The Black Sheep's Inheritance. Maureen Child

      

       “J.D. was a bastard.

      “What he did was terrible,” Colleen said. “But he did it because he loved you.”

      “He betrayed me,” Sage insisted.

      “Can’t you say J.D. did you a favor, too?”

      “I’m not ready to thank him. But I can say that if he hadn’t stuck his nose in, I might not be standing here with a woman who turns my blood to fire with a look.”

      “Sage …”

      “I’ve been trying to stay away from you—”

      “I know,” she said. “Why?”

      “Because I want you too much. You’re in my blood, Colleen.”

      “You’re in mine, too.”

      They kissed, but just as the kiss was spiraling out of control, Sage pulled back. “Damned if we’re going to be together in an old cabin, then in an equipment shed. Today, we’re going to try an actual bed. Come with me.”

      * * *

       The Black Sheep’s Inheritance

      is a Dynasties: The Lassiters novel—

      A Wyoming legacy of love, lies and redemption!

      The Black Sheep’s Inheritance

      Maureen Child

       www.millsandboon.co.uk

      MAUREEN CHILD writes for the Mills & Boon® Desire™ line and can’t imagine a better job. Being able to indulge your love for romance, as well as being able to spin stories just the way you want them told is, in a word, perfect.

      A seven-time finalist for the prestigious Romance Writers of America RITA® Award, Maureen is the author of more than one hundred romance novels. Her books regularly appear on the bestseller lists and have won several awards, including a Prism, a National Readers’ Choice Award, a Colorado Romance Writers Award of Excellence and a Golden Quill.

      One of her books, The Soul Collector, was made into a CBS TV movie starring Melissa Gilbert, Bruce Greenwood and Ossie Davis. If you look closely, in the last five minutes of the movie, you’ll spot Maureen, who was an extra in the last scene.

      Maureen believes that laughter goes hand in hand with love, so her stories are always filled with humor. The many letters she receives assures her that her readers love to laugh as much as she does.

      Maureen Child is a native Californian, but has recently moved to the mountains of Utah. She loves a new adventure, though the thought of having to deal with snow for the first time is a little intimidating.

      To Stacy Boyd and Charles Griemsman, two editors who make writing Desires such a terrific experience

      Contents

       Chapter One

       Chapter Two

       Chapter Three

       Chapter Four

       Chapter Five

       Chapter Six

       Chapter Seven

       Chapter Eight

       Chapter Nine

       Chapter Ten

       Epilogue

       Excerpt

      One

      The lawyer’s office at the firm of Drake, Alcott and Whittaker was too crowded for Sage Lassiter’s tastes. He much preferred being out on his ranch, in the cold, crisp air of a Wyoming spring. Still, he had no choice but to attend the reading of his adoptive father’s will.

      J.D. Lassiter had been dead only a couple of weeks and Sage was having a hard time coming to grips with it. Hell, he would have bet money that J.D. was far too stubborn to actually die. And now that he had, Sage was forced to live with the knowledge that now he would never have the chance to straighten things out between himself and the man who had raised him. Just like J.D. to go ahead and do something whether anyone else was ready for it or not. The old man had, once again, gotten the last word.

      Sage couldn’t have said when the tension between him and J.D. had taken root, but he remembered it as an always-there kind of feeling. Nothing tangible. Nothing that he could point to and say: There. That was it. The beginning of the end. Instead, it was a slow disintegration of whatever might have been between them and it was beyond too late to think about it now. Old hurts, old resentments had no place in this room and nowhere to go even if he had let them take the forefront in his mind.

      “You look like you want to hit something.” His younger brother Dylan’s voice came in a whisper.

      Shooting him a hard look, Sage shook his head. “No, just can’t really take in that we’re here.”

      “I know.” Dylan pushed his brown hair off his forehead and gave a quick look around the room before turning back to Sage. “Still can’t quite believe J.D.’s gone.”

      “I was just thinking the same thing.” He shifted, folded his arms across his chest and said, “I’m worried about Marlene.”

      Dylan followed his gaze.

      Marlene Lassiter had stepped in as surrogate mother to Sage, Dylan and Angelica after Ellie Lassiter died during childbirth with Angie. She’d been married to J.D.’s brother Charles, and when she was widowed, she’d come home to Wyoming to live on Big Blue, the Lassiter ranch. She’d been nurturer, friend and trusted confidante for too many years to count.

      “She’ll be okay, eventually,” Dylan said, then winced as they watched Marlene hold a sodden tissue to her mouth as if trying to stifle a wail of agony.

      “Hope you’re right,” Sage muttered, uncomfortable seeing Marlene in pain and knowing there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about it.

      Marlene’s son, Chance Lassiter, sat to one side of her, his arm thrown protectively around her shoulders. He wore a leather jacket tossed on over a long-sleeved white shirt. Dark blue jeans and boots completed the outfit, and the gray Stetson he was never without was balanced on one knee. He was a cowboy down to his bones and the manager of J.D.’s thirty-thousand-acre ranch, Big Blue.

      “You have any idea what the bequests are?” Dylan asked. “Couldn’t get a thing out of Walter.”

      “Not surprising,” Sage remarked with a sardonic twist of his lips. Walter Drake was not only J.D.’s lawyer, but practically his clone. Two more stubborn, secretive men he’d never met. Walter had made calls to all of them, simply telling them when and where to show up and not once hinting at what was in J.D.’s will. Logan Whittaker, another partner in the firm, was also working on J.D.’s will but he hadn’t been any more forthcoming than Walter.

      Sage