Page 3 of One Steamy Night

Years ago, her great-grandfather Jay Novak Sr. had purchased the two-hundred-acre spread that he named the Novak Homestead. More than anything, she appreciated her sister Pam for not selling it when they’d moved to Denver. She’d retained it as part of their family legacy.

Nadia didn’t regret moving back to Gamble. She would admit it got lonely here at times, living in this huge house by herself. There had never been a boring moment in Westmoreland Country with so many Westmorelands living close by each other. It helped, too, that since Denver was only an hour’s flight away, she often returned to Westmoreland Country for visits.

Her sister Jillian, who was fondly called Jill, was a neurosurgeon and was happily living in Florida with her cardiologist husband, Aidan Westmoreland. Nadia thought it was awesome that her sisters—Pam and Jill—had married Westmoreland men who were cousins.

Her sister Paige had followed in Pam’s footsteps to become an actress in Hollywood. She’d made a name for herself and had starred in several movies. Paige hadn’t hesitated to give up the glitz and glamor to marry Senator Jess Outlaw. Jess was a cousin to the Westmorelands, and he and Paige made their home in the nation’s capital.

Nadia had attended the University of Wyoming for four years, before graduating from Harvard with an MBA. She had returned to Gamble three years ago. The timing had been perfect since the acting school her sister Pam owned, the Dream Makers Acting Academy, had been in need of someone to manage it. Nadia loved her job and found it rewarding as well as challenging.

Over the past year the student count at the academy had increased substantially, mainly because of Pam’s contacts back in Hollywood. Oftentimes an actor friend would teach a class for a semester or two, or would do a once-in-a-lifetime symposium or workshop. Last year they’d added classes for aspiring stuntmen taught by folks from Hollywood. The academy was now in demand and already there was a waiting list for the next school year.

Although Nadia and her sisters now lived thousands of miles apart, they would carve out time to share a conversation or two at least once a week. Because of Pam’s hectic schedule, she would jump on the call whenever she could. Although Pam was twelve years older than Jill, fourteen years older than Paige and sixteen years older than Nadia, the four of them were extremely close.

“Nadia, are you listening to us?”

“No,” she said honestly. They’d lost her after mentioning Jaxon’s name and that he was in Gamble to scope out land. The idea of them being in the same town was troubling. There was no way she would tell her sisters the impact the man had had on her from their initial meeting. For some reason, she couldn’t shake off her intense attraction to him. What was pathetic was that whenever their paths crossed, he barely seemed to notice she existed.

Except for that one time at Charm’s wedding last year. They’d held a pretty long conversation. Nadia figured the reason had been he’d been too kind to walk away when the others in the group had dispersed, leaving them alone.

“Well, get your mind off the acting school for a minute,” Jill said.

Nadia had news for them. Her mind had not been on the acting school, although maybe it should have been since she was in a dilemma. The new school year had begun two weeks ago and yesterday the sponsor for this year’s holiday play, the Dunnings Financial Group, had filed for bankruptcy. That meant she needed to find another sponsor and fast. The students had returned energized and ready to start work on the play. Auditions were already being held.

“Okay, what did I miss?” Nadia asked, turning her attention to the conversation with her sisters.

“You didn’t make a comment when we told you how to treat Jaxon.”

She frowned. “And just how am I supposed to treat him?”

“We want you to be hospitable to him, Nadia,” Paige said.

Hospitable?“Why wouldn’t I be? I don’t recall being any other way around him.”

“When you’re not trying to avoid him. And what’s up with that?” Jill asked.

Nadia rolled her eyes. Leave it to Jill to notice. “I just don’t see the need to fawn over him like the rest of you do.”

If only they knew that, in private, she did more than fawn over him. She had naughty thoughts that actually made her panties wet. Not to mention those dreams she had of him, the contents of which would probably give her sisters a stroke.

“We don’t fawn over him, Nadia,” Paige defended. “We just think highly of him for what he did. Can you imagine what would have happened if he had not come forward with that information on Phire’s father?”

Phire was married to Maverick Outlaw, the youngest brother of Paige’s husband. Nadia had never met Phire’s father, but she’d heard about all the money he’d swindled from the Outlaws for close to twenty-five years. “And?” Nadia braced herself knowing her sisters were about to sing Jaxon Ravnel’s praises.

“And,” Paige continued, “Jaxon is the Outlaws’ newfound cousin, and the Westmoreland family has embraced him as one of theirs, so you know what that means.”

Yes, she knew. The Westmorelands and Outlaws were now one big happy family. Heck, her three sisters were married to Westmorelands and an Outlaw, which made them official members of the clan. “Like I said, I’m always pleasant to Jaxon, but I refuse to fawn over him.” But she had no problem drooling in private.

“Well, please don’t cause problems, Nadia. You can be rather hard on men and for no reason,” Jill said.

A deep frown settled on Nadia’s face as she leaned back in her chair. “I have plenty of reasons whenever I’m hard on a man. Should I remind you about Kemp, Paige?”

Kemp had been Paige’s actor boyfriend who’d made news when he’d betrayed her with another actress while filming a movie. The news had caused a scandal that had taken social media by storm.

“And the three of us can’t ever forget Fletcher Mallard and what he tried to do,” she added.

Fletcher had been engaged to marry Pam with devious intentions. Luckily Dillon had arrived on the scene and put an end to that foolishness. He’d stopped Pam and Fletcher’s wedding ceremony just in the nick of time.

“Those are just two men, Nadia. You can’t judge the entire male population by them,” Jill said.

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