Brenda Jackson - The Westmoreland Legacy

About the Author

BRENDA JACKSONis a New York Times bestselling author of more than one hundred romance titles. Brenda lives in Jacksonville, Florida, and divides her time between family, writing and travelling.

Email Brenda at authorbrendajackson@gmail.comor visit her on her website at www.brendajackson.net.

The Westmoreland Legacy

The Rancher Returns

His Secret Son

An Honorable Seduction

Brenda Jackson

www.millsandboon.co.uk

ISBN: 978-1-474-09306-4

THE WESTMORELAND LEGACY

The Rancher Returns © 2016 Brenda Streater Jackson His Secret Son © 2017 Brenda Streater Jackson An Honourable Seduction © 2018 Brenda Streater Jackson

Published in Great Britain 2019

by Mills & Boon, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers 1 London Bridge Street, London, SE1 9GF

All rights reserved including the right of reproduction in whole or in part in any form. This edition is published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, locations and incidents are purely fictional and bear no relationship to any real life individuals, living or dead, or to any actual places, business establishments, locations, events or incidents. Any resemblance is entirely coincidental.

By payment of the required fees, you are granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right and licence to download and install this e-book on your personal computer, tablet computer, smart phone or other electronic reading device only (each a “Licensed Device”) and to access, display and read the text of this e-book on-screen on your Licensed Device. Except to the extent any of these acts shall be permitted pursuant to any mandatory provision of applicable law but no further, no part of this e-book or its text or images may be reproduced, transmitted, distributed, translated, converted or adapted for use on another file format, communicated to the public, downloaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher.

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www.millsandboon.co.uk

Version: 2018-12-19

Table of Contents

Cover

About the Authors

Title Page

Copyright

The Rancher Returns

Back Cover Text

Dedication

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Epilogue

His Secret Son

Back Cover Text

Dedication

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Seventeen

Eighteen

Epilogue

An Honorable Seduction

Back Cover Text

Dedication

Prologue

One

Two

Three

Four

Five

Six

Seven

Eight

Nine

Ten

Eleven

Twelve

Thirteen

Fourteen

Fifteen

Sixteen

Epilogue

About the Publisher

The Rancher Returns

Brenda Jackson

Discover New York Times bestselling author Brenda Jackson’s The Westmoreland Legacy—a navy SEAL returns to his ranch...and finds irresistible desire!

Returning from active duty to find his ranch being dug up by a beautiful stranger isn’t the homecoming navy SEAL Gavin Blake expected. Layla Harris is convinced there’s buried treasure on his land. But the only treasure this wealthy rancher wants to uncover is the professor’s secret desires! When Layla unearths family secrets—and mysterious threats—he vows to do whatever it takes to protect her. Even as her revelations change everything...

To the love of my life, Gerald Jackson, Sr.

My first. My last. My everything.

To everyone who loves the Westmorelands,

this book is for you!

To the 1971 class of William M. Raines High School,

Jacksonville, Florida. Best wishes on our

45th class reunion. Ichiban!

Plans fail for lack of counsel,

but with many advisers they succeed.

—Proverbs 15:22

Prologue

“Hey, Viper, your cell phone was going off upstairs.”

Gavin Blake, known to his SEAL teammates as Viper, nodded as he set his coffee mug on a side table in the barracks’ common area. Standing, he stretched the kinks out of his body and felt his aches all the way to the bone. Their last covert operation had been risky as hell, but they’d succeeded in destroying yet another ISIS stronghold.

In two days they would officially be off duty and most of his teammates would be heading for home. However he had other plans. Getting laid was at the top of his agenda. It had been too long since he’d shared a woman’s bed and he’d already made plans with a beautiful bartender he’d met in Mississippi while helping his teammate Bane out of a fairly dangerous situation several months ago.

Gavin raced up the stairs toward his berthing unit and retrieved his cell phone from the gear in his bunk. He’d missed a call from Sherman Lott, the man who’d lived on the neighboring ranch for years. Panic floated through Gavin’s belly. Had something happened to his grandmother?

Since his grandmother lived alone when he was away, Gavin had given their closest neighbors his contact information in case of emergencies. Of course the foreman was there, running the ranch in Gavin’s absence. Surely if something was going on with his grandmother, Caldwell would have contacted Gavin. But what if this was one of those times when Caldwell had gone to Saint Louis to meet with one of their beef distributors?

Gavin quickly pressed the redial button and Mr. Lott picked up on the second ring. “Hello?”

“Mr. Lott, this is Gavin. Has something happened to Gramma Mel?”

“No, Gavin, your grandmother is fine physically. Not sure what’s happening to her mind, though.”

Gavin frowned, wondering what the man meant. Although she was nearing her seventy-fifth birthday, Gavin had never known a day in all his thirty-two years when Melody Blake hadn’t been sharp as a tack. He’d spoken with his grandmother two weeks ago and she had sounded just fine to him. “What makes you think something is wrong with her mind?”

“She’s allowed some fast-talking college professor to convince her that the outlaw Jesse James buried some of his loot on the Silver Spurs, and they plan to start digging up parts of her land next week.”

Gavin refrained from correcting the man. The land was their property since Gavin legally owned all eight hundred acres jointly with his grandmother. Instead he concentrated on what Lott had said. His grandmother had given someone permission to dig on the Silver Spurs?