Guarding His Fortune

by Stella Bagwell

  “Look, Savannah, you don’t need to do anything for me. I can manage my own chores. And that includes making up my own bed.”

  Her lips flattened to a thin line. “Oh. My mistake. With you being a bachelor, I gather you’ve learned how to do household things for yourself. I’m not sure if any of my brothers have ever made up a bed. But you’re—uh—not like them.”

  No. He’d not been raised in a privileged family. His parents’ marriage had been passionate enough to produce five sons. But eventually the spark between Esteban and Ginger had been extinguished by his love of wine and women. Ginger had tolerated her husband’s philandering for as long as she could before she’d finally sought a divorce and walked away. Yet, in spite of Esteban’s faults, he’d basically been a good father and made sure his five sons remained together and grew into responsible adults. Even so, Chaz’s younger years hadn’t been easy.

  But Savannah didn’t need to know about his personal life, Chaz decided. And frankly, he didn’t need to know about hers. Yet, he couldn’t deny that he wanted to learn every single detail about her past and the present. He wanted to know what drove her to be the woman she was and hoped to be someday.

  “Listen, Savannah, if you don’t know how to make a bed before you enter the army, you’ll learn soon after. And learn to do it perfectly. Otherwise, a soldier would find himself in trouble at inspection time.”

  “I see. Then you don’t need my help at all.”

  She turned and walked back into the apartment and as Chaz watched her go, he wondered why he wasn’t feeling relieved. And why everything inside him wanted to call her back.

  Chapter Four

  Early the next morning, Savannah sat at the kitchen table in a pair of blue silk pajamas and a robe. With both hands clutching one of the red cups she’d purchased yesterday, she took a long, grateful sip of steaming coffee.

  After the extensive day of traveling, shopping and setting up the apartment, Savannah had expected to fall asleep the moment her head hit the pillow. Instead, she’d tossed and turned, while blaming her insomnia on the extra-firm mattress and unfamiliar surroundings. But deep down, she recognized it was neither of those things that had made her lose sleep last night. It had been Chaz Mendoza and her unexplainable reaction to him.

  Damn the man. Why did he have to be such a perfect masculine specimen? What was it about his rugged features that made her want to sigh, that made her dream of touching him, kissing him?

  Thank goodness tomorrow was Monday, she thought, as she attempted to push away the ridiculous questions roaming around in her head. She’d be starting her research studies at the university in the morning. She’d finally be able to get away from Chaz and get her mind on something important. Instead of daydreaming like a silly high school girl mooning after the star athlete.

  The smartphone lying near her left arm chirped to signal a new text message had arrived. The sound interrupted Savannah’s troubled thoughts and she glanced down to see a short message from her father illuminated on the screen.

  Are you getting settled? Is Mr. Mendoza taking care of you?

  Taking care of her? Chaz had upended everything! She wanted to yell out the response in loud capital letters. Instead, she drew in a deep, calming breath and began to tap out a quick reassuring note to her father. The last thing she wanted was for Miles to start ringing the phone, demanding an explanation to ambiguous words. Their relationship was already strained. If she lost her temper while talking with him, it would only make matters worse. She could already see him standing at the front door with intentions of carting her back to New Orleans.

  Moments later, she was punching the send button when she heard footsteps. Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Chaz, fully dressed in khakis and a white polo shirt, entering the kitchen. Unlike her, he looked alert and fully refreshed. No doubt, he’d had a nice restful sleep, while she’d been staring at the shadows on the ceiling, wondering how she was going to ignore the man for the next few weeks. It was going to be an impossible task.

  “Good morning,” she greeted. “The coffee is only a few minutes old so it should still be good. Help yourself.”

  “Thanks. I will.”

  You don’t need to do anything for me. I can manage my own chores.

  The memory of his stiff remarks last night still stung. And she continued to ask herself why she hadn’t flung some flippant retort back at him. If he’d been any other man on earth, she would’ve told him to go jump off a cliff or into the deepest lake he could find. Instead, she’d walked away and wondered what had caused the abrupt change in him. One minute he’d seemed warm and approachable, then the next minute he’d turned cool and distant.

  He carried a cup of black coffee over to the round wooden table and sat down on the opposite side from her.

  Savannah felt her pulse leap into a faster pace and knew the reaction had nothing to do with the small amount of caffeine she’d consumed.

  “How was your night?” he asked, his gaze glued to the brown liquid in his cup.

  “Great. I woke up before the alarm went off.”

  His gaze lifted to her face and Savannah felt another jolt to her senses.

  “You need an alarm on Sunday morning?” he asked. “You must be going to church.”

  “I do usually go to early mass. But not today. I need to find a church first. Preferably, one that’s close by. As for the alarm, I always set it. Sleeping in makes me feel sluggish for the remainder of the day.”

  “I see,” he said, then asked, “So you will be planning on church next Sunday?”

  “Yes. Definitely. Why? Surely you don’t think a trip to church is risky.”

  “Doesn’t matter. I’ll be with you one way or the other.”

  The moment Savannah felt her mouth start to fall open she promptly clamped it tight. Yesterday, after she’d gotten over the shock and anger of her father hiring a bodyguard, she’d decided going against Chaz would only make things worse. She wanted to show him that she harbored no ill will toward him. In fact, she liked him. But last evening on the patio, he’d made it clear that he didn’t want to be her friend. Therefore, she had to respect his wishes and keep her distance from him in every way.

  “Fine,” she said. “I’ll let you know my plans long before next Sunday.”

  She went over to the cabinets and began to gather a bowl and a spoon for cereal. By the time she returned to the table with her breakfast, she felt bad about not offering him something to eat. But he knew where she’d stored everything and like he’d so succinctly told her, he didn’t need her to take care of him.

  She’d taken several bites of the sweetened oats when she noticed he was watching her. Awkwardly, she balanced her spoon on the side of the bowl and looked directly at him.

  “Do I have milk on my face or something?”

  His gaze slowly and deliberately slipped over her. “No. I was about to ask you what you were planning to do today.”

  She shrugged. “I need to organize the notes and books I’ll be taking to the university tomorrow. Other than that, I don’t have anything planned. So don’t worry. You won’t have to follow me around the supermarket again.”

  He curled both hands around the coffee mug and Savannah found herself staring at the long fingers, imagining how it might feel to have them curled around her breasts.

  Oh, my. Where were these wild thoughts coming from? And how loud would he laugh if he could read her mind?

  He said, “You don’t have to be so snippy about it.”

  His comment took her by surprise. “Snippy? I’m merely being the way you want me to be.”

  She saw a look of confusion in his brown eyes and then a light of dawning pushed the blank fog away. “Savannah, you’re wrong. I don’t want any such thing.”

  “Oh, yes. You do. That makes it easier for you to dislike me.”

  He sat str
aight up in his chair and stared at her. Savannah deliberately went back to eating her cereal. But inside, her heart was pounding and her lungs felt as though they’d forgotten how to pull in air or push it out.

  “Okay. So I’m off base,” she said. “I’ll tell you the same way you told me yesterday. It doesn’t matter whether you like me or not. It’s your job to protect me. And that’s the only reason you’re sitting here at my kitchen table.”

  He frowned. “Ouch. Something must have stung you last night. Did you check your bed for bedbugs?”

  Something had stung her all right, Savannah thought. But she’d be damned before she let it happen again. “The bed is exceptionally clean.”

  He went back to drinking his coffee and she forced herself to focus on the bowl of cereal.

  After a stretch of awkward silence, he said, “I told my brother I’d show up at the winery today.”

  “Okay.”

  When he didn’t say more, she glanced across the table to see a thoughtful frown on his face.

  “Is that all?” she asked. “Or were you about to tell me that while you’re gone I need to remain inside the apartment and bolt all the doors?”

  “I was going to say something like that. But I’ve changed my mind.”

  Savannah suspected that was something that didn’t happen often with Chaz. He seemed like a man who knew the direction he wanted to take and nothing would change his mind to steer him off course.

  “Oh. Then you’re going to tell me to get the keys to the Lincoln and have fun driving to wherever I want to go.”

  A wry smile slanted his lips. “No. That isn’t going to happen. Not while I’m responsible for your safety.”

  And how long was that actually going to be? Savannah had been thinking he’d be around for the duration of her studies. But perhaps she’d been wrong. After a few days, he might decide he wanted no more of her, or the job.

  Strange how yesterday that thought would have made her a happy woman. Yet, today the idea of him leaving was a bit deflating. Oh, Lord, she was clearly getting messed up in the head.

  “I understand you have responsibilities other than me,” she replied. “But I’m not going to lock myself in the closet while you deal with them.”

  His brows lifted. “The closets in this apartment have locks on them? I hadn’t noticed.”

  Rolling her eyes, she picked up her partially eaten breakfast and carried it over to the sink. “You’d better keep your bodyguard job. I don’t think you’d make it as a stand-up comedian.”

  He walked over to where Savannah was pouring the remains of her cereal down the garbage disposal. As he stood next to her, she caught the faint scent of earthy cologne and felt the warmth of his body radiating toward hers.

  “I never was too good at telling jokes,” he said. “Or making conversation. Not like my brothers.”

  Was that his way of explaining his warm-one-minute-and-cool-the-next attitude? In spite of her resolution to keep a reserved distance between them, she couldn’t stop herself from asking, “You have more than one brother?”

  “I have four brothers. No sisters.”

  She turned her gaze in his direction and suddenly she was taking in his rich brown eyes, tanned skin, and the black mustache and goatee framing his lips. How many women had skimmed their fingertips along his jaw, she wondered. How many had experienced the taste of his lips?

  It doesn’t matter. It can’t matter.

  Swallowing hard, she placed the bowl in the sink and filled it with water. “Are your brothers anything like you?”

  “I wouldn’t say so. We might resemble each other in some ways. But we’re all different. I’m sure it’s that way with you and your siblings.”

  “That’s true. We all have different looks and personalities.”

  Feeling certain that she was going to collapse from a lack of oxygen if she didn’t move away from him, Savannah walked back over to the table.

  To her surprise, he followed her.

  “Uh—back to the winery,” he said. “I was thinking you might want to join me.”

  She tried to hide her surprise. “Go with you? Why? So you won’t have to worry about leaving me here alone?”

  He grimaced. “Damn it, Savannah. Do you have to make everything difficult? Yes. That is one of the reasons for the invitation. I’m not going to leave you here alone. But I also thought you might like to see the place. Mendoza Winery is becoming rather popular with folks in the area. And making wine is sort of a science—that’s your field.”

  “Yes, it’s my field. But making wine is a long way from finding a cure for a disease.”

  He suddenly grinned. “Who knows? Someday you might learn there’s a lifesaving effect in fermented grapes.”

  She’d never expected anything like this from the man. He almost made it sound like he wanted her company. And the dimples that were coming and going at the corners of his lips were impossible to resist.

  “Hmm. I can’t argue that point.” She smiled at him. “Okay, I’d like to join you. When were you planning on going?”

  “In a couple of hours.”

  “I’ll be ready,” she told him.

  * * *

  Chaz didn’t do things on impulse and he’d thought long and hard about inviting Savannah to join him on the trip to the winery before he actually asked her. Any way he looked at the situation, he’d recognized his options weren’t good. No way would he leave her here in the apartment, alone and unprotected. On the other hand, taking her with him to the winery made it appear as though the trip were a personal outing. Which might give her the wrong idea. Not only her, but what was his father and brother going to think when he showed up with Savannah?

  The question had him glancing over to where she sat in the passenger seat of his car, gazing curiously out the side window.

  She looked adorably feminine in a pale pink sundress that fit her bodice snuggly and fluttered around her shapely calves. Tiny straps were tied in bows at the top of each bare shoulder and each time Chaz looked at her, the idea of untying those bows flitted through his mind.

  He must have sighed because she suddenly turned her head and looked at him.

  “Are you okay?”

  No, he was in the worst mess he could ever remember getting himself into, Chaz thought. And there was no way to jump out of it. Unless he didn’t care about looking like a cowardly quitter. No, he thought ruefully, he had to power forward and make the best of the situation.

  “Sure. Just concentrating on the traffic,” he lied. “It’s rather busy for Sunday morning.”

  “Since I’ve only been to Austin once before, I really couldn’t say about the traffic,” she said.

  “I’m assuming that one time was when part of the Robinson estate burned.”

  “That’s right. My siblings and I had come up here to attend Schuyler’s family reunion and meet some of our Fortune relatives. But none of Gerald’s children showed up and we were all thinking they weren’t interested in meeting our line of the family. Then Olivia came running in with the news that a fire had occurred and Ben had been seriously injured.”

  “That had to be an inauspicious meeting with your cousins.”

  “It was under strained conditions,” she agreed. “Naturally, everyone was worried about Ben. And everyone was speculating about the fire and how it might have started.”

  “Have you contacted any of your cousins since then?”

  She shook her head. “The only one I’ve talked with is your sister-in-law, Schuyler. She called to express her regret on how everything turned out.”

  “Hmm. She had high hopes for that reunion. And I think when this problem with Charlotte is over, she’ll probably try again at getting the Fortune families together. See, Schuyler is a positive, happy person and she believes everyone should feel as she does.”

  His
gaze left the traffic long enough to see Savannah’s lips tilt into a faint smile.

  She said, “I liked her as soon as I met her. You’re very fortunate to have her for a sister-in-law.”

  “She makes my brother Carlo very happy. That makes me glad she’s come into the Mendoza family.”

  “I feel the same way about Lizzie. The joy she’s given Nolan makes me love her even more. And their baby daughter is so precious. While I’m here in Austin, I’m hoping I’ll get to be more of an aunt to little Stella.”

  Before Savannah had arrived in Austin, Chaz would’ve never expected her to be gushing over a baby. Sure, she was female, but Miles had described his daughter as having little to no interest in anything outside of her science studies. Miles Fortune must be too busy making money to see the real Savannah, Chaz thought. So far, he’d found her to be multifaceted with all the desires of a normal woman.

  “At the time your father hired me, he gave me a brief rundown of your family,” Chaz told her. “If I remember correctly, Nolan is the only one of you who’s married.”

  “Yes, as of now he’s the only one married,” she replied. “What about your brothers? Is Carlo the lone family man?”

  He hesitated, but only for a brief moment. “No. I have a half brother, Joaquin, who’s married also. Actually, to another one of your Fortune cousins, Zoe.”

  “Zoe?” A thoughtful frown creased her brow before a look of dawning came over her. “Are you talking about Gerald Robinson’s daughter Zoe?”

  “That’s her.”

  “Yes. I did meet her briefly at the Robinson estate. It was shortly after the fire and everything was chaotic. But I recall a tall dark man being with her. She probably introduced him as her husband, but there were so many names and faces that night it’s hard to keep them all straight in my memory.”

  “I’m sure that would’ve been Joaquin. He’s a business consultant and she works in her father’s tech business. That’s how the two of them met.”