Free One Winter's Night by Brenda Jackson Page A

talking about them with Alpha.
    He turned onto the road for his place and she glanced over at him and smiled. “Riley’s Station?”
    He chuckled. “Yes, Riley’s Station.”
    Alpha was spellbound when they pulled into his yard. As far as the eye could see, she was surrounded by mountains and streams. Tucked away in the center of it all was a stately two-story house with a wraparound porch. Floor-to-ceiling windows covered the entire front of the house with a huge bay window facing the mountains on the side. A portion of the land close to the house had been cleared for a small waterfall and birdbath.
    “All this is yours?” she asked, getting out of the car. He gripped her shoulders lightly when he placed his arms around her.
    “Yes, one hundred acres. Isn’t it beautiful?”
    Beautiful? Words couldn’t describe how soul-touchingly magnificent the view was. The one thing she had fallen in love with when she’d first visited Denver had been the mountains. Aside from the cold weather, Denver was a beautiful place.
    “Now I understand about Riley’s Station,” she said, looking up at him.
    “Do you?”
    “Yes. On the way here I saw the markers—Ramsey’s Web, Dillon’s Den, Derringer’s Dungeon, Zane’s Hideout, Gemma’s Gem.... Where on earth did those names come from?”
    He threw his head back and laughed as he led her up the steps to the house. “Bailey. She figured all our places needed names and came up with them for us. She even designed the markers. At the time it was her pet project and we all gave in. We would have done anything to keep her out of trouble.”
    “I take it that she used to be a handful.”
    “If only you knew.”
    She stepped aside so he could open the door for her. “Welcome to my home, Alpha.”
    “Thanks,” she said, passing him, stepping inside. For the second time that day her mouth almost dropped open. She moved from the foyer and glanced around at the open-concept room. His home was beautiful, the furnishings gorgeous and the decor breathtaking. The entire place was simply immaculate.
    “Okay, although this is definitely a man’s place, there’s no way the decorating and coordinating of the furnishings was done by you. You hired an interior decorator, right?”
    He moved away from the closed door. “Right. My cousin, Gemma. She owns an interior decorating company and insisted upon doing her thing in here.”
    Alpha continued to glance around. “Insisted.”
    “Yes, for the most part. I would have been satisfied just to have a kitchen table and a bed, but she’d made up her mind, after going into business for herself out of college, that her brothers and cousins would be her first clients. And none of us got discounts.”
    Alpha chuckled. “But I like that. Keeping it all in the family. Supporting one another.”
    “That’s the Westmoreland Way.” He moved across the room to open the blinds to a huge window that had a gorgeous, picturesque view of the mountains.
    “And how do you keep it all clean and everything in place?” she asked, not seeing a speck of dirt or smidgen of dust anywhere.
    His eyes glinted as if insulted. “Are you trying to insinuate I’m a slob?”
    She waved off his pretended insult. “You’re a man, Riley. Not too many tidy up after themselves. I’m impressed.”
    “Thank you, but I’ll admit to having a weekly cleaning service. A woman drops by and takes care of the houses for all the single Westmorelands. It’s an annual birthday gift from the ladies in the family for the single male Westmorelands.”
    He glanced at her messenger bag, which she was still carrying in her hand. “You can set up things in my office. I even have a pull-down screen in there.” He glanced at his watch. “And while you’re doing that, I’ll start dinner.”
    She arched a brow. “You cook?”
    He chuckled softly. “Yes, sweetheart, I learned how to fend for myself when I discovered the women inviting me over to their place to eat all had