Seduction, Westmoreland Style - Brenda Jackson [1]
“That’s what Corey thinks, but is that what you think as well?” he asked, his voice breaking into her thoughts.
What I really think is that it would help matters tremendously if you’d stop looking at me like that, she wanted to say suddenly feeling like she was under a microscope. Whether he intended it or not, his gaze was provocatively sensual and was sending a heated rush all through her. “I think it wouldn’t hurt. I’ve lived in Beaumont , Texas all my life and when the lease expired on the building holding my clothing store—and I wasn’t given the option of renewing it—I considered the possibility of relocating elsewhere. I’ve fallen in love with Montana the few times I’ve been here and agree that moving here will give me the chance to develop a relationship with Corey.”
“I see.”
Casey doubted that he did. Not even her brothers fully understood the turmoil existing within her after finding out the truth. From the time she was a little girl her mother had painted this fairy-tale image of the man who’d fathered her and her brothers—the man who’d supposedly died in a rodeo accident while performing, leaving her mother pregnant with triplets.
Carolyn Roberts Westmoreland had made it seem as if she and Corey Westmoreland had shared the perfect love, the perfect marriage and had been so dedicated to each other that she’d found it hard to go on when he’d died. According to her mother, the only thing that had kept her going was the fact that Corey had left her with not one, not two, but three babies growing inside her womb. Triplets who would grow up smothered in their mother’s love and their father’s loving memory.
It hurt to know her mother had weaved a bunch of lies.
Corey Westmoreland had never married Carolyn Roberts. Nor had he known she was pregnant with triplets. Legally, her mother had never been a Westmoreland. And to make matters worse, Corey had never loved her mother. For years he had been in love with Abby, a woman he had met years before meeting Casey’s mom, and Abby was the woman he’d been reunited with and eventually married just a couple of years ago.
“And there’s another reason I wanted to move here,” she decided to add, getting to the reason for paying McKinnon a visit. “I felt a career change would do me good, and by moving I can do something I’ve always loved doing.”
“Which is?”
“Working with horses—which is why I’m here. I understand you’re looking for a horse trainer and I want to apply for the job.”
Casey tried ignoring the sensations that flooded her insides when McKinnon’s gaze moved up and down her five-foot-three petite physique. His gaze glittered when it returned to her face, as if he was amused by something. “You’re kidding, right?”
She lifted a brow. “No, I’m not kidding,” she said, crossing the floor to where he stood. “I’m dead serious.”
She watched as his jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed and immediately resented herself for thinking he looked infuriatingly sexy.
“There’s no way I can hire you as a horse trainer,” he said in a rough voice.
“Why not?” she asked with as much calmness as she could muster. “I think if you were to take a look at my résumé, you’d be impressed with my qualifications.” She offered the folder she was holding in her hand to him.
He glanced at the folder but made no attempt to take it from her. “Maybe I will and maybe I won’t, but it doesn’t matter,” he said, giving her an intimidating stare. “I’m not hiring you.”
His words, spoken so calmly, so matter-of-factly, sent anger coursing through her veins, but she was determined to keep her cool. “Is there a reason?” she asked, still gripping the folder in her hand, although she no longer offered it to him since he’d made it blatantly clear he wasn’t interested.
After several tense moments he said, “There’re a number of reasons but I don’t have time to go into