Mail-Order Cinderella
Kathryn Jensen
If diehard bachelor Tyler Fortune was being forced by his parents to marry, he' d darned well do it on his own terms– even if it meant securing a bride through a dating service! Mousy Julie Parker seemed the perfect candidate. In return for becoming his wife, all the shy librarian wanted was a baby.And Tyler thought marriage wouldn' t change his life much at all. Until his sweet bride had a glamorous makeover and they got down to making a baby the old-fashioned way…
Kate Fortune’s Journal Entry
You don’t get to be my age without recognizing when the wool is being pulled over someone’s eyes! And I suspect my dear Tyler is holding something back from the Fortune family. Now, I know Tyler’s parents gave him a silly marriage ultimatum and I’ve never met any of his women friends before, but something tells me that he barely knows his bride-to-be. As the family matriarch, I could put an end to this marriage nonsense. But Julie Parker is the best thing to happen to Tyler.
And some well-intentioned meddling by a harmless old woman may be just what the doctor ordered. I’m going to plan their wedding, help Julie find a wedding gown and take her for a makeover…. And when I’m done, Julie, Tyler is going to be dazzled speechless!
Dear Reader,
As we celebrate Silhouette’s 20
anniversary year as a romance publisher, we invite you to welcome in the fall season with our latest six powerful, passionate, provocative love stories from Silhouette Desire!
In September’s MAN OF THE MONTH, fabulous Peggy Moreland offers a Slow Waltz Across Texas. In order to win his wife back, a rugged Texas cowboy must learn to let love into his heart. Popular author Jennifer Greene delivers a special treat for you with Rock Solid, which is part of the highly sensual Desire promotion, BODY & SOUL.
Maureen Child’s exciting miniseries, BACHELOR BATTALION, continues with The Next Santini Bride, a responsible single mom who cuts loose with a handsome Marine. The next installment of the provocative Desire miniseries FORTUNE’S CHILDREN: THE GROOMS is Mail-Order Cinderella by Kathryn Jensen, in which a plain-Jane librarian seeks a husband through a matchmaking service and winds up with a Fortune! Ryanne Corey returns to Desire with a Lady with a Past, whose true love woos her with a chocolate picnic. And a nurse loses her virginity to a doctor in a night of passion, only to find out the next day that her lover is her new boss, in Doctor for Keeps by Kristi Gold.
Be sure to indulge yourself this autumn by reading all six of these tantalizing titles from Silhouette Desire!
Enjoy!
Joan Marlow Golan
Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire
Mail-Order Cinderella
Kathryn Jensen
www.millsandboon.co.uk (http://www.millsandboon.co.uk)
To Janet Tanke, the editor I’m so sadly losing, for overseeing the
creation of this novel, lovingly and with professional dedication from
beginning to finish. And to Ann Leslie Tuttle, the editor I’m happily
gaining, who has already taken on the mantles of muse, cheerleader and
creative partner. Without such enthusiasm and loyalty, an author’s
world would be a much bleaker place. K.J.
KATHRYN JENSEN
has written many novels for young readers as well as for adults. She speed walks, works out with weights and enjoys ballroom dancing for exercise, stress reduction and pleasure. Her children are now grown. She lives in Maryland with her writing companion—Sunny, a lovable terrier-mix adopted from a shelter.
Having worked as a hospital switchboard operator, department store sales associate, bank clerk and elementary school teacher, she now splits her days between writing her own books and teaching fiction writing at two local colleges and through a correspondence course. She enjoys helping new writers get a start and speaks “at the drop of a hat” at writers’ conferences, libraries and schools across the country.
Meet the Arizona Fortunes—a family with a legacy of wealth, influence and power. As they gather for a host of weddings, a shocking plot against the family is revealed…and passionate new romances are ignited.
TYLER FORTUNE: This sexy man-about-town knew how to drive a rivet with the best of his construction crew and kiss a woman senseless, but he didn’t think he knew anything about marriage. Until plain-Jane Julie became his bride….
JULIE PARKER: All this shy librarian had wanted was a quiet, undemanding man who’d give her a baby—instead, she got a stunningly sexy, self-possessed man whose kisses gave her an unexpected glimpse of heaven.
JASON FORTUNE: Maybe if his younger brother, Tyler, had stuck with one girlfriend for more than three months, he’d know that finding a bride wasn’t like ordering a pizza!
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
One
Tyler Fortune hated losing a fight, and today he’d lost big time. Now he was going to pay for it, and the price was…marriage.
His sole consolation was that he’d relinquish his freedom on his own terms. He’d be damned if he let his parents corral him into marrying a snooty Tucson debutante or one of their wealthy friends’ daughters.
Impatiently, he shoved another videotape into the VCR. The custom-made entertainment center was built into one mahogany-paneled wall of his office on the fifth floor of the Fortune Building. Hitting the play button on the remote, he sat down again and leaned back in his chair to view the screen over the wide knuckles of his interlocked fingers.
A woman wearing more makeup than most cosmetic counters stocked beamed into the camera and introduced herself in an irritating falsetto. He groaned aloud. This wife-hunting business was hard, nerve-racking work, and probably a waste of time.
Tyler deeply resented lost minutes that were turning into hours. Hours he desperately needed to put into his family’s business. Why couldn’t his father, of all people, see that? Hell, by now he might have made that trip to Dallas they’d discussed, and secured another multi-million-dollar contract.
Although there was the occasional exception, Tyler rarely took time off from the work he loved. A short, intense workout at the Saguaro Springs Health Club. Dinner with a beautiful woman at Tucson’s magnificent Janos—followed by a night’s companionship, because he was, after all, a healthy male. Once in a while, his former college roommate, Dave Johnson, talked him into an extreme-sports adventure—skydiving over the Grand Canyon, white-water rafting in Montana, rock climbing in Colorado.
Dangerous sports duplicated the risk and thrill of balancing atop a steel girder three hundred feet above the merciless ground, or closing a hard-fought deal. Tyler’s life was the company. That was how he liked it. And, dammit, if he had his way…that was how it would remain!
But his parents’ persistent attempts at matchmaking had drastically increased in recent months. And Grandmother Kate had arrived from Minneapolis—the equivalent of bringing in the heavy artillery. Jasmine and Devlin’s plots to marry him off would have seemed old-fashioned and ludicrous had they not been so seriously aimed at him. Earlier that day, his father had delivered an ultimatum, “You are going to marry and settle into family life by the time you turn thirty, or you won’t inherit your share of the company. It’s for your own good, Tyler. And for the good of this family.”
Tensing again at the thought of complications a wife and family would inflict upon his well-ordered bachelor life, Tyler viciously jammed his thumb down on the eject button. Out popped the fifth videotape. He shoved in a new one, returned to his seat. Lifted rangy blue-jeaned legs to prop his boot heels on the edge of the blueprint-cluttered desk and slouched in his chair, muttering to himself. A sprinkle of dry red clay sifted over the tooled-leather desk blotter. He ignored it and tried to focus on the task at hand, protecting his position as heir to the vice presidency of Fortune Construction Company.
Tyler aimed steel-gray eyes at the woman being interviewed. There was a too-eager sparkle in her eyes. Carmine-red lipstick slashed across her full lips. A wave of blond hair swept seductively over one eye. Okay—this one was pretty. Stretching it, maybe even beautiful. She was young, energetic, quick with her answers and claimed she was willing to “have children after a while.”
An alarm sounded in his subconscious. After a while. Female code words for I don’t want to ruin my figure until I’m too old to care. He chuckled. Dear Kate would have a serious problem with this one. His sprightly octogenarian grandmother made no secret of the fact she wanted great-grandkids by the truckload, ASAP! Smiling and shaking his head, he hit the eject button.
“Last one of the batch. You’d better be a winner, sweetheart,” Tyler muttered as he slid in the final cartridge and hit play.
“I really hope this isn’t what I think it is,” a low voice stated from the open doorway.
Tyler looked around with a laconic smile at his brother Jason. “I don’t waste my time on those kinds of flicks. The real thing is so much more satisfying.”
Wearing an amused grin, Jason leaned against the doorjamb, just as tall, sinewy and muscled as his younger brother, but with a touch more red in his dark hair, and amber instead of gray eyes. Nevertheless, they shared the proud heritage of their father’s mother, Natasha Lightfoot, a full-blooded Papago Indian. Both brothers’ features bore the brand of their Native American ancestry—sharply angled cheek bones, strong aquiline noses, jaws that might have been carved from the hard red sandstone of the sacred plateau north of town.
Jason observed the image flickering on the screen with mock solemnity. “Doesn’t seem to have much of a plot.”
“Not s’posed to,” Tyler drawled, turning back to find a pale oval face on the TV screen. He stared, surprised by what he saw. This one was…different.
The young woman spoke quietly, almost as if afraid someone might hear her. She wasn’t trying to sell herself or flirt with the camera as the others had before her. She appeared not to have worn any makeup at all, but the harsh studio lights might have washed out a light application. No jewelry of any kind was evident at her throat, earlobes, or wrists. If one word described her, it was plain.
Nevertheless, something about the woman pulled at Tyler, held his gaze, captured his attention just as strongly as the others hadn’t.
Jason scowled. “Is this a new technique for interviewing receptionists?”
“Brides.”
His brother’s sudden laughter rocked the room. “Yeah, right.” Jason gasped to catch his breath and wiped at his eyes. “Brides.”
“I’m serious. If I have to marry in less than a year, I’ll be damned if I’m going to let anyone pick out a wife for me.”
“Do you really think Dad’s serious about this?” Jason asked.
“He made clear just how serious over lunch today. Luckily, I had a backup plan ready.”
Jason shook his head. “This isn’t a backup plan—it’s a disaster. You can’t find a wife this way, Ty!”
“Why not?” Tyler demanded stubbornly. He resented anyone telling him how he should live his life, and he made no exception for his brother or cousins, all of whom helped in the family business. “Who makes the rules for wife-choosing? Hell, they wanted you to marry Cara when you got her pregnant, back when you were only twenty years old! I don’t want to end up like—”
Too late, he stopped himself. The final word, you, hung as a silent rebuke in the air between them. He wished he’d kept his mouth shut. He hadn’t meant to sound so critical, or remind Jason of his ill-fated first marriage.
“Sorry, I didn’t mean—”
Jason waved off his apology.
“Look, I tried to tell Dad I’m not cut out for marriage, but he won’t listen. And I just don’t have time to do this any other way.”
There were many things Tyler felt capable of handling well. He knew how to set a half-ton I-beam ten floors above the desert, how to pour a foundation that wouldn’t crack even in the unforgiving Arizona heat, how to drive a rivet with the best of his crew and how to kiss a woman crazy. But marriage?
Jason seemed less interested in his sibling’s explanations than he was in the petite, nervous creature on the widescreen TV. “Look at her. You’d think the interviewer was a lion about to devour her.”
“She does look about to jump out of her skin,” Tyler admitted. Her eyes were huge and blinked, blinked, blinked…like those of a wild animal startled by headlights. She repeatedly moistened her lips with the tip of her tongue. For once the gesture didn’t look contrived or seductive. Nevertheless, Tyler found it appealing, innocently tantalizing. He’d have settled for seeing her jump out of her clothes.
Jason sighed. “I don’t understand why people put themselves through this sort of meat-market inspection. It’s as bad as hanging out in a singles bar.”
“Who knows. Loneliness? A desire to be part of something? A couple…a family.”
But Tyler already had a family—all he’d ever wanted anyway. His brother, niece, parents, grandmother and cousins formed one rowdy, hardworking, competitive, proud clan. He loved them all fiercely. He wasn’t interested in bringing an intruder into their midst, and he didn’t see why his parents had become so insistent that he should.
Amazingly, he still couldn’t take his eyes from the timid woman’s face. “Julie,” he heard the off-screen interviewer ask her, “why did you apply to Soulmate Search?”
She straightened her spine, hitched back her narrow shoulders and lifted her chin to look directly into the camera for the first time. Tyler was certain the effort to make the simple postural adjustments was enormous.
“I want a baby,” she said crisply.
“Oh boy, kiss of death,” Jason muttered.
Tyler slowly shook his head. Someone ought to tell her honesty wouldn’t get her very far in the dating world. She was just making herself sound needy. Needy didn’t turn guys on.
“You mean,” the interviewer suggested, trying to steer her toward a more appealing reply, “you’d like to find your soul mate, someone to share your interests like gourmet cooking and love of children?”
“No,” Julie said slowly, emphasizing each subsequent word as if it contained a message of its own, “all…I…want…is…a…child. Children actually. Three, four…more if my husband wants them. I adore children.”
Tyler wondered if therein lay a hidden meaning. Children were great, but she wasn’t too crazy about grown men?
“I see,” mumbled the interviewer. In the background, pages were being noisily shuffled. She’d put him off his rhythm.
Julie…what was her last name? Tyler glanced at the letter that had accompanied the tapes. Parker. Yes, Julie Ann Parker was just too earnest for this sophisticated matchmaking service with its nationwide offices.
Tyler felt embarrassed for her. He pushed the eject button on the remote. The tape smoothly slid out of the VCR.
“Nice girl,” Jason commented. “Doesn’t have a clue, does she?”
“Huh? Oh, no…” Tyler was still thinking about Julie Parker’s eyes. He couldn’t remember their color—hazel, he thought. A subtle hue not terribly distinctive or memorable. But they displayed a nebulous quality he would very much like to explore in person. And that flick of soft pink tongue every now and then…lordy, what that did to his lower regions.
Maybe he should run the tape again. Just for the heck of it.
“Well, good luck, Romeo,” Jason said cheerfully. “Personally, I think if you stuck with one girlfriend for more than three months, you might find one with long-term potential.”
“It’s not their staying power I worry about.”
Man to man—the universal question. Will one woman ever be enough for me…for the rest of my life?
“Yeah, well.” Jason shrugged. “You never know until the right one comes along. When she’s meant for you, everything falls into place. Look at how Adele has changed my view of marriage.” He broke out in a boyish grin that Tyler envied. What he wouldn’t give to feel that carefree in the middle of all they had been going through in recent weeks.
Tyler changed the subject. “So, what brought you down here this late in the day?” His brother was VP in charge of marketing, and had relatively little to do with the construction end of the business.
Jason’s smile slid away as he moved farther inside his brother’s office and closed the door behind him. “Something you ought to know about before the press catches wind. Link Templeton thinks he’s found evidence that Mike Dodd was…well, that elevator he was on might not have crashed fifteen floors without a little help.”
Only a few weeks ago, a fatal accident at the building site of the Fortune Memorial Children’s Hospital had taken the life of their foreman. When the police didn’t immediately declare Dodd’s death accidental, the Fortunes called in a private investigator to help get to the bottom of the incident quickly and reassure investors.
Tyler dropped his boot heels from the desktop with a thud and shot to his feet. “Are you sure? Is he sure?”
“Link’s a pretty cautious guy. He wouldn’t come out with some outrageous theory unless he had proof. He believes the elevator was sabotaged, which means Mike might have been intentionally killed.”
“You mean murdered.” Now that it had been said out loud, Tyler felt it must be true.
Dodd had been a crucial cog in the hospital project, which was a labor of love for the Fortunes. Everyone in the family was taking part—raising money, putting in unpaid hours of labor, donating materials, gathering regional and state political support and local sympathy for a medical facility that would serve the young, ethnically diverse population around Pueblo.
Once the hospital was complete, injured and sick children wouldn’t need to be rushed off to Tucson, twenty-five miles to the north, for medical care. Papago families would receive care for their children without requiring proof of insurance or demands that they pay astronomical medical costs they couldn’t afford. This had been his family’s dream for as long as Tyler had been in the business, and that was as far back as he could remember.
If someone wanted to hurt the Fortunes, sabotaging the hospital was a perfect way to do it.
“This is terrible. Have you told Dad yet?”
Jason lifted a hand in a helpless gesture. “I’m on my way to the ranch right now.”
Tyler nodded grimly. A family didn’t acquire the wealth of the Fortunes without making enemies along the way. But he hadn’t wanted to believe envy and greed could push anyone in Pueblo to murder.
“You want to come with me when I give Dad the news?” Jason asked.
Tyler found himself staring at the dark TV screen. “No. You go ahead, I’ll get the details later. Too much to do here.”
Jason shook his head as if he understood the flow of his brother’s thoughts. “You can’t order a wife as if she were a pizza.”
Tyler flicked a piece of lint off his denim shirt. “Marriages used to be arranged on a lot less than a videotape.”
“You’re crazy, you know that?” Jason threw his strong arms around Tyler and thumped him fondly on the back.
Minutes later, Tyler found himself standing in the middle of his office, still staring at the dark TV screen. Was he crazy for wanting to take command of his own future? Women made demands on their men. Children required unlimited love and constant attention to their physical needs. All of that time spent relating to family members ate up precious work hours and changed a man. Whether he wanted to be changed or not.
The cold, black expanse of screen challenged Tyler. Alternatives. He desperately needed alternatives. Tyler reached for the remote again. Julie Parker’s smooth, pale countenance materialized before him.
He was partial to flaming redheads. Miss Parker’s hair was paper-bag brown. He melted in the presence of blue eyes. Hers were a subtle mossy hue. Tall, leggy women instantly attracted him. He glanced down at the stats accompanying her tape. She was barely five-foot-two. He’d tower over her.
She was all wrong for him physically. But he could tell by her shy manner, frequent blushes, and the way she repeatedly averted her eyes from the camera that she wasn’t the type to assert herself. This might actually work to your advantage, a persistent voice whispered to him. And all she asked from him was a baby.
She needed a husband; he needed a wife. A simple trade-off.
She had just about given up hope. In less than ten days, the six-month membership Julie had purchased in the upscale matchmaking service would expire. She couldn’t afford to sign up for another. She could barely afford next month’s rent.
That same night, the telephone rang. “We’ve received a request for a personal contact,” the woman on the other end cheerfully informed her. “I can overnight a copy of the gentleman’s tape to you. Let us know if you’d like to meet him. He looks like an excellent match for you, Miss Parker.”
Julie was skeptical. Her first thought was: This is the bait to make me sign up for another six months.
But when the tape arrived along with a brief biographical sketch, she wondered if this might actually be the moment she’d been waiting for. Someone was interested in meeting her! And he knew from the start what she looked like, how awkwardly she behaved around strangers and what she expected of him.
Last fall, it had taken every ounce of her precious store of courage to contact Soulmate Search after rejecting every other dating service in the phone book because they’d seemed embarrassingly tacky if not outright perilous. Imagine divulging your private hopes and dreams to hundreds of absolute strangers! And they could just forget about her climbing into a car with a stranger.
But this company guaranteed confidentiality and a thorough screening of applicants to weed out undesirables. She would receive names and video interviews of men from all across the country who were serious about marriage and potentially interested in her. Soulmate’s clients were men and women with stable incomes who wouldn’t mind flying to the opposite coast to meet a potential mate. No lounge lizards, prison inmates or out-of-work loafers here!
The next day Julie had blown her entire savings on one last-ditch effort to find a man who could give her what she so desperately needed.
Now her heart beat frantically in her chest and her fingertips felt moist as she slipped the tape cartridge into the used video player she’d purchased for ten dollars at the thrift shop. Julie poured herself a glass of the generic Chablis she kept handy as a cooking ingredient. The love she would have lavished on a child she put into creating exotic dishes, even though she had no one to share them with in her tiny apartment. She took three fast sips to steady her nerves, then pushed a button and stood back from the screen, her grocery-store wineglass cupped between trembling hands.
The man on the screen was drop-dead gorgeous. This had to be a mistake.
Julie ejected the film, inspected the label, reread the accompanying letter.
No, everything appeared to be in order. His name was Tyler Fortune, just as the woman on the phone had said. He lived in Pueblo, Arizona, almost due west of Houston, where she lived. This was good. She felt better knowing they both resided in the Southwest.
Julie started the tape again.
She sat down without looking to see if a chair was nearby, and her bottom made serendipitous contact with a sofa cushion. Hugging her knees to her chest, she held her breath while the amazing man on the screen answered a list of questions posed by a female interviewer.
“What line of work are you in, Mr. Fortune?” the woman asked.
“Construction.”
Ah, Julie thought, so that’s how he got those strong neck and shoulder muscles—swinging a pickax, hefting lumber, lugging sacks of cement mix. Even in a respectable dress shirt and tie, he clearly was a well-formed man.
“And your hobbies?”
“Not many.”
“Name one or two, please.”
“I, um, well, I like the outdoors.”
Great! Children should play outside a lot. She wasn’t very athletic herself, so it would be wonderful if their father took them on hikes, fishing, played ball with them.
“Is marriage a high or low priority for you, Mr. Fortune?”
“Very high,” he answered solemnly, his gray eyes steady and calm.
A little yelp of joy escaped Julie’s lips. She took a quick sip of wine, then giggled as some dribbled down her chin. And this man had liked her tape!
“What about children?”
“Yes, there definitely need to be children in my marriage.”
This was almost too good to be true! Perhaps these were the very reasons this Tyler Fortune found her tape appealing. He obviously wanted a family just as much as she did. He was a man capable of looking beyond her ordinary appearance and nervous responses, to more important and practical issues. To a future that could be good for both of them.
But there was one thing that bothered her. She’d learned to be wary of handsome men. A man who was too good-looking usually knew it and took full advantage. Tyler Fortune should have been awash with women. There must be something drastically wrong with the man.
Julie watched the interview all the way through to the end, rewound, then watched it three more times—accompanied by three more glasses of wine. Instead of defects showing up, Tyler looked better and better with each playing, and each glass of wine. He seemed to be staring straight through the camera lens at her. Only her. His gaze was direct, intelligent and sometimes playful. He was a man she at least could like, if not love. He was a man who made strange, tickley things happen inside her.
Turning off the TV, Julie picked up the letter that had come with the tape. She rolled the side of the wineglass across her forehead, cooling her feverish skin. She thought about possibilities…dreams…a future. And risks.
The letter said it was now up to her to contact Mr. Fortune if she was interested in meeting with him. He had not been given her address or phone number, in case she decided against following up on his invitation to call.
“It’s not really a date,” she whispered. “It’s more like a business meeting, isn’t it?”
Call it what you will, this may be your last chance, a voice nagged from a fragile, worried corner of her soul.
“I know,” she said. “I know.”
Two
Tyler was prepared for the worst when he arrived early and parked outside Van Gogh’s, just north of Westheimer. The trendy Houston restaurant was nestled on immaculately landscaped grounds. Along the sloping grass that ran down to the bayou, the famous peacocks were strutting their stuff for tourists wielding zoom-lensed cameras.
He parked within easy sight of the main entrance to the restaurant, hoping to see Julie arrive. If she looked just too dreadful to consider marrying, he’d make the meal a quick one then send flowers to her home the next day. The polite note accompanying them would thank her for her gracious company then explain that he felt they weren’t as natural a match as he’d hoped.
However, as he sat restlessly in the sleek Lincoln Continental he’d rented earlier that afternoon at Hobby Airport, he doubted the remaining six months before his thirtieth birthday would bring a more suitable prospect.
He waited nervously, trying to recall her most promising traits. Julie seemed polite, moral, genuinely fond of children and interested in the domestic arts. When they’d spoken on the phone two days after Tyler had first seen Julie on her tape, she’d mentioned her love of cooking twice. He assumed she’d eventually become so busy with the children and her own interests, he wouldn’t need to worry about changing his life much at all. If Julie did object to his long working hours, he’d just put her straight, and, as meek as she was, she wasn’t likely to insist.
Something told him she wouldn’t be terribly demanding in bed either.
Maybe it was her naturally quiet nature. Her voice over the phone that night he’d called had been as sweet and shy as on the tape. He’d started to ask about her sexual history, which seemed to him a logical question for two people considering making babies together. But she became so flustered he immediately bailed out, deciding to wait until they could discuss the subject face-to-face.
Tyler looked down at his hands and found he was gripping the Lincoln’s steering wheel as tightly as if he were maneuvering through careening traffic. Deliberately, he loosened his fingers. Women never made him nervous. Why should this little mouse?
At last a faded red subcompact pulled up hesitantly in front of Van Gogh’s entrance. The driver seemed confused when the valet tried to open her door for her. Tyler couldn’t help smiling. After several minutes of animated conversation, the young man coaxed the woman out of her car and took her place in the driver’s seat. She stood at the curb, staring after her vehicle as it disappeared around the corner, as though expecting never to see it again.
This could be none other than his Julie Parker.
Her charming naïveté tugged at Tyler’s heart. He decided he couldn’t in good conscience let her walk into the restaurant alone and deal with Jean Paul. The maître d’s icy French scowl would be enough to send her scurrying home.
Quickly, Tyler let himself out of the car and jogged across the street, punching the button on his electronic key to lock the car doors as his long legs ate up pavement. Just as Julie’s hand reached with an obvious tremor for the polished brass door handle, he caught up with her.
“Allow me,” he said, stretching around her to open the door.
Julie caught her breath as if she hadn’t been aware anyone was behind her. “Oh. Thank you.” She blinked up at him warily, and he was struck again by the subtle variations of colors in the irises. Her breath across his nostrils was petal-sweet. “You’re Mr. Fortune?”
“Tyler.” Placing his free hand at the small of her back, he guided her inside. “I just arrived myself. And you’re Julie, right?”
“Oh, well, yes,” she managed.
“Here, let me take your coat.” It was still chilly for a Texas March. The Southwest had seen an unusually cold winter. People were wearing wool coats and scarves that hadn’t been taken out of closets in years.
“Thank you,” she murmured again, flicking her eyes up at him for a hasty view of his face before she looked around the foyer.
It was designed to resemble a Roman grotto—bare stone, little sprigs of green growing between the rough gray rocks. A waterfall splashed sedately at the far end, near the dining rooms. He’d chosen this restaurant because it felt like his turf. Rugged yet refined. Sophisticated…quiet…intimate. He’d flown dates to Houston for a weekend when he didn’t want the whole town of Pueblo gossiping about who their most eligible bachelor was seeing socially. The restaurant’s atmosphere was tinged with upper-class seduction. He felt his body react mildly to the suggestion, and he folded his hands in front of himself.
“I apologize for not noticing you sooner,” Julie said softly. “I was looking for Arizona plates on the cars along the street.”
“I picked up a rental at the airport,” he explained.
“You flew to Houston? Oh my, that must have cost a fortune.”
“Things were pretty busy at the job site. I didn’t want to—” He stopped himself before saying waste the time. “I didn’t want to be away too long.”
“I see.” She smiled up at him as if impressed by his strong work ethics. “I know how that is. I hate to leave a job half done.” Her eyes widened as a woman in a long black crepe gown slit up to her thigh passed them. She wore a diamond ankle bracelet. Glancing down self-consciously at her neat wool skirt and matching sweater set, Julie grimaced. “I think I may be a little underdressed for this place.”
Tyler shook his head. “Not at all. You look fine.”
She stared at him for a second, as though trying to determine whether he was being honest or just hoping to make her feel better. He kept his expression blank. Sighing, she changed the subject. “Your job in construction…what exactly do you do? Run heavy equipment? Hammer nails and such?”
He laughed. “Not ordinarily, although I can handle both.”
Jean Paul arrived at that moment, saving him from admitting more than he chose to just yet. Tyler had intentionally skirted a full explanation of his work, as well as specifics about himself and his family. Such as the fact that the Fortunes were the wealthiest and most influential residents of southern Arizona. He’d wanted to see Julie’s reaction to him as a person before he revealed that marrying him would make her a wealthy woman.
When they were seated, he ordered wine and suggested two specialties of the house. She eagerly agreed to the seafood. The sommelier presented the wine, a rare white merlot, opened the bottle, offered Tyler the cork then poured when he’d approved. At last, all the servers left them alone.
“Tell me about yourself,” he said.
Julie lifted the crystal stem to her lips and sipped cautiously. “There isn’t a lot to tell. Most everything was in the bio Soulmate gave you.” She sipped again, and grinned like a child secretly allowed a sweet between meals.
He thought the guilty twinkle in her eyes charming. It brought out a wicked side of him that whispered how much fun it might be to shock her and set those fascinating, multicolored eyes afire. He attempted to undress her mentally, but her conservative outfit didn’t give his imagination much to work with.
“Oh my, this is delicious. I sometimes treat myself to a glass of wine after work. But one bottle lasts me a month, and it never tastes this good.”
She lifted her glass and took another delicate mouthful. Her eyes fluttered closed, and she tilted her head back as she swallowed. Her elegant throat taunted him, and he suddenly ached to reach across the table and smooth his open palm down the flow of ivory flesh. “We can have a different wine with our meal if you like.”
Julie’s eyes flew wide with alarm. “Oh, no, we mustn’t. This meal is going to be expensive enough.” She leaned over the table and whispered conspiratorially to him. “One thing you should know right now, Mr. Fortune—”
“Tyler.”
“Tyler. One thing you should understand,” she said earnestly, “is that I can’t afford to marry a man who doesn’t know the value of a dollar. If I stay at home with my children…our children…we’ll have to live on your salary alone. A construction worker’s pay these days may be adequate for a comfortable life, but it won’t allow for many nights like this.”
“No, I’m sure it wouldn’t.” He hadn’t intended to lead her on. However, he still needed to know a little more about Julie before admitting how little he worried about the cost of lavish dinners for his dates.
She rested back in her chair and observed him solemnly. “I’m sorry if I’ve been too blunt. I believe in living within one’s means…that’s all.”
“Perfectly understandable,” he replied. “I want to know exactly what you expect of me. And I’ll be very frank about what I can and can’t do for you. But first I need you to tell me who Julie Parker really is. There’s a lot more that goes into a person than a job and a few hobbies.”
“It’s not a very interesting story,” she said apologetically.
“Let me be the judge.” He gave her an encouraging wink that seemed to put her more at ease.
“Well, I was born in Houston, never lived more than two miles from the neighborhood where I grew up and I’ve traveled only as far as New Mexico in one direction, Arkansas in the other. I graduated from the University of Houston, then took a job at the southwestern branch of the public library. I’ve always loved books; they’ve been my friends since childhood. It seemed natural to want to become a librarian.”
He nodded. “So you spend every day surrounded by tomes and silence?”
“I’m never bored, if that’s what you’re implying,” she said with unexpected energy. “But sometimes I do wish I could travel. After the bills are paid, there isn’t much left for zipping off to Europe.” She laughed to herself and shook her head wistfully, as if this was a fantasy normal people didn’t take seriously.
Tyler had been to England and the Continent fifteen times since he graduated from college. “I expect not,” he murmured diplomatically.
“Well,” she said on a long, deep sigh that suddenly made him aware of her breasts, “it’s a nice dream anyway. The important things, though, are spending time with one’s children, saving for their education, making sure they’re properly clothed and sheltered.” She looked at him. “Don’t you agree?”
He sensed she was testing him. “Of course, children should always come first.” Had he really said that? He’d never voiced that opinion before, but he felt he really meant it at that moment.
Tyler took a quick swallow of the chilled pink wine and studied her expression, focused so intently on his. He knew she was fighting her innate shyness to hold her gaze steady. Maybe she had more backbone than he’d at first realized.
Their meals arrived, breaking their eye lock. After they’d both refused an offer of freshly ground pepper, he cut a large bite from his thick prime rib and tried to clear his head as he chewed. If he was seriously considering marrying this woman, there must be other questions he should ask.
“Did you get your thrifty nature from your parents?” He watched with alarm as the glow drained from her cheeks. “I’m sorry. I hit a nerve?”
Julie pursed her lips and pushed her fork gently into a fat sea scallop. “I don’t remember my mother. She left my father and me before I was a year old. Dad didn’t have much of a head for budgets. He drove trucks all of his life, never made much money. As soon as I was old enough to shop for us, I made sure there was food to last through the end of every month.”
Tyler frowned. “I see.”
“It wasn’t a bad life, but I spent a lot of time alone. My father passed away four years ago. I’ve lived on my own since. My aunts, uncles and cousins all live on the East Coast. I rarely get to see them.”
Tyler imagined her as a child. A waif with stringy brown hair and no responsible adult to look after her. He could imagine her balled up in a chair in a corner of the children’s reading room, lost in a fairy tale. It suited her.
He felt a pang of guilt for all he’d had and taken for granted. Sure, Devlin had worked most of the time. Tyler had desperately yearned for his father’s attention, but never had it crossed his mind that his next meal might not appear when he was hungry.
He looked into Julie’s eyes and saw an eternity of loneliness. He didn’t need to ask why she wanted a family now. But there was one thing he didn’t understand. “Your profile said you are twenty-seven years old.”
“Yes.” She tipped her head to one side, waiting, her fork poised over her meal.
“If you’ve always wanted to start a family, why haven’t you married before now?”
With a little huff, she deliberately laid her fork across her plate and looked up at him as if he’d just slapped her. “Are you trying to make fun of me, Tyler?”
He gasped. “No, of course not, I—”
“Look at me,” she demanded.
He looked. What he saw was a charming burst of fire in her eyes. But he didn’t know if he was meant to see that or something else, so he kept quiet.
“I’m no catch. I fade into walls, don’t have much of a figure, wear clothes because they’re comfortable, not fashionable. I get nervous on dates and make lousy small talk. I freeze up when a man tries to kiss me. I—”
“You cook,” he interrupted. “And you reupholster furniture and love books.”
“Yes,” she agreed on a long outward breath, eyeing him suspiciously.
“And you’re not nearly as ordinary as you seem to think. You have lovely eyes, Julie. When you laugh or get angry, like now, they light up to put an acetylene torch to shame.”
“Is that construction humor?” she asked dryly.
“No, it’s the truth. Which you should recognize because you seem to be an honest person yourself.” He reached out and laid his hands over hers on the white linen tablecloth, then held them there when she made a weak effort to pull away. “Although you’re quiet, you speak up when something is important to you. You’re intelligent, which can be very sexy to any man with half a brain. And you won’t drive a man into bankruptcy by expecting lavish gifts. That seems to me the sort of woman a lot of men would be wise to consider as a wife.”
Julie stared at Tyler Fortune. Did she dare believe he was serious? A man as stunningly sexy and self-possessed as he, telling her she was…what? Desirable? No, maybe not that, because he hadn’t even hinted that she aroused him. No, it was more as if he recognized her few strong qualities and acknowledged he might look favorably upon them in choosing a partner. But that was far more than any other man had ever given her.
“Thank you,” she murmured. “It means a lot that you’d say something so kind to me.”
“You deserve at least that.” Before she could react, he lifted her right hand and brought it toward him across the table. His lips brushed her fingertips so lightly she barely felt their touch. He sandwiched her quivering hand between his two rough, warm palms. “Listen, I understand why you want to marry. Families are important. Actually, if you decide to go through with this matchmaking thing, I have a rather large clan to share with you.”
Her heart leapt into her throat and an irrational joy filled her. He sounded serious. Until this moment, she hadn’t believed, not deep down in her soul, that he’d want her.
“Your family,” she said, forgetting all about her dinner, “what are they like?”
He looked a little unsure of himself. “I’ll be more than happy to describe them to you. But first, in all fairness, I should clear up a few misconceptions you might have about me.”
Her rainbow of hope faded. “Misconceptions?”
“You see,” he began, “when I told you I was in construction, I think you sort of read into the term and—”
“That’s all right,” she interrupted. “The job doesn’t make the man. Even if you dig ditches for a living, as long as you’re honest and work hard for your money, we’ll make do.”
“No.” He smiled boyishly at her. “I’m at the other end on the economic ladder.”
“You mean,” she said slowly, trying to make sense of what he was saying. “You mean, you’re a crew boss…or a foreman? How wonderful, Tyler, I’m so proud of you!” She bounced on her chair in spontaneous delight but stopped herself when the couple at the nearest table turned to smile in her direction.
“I own the company. And it’s a big one.”
She stared blankly at him. “You what?”
Turning her hand palm up, as if to read her future, he explained casually, “Actually I share ownership with my parents, brother and cousins. I guess you’ve never heard of Fortune Construction. Most people don’t pay attention to the names of builders, even on big projects. I’ll bet there aren’t ten people in all of Houston who could tell you who built the Astrodome.”
Her free hand flew to her mouth. “No.”
“No, what?” His gray eyes darkened with uncertainty.
“You’re one of those Fortunes? Last week I read in the newspaper about a wealthy Native American family that was building a children’s hospital somewhere in Arizona.”
“That’s us.” Tyler grinned, looking smug.
Her heart sank. This was terrible. Not only was the man handsome, sexy and intelligent, he was rich. There was only one possible explanation for his having anything to do with her. He must be mentally unhinged.
Julie felt like running out of the elegant dining room, straight to her car—if she could find it—and driving as fast as she could away from Tyler Fortune. She closed her eyes, fighting down the panic. But his deep voice called her back, and she focused again on his words.
“It isn’t just the family,” Tyler was saying. “A lot of donations have gone into the building fund. People who care all over the country are helping out.”
She frowned. “This doesn’t make sense. You must have money to burn. You could marry any woman you want.”
“I don’t want just any woman for a wife,” he stated, but no warmth was directed at her.
“Then someone special. Like that woman over there.” Julie turned and gestured with the tip of her chin toward a woman sitting at a nearby table. “She’s stunning. Just look at her—perfectly styled blond hair, beautiful jewelry…and that dress.” She sighed and leaned across the table to whisper. “Do you realize, Tyler, she’s been staring at you since we came into this room? I’ll bet women are always looking at you like that.”
He shrugged as if he was too accustomed to attention from the opposite sex to be surprised. “Look at the problem of marriage from my point of view. What if that woman there or some other agrees to become my wife because she’s physically attracted to me? How will she feel about me five years from now? Or, if money is the object of her affection, will she be calculating even before our wedding day how much alimony she can grab?”
“But surely, there are attractive women who might genuinely—”
“Fall in love with me? Be willing to take me on for better or worse in the traditional sense?” There was a heavy touch of bitterness in his laugh. “Haven’t stumbled across any yet, lady.”
“I see.” She sighed.
“Why are you trying to talk me out of marrying you?”
She dared a quick glimpse of his smoky eyes. She could lose herself in them, if she stayed there too long. He definitely wasn’t a lounge lizard; he was clever, charming and far more dangerous. She retrieved her hand from between his. “I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I feel this is too good to be true. I can’t believe you’d choose me over a woman like…like that.”
Tyler followed her glance back to the stunning blonde. “Most of what she has to offer can be bought, inserted, painted on or surgically augmented.”
Julie stifled a giggle in spite of her anxiety. “You’re wicked.”
“You’ve found me out.”
He had her laughing now, and it was so delightful he was determined to make her continue. But first he had to lay his cards on the table. “Listen, I won’t lie to you. I have an ulterior motive for wanting to marry right away.” Her eyes went from twinkling to enormous and apprehensive. “It has to do with Fortune Construction and keeping my share of my grandfather Ben’s company. My parents have told me that if I’m not married by my birthday, I don’t inherit.”
“But—” Julie shook her head in disbelief “—but that’s not fair!”
“Fair or not, they’ve decided their youngest son needs a settled family life to be happy and ensure the continuation of the company in the family.”
“Let me guess…they’ve come up with their own list of suitable mates for you?”
He nodded. “Plenty of local gals. But I don’t want anyone choosing a wife for me. And no one I’ve dated is the kind of woman I could live with for the rest of my life.”
“But I am?” she asked incredulously.
He let his eyes drift over her soft features. “I think you might be. Your needs are simple, and as long as we understand one another from the start, we should be able to come to some sort of agreement that’s beneficial to both of us. If it helps, consider this purely a business relationship.”
She nodded slowly. “It sounds terribly cold, but I think I could do that. I had already come to terms with fairy tales when I contacted Soulmate Search.”
“Fairy tales?” he asked.
“You know…finding my true love, if such a thing exists. I’m a realist, Tyler.”
She looked him dead in the eyes and he felt an unexpected jolt down low in his gut. Something akin to arousal. She isn’t my type, he reminded himself. Not my type at all.
“About the sex,” she whispered.
“What?” Had he heard her right? He looked around but no one at the nearby tables seemed to have heard.
“You know—intercourse.” She blushed at her own breathy words.
He stopped himself from smiling at her embarrassment and tried to look serious. “Yes?”
“You’ll need to sleep with me if I’m to conceive.”
“I expect so.”
“Well, since we’re being up front about everything…I just want you to know that you don’t have to…that is, you don’t have to do it any more often than is necessary.”
“I see.” Did she think he’d be relieved to hear this? Her words had the opposite effect on him. He suddenly wanted to know how she’d look stripped of her pert sweater set and tidy wool skirt. He felt himself move and shifted in his chair to compensate for the tightness across his lap.
Time to change topics.
“We’ll deal with that when the time comes,” he said quickly. “Meanwhile, I want you to meet my family and see Pueblo, my hometown, before you make a decision.”
“You should be sure of me, too,” she insisted.
“I will be soon enough. I don’t take long to make up my mind about things.”
She took a last bite of her seafood and pushed away her plate, even though it was still half full of shrimp, scallops and delicate lumps of white crabmeat swimming in its buttery sauce. “I’m free this weekend.” She looked up at him guilelessly. “That is, if you want me to come to Pueblo then.”
“Perfect.”
“What will you tell your parents about me? Do they know about Soulmate?”
“Hell, no.” He chuckled at the thought. “And they don’t need to know. They’ll be shocked as it is if we go through with this.” He thought for a moment. “I’ll have to tell them we’ve known each other for a while, if you don’t mind.”
“I’m not a very good liar,” she warned.
“You don’t have to lie. I’ll cover for us with some simple excuse. You just be yourself.”
She drew a deep breath that brought his gaze to her sweater again, stretched tightly where she pressed forward against the edge of the table. She had very nice breasts.
“Are you sure this arrangement of ours will be fair to them?”
“Huh?” He quickly looked up to connect with her concerned hazel eyes. “Why shouldn’t it be?”
“I’m probably not what they’re expecting.”
“You’re right, you’re not.” He leaned across the table, somehow avoiding plates and crystal. Before she had a chance to pull away, he’d kissed her on the mouth. “You’re a damn sight better, Miss Julie Parker.”
Julie thought about Tyler’s kiss as she drove away from Van Gogh’s that evening, and all of the next day at work. She figured it for a kind of good-luck kiss. Not much more than a friendly peck, a handshake, a deal-sealer.
Yet the warmth of his lips lingered on hers, making her think of a longer, deeper, more satisfying kiss that might be waiting for her. Some day.
But even such a pleasant thing as a kiss worried her. Tyler Fortune was a man whose entire life had been determined by his family from the day of his birth. This she had learned on her lunch hour.
She’d found several revealing newspaper articles. Tyler’s grandfather, Ben, had moved to Arizona while separated from his wife, Kate. He must have believed their marriage was over, for he’d lived with a Native American woman for several years and they’d had twin boys together—Devlin and Hunter. Devlin was Tyler’s father, Hunter was his uncle. It wasn’t until Natasha Lightfoot, Ben’s mistress, died that Kate recognized Devlin and Hunter as Ben’s children and agreed to give control of Ben’s construction company to them when they turned twenty-five. Ben died soon thereafter.
Julie found photos of the family in the society pages of the Arizona newspapers. Articles in the business section traced the Fortunes’ climb to power, year after year. Their most recent project was the multi-million Fortune Memorial Children’s Hospital, situated between the Papago Indian Reservation and the smaller San Xavier Reservation. Julie gradually built for herself an image of a modern dynasty-in-the-making that took her breath away.
This man had so much to give her—a proud heritage, wealth, the babies she longed for. But what did she have to offer him?
That was the question that haunted her. Why me? She’d asked him that question, but he hadn’t really given her a satisfactory answer. Everyone had a reason for the things they did. What was Tyler’s?
Yet, as the day wore on and her question remained unanswered, she found she didn’t want to dwell on it. Dining with Tyler at the trendiest restaurant in the city had been the most exciting evening of her life. As a child, the only restaurants she’d set foot in were fast-food joints. In high school she’d kept pretty much to herself. In college she’d dated a few young men who had sprung for a meal at a steak house.
But oh…how she’d loved sitting across a table from Tyler. When she’d left Van Gogh’s her head had been reeling with the richness of the place. She’d felt such a pale daisy beside the rose-and-poppy opulence of the people sitting at the other tables in the intimate dining room.
And Tyler was the most amazing of them all. He had a rough-and-tumble physique that had let her easily assume he drove a forklift for a living until he’d told her otherwise. His face was tanned and sun-leathered, but strong and full of laughter when she said something that amused him. She liked amusing him. She bathed in the glow of his smiles.
“What do you want from me, Tyler Fortune?” she whispered as she climbed into her bed that night. She yawned and closed her eyes. “And what will you make me pay to get what I want from you?”
Three
Julie had never flown in an airplane. As she stood on the sunbaked tarmac Friday afternoon, staring doubtfully at the Fortune family’s private jet, she decided the expense of flying wasn’t the only good reason for keeping one’s feet on the ground. To her dismay, the plane was so small it looked almost like a toy. This seemed a risky means of introducing herself to air travel.
But the flight was deliciously smooth, and it wasn’t long before she sank comfortably into the rich leather seat the pilot had shown her to and released herself to drifting through billowy white clouds into a blue sky so clear and shockingly lovely she couldn’t help sighing. Julie found herself thinking of Tyler.
She remembered the finely drawn muscles visible in the backs of his hands as he’d laid them over hers. The corded line of his throat had risen above his crisp shirt collar. The rest of his body, she imagined, would be just as strong and lean and hard. Envisioning him without his clothes sent delicious chills through her. Her cheeks radiated heat as the plane began its descent.
“Get a grip,” Julie whispered to herself.
But in her heart, she knew that was impossible. She was being swept along on an exhilarating adventure, and she had no idea what to do except to let whatever might happen, happen.
This won’t last long, she reassured herself. You might as well enjoy yourself. Tyler or his parents would soon realize how terribly wrong she was for him. The Fortunes would pack her off to Houston by the end of the weekend, and that would be that.
But at least she’d have some pretty memories, if their evening at Van Gogh’s was a taste of what was in store for her. Maybe fate had intended Tyler as a gift to last her a lifetime? A taste of romance. A memory to make her simple existence bearable. Maybe she should stop being afraid and just accept the weekend for what it was, pure fantasy.
When Julie stepped off the plane, she looked around the lonely airstrip for Tyler, her heart pounding in her chest, but he wasn’t there. Instead, a short, middle-aged man wearing work clothes approached her. He smiled and held out a hand.
“Miss Parker? I’m Joe Dan White. I work for Mr. Fortune. He’s sent me to fetch you.”
“Oh,” she said, feeling vaguely disappointed. No expectations, she warned herself. If you have no dreams, you can’t feel cheated when they don’t come true.
They drove in a battered sport utility vehicle with a pile of blueprints bouncing on the seat between them. Joe Dan wasn’t a talkative man, but she didn’t mind the silence. If he’d asked her what she was doing in Pueblo, she couldn’t have given him an answer that made any sense.
Twenty minutes later, the truck stopped at a construction site beside a dusty silver trailer and Joe Dan jumped out of the cab. Julie hesitated before climbing down from the seat and took a moment to look around. Mountains rose on three sides, rough unforgiving crops of rock and scrub, but majestic in their own way.
“Mr. Fortune will be in the office over there,” Joe Dan said, nodding toward the trailer as he scooped the blueprints off the seat. “I have to drop these off with him. Come along, miss.”
It occurred to her that Tyler hadn’t explained who she was or why she was here. A second twinge of annoyance pinched at her. She set her shoulders and started toward the trailer.
But before Julie reached the metal steps, the door opened, and out stepped the man who had filled her mind for the past forty-eight hours. To her amazement, Tyler was even more striking in work clothes. Disturbingly so. His blue jeans molded smoothly around his lean hips and long legs. The top two pearl buttons of his western-style shirt were undone, and she could see a tuft of dark hair against a V of hard chest. Breathe, she told herself, feeling light-headed.
“How was your flight?” he asked, smiling down at her.
“Wonderful!” she blurted out. Suddenly, her annoyance with his lack of attention to her arrival seemed irrelevant. “The sky was so clear I was sure I could see California.”
Tyler combed the fingers of one hand through a healthy thatch of dark hair to move it off his forehead. He observed her conservative navy suit and pumps with concern.
“Is something wrong?” she asked.
“That outfit is going to pick up dust awful easy. I’d hoped to show you around town, a combination driving and walking tour. Did you bring anything more comfortable?”
Virtually all the clothes she owned were outfits suitable for the library, or for puttering around in her kitchen at home. Since she rarely went out socially, she didn’t need dress clothes or upscale casual wear.
“I do have a pair of flats with me and a pantsuit.”
“We’ll have to find you something more appropriate than that.”
She hoped he didn’t expect her to buy a new outfit for the weekend. She had only twenty dollars on her, in case of an emergency, and she didn’t want to blow her charge account any higher for clothing she wouldn’t be able to wear after the weekend.
“I need to speak to some of my men before I leave. You can wait in the office or come along.” He picked up a hard hat from a bench outside the trailer and offered it to her.
“I’d like to see the hospital,” she said quickly, accepting the brilliant-yellow shell and dropping it onto her head.
“Suit yourself.” He took a second hat for himself. “It will be difficult for you to imagine what the finished building will look like at this stage.”
But she could imagine it so very easily. As they walked past a huge billboard stating that this was the Fortune Memorial Children’s Hospital, she eyed the artist’s rendition of the completed structure. A fountain and trees were enclosed by a circular drive in front of a central tower. Off one end was a fenced playground, and to the rear an emergency entrance for ambulances. The highest point of the structure was fifteen floors and the whole of it rose out of the desert like an enormous flowering cactus.
“It’s going to be wonderful,” she murmured appreciatively.
“I sure hope so.” Tyler shook his head, thinking how far they’d come, yet how much further they had to go. “There are times I’ve worried it would never come together. But we’re getting there, slowly.”
“It must be wonderful, building a dream from the ground up. Making something out of nothing but hope.”
The pure enthusiasm in her voice forced Tyler to look at her. Julie’s eyes sparkled and her face glowed. That was how he felt on a good day. But those hadn’t come often enough since Mike Dodd’s death.
“My dad’s favorite part of putting up a new building is breaking ground,” Tyler murmured. “He says he feels something mystical when the first shovel of dirt is lifted. But I like this part—building the frame that shapes and supports the whole thing.” He pointed. “We intentionally move some parts along more quickly. We’re putting some glass into the lower floors of the west wing this week. It helps people visualize how it will turn out.”
She smiled up at him. “That’s nice, to think of folks that way.”
“We have practical reasons, too,” he said solemnly. “As important as this project is to the children of the region, we’ve had to fight to get it approved.”
And Tyler Fortune was clearly a fighter. She could see his determination and courage sketched in the strong slashes of cheek and jawbone and the firm line of his lips. Astride a pinto, a lance raised in one hand, reins in the other, he’d have been a warrior worthy of any opponent.
Which brought to mind the question of how she might hope to survive the partnership he proposed. He’d suggested a simple business relationship. That was what she’d envisioned, too. But that was before she’d met Tyler. The husband she had been looking for was a quiet, undemanding man whose personality matched hers. Tyler was used to getting his way, and he was anything but retiring.
On the other hand, if he was serious about his proposition, and if she didn’t take the risk now…she’d probably never have another chance at marriage or an honest-to-goodness adventure.
Tyler walked away from her to speak with several of his crew. Julie weighed her options while she pretended to study the sketch of the hospital. When he returned, nodding toward the trailer to indicate they could leave now, she stopped him with a timid touch on his forearm.
“What?”
“You’re really serious about doing this—marrying me?”
“I wouldn’t have asked you to come out here if I wasn’t.”
She sighed. “Tyler, you live in the center of an empire.” He snorted and opened his mouth to object, but she held up a hand. “No, listen. Maybe that’s not the right word, but this place, your employees, the children who will come here and your family—they all have a lot at stake in you. When you marry, you have to consider everyone, particularly your parents. It won’t take them long to figure out I’m not part of their social network. You’re using me to ensure your inheritance. They’ll suspect I’m after your money. They’ll hate me.”
“Are you?”
“Am I what?”
He grinned. “After my money?”
Her mouth dropped open. Being with a man who said exactly what was on his mind took some getting used to. She forced herself to meet his steady gaze. “No. All I want is a family. I was ready to accept any decent, hardworking man.”
“Then you’re not after my body either?” His smile barely lifted the corners of his mouth.
He was teasing her, and she bridled. “Sex is overrated.”
Now he looked intrigued, challenged. And that was far worse. That was dangerous. “Really,” he drawled. “And you’ve made an in-depth study of the topic, Miss Parker?”
Julie shifted from one foot to the other then back to the first. She looked away from him, unable to meet his wolfish gray eyes. “I—I don’t know how we got on to this subject,” she stammered, hoping none of his crew was close enough to hear their words.
“Forgive me, but I tend to connect the two—marriage and intimate relations. If we’re going to live together it’s only right that I give up dating other women. Wouldn’t you agree?”
“Well, I—”
“In which case, I’d say that you, as my legal wife, will have an obligation—” He lifted one dark brow heavy with meaning “—to satisfy me.”
Her throat was suddenly so parched she couldn’t get a word out for several seconds.
“I, um…I thought we agreed that intimacy would be necessary to create our family, but we wouldn’t sleep together otherwise.”
“I don’t believe I agreed to any such thing,” he said calmly, watching her with an intensity that unnerved her even more.
“And I don’t believe I mentioned at any time playing the role of your…your love slave!” she exclaimed.
He laughed gustily and long, and kept on laughing until he had to wipe tears from his eyes. Several burly men nearby turned to watch them. Julie felt her cheeks flush with heat. “Well, it sounds as if that’s what you expect,” she hissed at him, and spun toward the trailer.
“Slave. Love slave…” He couldn’t stop the aftershocks of chuckles as he followed her. “Is that how you view your role in a relationship with a man? You’d be expected to do unpleasant things to please him as a price for being given children?”
She squeezed her eyes shut, still walking. “Please don’t make a scene.”
“Make a scene?”
Julie felt close to tears. Her head felt so clogged with confusing emotions, she couldn’t think straight. All she knew was that she wanted to escape from Tyler Fortune and the feelings he churned up inside her.
“I think,” Tyler said in a firm voice, “we had better get a few things straight before either of us makes a decision about this arrangement.” He took her firmly by the arm and pulled her the rest of the way across the raw stretch of ground and up the metal steps.
Tyler had no clue what he’d do or say once he got Julie out of sight of his obviously amused crew. Did this woman expect him to marry her but live the life of a celibate? On the one hand he couldn’t help feeling sorry for her, as naive as she was. On the other, he didn’t feel sorry enough to let her dictate a passionless future for him.
“The only way this might…just might work,” he said, and forced himself to release her, “is if we’re honest with each other. Completely honest. Can you agree to that much?”
She nodded meekly.
“Good, that’s a beginning.” Tyler paced the narrow office while she stood trembling near the door, her eyes darting wistfully toward it as he spoke.
“I’ll start,” he said, then took a long breath. “My personal choice would be to remain single. Seeing as that’s not possible, I’m dealing with the situation. The problem is, I take marriage seriously. If I didn’t, I could marry anyone, work my twelve-hour days, sleep with other women and hardly ever have to see Mrs. Tyler Fortune.”
“I see,” she murmured, her eyes enormous.
“But that’s not me, Julie. I know I’ll have to make some sacrifices—spend a little less time on the job to be with my kids and treat the woman I marry honorably. I couldn’t do otherwise. Understand so far?”
She nodded, allowing him a faint smile.
Now came the hard part, the part that might send her scurrying out the door and out of his life. The part he hadn’t intended to tell her. “I didn’t choose you randomly from Soulmate’s videotapes. I saw something in you I felt I could live with, a quality of womanhood that appealed to me.”
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