his teeth into something, he rarely let it go.

Like now, for example.

“She’s single,” Dylan said.

“Great.”

“I’m just sayin’,” his brother continued, “maybe you could leave your ranch once in a while. Have an actual date. Maybe with Colleen.”

Sage drew his head back and stared at his brother. “Are you running a dating service I don’t know about?”

“Fine,” Dylan muttered, sitting back in his chair. “Have it your way. Be a hermit. End up becoming the weird old guy who lives alone on an isolated ranch.”

“I’m not a hermit.”

“Yeah? When’s the last time you had a woman?”

Frowning, Sage said, “Not that it’s any of your business, but I get plenty of women.”

“One-night stands? Nice.”

Sage preferred one-night stands. He didn’t do commitment, and spending time with women who felt the same way avoided a lot of unnecessary hassle. If his brother wanted to look for more in his life, he was welcome to. As for Sage, he liked his life just the way it was. He came and went as he pleased. When he wanted a woman, he went and found one. When he wanted to be left the hell alone, he had that, too.

“Now that you mention it,” he said quietly, “I haven’t noticed you busy developing any serious relationships, either.”

Dylan shrugged, folded his arms across his chest and said, “We’re not talking about me.”

“Yeah, well, we’re done talking about me, too.”

Then the office door opened, and lawyer Walter Drake stepped inside and announced, “All here?” He swept the room with a sharp-eyed gaze and nodded to himself. “Good. Then we can get started.”

“I don’t know if I’m ready for this,” Dylan grumbled.

Sage was more than ready. He wanted this day done and finished so he could get back to his ranch.

After settling himself behind a wide oak desk, Walter, an older man who looked like the stereotypical image of an “old family retainer”—handsome, gray haired and impeccably dressed—picked up a stack of papers and straightened them unnecessarily. That shuffle of paper and the rattle of the window panes as a cold wind gusted against it were the only sounds in the room. It was as if everyone had taken a breath and held it.

Walter was clearly enjoying his moment in the spotlight. Every eye in the room was on him. Once again, his gaze moved over the people gathered there and when he finally came to Angelica, he gave her a sad, sympathetic smile before speaking to the room. “I know how hard this is on all of you, so I’ll be as brief as possible.”

Sage would be grateful.

“As you all know, J.D. and I knew each other for more than thirty years.” Walter paused, smiled to himself and added, “He was a stubborn man, but a proud one, and I want you all to know that he took great care with his will. He remade it just a few months ago because he wanted to be sure to do the right thing by all of you.”

Scraping one hand across his face, Sage shifted in the uncomfortable chair. He flicked a quick glance out the window and saw dark clouds rushing across the sky. April in Wyoming, he mused. It could be sunny in the morning and snowing by afternoon. And right now, it looked as though a storm was headed their way. Which only fed the urge to get back to his ranch before the bad weather hit.

“There are a lot of smaller provisions made to people J.D. thought well of over the years,” Walter was saying. “I won’t be reading them aloud today. Nor will I make mention of other estate business that will be handled separately.”

Sage frowned thoughtfully and shifted his gaze to Walter. Handled separately? Why? What was the lawyer trying to hide? For that matter, what had J.D. been trying to hide? He braced his elbows on his thighs and leaned forward, keeping his gaze fixed on Walter as if the man was about to saw a woman in half. Or pull a dove from a magic hat.

“That part of the will is, at this time, not to be shared with the family.”

“Why not?” Sage’s question shattered the stillness left in the wake of Walter’s startling statement.

The older man met Sage’s gaze squarely. “Those were J.D.’s wishes.”

“How do we know that?” An insulting question and he knew it, but Sage didn’t stop himself. He didn’t like secrets.

Dylan jammed his elbow into Sage’s side, but he didn’t so much as flinch. Just kept staring at the lawyer waiting for an answer.

“Because I tell you so,” Walter said, stiffening in insult.

“C’mon, Sage,” Dylan muttered. “Let it go for now.”

He didn’t want to, but he would. Only because Marlene had turned in her seat to give him a worried frown. Damned if he’d do anything to upset her any further than she already was. Nodding to the woman he thought of as a mother, he promised himself that he’d keep his silence for now, but that didn’t mean this was the end of it.

“Now,” Walter said firmly, “if that’s settled, I’d like to continue. After all, the heart and soul of the will is what we’re here to discuss today.” He paused only long enough to smooth one hand across his neatly trimmed silver beard. “I appreciate you all coming in on such short notice, and I promise to get through this as quickly as possible.”

Sage didn’t know if the man was deliberately trying to pump up the suspense in the room or if he was just a naturally dramatic lawyer. But either way, it was working. Everyone there shifted uncomfortably in their seats as Walter read aloud the strange, coma-inducing legal phrases leading up to the actual bequests. One or two of those phrases resonated with Sage.

Sound in mind and body. Well, in mind, anyway, Sage told himself. J.D. had been sick for a while, but the old man’s brain was as sharp the day he died as it was when he was nothing but a kid starting out. Which meant J.D. had had a reason for keeping these so-called secrets from the family even after his death. A flicker of anger bristled inside him, and Sage admitted silently that it sucked to be angry at a dead man, because you had no way of confronting him. J.D. was probably loving this, he thought. Even after he was gone, he was still running the show.

But as soon as he had the chance, Sage promised himself a long talk with J.D.’s lawyer.

“To my dear sister-in-law, Marlene...” Walter paused to smile at the woman in question. “I leave a ten-percent share in the Big Blue ranch along with ownership of the main ranch house for as long as she lives. I also leave her enough cash to maintain her lifestyle—” Walter broke off and added, “J.D. got tired of all the ‘legal speak,’ as he called it, and had me write the rest down just as he spoke it.” He took a breath and continued, “Marlene, I want you to have some fun. Get on out there and enjoy your life. You’re a good-looking woman and too damn young to fold up and die alone.”

Marlene sniffed, then laughed shortly and mopped at her tears. The rest of the room chuckled with her, and even Sage had to smile. He could hear the old man’s gruff voice as if he were there with them. J.D. and Marlene had been an unofficial couple for years. More than that though, Marlene had been a rock to three motherless young kids and to a man who had lost the love of his life.

“To Chance Lassiter, my nephew, I leave a sixty-percent share in Big Blue and enough cash to take some time and enjoy yourself a little.” Walter paused and added, “The cash amounts mentioned in the will are specific and will be discussed privately with each of you at a later date.”

Chance looked stunned and Sage was glad for him. The man loved that ranch and cared for it every bit as meticulously as J.D. had himself.

“You take care of Blue, Chance,” Walter kept reading, “and she’ll do the same for you.”

“To Colleen Falkner,” he went on and Sage shifted his gaze to the blonde. “I leave the sum of three million dollars.”

Colleen gasped and rocked back in her chair. Blue eyes wide, mouth open, she stared at Walter as if he had two heads. If she was acting then send her an Oscar fast, Sage thought dryly. She looked as genuinely surprised as he was. J.D. had left three million dollars to his nurse?

Walter kept reading. “Colleen, you’re a good girl and with this money, I want you to go on and chase your dream down. Don’t wait until it’s too late.”

“Oh, my—” She shook her head in disbelief, but Walter was moving on already and Sage braced himself for whatever came next.

“To my son Dylan Lassiter, I leave controlling interest in Lassiter Grill Group, and enough cash to tide you over while you take it to the top. Oh, and I’m giving you ten-percent share of the Big Blue, too. It’s your home, never forget that.”

Beside Sage, Dylan looked shell-shocked and he couldn’t blame him. Hell, the man was now the owner of one of the fastest-growing restaurant groups in the country. If that didn’t stop your heart a little, you weren’t human.

“My son Sage Lassiter—”

Sage tensed for whatever was coming. He wouldn’t have put it past J.D. to take one last swipe at him from the grave. To remind him publicly of the distance that had grown between them over the years. Like oil and water, Sage thought, he and J.D. had just never managed to mix well together.

“Sage,” Walter read with a shake of his head, “you’re my son and I love you. We butted heads too many times to count, but make no mistake, you’re a Lassiter through and through. I’m leaving you twenty-five-percent interest in Lassiter Media, a ten-percent share in Big Blue—to remind you that’s always your home—and lastly some cash that you won’t want and don’t need.”

Surprised and touched, Sage snorted.

Walter continued word for word, “You’re building your ranch your own damn way, just like I did. I admire that. So take this cash and buy something for that ranch. Something that will always remind you that your father loved you. Whether we could get along together or not.”

Damn. The old man had surprised him one last time, was all Sage could think. His throat felt like a fist was squeezing, closing off his air. If he didn’t get out of here soon, he was going to make a damn fool of himself. How the hell did J.D. know how to touch him, even from beyond the grave? How had he scripted words in a will months ago that could reach out long after he was gone to do what he hadn’t been able to do in life?

“And lastly,” Walter was saying, “I come to my beloved daughter, Angelica Lassiter. You are my heart and soul and the light of my life.”

Sage glanced at his sister and saw her beautiful face crumple into tears again.

“And so,” Walter read, “I leave you, Angelica, a ten-percent share of Big Blue, just like your brothers, the Lassiter estate in Beverly Hills, California, enough cash for you to spoil yourself some and finally, a ten-percent share in Lassiter Media.”

“What?” Sage jumped to his feet, outraged, and Dylan was just a breath behind him. All of the warm feelings for his adoptive father vanished in a blink. How could he do that to Angelica? He’d groomed his daughter for years to take over the day-to-day operations of Lassiter Media, a conglomerate of radio, TV, newspapers and internet news outlets. Hell, she’d practically been running the damn thing on her own since J.D. got sick. And now he cut her out of the thing she loved?

“You can’t be serious,” Sage argued hotly, with a quick look at his sister’s shocked, ashen features. “She’s been running Lassiter Media for J.D. He left me more interest than Angie? That’s insane!”

“We’ll challenge the damn will,” Dylan was saying, moving toward his sister to lay one hand on her shoulder in a show of solidarity.

“Damn straight,” Sage agreed, glaring at the lawyer as if it were all his fault.

“There’s more,” Walter said, clearing his throat uncomfortably. “And I warn you, try to challenge this will and you might all be sorry—but more about that later. For now, voting control with forty-one-percent share of Lassiter Media, chairmanship and title of CEO, I leave to Evan McCain.”

“Evan?” Angelica pulled away from her fiancé even as he was rising to his feet, stunned speechless.

“What the hell is going on here, Walter?” Sage demanded, coming around the corner of the man’s desk to snatch up the will and read the terms himself.

“J.D. knew what he wanted to do and he did it,” the lawyer argued.

“Well, it won’t stand,” Marlene said.

“Damn right it won’t,” Dylan piped up, charging the desk and snatching the will from his brother’s grasp.

“It’s not right.” Chance came to his feet slowly, his calm, quiet voice nearly lost in the confusion.

“I can’t believe it,” Angelica murmured, looking at her fiancé as if she’d never seen him before.

“I swear I don’t know anything about this,” Evan said, taking a step toward her only to stop when she backed away from him.

“Well, somebody does, and I’m going to find out what’s going on,” Sage promised, then snapped his gaze to the door. Colleen Falkner was slipping out of the office like a damn ghost.

She’d gotten what she wanted, he told himself. He only wondered what she’d had to do for three million dollars. And he also had to ask himself if she’d known about J.D.’s plans. Had she been involved in his decision to rob Angelica of the very thing she cared most about?

Damned if he wouldn’t find out.

* * *

Colleen leaned back against the door briefly, closing her eyes and forcing herself to drag a deep breath into her lungs. Her heart was pounding so hard and so fast she felt dizzy.

She hadn’t expected anything like this.

Three million dollars?

Tears burned her eyes, but she frantically blinked them back. Now wasn’t the time to indulge in tears for the loss of her friend—or for thinking about the future he had just made possible.

Behind her, she heard muffled shouts through the closed door. Sage Lassiter’s voice was the most unmistakable. Though he didn’t have to shout to be heard. The cold steel in his deep voice was enough to get the attention of anyone in the room.

God knew, he’d had her attention.

She’d felt him watching her earlier. Had sneaked a peek or two over her shoulder at him in return. He made her nervous. Always had. Which was why any time he’d come to the Big Blue ranch to visit his father—which wasn’t often—Colleen had made herself scarce.

He was so...male.

Sage Lassiter was a force of nature. The kind of man women drooled over. And she was the kind of woman men like him never noticed. Well, not usually. He’d certainly noticed her today, though. And he hadn’t looked very happy about it.

Tossing a quick look at the closed door behind her, Colleen hurried down the long beige hallway toward the elevators. She wanted to be long gone before Sage left that room.

Two

She made it as far as the parking lot.

“Colleen!”

Standing beside her car, Colleen took a breath and braced herself. That deep voice was unmistakable.

Goose bumps broke out on her arms and it wasn’t because of the icy wind buffeting her. Blast Wyoming weather anyway. One day it was spring and the next, it was winter again. But the cold was the least of her worries.

It was him. Colleen had only been close to Sage Lassiter one time before today. The night of Angelica’s rehearsal dinner. From across that crowded restaurant, she’d felt him watching her. The heat of his gaze had swamped her, sending ribbons of expectation unfurling throughout her body. He smiled and her stomach churned with swarms of butterflies. He headed toward her, and she told herself to be calm. Cool. But it hadn’t worked. Nerves fired, knees weakened.

And just as he was close enough to her that she could see the gleam in his eyes, J.D. had his heart attack and everything had changed forever.

Looking back on that night, she told herself she was being silly even thinking that Sage might have been interested in her. He’d probably only wanted to ask her questions about his father’s care. Or where the restrooms were.

In her own mind, she’d built up the memory of that night into something magical. But it was time to remember that she simply wasn’t the kind of woman a man like him would ever notice. Sadly, that didn’t stop her from noticing him and she hadn’t been able to stop thinking about him since that night.

Now he was here, and she had to battle down a flurry of nerves. She turned and brushed a few stray, windblown hairs out of her face as she watched him approach.

Her heartbeat sped up at the picture he made. Sage Lassiter stalked across the parking lot toward her. It was the only word that could describe that long, determined stride. He was like a man on a mission. He wore dark jeans, boots and an expensively cut black sports jacket over a long-sleeved white shirt. His brown hair flew across his forehead and his blue eyes were narrowed against the wind. His long legs closed the distance between them in a few short seconds and then he was there. Right in front of her.

She had to tip her head back to meet his gaze and when she did, nerves skated down along her spine. For three months, she’d listened to J.D. Lassiter as he talked about his family. Thanks to those chats, she knew that Sage was ruthless in business, quiet, hardheaded and determined to make his own way rather than capitalize on the Lassiter name. And though that last part had irritated J.D., she knew that he’d also admired Sage for it. How could he not? The older man had done the same thing when he was starting out.

Still, being face-to-face with the man who had filled her mind for weeks was a little unnerving. Maybe if she hadn’t spent so much time daydreaming about him, she wouldn’t feel so awkward right now. Colleen took another deep breath and held it for a moment, hoping to calm herself. But there was a flash of something she couldn’t quite read in his eyes and the nerves won.

Wind slid down off the mountain, wrapped itself around them briefly then rushed on, delivering chills to the rest of Cheyenne. Ridiculously, Colleen was grateful for the cold wind. It was like a slap of common sense and though it wasn’t enough to completely dampen her hormones, her next thought absolutely was.

The only reason she and Sage were here, about to talk, was because they had both attended the reading of his father’s will. Remembering that helped her keep her voice steady as she gave him a smile and blurted, “I’m so sorry about your father.”

A slight frown crossed his face briefly. “Thanks. Look, I wanted to talk to you—”

“You did?” There went her silly heart again, jumping into a gallop. He really was impossibly handsome, she thought absently—tall, dark and glower-y. There was an aura of undeniable strength that emanated from him. He was the kind of man other men envied and women wanted. Herself included. A brand-new flock of butterflies took off and flew in formation in the pit of her stomach. “You want to talk to me?”

“Yes,” he said, his voice a deep rumble that seemed to roll across every one of her nerve endings. “I’ve got a couple questions...”

Fascination dissolved into truth. Instantly, Colleen gave herself a mental kick. Here she was, daydreaming about a gorgeous man suddenly paying attention to her when the reality was, he’d just lost his father. She knew all too well that the families left behind after a loss often had questions. Wanted to know how their loved one had been feeling. What they’d been thinking. And as J.D.’s private nurse, she had been with him the most during those final days.

And now that reality had jumped up to slap her, she was forced to acknowledge that Sage Lassiter had probably planned to talk to her the night of the party for the same reason. What had she been thinking? She’d half convinced herself that the rich, gorgeous Sage Lassiter was interested in her. God, what an idiot. Embarrassment tangled with a wash of disappointment before she fought past both sensations, allowing her natural empathy to come rushing to the surface.

“Of course you do.” Instinctively, she reached out, laid her hand on his and felt a swift jolt of electricity jump from his body to hers. Totally unexpected, she felt the heat from that brief contact sizzle inside her. It was so strong, so real, she wouldn’t have been surprised to actually see the arc of light shimmering between them. Quickly, she drew her hand back, then curled her fingers into her palm, determined to ignore the startling sensation.

His eyes narrowed further and she knew he’d felt it, too. Frowning a little, he pushed one hand through his hair, fixed his gaze on hers and let her know immediately that whatever he might have felt, he was as determined as she to ignore it.

Shaking his head, he said, “No. I don’t have any questions about J.D. Actually, you’re the mystery here.”

“Me?” Surprised, Colleen stared up at him, practically mesmerized by those cool blue eyes of his. “You think I’m a mystery? I’m really not.”

“Oh, I don’t know,” he mused. “You went from nurse to millionaire in a few short months.”

“What?” Confused now, she shook her head as if that might help clear things up a little. It didn’t.

His lips curved but the smile didn’t reach his eyes. “Sure, it’s a big step, isn’t it? I just wanted to say congratulations.”

“Con—what? Oh. What?” Colleen’s mind was slowly working its way past the hormonal surge she’d first felt when Sage had walked up to her. And now that she was able to think almost clearly again, it finally dawned on her what he was talking about. The bequest. The money J.D. had left her. He was making it sound...ugly.

Stung, she said quietly, “I don’t know if congratulations is the right word.”

“Why not?” He set one hand on the roof of her old, but completely reliable, Jeep and leaned in closer. “From private nurse to millionaire in one easy step. Not many people could have pulled that off.”

Cold slithered through her and it was an icier feeling than anything the weather could provide. She glanced around the nearly empty parking lot. Only a half dozen or so cars were sprinkled around the area. The law office adjoining the lot seemed to loom over her, so for a second or two, she let her gaze drift past the city to the mountains in the distance. Sunlight glanced off the snow still covering the peaks. Gray clouds scudded across the deep blue sky and the ever-present wind tugged at her hair.

Just like always, the view of the mountains soothed her. She and her mother had moved to Cheyenne several years ago, and from the moment they arrived, Colleen had felt at home. She hadn’t missed California and the beaches. It was the mountains that called to her. The wide-open spaces, the trees, the bite of cold in the air. In a moment, she was ready to face the man glaring at her. “I don’t know what you mean.”

But she did. She really did. His eyes were icy, detached and a muscle in his jaw ticked as if he were biting back all kinds of words he really wanted to say. J.D. had told her so much about Sage, and for the first time, she was seeing the less than pleasant aspects. Ruthless. Hard.

He was more different now from the man who had flirted with her from across a crowded room not two weeks ago than she would have thought possible. Did he really believe she had somehow engineered this bequest? That she’d tricked J.D. into leaving her money?

“I think you know exactly what I mean.” His head tilted to one side as he studied her. “I just find it interesting that J.D. would bequeath three million dollars to a woman he didn’t even know three months ago.”

While she stood there, pinned in place by the sheer power of his gaze, Colleen felt like a bug on a glass slide under a microscope. The cold inside her began to melt beneath the steam of insult. She was still feeling a little shaky over J.D.’s death and the fact that he’d remembered her in his will. Now, staring up into Sage’s eyes, seeing the flash of accusation gleaming there, she had to wonder if others would be thinking the same thing. What about the rest of the Lassiter family? Did they feel the same way? Would they also be looking at her with suspicion? Suddenly, she had a vision of not just the Lassiters but the whole town of Cheyenne whispering about her, gossiping.

That thought was chilling. She’d made Cheyenne her home and she didn’t want her life destroyed by loose tongues spreading lies. Anger jumped to life inside her. She’d done nothing wrong. She’d helped an old man through his last days and she’d enjoyed his company, too. Since when was that a crime?

Gorgeous or not, Sage Lassiter had no right to imply that she’d somehow tricked J.D. into leaving her money in his will. Lifting her chin, she glared at him. “I didn’t know he was going to do that.”

“And you would have stopped him if you had known?”

The sarcasm in his tone only made the sense of insult deeper. She met his gaze squarely. On this, she could be completely honest. And she would keep being honest until people believed her. “I would have tried.”

“Is that right?”

“Yes, it is,” she snapped, and had the satisfaction of seeing surprise flicker in his eyes. “Whatever you might think of me, I’m very good at my job. And I don’t ordinarily receive gifts from my patients.”

“Really?” He snorted. “You consider three million dollars a gift?”

“What it represents was the gift,” she countered, then stopped herself. She didn’t owe him an explanation and if she tried, he probably wouldn’t accept it.

His features looked as if they’d been carved from marble. There was no emotion there, nothing to soften the harsh gaze that seemed to bore right through her as if he were trying to read everything she was.

Colleen fought past the temper still bubbling into a froth in the pit of her stomach and tried to remember that people grieved in different ways. He’d lost a father he’d been estranged from. There had to be conflicting emotions roiling inside him and maybe it was easier for Sage to lash out at a stranger than to deal with what he must be feeling at the moment. Though she knew from her many long talks with J.D. that he and his oldest son weren’t close, Sage was clearly still dealing with a loss he hadn’t been prepared for. That was bound to hit him hard and it was scarcely surprising that he wasn’t acting rationally at the moment.

With that thought in mind, the tension inside her drained away. “You don’t know me, so I can understand how you might feel that way. But what J.D. did was as big a shock to me as it was to you.”

A long second or two ticked past as he watched her through those deep blue eyes of his. She couldn’t help wondering what he was thinking, but his features gave her no clue at all. Seconds ticked past as the wind blew, the sky grew darker and the silence between them stretched taut. Finally, he straightened up and away from the car, shoved both hands into his pockets and allowed, “Maybe I was a little harsh.”

She gave him a tentative smile that wasn’t returned. Despite his words, he wasn’t really bending. Sighing, she said, “A little. But it’s understandable, considering what you’re going through. I mean...I understand.”

“Do you?” Still watching her, though the ice in his eyes had melted a bit.

“When my father died,” she said, sliding back into her own memories, “it was horrible, despite the fact that we knew for months that it was coming. Even when death is expected, it’s somehow a surprise when it actually happens. It’s as if the universe has played a dirty trick on you. I was so angry, so sorry to lose him—I needed someone to blame.” She paused and met his gaze. “We all do.”

He snorted. “A nurse and a psychologist?”

She flushed. “No, I just meant...”

“I know what you meant,” he said shortly, effectively shutting her down before she could offer more sympathy he clearly didn’t want.

And just like that, the ice was back in his eyes. Then he glanced over his shoulder, noted that his family was walking out of the office building behind them and turned back to her. “I have to go.”

She looked to where Marlene and Angelica were holding onto each other while Chance, Dylan and Evan squared off, obviously arguing. “Of course.”

“But I’d like to talk to you again,” he said, catching her by surprise.

“Sure, I—”

“About J.D.,” he added.

A tiny flicker of something lovely disappeared in a wash of sympathy. Of course he wanted to talk to her about his father. He wanted to hear from the woman who had spent the most time with him in his last several months. Ridiculous to have ever thought that he might be interested in her. Sage Lassiter dated women who were socialites or celebrities. Why on earth would he ever be attracted to a private nurse who didn’t even own a bottle of nail polish?

“Sure,” she said, giving him another smile that went unreturned. “Anytime.”

He nodded, then turned and strode across the parking lot toward his family.

Alone in the quickening wind, Colleen threw one look up at the sky and realized that a storm was coming.

* * *

“What was he thinking?” Dylan took a sip of his beer and set the bottle back onto the table. “Cutting Angie out like that? Dad had been grooming her for years to take over Lassiter Media.”

They were at a small bar on the edge of the city. Marlene had taken Angelica off for a spa day, hoping to relax her. Evan had gone back to the office and Chance was at the ranch. Left to their own devices, Sage and Dylan had opted for drinks, and the chance to talk things over, just the two of them.

The customers here were locals, mostly cowboys, ranch hands and a few cops and firemen. It was a comfortable place that didn’t bother trying to be trendy. The owner didn’t care about attracting tourists. He just wanted to keep his regulars happy.

So the music was loud and country, blasting from a jukebox that was older than Sage. The floorboards were scarred from wooden chairs scraping across them for the past fifty years. The bar top gleamed and the rows of bottles behind the bar were reflected in a mirror that also displayed the image of the TV playing on the opposite wall. People came here to have a quiet drink. They weren’t looking to pose for pictures or listen to tourists talking excitedly about “the Old West.” This was modern-day Cheyenne, yet Sage had the feeling quite a few people rode into town half expecting stagecoaches and more than just the staged gunfights in the streets.

“I don’t know,” Sage muttered, unnecessarily answering his brother’s rhetorical question.

Dylan kept talking, but Sage wasn’t really listening. Instead he was remembering the look in Colleen’s eyes when he’d confronted her in the parking lot. He’d wanted to talk to her. To see what she knew. To find out if she’d had any idea what J.D. had been up to.

Instead, he’d put her on the defensive right from the jump. He hadn’t meant to just launch into an attack. But with the memory of his sister’s tears still fresh in his mind, he’d snapped at Colleen.

Scrubbing one hand across his face, he realized that he was going to have to use a completely different tactic the next time he talked to her. And there would be a next time. Not only did she intrigue him on a personal level but there were too many questions left unanswered. Had she swayed J.D. into leaving her the money? Did she know why Angelica had lost everything? Did she maybe know something that might help him invalidate the will? His brain was racing.

“Angie was looking at Evan like he was the enemy instead of the man she loves.”

“Hard not to,” Sage said, mentally dragging himself back to the conversation at hand. “In one swipe, Evan took everything Angie thought was hers.”

“Well, it’s not like he stole it or anything,” Dylan told him. “J.D. left it to him.”

“Yeah,” he grumbled. “J.D. was just full of surprises, wasn’t he? Still, doesn’t matter how it happened. Bottom line’s the same. Angie’s out and Evan’s in. Not surprising that she’s angry at him.”

“True.” Dylan picked up his beer for another sip, then held the bottle, rubbing his thumb over the label.

“It was always tricky, the two of them engaged and working for the same company. But now that Angie’s not even the boss anymore?” Sage shook his head grimly. “I just hope this will doesn’t cause a breakup.”

“Worst part is, I don’t know what we can do about it. From the little Walter said, I don’t think we’ll be able to contest the will without everyone losing.”

“That’s Walter’s opinion. We need to check into that with an impartial lawyer.”

“If there is such a beast,” Dylan muttered.

“I know.” Sage lifted his glass and took a slow sip of very old scotch. The heat swarmed through his system, yet did nothing to ease the tight knot in the pit of his stomach.

His sister had been crushed by their father’s will. His aunt Marlene was happy with her bequest but naturally worried for Angie. Chance was good, of course. Big Blue ranch was his heart and soul. Evan had looked as though he’d been hit in the head with a two-by-four, but once the shock eased, Sage couldn’t imagine the man complaining about the inheritance. Except for how it was affecting Angie.

There was going to be tension between Evan and her. But Sage hoped to hell they could work it out and find their way past all of this. But for now, their wedding was still postponed and after the will reading, Sage had no idea how long that postponement was going to last.

As for himself, Sage was still staggered by his bequest from J.D. Hell, he’d gotten a bigger share of Lassiter Media than Angie had—and that just wasn’t right. Every time he thought about this, he came back to one question: What the hell had J.D. been thinking? And the only way he had even the slightest chance of figuring that out was by getting close to Colleen.

She was the one who had spent the most time with J.D. in the past few months. Sage had heard enough about the young, upbeat, efficient nurse from Marlene and Angie to know that she had become J.D.’s sounding board. He’d talked to her more than he had to anyone else in the last months of his life. And maybe that was because it was easier to talk about your problems to a stranger than it was to family.

But then, J.D. had always been so damned self-sufficient, he’d never seemed to need anyone around him. Until he got sick. That was the one thing he and Sage had always shared in common—the need to go it alone. Maybe that was why they’d never really gotten close. Both of them were too closed off. Too wrapped up in their own worlds to bother checking in with others.

He scowled at the thought. Funny, he’d never before considered just how much he and his adoptive father were alike. Went against the grain admitting it now, because Sage had spent so much of his life rebelling against J.D.

Yes, he knew that Colleen was the one person who might help him make sense of all this. But he hadn’t been prepared for that spark of something hot and undeniable that had leaped up between them when she touched him. Sure, he had been interested in her the night of the rehearsal dinner—a beautiful woman, alone, looking uncomfortable in the crowd. But he hadn’t had a chance to talk to her, let alone touch her, before everything had changed in an instant. Now he thought again of that flash of heat, the surprise in her eyes, during their confrontation a little while ago, and had to force himself to shove the memory aside. It was clear just by looking at her that she wasn’t a one-night-stand kind of woman—but that could change, he assured himself. He couldn’t get the image of her out of his mind. Her wide blue eyes. The sweep of dark blond hair. A soft smile curving a full mouth that tempted a man. His body tightened in response to his thoughts. The attraction between them was hot and strong enough that he couldn’t simply ignore it.

“So what were you talking to Colleen about?”

“What?” He snapped his gaze up to meet Dylan’s, shoving unsettling thoughts aside. “I...uh...” Uncomfortable with the memory of his botched attempt at getting close to the woman, Sage scrubbed one hand across the back of his neck.

“I know that look,” his brother said. “What did you do?”

“Might have gotten off on the wrong foot,” he admitted, remembering the look of shock on Colleen’s face when he’d practically accused her of stealing from J.D. Was she innocent? Or a good actress?

“Why’d you hunt her down in the first place?”

“Damn it, Dylan,” he said, leaning across the table and lowering his voice just to be sure no one could overhear them. “She’s got to know something. She spent the most time with J.D. Hell, he left her three million dollars.”

“And?”

“And,” he admitted, “I want to know what she knows. Maybe there’s something there. Maybe J.D. bounced ideas off of her and she knew about the changes to the will.”

“And maybe it’ll snow in this bar.” Dylan shook his head. “You know as well as I do that J.D. was never influenced by anyone in his life. Hell,” he added with a short laugh, “you’re so much like him in that it’s ridiculous. J.D. made up his own mind, right or wrong. No way did his nurse have any information that we don’t.”

He had to admit, at least to himself, that Dylan had a point. But that wasn’t taking into consideration that the old man had known he was getting up there in years and he hadn’t been feeling well. Maybe he started thinking about the pearly gates and what he should do before he went. That had to change things. If it did, who better to share things with than your nurse?

No, Sage told himself, he couldn’t risk thinking Dylan was right. He had to know for sure if Colleen Falkner knew more than she was saying. “I’m not letting this go, Dylan. But it’s going to be harder to talk to her now, though, since I probably offended the hell out of her when I suggested that maybe she’d tricked J.D. into leaving her that much money.”

“You what?” Dylan just stared at him, then shook his head. “Have you ever known our father to be tricked into anything?”

“No.”

Still shaking his head, Dylan demanded, “Does Colleen seem like the deadly femme fatale type to you?”

“No,” he admitted grudgingly. At least she hadn’t today, bundled up in baggy slacks and a pullover sweater. But he remembered what she’d looked like the night of the party. When her amazing curves had been on display in a red dress that practically screamed look at me!

“You’ve been out on your ranch too long,” Dylan was saying. “That’s the only explanation.”

“What’s that got to do with anything?”

“You used to know how to charm people. Especially women. Hell, you were the king of schmooze back in the day.”

“I think you’re thinking of yourself. Not me,” Sage said with a half smile. “I don’t like people, remember?”

“You used to,” Dylan pointed out. “Before you bought that ranch and turned yourself into a yeti.”

“Now I’m Sasquatch?” Sage laughed shortly and sipped at his scotch.

“Exactly right,” Dylan told him. “You’re practically a legend to your own family. You’re never around. You spend more time with your horses than you do people. You’re a damn hermit, Sage. You never come off the mountain if you don’t have to, and the only people you talk to are the ones who work for you.”

“I’m here now.”

“Yeah, and it took Dad’s death to get you here.”

He didn’t like admitting, even to himself, that his brother was right. But being in the city wasn’t something he enjoyed. Oh, he’d come in occasionally to meet a woman, take her to dinner, then finish the evening at her place. But the ranch was where he lived. Where he most wanted to be.

He shifted in his chair, glanced uneasily around the room, then slid his gaze back to his brother’s. “I’m not a hermit. I just like being on the ranch. I never was much for the city life that you love so much.”

“Well, maybe if you spent more time with people instead of those horses you’re so nuts about, you’d have done a better job of talking to Colleen.”

“Yeah, all right. You have a point.” Shaking his head, he idly spun the tumbler of scotch on the tabletop. He studied the flash of the overhead lights in the amber liquid as if he could find the answers he needed. Finally, he lifted his gaze to his brother’s and said, “Swear to God, don’t know why I started in on her like that.”

Dylan snorted, picked up his beer and took a drink. “Let’s hear it.”

So he told his brother everything he’d said and how Colleen had reacted. Reliving it didn’t make him feel any better.

When he was finished, a couple of seconds ticked past before Dylan whistled and took another sip of his beer. “Man, anybody else probably would have punched you for all of that. I know I would have. Lucky for you Colleen’s so damn nice.”

“Is she?”

“Marlene loves her,” Dylan pointed out. “Angie thinks she’s great. Heck, even Chance has had nothing but good things to say about her, and you know he doesn’t hand out compliments easy.”

“All true,” Sage agreed.

And yet...Sage’s instincts told him she was exactly what she appeared to be. A private nurse with a tantalizing smile and blue eyes the color of a lake in summer. But he couldn’t overlook what had happened. What J.D. had done in his will. And the only person around who might have influenced the old man was the one woman who had spent the most time with him. He had to know. Had to find out what, if anything, she knew about the changes to J.D.’s will.

And if she had had something to do with any of this, he would find a way to make her pay.

Three

The Big Blue ranch seemed empty without the larger-than-life presence of J.D. Lassiter. Colleen glanced out the window of the bedroom that had been hers for the past several weeks and smiled sadly. She was going to miss this place almost as much as she would miss J.D. himself.

But it was always like this for her, she thought sadly. As a private nurse, she slipped into the fabric of families—sometimes at their darkest hours. And when her job was done, she left, moving on to the next client. The next family.

She tugged on the zipper of her suitcase, flipped the lid open and then sighed. Colleen hated this part of her assignments. The packing up of all her things, the saying goodbye to another chapter in her life. Positioning these memories onto a high shelf at the back of her mind, where they could be looked at later but would be out of the way, making room for the next patient.

Only this time...maybe there wouldn’t be another family.

She shook her head and realized that the silence of the big house was pressing down on her. The only other people at Big Blue right now were the housekeeper and the cook, and it was as if the big house was...lonely. It wouldn’t be for long, though. Soon, Marlene, Angelica and Chance would be returning, and she wanted to be gone before they got home. They didn’t need her here anymore. By rights, she should have left two weeks ago after J.D.’s death, but she’d stayed on at Marlene’s request, to help them all through this hard time.

Colleen walked to the closet and gathered an armful of clothes, carrying them back to the bed. On autopilot, she folded and then stacked her clothing neatly in the suitcase and then went back for more. It wouldn’t take long to empty the closet and the dresser she had been using. She’d only brought a few things with her when she moved into the guest room.

Normally, she didn’t live in when she took a private client. But J.D. had wanted her close by and had been willing to pay for the extra care, to spare his family having to meet all of his needs. In the past couple of months, Colleen had grown to love this place. The ranch house was big, elegant and yet still so cozy that it wasn’t hard to remember that it was, at its heart, a family home.

At that thought, Sage crept back into her mind. He, his brother and sister had all grown up here on this ranch, and if she listened hard enough, she was willing to bet she would be able to hear the long-silent echoes of children playing.

And strange, wasn’t it, how her mind continually drifted back to thoughts of Sage? To be honest, he had been on her mind since the rehearsal dinner. He starred nightly in her dreams and even his coldly furious outburst that morning hadn’t changed anything. In fact, it had only made her like him more. That outburst had shown her just how much he had cared for his father, despite their estrangement. And the sympathy she felt for the loss he’d suffered was enough to color his accusations in a softer light.

Her brief conversation with Sage Lassiter had left Colleen more shaken than the news that she was now a millionaire. Maybe because the thought of so much money was so foreign to her that her brain simply couldn’t process it. But having the man of her dreams actually speak to her was so startling, she couldn’t seem to think of anything but him. Even though he’d insulted her.

“Not his fault,” she assured herself again as she folded her clothes and stuffed them into the suitcase. “Of course he’d be suspicious. He doesn’t know me. He just lost his father. Why should he trust me?”

All very logical.

And yet the sting of his words still resonated with her. Because she couldn’t get past the thought that everyone else would believe what he’d blurted out. That somehow she had tricked a sick old man into leaving her money. Maybe she should turn it down. Go back to the lawyer, tell him to donate the money to charity or something.

Releasing a breath, she stopped packing and lifted her gaze to the window of the room that had been home for the past three months. The view outside was mesmerizing, as always.

There were no curtains on the windows at Big Blue. In the many talks Colleen and J.D. had had, she’d learned that was a decree from J.D.’s late wife, Ellie. She’d wanted nothing to stand between her and the amazing sweep of sky. There were trees, too—all kinds of trees. Pines, oaks, maples, aspen. There was a silence in the forest that was almost breathtaking. She loved being here in the mountains and wasn’t looking forward to going back to her small condo in a suburb of Cheyenne.

But, a tantalizing voice in her mind whispered, with your inheritance, you could buy a small place somewhere out here. Away from crowds. Where you could have a garden and trees of your own and even a dog. A dog. She’d wanted one for years. But she hadn’t gotten one because first, her father had been sick, and then when she and her mother moved to Cheyenne, they’d lived in apartments or condos. It hadn’t seemed fair to her to leave an animal cooped up all day while she and her mom were at work.

Now, though...her mind tempted her with the possibilities that had opened up to her because of J.D. She could quit her job, focus on getting her nurse practitioner’s license and start living the dream that had been fueling her for years. More than that, she could help her mom, make her life easier for a change. That thought simmered in her mind, conjuring up images that made her smile in spite of everything.

The winters in Cheyenne were beginning to get to Colleen’s mother. Laura Falkner was always talking about moving to Florida to live with her widowed sister and maybe the two of them taking cruises together. Seeing the world before she was too old to enjoy it all.

With this inheritance, Colleen could make not only her own dreams come true, but her mother’s, as well. Her hands fisted on the blue cotton T-shirt she held. Should she take the money as the gift it had been meant to be? Or should she reject it because she was afraid what small-minded people might say?

“Wouldn’t that be like a slap in the face to J.D.?” she asked aloud, not really expecting an answer.

“Lots of people wanted to slap J.D. over the years.”

She whirled around to face Sage, who stood in the open doorway, one shoulder braced against the doorjamb. He leaned there casually, looking taller and stronger and somehow more intimidating than he had in the parking lot. And that was saying something. His cool blue gaze was locked on hers and Colleen felt the slam of that stare from all the way across the room.

Her heartbeat jumped into a gallop, her mind went blessedly blank for a second or two and her mouth dried up completely. There was a buzzing sensation going on inside her, too, and it was tingling long-comatose parts of her body back into life. What was it about this man that could turn her into such a hormonal wreck just by showing up?

“What? I mean,” she muttered, irritated that once again she felt tongue-tied around him. She’d always thought of herself as a simple, forthright kind of woman. Before now, she had never had trouble talking to anyone. But all Sage had to do was show up and her mouth was so busy thinking of doing other more interesting things that it couldn’t seem to talk. “I didn’t know you were there.”

“Yeah,” he said, pushing away from the wall and strolling confidently into the room. “You seemed a little...distracted.” He glanced around the sumptuous room, taking in the pale blue quilt, the dozen or more pillows stacked against a gleaming brass headboard and the brightly colored throw rugs covering the polished wood floor. “This place has changed some.”

“It’s a lovely room,” she said, again feeling a pang about leaving.

He glanced at her and shrugged. “When I was a kid, this was my room.”

His room. Oh, my. A rush of heat swept through her system so completely, she felt as if she’d gotten a sudden fever. She’d been living in Sage’s room for the past few months. If she’d known that before, she might not have been able to sleep at all.

She smiled hesitantly. “I’m guessing it looks a lot different to you, then.”

“It does.” He walked to the window, looked out, and then turned back to her with a quick grin. “The trellis is still there, though. You ever climb down it in the middle of the night?”

“No, but you did?”

“As often as possible,” he admitted. “Especially when I was a teenager. J.D. and I...” His voice trailed off. Then he cleared his throat and said, “Sometimes I just needed to get out of the house for a while.”

Colleen tried to imagine Sage as an unhappy boy, escaping out a window to claim some independence. But with the image of the strong, dynamic man he was now, standing right in front of her, it wasn’t easy.

“So,” he said abruptly, “what do you want to slap J.D. for?”

The sudden shift in conversation threw her for a second until she remembered that he’d been listening when she was talking to herself.

“I don’t. I mean...” She blew out a breath and said, “It’s nothing.”

“Didn’t sound like nothing to me,” he mused, turning his back on the window and the view beyond to look at her again.

Backlit against the window, he looked more broad shouldered, more powerful...just, more. The bedroom suddenly seemed way smaller than it had just a few minutes ago, too. Sage Lassiter was the kind of man who overtook a room once he was in it, making everyone and everything somehow diminished just with his presence. A little intimidating. And if she was going to be honest with herself, a lot exciting.

Which wasn’t helping her breathing any. “I was thinking out loud, that’s all.”

“About?”

She met his gaze. “If you must know, about whether or not I should accept the money J.D. left me.”

Surprise shone briefly in his eyes. “And the decision is?”

“I haven’t made one yet,” she admitted, dropping the T-shirt onto her half-packed suitcase. “To be honest, I don’t know what I should do.”

“Most people would just take the three million and run.”

Colleen shrugged helplessly. “I’m not most people.”

“I’m beginning to get that,” he said, stuffing both hands into his jeans pockets as he walked toward her. “Look, I came on a little strong earlier—”

“Really?” She smiled and shook her head. She remembered everything he’d said that morning. Every word. Every tone. Every glittering accusation he’d shot at her from his eyes. She also remembered that electrical jolt she’d gotten when she touched him.

He nodded. “You’re right. And I was wrong. J.D. wanted you to have the money. You should take it.”

“Just like that?” She studied him, hoping to see some tangible sign of why he’d changed his mind, but she couldn’t read a darn thing on his face. The man was inscrutable. As a businessman, the ability to blank out all expression had probably helped him amass his fortune. But in a one-on-one situation, it was extremely annoying.

“Why not?” He moved even closer and Colleen could have sworn she felt actual heat radiating from his body to enclose her in a cocoon of warmth. Warmth that spread to every corner of her body. She swallowed hard, lifted her chin and met his eyes when he continued. “Colleen, if you’re thinking about turning down your inheritance because of what I said, then don’t.”

A cold breeze slipped beneath the partially open window and dissipated the warmth stealing through her. That was probably a good thing. “I admit, what you said has a lot to do with my decision. But mostly, I’m worried that other people might think the same thing.”

He pulled one hand from his pocket and slapped it down on the brass foot rail. “And that would bother you?”

Stunned, she said, “Of course it would bother me. It’s not true.”

“Then what do you care what anyone else thinks?”

Did he really not see what it would be like? Were the rich really so different from everyone else? “You probably don’t understand because you’re used to people talking about you. I mean, the Lassiters are always in the papers for something or other.”

“True,” he acknowledged.

“And as for you, the press loves following you around. They’re always printing stories about the black sheep billionaire.” She stopped abruptly when she caught his sudden frown. “I’m sorry, it’s just—”

“You seem to keep up with reports about me,” he said softly.

“It’s hard not to,” she lied, not wanting him to know that she really did look for stories about him in the paper and magazines—not to mention online. God, she was practically a stalker! “The Lassiter family is big news in Cheyenne.” She covered for herself nicely. “The local papers are always reporting about you and your family.”

He snorted. “Yeah, and I’m guessing the will is going to be front-page news as soon as someone leaks the details.”

Surprised, she asked, “Who would do that?”

“Any number of clerks in the law offices, I should think,” he said. “The right amount of money and people will do or say anything.”

“Wow...that’s cynical.”

“Just a dose of reality,” he said, his hand tightening around the brass rail until his knuckles whitened. “I used to think most people were loyal, with a sense of integrity. Then I found out differently.”

“What happened?” she asked, caught up in the glimmer of old pain and distant memories glittering in his eyes. The house was quiet, sunlight drifting in through the bedroom window, and it felt as though they were the only two people on the planet. Maybe that’s why she overstepped. Maybe that’s why she allowed herself to wonder about him aloud rather than just in her mind.

He almost looked as though he would tell her, then in an instant, the moment was gone. His features were once again schooled in pokerlike stillness and his eyes were shuttered. “Doesn’t matter. The point is, you shouldn’t let gossips rule your decisions.”

Colleen was sorry their all-too-brief closeness was gone, but it was just as well. “It sounds so simple when you say it like that, but I don’t like being gossiped about.”

“Neither do I,” he said, glancing down at her suitcase, then lifting his gaze to hers again. “Doesn’t mean I can stop it.”

He was right and she knew it. Still, he was a Lassiter and rumors and prying questions came with the territory. She was a nobody and she preferred it that way. “Maybe if I don’t accept the inheritance, they won’t bother because there would be nothing to talk about.”

He smiled, but it wasn’t a comforting expression. “Colleen, people are going to gossip. Whether you take the money or not, people will talk. Besides, trust me, a beautiful woman like you taking care of J.D. all these months...there’s gossip already.”

Beautiful? He thought she was beautiful? Then what he said struck home. A flush of embarrassment washed over her as she realized he was probably right. There was no doubt talk already, and with her living here at the ranch, she had fed the flames of the gossip.

“That’s just awful. I was his nurse.”

“A young, pretty nurse with a sick old man. Doesn’t take much more than that to get tongues wagging.”

She argued that because she had to. For her own peace of mind. Colleen hated to think that people were making ugly accusations about a sweet old man. And oh, God, had her mother heard the talk? No. If she had, she would have said something, wouldn’t she?

Shaking her head, Colleen said, “But J.D. wasn’t my first patient. This has never happened to me before.”

He shrugged the argument aside. “You’d never worked for a Lassiter before, either. I’m only surprised you haven’t already heard the speculation.”

She plopped down onto the edge of her mattress, her mind racing as images from the past few months flashed across her brain. She hadn’t really paid attention before, but now that she was looking at things in a new light, she realized he was right. The gossip had already started. She remembered knowing winks, slow smiles and whispered conversations cut short when she entered any of the local shops.

“Oh, my God. They really think that I—that J.D.—oh, this is humiliating.”

“Only if you let them win,” he said quietly and she looked up at him, waiting for him to continue. “Small minds are always looking for something to occupy them. If you live your life worried about what they’re saying, you won’t do anything. Then they win.”

“I really hate this,” she murmured. He did have a point, but this was the first time in her life that she was the subject of gossip. She’d led a fairly quiet existence until she’d taken the job with J.D.

Sage was looking at this from an entirely different angle. The truth was, as a Lassiter, he was insulated from the nastiest rumors and innuendos. He didn’t have to worry about what people were saying about him, because his career was already made, and he had a powerful family name behind him. Besides, how bad was it to have people discussing how incredibly gorgeous you were?

No, this was different. If people were talking about her, it could affect her work. Her life. If the nursing agency she worked for got wind of any of this, they might be reluctant to send her out on other assignments—and that made her cringe. On the other hand, if she simply accepted J.D.’s generosity, she could make her own way. Though she would still, as a nurse practitioner, have to work through local doctors and hospitals.

“My head hurts,” she muttered.

He laughed and it was such a rich, surprising sound, it startled her. Looking up at him, she saw that his eyes were shining and the wide smile on his face displayed a dimple she was fairly certain didn’t show up very often.

“You’re thinking about this too much.”

“It’s very hard not to,” she told him, shaking her head. “I’ve never been in this position before and I’m not really sure what to do about it.”

“Do what you want to do,” he advised.

Want was a big word. She wanted a lot of things. World peace. Calorie-free chocolate. Smaller feet. Her gaze drifted to Sage’s mouth and locked there. And she really wanted to kiss him.

As that thought settled into the forefront of her mind, Colleen cleared her throat and tried for heaven’s sake to get a grip. Honestly, she’d been alone so long, was it really so surprising that a man like Sage Lassiter would tangle her up into knots without even trying?

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