Thorn’s Challenge
Brenda Jackson
MILLS & BOON
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This is to my readers who felt the chemistry between Thorn and Tara from the first and wanted their story.
To my friend India Catrett, “Motorcycle Lady” extraordinaire. The only woman I know who owns her own Harley. Thanks for all the information you provided on motorcycles, Bike Week and motorcycle racing. This book is definitely for you.
Love endures long and is patient and kind…it takes no account of the evil done to it—pays no attention to a suffered wrong.
—I Corinthians 13: 4-5
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Chapter Twelve
Epilogue
Prologue
Tara Matthews hated weddings.
She had done a pretty good job of avoiding them until she had met the Westmorelands. Since then she had attended two weddings within an eighteen-month period. She’d had even been maid of honor when her good friend, Delaney Westmoreland, had married a desert sheikh almost a year and a half ago.
And today, like everyone else in the grand ballroom of the Sheraton Hotel in downtown Atlanta, she had come to celebrate the wedding of Delaney’s brother, Dare Westmoreland to the woman he loved, Shelly Brockman.
The worst part, Tara thought as she glanced around her, was that she couldn’t really complain about having to attend the weddings. Not when the Westmorelands had become the closest thing to a family she’d had since that fateful day in June two years ago. It was to have been her wedding day, but she had stood at the altar in complete shock after the groom, the man she had loved, who she thought had loved her, had announced to all three hundred guests that he couldn’t go through with the wedding because he was in love with her maid of honor—the woman she’d considered her best friend for over fifteen years. That day Tara had left Bunnell, Florida, hurt and humiliated, and vowing to her family that she would never return.
And so far she hadn’t.
A few days later she’d accepted a position as a resident pediatrician at a hospital in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Leaving her hometown had destroyed her and her father’s dream of working together in his pediatric practice.
While working at the hospital in Kentucky, she had met Delaney Westmoreland, another pediatrician, and they had become the best of friends. She had also become good friends with four of Delaney’s five older brothers, Dare, Stone and the twins, Chase and Storm. The initial meeting between her and the fifth brother, Thorn, had been rather rocky. She’d “gone off” on him about his unpleasant mood. Since then, they had pretty much avoided each other, which suited her just fine. At six foot-four, thirty-five-years of age, ruggedly handsome and sexy as sin, Thorn Westmoreland was the last man she needed to be around; especially since whenever she saw him she thought of scented candles, naked bodies and silken sheets.
“I’m going to the ladies’ room,” she whispered to Delaney, who turned to her, nodded and smiled. Tara smiled back, understanding that the older woman Delaney was talking to wasn’t letting her get a word in. Glancing at her watch to see how much longer she needed to put in an appearance, Tara made her way down a long, empty hallway to the restrooms.
Her thoughts drifted to the fact that next month she would be moving from Kentucky to the Atlanta area. She was moving because an older married doctor with clout at the Kentucky hospital had been obsessed with having her in his bed. When she’d rebuffed his advances, he’d tried making her work environment difficult. To avoid the sexual harassment lawsuit she’d threatened to file, the hospital had decided to relocate her and Atlanta had been her first choice.
Tara was so busy putting her lipstick case back in her purse after leaving the restroom that she didn’t notice the man coming out of the men’s room at the same time, until they collided head on.
“Oh, I’m so sorry. I wasn’t looking where I was—”
Any further words died on her lips when she saw that the man she had bumped into was Thorn Westmoreland. He seemed as surprised to see her as she was to see him.
“Thorn.”
“Tara.”
He returned her greeting in an irritated tone as his intense dark eyes held her gaze. She frowned, wondering what he was upset about. He hadn’t been looking where he was going any more than she had, so the blame wasn’t all hers. But she decided to be cordial for once where he was concerned. “I apologize for not looking where I was going.”
When he didn’t say anything, but frowned and narrowed his eyes at her, Tara decided not to wait for a response that undoubtedly wasn’t coming. She made a move to pass him, and it was then that she noticed he had not removed his hand from her arm. She looked down at his hand and then back at him.
“Thanks for keeping me from falling, Thorn, but you can let go of me now.”
Instead of releasing her, his hold tightened and then he muttered something deep in his throat, which to Tara’s ears sounded pretty much like, “I doubt if I can.” Then, suddenly, without any warning, he leaned down and captured her lips with his.
The first thought that came to Tara’s mind was that she had to resist him. But a second thought quickly followed; she should go ahead and get him out of her system since he had been there from the day they’d met. Shamefully she admitted that the attraction she’d felt for him was stronger than any she’d ever felt for a man, and that included Derrick Hayes, the man she had planned to marry.
The third thought that whipped through her mind was that Thorn Westmoreland definitely knew how to kiss. The touch of his tongue to hers sent a jolt through her so intense, her midsection suddenly felt like a flaming torch. Emotions, powerful and overwhelming, shot through her, and she whimpered softly as he deepened the kiss with bold strokes of his tongue, seizing any sound she made, effectively and efficiently staking a claim on her mouth.
A claim she didn’t want him to make, but one he was making anyway.
He used his hands to cup her bottom boldly and instinctively she moved closer to him, coming into contact with his straining arousal. When she placed her arms around his neck, he arched his back, lifted her off the floor and brought