The Proposal / To Tempt a Sheikh: The Proposal

“You’re welcome. Now I suggest we sit down or I’m going to get a crook in my neck staring up at you.”

He heard the smile in her voice and then saw it on her lips. It stirred to life something inside of him and for a moment he wondered if her smile was genuine or practiced and quickly came to the conclusion it was genuine. During his thirty-four years he had met women who’d been as phony as a four-dollar bill but he had a feeling Bella Bostwick wasn’t one of them. In fact, she might be a little too real for her own good.

“I don’t want that to happen,” he said, easing down on her sofa and stretching his long legs out in front of him. He watched as she then eased down in the comfortable looking recliner he had bought Herman five years ago for his seventy-fifth birthday.

Jason figured this was probably one of the craziest things he’d ever done, sit with a woman in her living room in the middle of the day and converse with her while sipping tea. But he was doing it and at that moment, he couldn’t imagine any other place he’d rather be.

Bella took a sip of her tea and studied Jason over the rim of her cup. Who was he? Why was she so attracted to him? And why was he attracted to her? And she knew the latter was true. She’d felt it that night at the ball and she could feel it now. He was able to bring out desires in her that she never felt before but for some reason she didn’t feel threatened by those feelings. Instead, although she really didn’t know him, she felt he was a powerhouse of strength, tenderness and protectiveness all rolled into one. She knew he would never hurt her.

“So, tell me about yourself Jason,” she heard herself say, wanting so much to hear about the man who seemed to be taking up so much space in her living room as well as in her mind.

A smile touched his lips when he said, “I’m a Westmore land.”

His words raised her curiosity up a notch. Was being a Westmoreland supposed to mean something? She hadn’t heard any type of arrogance or egotism in his words, just a sense of pride, self-respect and honor.

“And what does being a Westmoreland mean?” she asked as she tucked her legs beneath her to get more comfortable in the chair.

She watched him take a sip of his tea. “There’s a bunch of us, fifteen in fact,” Jason said.

She nodded, taking in his response. “Fifteen?”

“Yes. And that’s not counting the three Westmoreland wives and a cousin-in-law from Australia. In our family tree we’ve now become known as the Denver Westmorelands.”

“Denver Westmorelands? Does that mean there are more Westmorelands in other parts of the country?”

“Yes, there are some who sprung from the Atlanta area. We have fifteen cousins there, as well. Most of them were at the Westmoreland charity ball.”

An amused smile touched her lips. She recalled seeing them and remembered thinking how much they’d resembled in looks or height. Jason had been the only one she’d gotten a real good close-up view of, and the only one she’d held a conversation with before her uncle had practically dragged her away from the party that night.

She then decided to bring up something she’d detected at the ball. “You and my uncle Kenneth don’t get along.”

If her statement surprised him the astonishment was not reflected in his face. “No, we’ve never gotten along,” he said as if the thought didn’t bother him, in fact he preferred it that way.

She paused and waited on him to elaborate but he didn’t. He just took another sip of tea.

“And why is that? ”

He shrugged massive shoulders and the gesture made her body even more responsive to his. “I can’t rightly say why we’ve never seen eye-to-eye on a number of things.”

“What about my grandfather? Did you get along with him?”

He chuckled. “Actually I did. Herman and I had a good relationship that started back when I was kid. He taught me a lot about ranching and I enjoyed our chats.”

She took a sip of her tea. “Did he ever mention anything about having a granddaughter? ”

“No, but then I didn’t know he had a son, either. The only family I knew about was Kenneth and their relationship was rather strained.”

She nodded. She’d heard the story of how her father had left for college at the age of seventeen, never to return. Her uncle Kenneth claimed he wasn’t sure what the disagreement had been between the two men since he himself had been a young kid at the time. David Bostwick had made his riches on the east coast, first as a land developer and then as an investor in all sorts of moneymaking ventures. That was how he’d met her mother, a Savannah socialite, daughter of a shipping magnate and ten years her senior. The marriage had been based more on increasing their wealth instead of love. She was well aware of both of her parents’ supposedly discreet affairs.

And as far as Kenneth Bostwick was concerned, she knew that Herman’s widowed father at the age of seventy married a thirty-something-year-old woman and Kenneth had been their only child. Bella gathered from bits and pieces she’d overheard from Kenneth’s daughter, Elyse, that Kenneth and Herman had never gotten along because Herman thought Kenneth’s mother, Belinda, hadn’t been anything but a gold digger who married a man old enough to be her grandfather.

“Finding out Herman had a granddaughter came as a surprise to everyone around these parts.”

Bella chuckled softly. “Yes, and it came as quite a surprise to me to discover I had a grandfather.”

She saw the surprise that touched his face. “You didn’t know about Herman?”

“No. I thought both my father’s parents were dead. My father was close to forty when he married my mother and when I was in my teens he was in his fifties already so I assumed his parents were deceased since he never mentioned them. I didn’t know about Herman until I got a summons to be present at the reading of the will. My parents didn’t even mention anything about the funeral. They attended the services but only said they were leaving town to take care of business. I assumed it was one of their usual business trips. It was only when they returned that they mentioned that Herman’s attorney had advised them that I was needed for the reading of the will in a week.”

She pulled in a deep breath. “Needless to say, I wasn’t happy that my parents had kept such a thing from me all those years. I felt whatever feud was between my father and grandfather was between them and should not have included me. I feel such a sense of loss at not having known Herman Bostwick.”

Jason nodded. “He could be quite a character at times, trust me.”

For some reason she felt she could trust him … and in fact, that she already did. “Tell me about him. I want to get to know the grandfather I never knew.”

He smiled. “There’s no way I can tell you everything about him in one day.”

She returned the smile. “Then come back again for tea so we can talk. That is, if you don’t mind.”

She held her breath thinking he probably had a lot more things to do with his time than to sip tea with her. A man like him probably had other things on his mind when he was with someone of the opposite sex.

“No, I don’t mind. In fact I’d rather enjoy it.”

She inwardly sighed, suddenly feeling giddy, pleased. Jason Westmoreland was the type of man who could make his way into any woman’s hot and wild fantasies, and he’d just agreed to indulge her by sharing tea with her occasionally to talk about the grandfather she’d never known.

“Well, I guess I’d better get back to work.”

“And what do you do for a living?” she asked, without thinking about it.

“Several of my cousins and I are partners in a horse breeding and horse training venture. The horse that came in second last year at the Preakness was one of ours.”

“Congratulations!”

“Thanks.”

She then watched as he eased his body off her sofa to stand. And when he handed the empty teacup back to her, she felt her body tingle with the exchange when their hands touched and knew he’d felt it, as well.

“Thanks for the tea, Bella.”

“You’re welcome and you have an open invitation to come back for more.”

He met her gaze, held it for a moment. “And I will.”

Two

On Tuesday of the following week, Bella was in her car headed to town to purchase new appliances for her kitchen. Buying a stove and refrigerator might not be a big deal to some, but for her it would be a first. She was looking forward to it. Besides, it would get her mind off the phone call she’d gotten from her attorney first thing this morning.

Not wanting to think about the phone call, she thought about her friends back home instead. They had teased her that although she would be living out in the boondocks on a ranch, downtown Denver was half an hour away and that’s probably where she would spend most of her time—shopping and attending various plays and parties. But she had discovered she liked being away from city life and hadn’t missed it at all. She’d grown up in Savannah right on the ocean. Her parents’ estate had been minutes from downtown and was the place where lavish parties were always held.