His By Any Means: The Black Sheep's Inheritance

Sighing, Colleen pushed her lunch plate to one side, apparently losing her appetite as they talked. She took another sip of her iced tea, then set the glass down. “Why are you raining on my parade, Sage? You live up on the mountain and you love it.”

“This isn’t about shooting down your dreams, Colleen,” he said tightly. “This is about being realistic. Thinking things through.”

“I have thought it through. I’ve been thinking about this for years.” She leaned even closer and Sage was caught in her eyes. “I could make a real difference in people’s lives.”

“Or end your own,” he told her, hating that the shine in her eyes dimmed a little at his words. But better she be disappointed than in danger. “I was raised up there, Colleen. I know how to survive bad weather. More than that, I know not to turn my back on the mountain. I don’t take anything for granted.”

“You weren’t born knowing all of that, though,” she said, determination clear in her voice. “You learned. So can I.”

Sage tore his gaze from hers and glanced around the coffee shop. He needed a minute to get ahold of himself. To keep from ordering her to stay off the damn mountain. Conversations rose and fell from the dozens of customers gathered in the sunlit restaurant. An occasional burst of laughter rang out, and the scent of coffee and hamburgers hung in the air. Coming here to the coffee shop had seemed like a good idea at the time. With the amount of tension he’d been living with the past few days, he’d figured that taking Colleen to a crowded place in the middle of the day was one way to help him keep a tight grip on his control. Naturally, that wasn’t working out as he’d planned. Pretty much nothing had since he’d first met Colleen.

Shaking his head grimly, Sage noticed the number of strange faces among the crowd. Tourists were streaming into Cheyenne already, clogging up the streets and making the restaurants even more crowded than usual. Soon, the summer crowds would be arriving. By the end of July, thousands would be here for Cheyenne Frontier Days, reliving the Old West and enjoying the world’s largest outdoor rodeo. There would be ten days of parades, carnivals and food fairs. For a second, he thought about the rodeo itself and remembered what it had been like to ride in front of thousands of cheering people.

Of course, it wasn’t just the rodeo that drew people to Cheyenne. Summer was filled with tourist attractions from the eight-foot-tall painted fiberglass cowboy boots situated all over the city to the carefully staged, G-rated “gunfights” acted out daily by the Cheyenne Gunslingers. There were tours, art festivals and so many other activities, people came to Cheyenne and poured hundreds of thousands of dollars into the local economy.

As for Sage, he tried to stay on the mountain to avoid all of those people. He spent summers working with the horses and trying to forget that there was a world outside his ranch. Right now, though, summer was still months away and Sage’s mind was preoccupied by the thought of Colleen, midwinter, all alone on the mountain. Cold dropped into the pit of his stomach and stayed there.

He shifted his gaze back to hers and barked, “You can’t do it.”

“Excuse me?” Her face went blank for an instant, and then her cheeks flushed with color and her eyes started firing sparks at him.

“Maybe I put that the wrong way,” he allowed, since he hadn’t been thinking at all when the words shot from his throat.

“You think?”

* * *

Colleen felt a quick spurt of irritation, then squashed it again quickly. Yes, Sage was being a little authoritarian, but he had backed off quickly, too, hadn’t he? It was in his nature to take command. She could tell that by the way he stood, so tall and alert, his gaze constantly darting around his surroundings, as if checking for any problem that might arise. He was the kind of man who would always do what he could to keep people safe—whether they appreciated it or not.

And now, he was trying to protect her. Which made her feel good enough that she was willing to overlook the fact that he was also trying to keep her from doing what she’d always dreamed of doing. Actually, she could hardly believe she was out with him. Again. And the past few times she’d been with him had absolutely been dates.

Even Jenna agreed that this had moved way beyond him wanting closure after his father’s death. There was something else going on here. They rarely talked about J.D. anymore, instead sharing stories about their lives and talking about everyday things. So if it wasn’t about his dad, what else could it be? She wasn’t sure, but she had decided to simply enjoy this time with Sage for as long as it lasted. Because she knew, at the heart of it, she just wasn’t the kind of woman to capture and hold the interest of a man like him.

“I didn’t mean that you can’t,” he was saying and Colleen came up out of her thoughts to focus her attention on him. “What I meant was that you can’t just decide to live in what could be dangerous terrain while knowing nothing about survival.” Colleen couldn’t help it—she laughed. He looked so serious. So...growly. A small, tiny part of her thrilled to hear him trying protect her. But the reality was, she took care of herself very well.

“You make it sound as though I’m talking about moving to the middle of nowhere. This isn’t the frontier, Sage. I’ll be perfectly safe.”

“Probably,” he agreed, “but the country—especially the high country—can be dangerous.”

She shook her head, then pushed her hair back from her face and gave him a patient smile. “How dangerous can it be, really?”

“Bears?” he fired back.

Before she could react to that disturbing thought, he continued.

“Mountain lions? Snakes? Blizzards?” He picked up his coffee and took a drink. “You’re not in any way prepared for that kind of life, Colleen. You’re asking for trouble if you do this.”

He was right. She hadn’t really considered any of that, and she could admit, at least to herself, that the thought of facing any one of those dangers on her own was...intimidating. All right, terrifying. But there had to be a way to make this work. “Fine, I admit you have a point.”

He nodded.

“But if I knew how to handle myself in those situations, I’d be okay, right?”

“Sure,” he said, one corner of his mouth curving up. “If. And that’s a big if.”

“You could teach me.”

“What?” He paused, coffee cup halfway to his mouth.

The idea had just leaped into her mind, but now that it was there, she ran with it. J.D. had told her so much about Sage—there was no one she would trust more to show her what she needed to know. “I promise, I’m a quick study. And you said yourself that you grew up in the mountains. No one knows them better than you do, right?”

“I suppose...” He set his still-steaming mug of coffee down onto the table and stared at her. And that penetrating stare was so...disconcerting, it was hard to draw an easy breath. His eyes were just hypnotic. At least to Colleen. Honestly, she was proud of herself just for being able to speak coherently while looking into those deep blue eyes of his. His jaw was tight, his dark brown brows drawn into a scowl, and still she thought he was the most gorgeous man she’d ever seen.

Every time he looked at her, she felt that swirl of batwings in the pit of her stomach—not to mention heat that burned just a bit lower. She’d never been so aware of herself as a woman as she was when she was with Sage Lassiter. He made her feel things she’d never experienced before and want things she knew she shouldn’t.

Being with him was a kind of pleasurable torture, which had to be an oxymoron or something, but she really couldn’t think of another way to put it. She enjoyed his company, but her body was constantly buzzing out of control around him, too. Which left her breathless, on edge and in a constant state of excitement. It was the most alive she’d felt in years.

“What do you think, Sage?” She kept her gaze fixed on his. “Will you show me what I need to know?”

His features froze and she watched a muscle in his jaw twitch spasmodically. His fingers drummed against the tabletop and he shifted in his seat. He was thinking about it, and Colleen anxiously waited to see what he would say.

Finally, her patience was rewarded.

“You want to learn to survive on the mountain.”

“Yes.” She bit her bottom lip.

“Fine,” he said. “I’ll teach you.”

A wash of relief and something that felt like eager anticipation swept through her. “That’s great, thank you.”

He laughed shortly. “Save your thanks. By the time we’re finished, you’ll probably be cursing me.”

“No, I won’t.” She shook her head and reached across the table to cover one of his hands with hers. “J.D. always told me how kind you were and I’ve really seen that for myself in the past few days.”

He just stared at her through eyes that had been carefully shuttered. “J.D. was wrong. I’m not kind, Colleen.”

His features were hard, his body language cold. He was pulling back from her even while he was within reach. She didn’t know why. “If it’s not kindness,” she asked quietly, “what is it?”

He just looked at her for a long moment and she had the feeling he was trying to decide whether to answer her or not. Then she got her answer.

“You said you don’t have a job to go to anymore, right?”

“No, I don’t. I turned in my resignation at the agency.” And hadn’t that felt incredible? She had liked her job well enough, but now that her dream was within her reach, she didn’t mind at all saying goodbye to the private agency. “Until I get my practitioner’s license, I’m officially unemployed.”

“All right then,” he said, coming to some internal decision. “We’ll start day after tomorrow. You come up to my ranch and stay for a few days. We’ll go up the mountain from there.”

“Stay? At your ranch?” Heat sizzled through her veins, and even while a delicious tingle settled deep inside her, Colleen felt a tiny niggle of worry.