Dreams of Forever: Seduction, Westmoreland Style

* * *

The moment the sunshine hit Casey’s face she inhaled, trying to get her temper under control. She doubted there were any words to describe how she felt toward McKinnon Quinn at that moment. The man was impossible!

She glanced around and grudgingly admitted his sprawling ranch was simply beautiful. The house wasn’t as huge as her father’s but she thought it had a lot of class and exuded an appeal as strong as the man who owned it. He had adroitly erected the structure on a beautiful piece of land that had a picturesque view of the mountains in the background.

It was a sunny day in early May and the weather reminded her of a day in Texas. McKinnon’s men were busy at work and as she walked toward her car to leave, she noted several beautiful horses were being led into a corral. She turned suddenly when one of the men’s shouting caught her attention in time to see this huge monstrosity of a horse break free from the man’s hold and start charging after him.

When the horse reared up on hind legs with full intent to stomp the man to death, she held her breath and watched as the man made a smart move and fell to the ground, immediately rolling out of harm’s way. It seemed the animal was in rare form, and when several of the men ran forward to grab hold of his reins, he tried attacking them and sent them running for cover. One of them wasn’t quick enough and the horse took off, charging after him.

Without any thought of what she was doing or that she was putting her life in danger, Casey raced toward the charging animal trying to get his attention. She frantically waved her hands in the air and whistled. Pretty soon the animal turned huge, dark, flaming eyes in her direction and with a tilt of its head, a flare of its nostrils and a turn of its body, she then became his target. She felt the hairs on the back of her neck rise, putting her on full alert, however, instead of running for cover, she stood still.

* * *

McKinnon rushed out of the barn at that very moment. He had heard all the commotion and when he saw Prince Charming turned toward Casey, and she just standing there as if frozen in place, his heart slammed in his chest.

“Casey, run, dammit!”

When he saw she didn’t move, he decided to run toward her, knowing that with Prince Charming’s speed there was no way he was going to reach her in time, but he would die trying. Suddenly a rifle was shoved into his hands by one of his men and he knew he had to destroy the animal before it took Casey’s life. At that moment it didn’t matter one iota that the animal he was about to take down had cost Sheikh Jamal Ari Yasir over a million dollars. McKinnon’s only concern was doing whatever it took to protect Casey Westmoreland.

He raised the gun to take aim and fire when one of his men shouted, “Wait! Take a look at that.”

McKinnon blinked, amazed at what he was seeing. Fear hadn’t frozen Casey in place—she had been talking to the blasted animal and somehow she had gotten through to it. Prince Charming had come to a screeching halt within ten feet of Casey and was now trotting over to her with his tail wagging like they were the best of friends. She was holding her hand out to him and the horse cautiously came up to her and began nuzzling her hand.

McKinnon lowered the rifle. He knew that, like him, everyone was holding their breaths watching, waiting and staring in pure astonishment. Then, once she felt confident that she had gained the animal’s trust, Casey grabbed hold of the reins and began walking him slowly back toward a hitching post.

“Well, I’ll be. If I wasn’t seeing it with my own eyes, I wouldn’t believe it,” McKinnon heard one of his men whisper behind him.

“Take a look at that,” another man said as if awe struck. “That woman has Prince Charming practically eating out of her hands instead of him eating her hands off. Who the hell is she?”

McKinnon handed the rifle back to his foreman, Norris Lane, and shook his head. He’d heard the men’s stunned comments. He would not have believed it without seeing it, either. “That’s Corey Westmoreland’s daughter,” he said gruffly.

“Corey’s daughter?”

“Yeah,” McKinnon said as he watched Casey tie the animal to the hitching post and then lean over to whisper something in his ear before turning to walk away.

Whatever conversation was taking place between his men was lost on McKinnon as he began walking toward Casey. His heart was still pounding wildly in his chest since he wasn’t even close to recovering from the impact of seeing the horse charge toward her. Damn! He felt as if he’d lost a good ten years off his life.

When they reached each other, instead of stopping, Casey glanced at him with unconcealed irritation glaring in her eyes and walked right past.

McKinnon stopped and turned in time to see her walk over to her car, open the door and get in. He cursed silently as he watched a furious Casey Westmoreland drive away.

Chapter 2

Early the next morning, McKinnon was sitting at his kitchen table drinking a cup of coffee before the start of his work day when Norris walked in. He took one look at his foreman’s expression and knew that whatever news he came to deliver, McKinnon wasn’t going to like it.

“Good morning, Norris.”

“Morning, McKinnon. Beckman’s quit. He hauled ass sometime during the night and left a note on his bunk stating yesterday was the last straw. I guess that little episode with Prince Charming made him rethink staying on until you found a replacement.”

McKinnon cursed under his breath as he set his coffee cup down. This wasn’t news he wanted to hear. Gale Beckman had come highly recommended from an outfit in Wyoming. He had taken the man on, convinced he could do the job, and offered him one hell of a salary to train Prince Charming, one of Sheikh Yasir’s prized possessions. Evidently Beckman had felt he’d met his match with the horse. Granted, Prince Charming had been in rare form yesterday, but, still, in the world of horse breeding you couldn’t expect every horse to be meek and biddable. Far from it. Most were unfriendly and aggressive at best, hot-tempered and volatile at worse.

“Where are we going to find another horse trainer this late in the game?”

Norris’s question reeled McKinnon’s thoughts back in. He and his best friend Durango Westmoreland had started their horse-breeding business a few years ago because of their love for the animals. McKinnon handled the day-to-day running of the operation while Durango, who was still employed as a park ranger for Yellowstone, managed the books.

When Sheikh Jamal Ari Yasir, a prince from the Middle East who was married to Durango’s cousin Delaney, had approached them a couple of months ago about taking on the training of Prince Charming to ready him for the races this fall, they had readily accepted, not foreseeing any problems and thinking it would be a way to expand their business from horse breeding into horse training, as well.

Successfully getting Prince Charming trained was their first major test in that particular area, and their success with that endeavor would assure the sheikh sent more business their way and provided good recommendations to his friends and business associates. But the situation looked bleak since they hadn’t made any real progress and valuable time was being wasted.

McKinnon leaned back in his chair. “I guess the first thing I need to do is place a call to my contacts again,” he said finally answering, although he was quick to think that his contacts’ reliability was on shaky ground since they had been the reason he’d hired Beckman in the first place.

“What about Corey Westmoreland’s daughter?”

McKinnon stiffened, pushed away from the table and stood. “What about her?”

“Well, you saw how she handled Prince Charming yesterday. She had that blasted animal eating out of her hands, literally. Do you think she might be interested in the job?”

McKinnon decided now was not the time to mention to Norris that Casey had been interested in the job—in fact, that had been her reason for showing up yesterday. Instead he said, “Doesn’t matter if she would be. You know my policy about a woman working on this ranch.”

Norris stared at him for a long moment before shaking his head and saying, “It’s been over four years now, McKinnon. How long will it take you to get what Lynette did out of your mind…and heart?”

McKinnon sucked in a deep breath before saying, “I’ve done both.”

Norris was one of the few who knew the full story about Lynette. He had been with McKinnon the night they’d arrived back at the ranch from rounding up wild horses in the north prairie to find that Lynette had packed up and left, leaving a scribbled note as to the reason why.

McKinnon’s brusque words should have warned the sixty-year-old Norris that this was a touchy subject—one McKinnon had no desire to engage in; but Norris, who’d known McKinnon since the day he was born, paid no mind. “Then act like it, son. Act like you’ve put it behind you.”

McKinnon cursed under his breath. “You actually expect me to ask Corey Westmoreland’s daughter to come work for me and live on this ranch? You saw her yesterday. She’s no bigger than a mite. Granted, she handled Prince Charming okay, but what about the others to come after that? Some twice as mean. Besides, I need a trainer that I can invest in long term.”

“I heard she’s moving to town to be close to her father. To me that speaks of long term.”

McKinnon’s gaze narrowed. Evidently Norris had asked questions of the right people after Casey’s impressive performance yesterday. Abruptly, McKinnon walked over to the window and looked out. He had barely slept last night for remembering the sight of Casey standing frozen in place while that blasted animal charged toward her. He hadn’t felt so helpless before in his entire life. The thought of what that horse could have done to her sent chills through his body even now.

“The decision is yours, of course, but I think it will be to your advantage, considering everything, to hire her,” Norris said behind him. “The sheikh expects that blasted horse trained and ready to race in less than two months. And the way I see it, Corey’s daughter is our best bet.”

McKinnon turned and shot a hard glare at Norris. “There has to be another way,” he said, his features severe and unyielding.

“Then I hope you find it,” Norris replied before moving to walk out the door.

* * *

He hadn’t found another way.

And that was the reason McKinnon found himself arriving by horseback on Corey’s Mountain later that same day. Seeing the spacious and sprawling ranch house, set among a stand of pine trees and beneath the beauty of a Montana sky, had bittersweet memories flooding his mind. He could recall the many summers he’d spent here as a young boy with Corey’s nephews—all eleven of them. Just how Corey managed all of them was anyone’s guess, but those summers had been some of the best of McKinnon’s life. He’d been footloose and fancy free, and the only thing he’d worried about was staying away from the blackberries he was allergic to.

These days things were different. He had a lot to worry about. He had both a ranch and a business to run, and now it seemed the woman he’d always intended to keep at a distance would be living on his land, a stone’s throw away…. If she accepted his job offer.

And that was the big question. After the way they’d clashed yesterday, would she even consider coming to work for him now? His contacts in the horse industry hadn’t been any help and now it came down to eating crow and doing the one thing he hadn’t wanted to do—offer Casey Westmoreland a job.