Free A Wife for a Westmoreland by Brenda Jackson Page B

listened as she told him about a number of charities and worthwhile events she supported, and he was impressed.
    A couple of hours later while driving her back home, he couldn’t help but reflect on how the evening had gone. Certainly not the way he had planned. When the car came to a traffic light, he glanced over at her. Not surprisingly, she had fallen asleep. He thought about all the things he wanted to do to her when he got her back to her place, and knew the only thing he should do was walk her to her door and then leave. Something was going on with him that he didn’t understand and he was smart enough to know when to back off.
    That thought was still on his mind when he walked her to the door later. For some reason, he was being pulled in another direction and frankly he didn’t like it. Her kiss alone had shot his brain cells to hell and back and knocked his carefully constructed plans to teach her a lesson to the wind. Even now the taste from her kiss was lingering in his mouth.
    “Thanks again for such a wonderful evening, Derringer. I had a great time.”
    He’d had a great time, too. “You’re welcome.” He forced his lips closed to stop from asking her out again. He simply refused to do that. “Well, I guess I’ll be goingnow,” he said, trying to get his feet to step back and trying to figure out why they wouldn’t budge.
    “Would you like to come inside for more coffee?”
    He shook his head. “Thanks, but I don’t think my stomach can hold much more. Besides, my restrictions are over and I can return to work soon. I’ll be helping Zane and Jason with the horses in the morning. I need to get home and get to bed.”
    “All right.”
    He made a move to leave but couldn’t. Instead, his gaze settled on the face staring at him and he felt something pull at his gut. “Good night, Lucia,” he whispered, just seconds before leaning down and brushing a kiss across her lips.
    “Good night, Derringer.”
    He straightened and watched as she let herself inside the house. When the door clicked locked behind her, he turned to move down the walkway toward his car. He opened the door and slid inside. He needed to go home and think about things, regroup and revamp. And he had to figure out what there was about Lucia Conyers that got to him on a level he wasn’t used to.

Six
    Z ane stopped saddling his horse long enough to glance over at his brother. “What’s going on with you, Derringer? Last week you were inquiring about women’s panties and now this week you want to know about a woman’s scent. Didn’t you get that mystery solved by viewing the tape on that video camera?”
    Derringer rubbed his hand down his face. He should have known better than to come to Zane, but the bottom line was his brother knew more about women than he did and right now he needed answers. After he got them he’d be able to figure out what was going on with him when it came to Lucia. It had been almost a week after their date to the movies and he still didn’t have a clue. And he had yet to confront her about being his late-night visitor.
    He glanced over at Zane across the horse’s back.
    “There’s nothing going on with me. Just answer the damn question.”
    Zane chuckled. “Getting kind of testy, aren’t you? And how did your date go with Lucia Saturday night? I haven’t heard you say.”
    “And I’m not going to say either, other than we had a nice time.”
    “For your sake I think that’s all you better say or Chloe, Megan and Bailey will be coming down on you pretty hard. You might get a reprieve from Gemma since she’s out of the country, but I wouldn’t count on it if I were you, because she’s coming home later this month for the charity ball.”
    Derringer grunted. The women in his family ought to stay out of his business and he would tell them so if the topic of Lucia ever came up with any of them again. So far, he’d been lying low this week, and when he had dropped by to see Ramsey, Chloe and