Hot Westmoreland Nights - Brenda Jackson [30]
“That’s not what the smile is for,” she decided to say. “I just received a call from a friend to say he was asking his girl to marry him tonight. And I’m happy for both of them.”
She watched as he crossed the room to sit in the chair across from the sofa. She tried not to stare and was surprised he was giving her the time of day when it was obvious he’d been avoiding her earlier, especially after their kiss.
“I guess getting married would make some folks happy,” he said.
She took another sip of her wine while holding his gaze, trying not to dwell on just how good he looked while he leaned back in the chair with muscled shoulders, hard jeans-clad thighs and long legs stretched to where his booted feet touched a portion of the coffee table. She wondered if he realized he was still wearing his Stetson. “Um. But I take it that you’re not one of them,” she replied.
“Nope, I wouldn’t be one of them. I intend to be a single man for the rest of my days.”
She considered his words. “So, you’re one of those men who have a problem with matrimony? Who thinks marriage isn’t a big deal?”
He lifted a brow. “And you’re one of those women who thinks that it is?”
“I asked you first.”
Yes, she had, Ramsey thought. His first inclination was to ignore the question. Move on to something else. And a part of him wondered what the hell he was doing here, sitting across from her at all. Especially because he’d taken great pains to make sure their paths didn’t cross after his brothers and cousin had left. He hadn’t liked the way Zane, Derringer and Jason’s thoughts had been going. He would like to think he had put their false assumptions to rest, but he knew them well enough to know that was too much to hope for.
“Take your time if you need to gather your thoughts,” Chloe said.
Ramsey kept his gaze trained on her. Unwavering. He couldn’t give her a forced smile even if he’d wanted to because staying single was a serious topic with him. And it wasn’t that he had a problem with matrimony per se, after the last fiasco of a wedding, he figured there was not a woman alive who would be able to get him back in a church for the sole purpose of getting hitched. No, he liked his single life just fine. He would think after dealing with the likes of an ex-boyfriend like Daren, so would she.
He continued to look at her, recalled her statement about gathering his thoughts and figured she would get along with his sisters easily because she seemed to have a smart mouth like them. That thought made his gaze shift to her lips.
He then swallowed, wishing he hadn’t gone there with her mouth, especially because he knew how it tasted. And then there had been her response to him. He could do bodily harm to his kinfolk for their untimely interruption.
“I don’t need to gather my thoughts,” he finally said. Otherwise he would be tempted to cross the room and taste her again. “Raphael Westmoreland married enough for all of us.”
She lifted a brow. “Raphael Westmoreland?”
“Yes, my great-grandfather. Rather recently we discovered he had a slew of wives. We also discovered he had a twin.”
Evidently that sparked her interest, and her movement on the sofa sparked his. She slid closer to the edge and when she leaned forward her blouse gaped open a little, but enough to see some cleavage, as well as the thin pink fabric of her bra. Her skin looked velvety smooth, soft and a beautiful brown. He could imagine removing her bra and then lavishing her breasts with hot kisses, then taking his tongue and—
“Well?”
He blinked, reluctantly shifted his gaze from her chest to her eyes. They were bright. Inquiring. Intrigued. Apparently stuff about long-lost relatives interested her like it did the others in his family. Once they had become acquainted with the Atlanta Westmorelands, who were descendants of his great-grandfather’s twin brother Reginald, Dillon had been eager to find out all that he could. His search to uncover the truth had led him to his wife Pamela. So in a way something good