Bride of Fortune

by Leanne Banks

  “Yes. Lisa has a small gift she wants to give you.”

  “I thought you didn’t want her to get attached to me.”

  “What am I supposed to say to her? Do as I say, not as I do?”

  Adele’s chest grew tight, but she refused to allow herself to believe he was growing attached to her. “You’re not getting attached to me.”

  “Oh?” he said. “Then what am I doing?”

  “You’re temporarily intrigued.”

  He met her gaze. “Now who’s underestimating?”

  “Overestimating some things can be very dangerous,” she murmured, reminding herself not to grow accustomed to the way Jason’s arms felt around her. She deliberately lightened the mood. “Have fun in the land of smog.”

  He gave her a look of mock disapproval. “If you were mine, I would require you to go with me.”

  If you were mine. Adele’s heart jumped. Erase it, she told herself. Forget he said it. Pretend you didn’t hear it. She forced a smile and lifted her chin. “You really seem to get into giving orders a bit much, Your Highness.”

  “Would you go with me?” he challenged.

  “Maybe,” she said. In a heartbeat. “If you asked very nicely.”

  He growled and lifted her feet off the ground, high in the air, so that she looked down at him.

  “Put me down!”

  “Maybe,” he said, slowly skimming her down the front of him, inch by mesmerizing inch. He halted when her mouth was a breath from his. “If you ask very nicely.”

  Adele didn’t see any way out, so she kissed him. It occurred to her that Jason Fortune was far more dangerous than she’d predicted; not because of his power or his wealth, not because he gave her stuff, but because he gave her memories.

  Five days later Adele nervously prepared for her date with Jason. She’d changed dresses three times, her hair had a mind of its own and she’d poked a hole through a fresh pair of stockings. She wasn’t just nervous about seeing Jason for the first time since he’d been away. She wasn’t just nervous about appearing with him in front of his family.

  She was nervous because she was late.

  It didn’t mean anything, she told herself. Just because Colorado could have set the atomic clock, the most precise clock in the world, by her menstrual cycle, it didn’t mean she was pregnant. They’d used protection every time. She was certain. There’d been that one dreamy coupling in the middle of the night, but both she and Jason were so conscientious about protection that she knew he had used protection. She couldn’t be pregnant. Her cycle was just a little haywire because she’d fallen in love. Panic sliced through her.

  “Damn!” she said and poked her nail through her last pair of stockings. “It’s not love,” she told herself. “It’s gratitude. It’s respect, fascination, desire—” She fought the urge to cry. “Oh, I can’t fall in love with him. It would be so stupid.”

  Taking a deep breath, she closed her eyes. She wasn’t pregnant. She had a doctor’s appointment tomorrow to start birth control pills. It would all be settled tomorrow.

  The doorbell rang. Her heart jumped. She opened her eyes, stared into the mirror and saw a woman in love. “Stop it,” she hissed, and rushed toward the door. Even though Jason had called her several times when he’d been away, she’d wondered if he would feel the same way for her when he returned.

  Pulling the door open, she drank in the sight of the man who had haunted every other thought her brain had formed during the past few days. Dressed in a casual, Western-style suit and wearing an intent gaze that warmed her to her toes, he stole her breath.

  “Hi,” he said.

  She felt his gaze skim over her, taking in her short-sleeve, burgundy velvet sheath, her wild hair that she’d worn loose for him and lingering on her lips. “I’m half tempted to forget the party and keep you to myself tonight, but Lisa would kill me.”

  He leaned down to kiss her. “Damn you, you bothered me even while I was gone.”

  “Then we’re even,” Adele said. She saw something in his eyes, something more than fleeting passion that alternately frightened and thrilled her. Afraid of how much it meant to her, she pulled back.

  He cocked his head to one side. “Edgy?” he asked.

  She nodded.

  “The party?”

  The party, my period is late, I love you and want you to love me. Adele just bit her lip and nodded.

  “Don’t worry,” he said, leading her to his car. “If they start putting bamboo shoots under your fingernails, I’ll take you away.”

  “I feel so much better,” she said wryly.

  He stopped directly in front of her before he opened her car door. “We won’t stay long. I have other plans.”

  Adele couldn’t tell whether that made her feel relieved or more nervous. As soon as they arrived at Kate’s home, she and Jason were pulled in different directions.

  Kate welcomed her and directed her to a table laden with finger foods and desserts. Adele couldn’t have been less hungry, but she nibbled on a couple of crackers.

  Tyler appeared by her side. “Great spread.”

  “It’s beautiful,” she said. “How are you?”

  “The preliminary safety report is complete, and the service elevator has been repaired, so we’ve been given the green light to continue construction.” Concern flickered across his face. “We’ve beefed up security.” He grabbed some caviar and a cracker. “Where’s your date?”

  Adele caught sight of Jason across the room. As if he sensed her, he glanced up and met her gaze. Her heart fluttered. “Someone snagged him as soon as we came in the door. I think it might be a local politician.”

  Tyler glanced up and nodded. “Yep, the mayor.”

  “Where’s your date?” she asked.

  He shook his head. “Don’t have one.”

  “It’s interesting the way I keep hearing that you have this reputation with the ladies, but I’ve yet to see a date by your side.”

  He shot her a cagey glance. “I work very hard to cultivate that reputation.”

  “It’s all done with smoke and mirrors, isn’t it?”

  Tyler looked down his nose at her in an expression vaguely reminiscent of Jason when he was displeased. “My brother told me you’re entirely too smart.”

  She smiled. “Your brother is just used to getting his way.”

  “True,” he said and nodded. “But don’t let him fool you. He’s one of those guys who makes it all look easy. But everything hasn’t been easy for him.”

  Adele wanted to ask Tyler what he meant, but someone chose that moment to clang a spoon against a wineglass. Adele craned her neck to spy the mirror image of Devlin Fortune trying to get everyone’s attention. “Is that your father’s brother?” she whispered.

  “Hunter,” he said with a nod.

  Hunter cleared his throat and smiled down at an exquisite young woman with raven hair and violet eyes and a tall, pleased-looking man standing beside her. “I’m happy to announce the engagement of my daughter, Isabelle, to Brad Rowan. Please join me in congratulating them.”

  The guests burst into applause, and Adele glanced once again across the room at Jason. For a moment her wayward mind conjured a forbidden picture. She had not permitted herself to visualize a future with Jason, but what if something magical and amazing happened and they were meant to be forever? What if she and Jason were to marry? What if he became her husband? And she his wife? Adele felt her chest swell at the thought. Waking up with him every morning, sharing the happiness and the difficulties and all the love.

  What would it be like, she wondered, to be Jason’s love? To be the woman he turned to for the rest of his life. The image filled her with such a sense of completeness it sent her spinning.

  “Adele, Adele, I made something for you,” Lisa said, tugging at her arm and pulling her away from her seductive daydream.

  “Your father told me you were going to give me a gift.”

  Lisa’s face fell. “Did he blab and tell
you what it was?”

  Adele laughed. “No. I’m dying of curiosity.”

  Lisa tugged her away from the crowd, and they sat together on a small overstuffed love seat. “I wanted to give you a gift for saving me from the bike accident,” Lisa said.

  “Oh, sweetie, you didn’t have to do that.”

  “But I wanted to,” she said earnestly, and pulled two bracelets from a small cloth purse. “I got some help from my teacher, and I made you and me bracelets. The beads are green and red and black and amber. Green and red for your eyes and hair, and black and amber for my hair and eyes.”

  Too moved for words, Adele shook her head and felt tears threaten. She took Lisa in her arms and hugged her tightly.

  “Don’t you like it?” Lisa asked uncertainly.

  Adele felt a tear sneak down her cheek. “Oh, it’s the nicest thing anyone has every made for me.”

  “It is?” Lisa asked, and Adele could see the confusion because of the life of privilege Lisa had lived.

  “Yes, it is,” Adele said, sniffing. “And I want to put it on right now.”

  “It’s not as fancy as diamonds,” Lisa told her.

  “Oh, sweetheart, it’s a million times better than diamonds,” Adele insisted, and hugged Lisa again. “Thank you.” She sat with Lisa for several more moments, and the two of them discussed school and softball.

  “Y’know,” Lisa said. “It would be okay with me if you and Dad—”

  Panic rose in Adele’s throat. Unable to bear hearing the rest, she shook her head. “Oh, no, Lisa. Not—”

  “I see you got your gift,” Jason said from behind her.

  Adele felt another clutch of emotion and whirled around. “Yes. It’s wonderful,” she said, and felt the threat of tears. She bit her lip and pressed a fingertip just below one of her eyes.

  “Can I have another cookie?” Lisa asked, eyeing the dessert table.

  “Just one,” Jason said sternly, then ruined it by tugging her ponytail as she sped away. He sat next to Adele. “Why are you crying?” he asked in a low voice.

  “She made it herself,” Adele said, trying unsuccessfully to keep the waver from her voice. “And she gave me a story.”

  Jason shook his head and chuckled. “Isn’t that what you said you wanted?”

  “Yes, but—” She shot him a wary glance. “You didn’t put her up to this, did you?”

  He shook his head again. “No. My daughter can be plenty creative without my input.” He studied her face and leaned closer, putting his mouth next to her ear. “Let’s leave.”

  “We haven’t been here long.”

  “I have other plans for you tonight.”

  His voice made promises she knew he would deliver on. “What kind of plans?”

  “I’d rather show you.”

  Jason couldn’t keep his hands off her. As soon as they made it inside his front foyer, he kissed her. He wanted inside her. What was it about this woman that made him want to possess her again and again? What was it about this woman that made him want to give her everything? Was it because he had finally found a woman he could trust?

  Reining in the desire that drove him like wildfire, he pulled back and took a deep breath. “You present an ongoing challenge to me.”

  She licked her lips, and he felt himself grow hard with arousal. “What challenge?”

  “I want you,” he said, “entirely too much.”

  “I have the same problem,” she said, her gaze locked with his.

  Jason bit back an oath at the response she evoked from him and carried her to the master bedroom. He’d promised himself he would go slowly. “The housekeeper’s gone, and Lisa’s spending the night with my mother. Stay with me.”

  She gave a breathless laugh.

  “What?”

  Her green eyes shone with a mix of amusement and desire. “Do you ever ask?”

  He gave a put-upon sigh. “Okay, do you want champagne before or after I take off your dress?”

  “Are you saying you don’t like my dress?” she asked as he allowed her to slide down onto her tiptoes.

  Jason shook his head. The burgundy velvet hugged her curves tantalizingly and made her hair look like fire. “It’s a beautiful dress. It’s just in my way.”

  “Do you always have to be in control?” she asked, playing with his bolo string tie.

  “If I always had to be in control,” he said wryly, “I sure as hell wouldn’t choose to be with you.”

  “Then let me take a turn,” she said.

  “A turn doing what?”

  “Being in control,” she said, and pulled the silver-and-turquoise slide all the way down to the knotted tips of his bolo.

  She wore a look of challenge in her eyes that made him feel like growling, but he swallowed the urge. “Let’s take turns,” he agreed, knowing he was operating on a short leash.

  “Okay,” she said with a siren’s smile. “Me first.”

  Eleven

  The expression in her eyes made him hard. Tempted to make Adele’s “turn” very brief, Jason took a quick, short breath. “Champagne first,” he said, counting on the cool, sparkling wine to take the edge off his gnawing need for her. He quickly grabbed the chilled champagne and glasses from the kitchen and returned to her.

  Popping the cork, he reached for the glasses, but she only held out one.

  Her siren smile returned. “Let’s share.”

  Jason poured the champagne. Watching Adele as she took a few swallows and licked her lips, he felt a little more of the control he so valued slip from his fingertips.

  She lifted the glass to his lips. He covered her hand with his and finished the rest of the cool, bubbly liquid. He poured one more glass, and when she shook her head, he downed it.

  Adele took the bottle and glass from his hand and set them on the coffee table. “I always heard you weren’t supposed to drink champagne quickly. I thought you were supposed to sip it slowly,” she said as she took her time unbuttoning his shirt.

  “I could use a couple of shots of whisky,” he admitted, weaving his fingers through her hair and pretending not to notice as her hand hovered at his belt buckle. “If I had my way, I’d take you on the floor right now.”

  Her gaze met his, and he felt the strength of his hunger for her mirrored back at him through her eyes. Spreading her hands over his chest, she lifted her mouth to his. “Why do I want you so much?” she whispered, the question a mixture of tortured desire and something deeper.

  Her lips touched a chord deep inside him, making his chest contract. Jason had always known Adele’s appeal to him went deeper than her body, but there had been a time when he’d told himself that possessing her physically would assuage his need. She seduced his mouth, kissing him as if she couldn’t get enough of him. Him. As if she couldn’t get enough of Jason Fortune, the man. The knowledge was irresistible to him.

  Jason returned her caresses, consuming her lips and tongue, taking her mouth the way he wanted to take her body. He lowered one of his hands to her breast and found the nipple stiff beneath the velvet.

  Adele’s moan stirred something elemental in him. She pulled back slightly. “You make me forget it’s my turn,” she said with a trembling smile.

  Jason withheld a groan as she skimmed her hands down to the top of his slacks and unbuckled his belt, unbuttoned, and slowly slid the zipper down.

  She brushed her lips against his again as she cupped him and caressed him. She rubbed her thumb over the tip of him and Jason began to sweat. Her small, but, oh, so capable hand rubbed him until his mind clouded with nothing but Adele. He wanted her body, he wanted her mind, he wanted her soul. With a strength that frustrated and threatened him, he wanted her. He wanted everything about her: her impudence, her sense of humor, her beauty and sensuality. Was it possible, he wondered, to absorb all of her being into his at once? Would he at last feel complete?

  The question shot out of nowhere, undoing him further. He had always believed he was complete, that he didn�
��t need a woman. God help him, what if he was wrong?

  Torn by his overwhelming arousal and the disturbing depth of his desire for Adele, he took her mouth and kissed her with urgency.

  Adele shook her head, and frustration stung him. “How long does your turn last?” he asked, hearing the growl in his voice.

  “I’m not done yet,” she said and skimmed her mouth down his chest, darting her tongue, singeing his nerve endings with each touch. Rubbing her hair against his bare skin, she lowered her mouth to his belly, and Jason felt his gut clench in anticipation. He had visualized this too many nights to count.

  Barely sucking in a quick breath, he watched her as she pressed her open mouth against his arousal. She dragged her tongue from the base of him all the way to the top, then took him fully into her mouth. The sight of her lips on him was so erotic he almost couldn’t watch. She pumped gently and he began to swear, a combination of oath and prayer. Pushed to the edge, unable to bear the sight and sensation one more moment, he withdrew and pulled her up to him, taking her mouth. She tasted of his essence, and the knowledge drove him wild.

  “You didn’t like it?” she asked uncertainly.

  Jason groaned. “Too much,” he said, and lowered her zipper, dress and panties in one fell swoop. “My turn now.”

  He luxuriated in the silky skin of her breasts, back and bottom. Squeezing her hips, he rubbed her against the part of him she’d made ache while he made love to her mouth. He felt her knees dip against his and her vulnerability caught at his heart. “Wrap your legs around me,” he told her, and carried her to his bedroom.

  Her wet femininity hovered just above him, tempting him. More than anything he wanted to ease her down and plunge into her velvet wetness. On the fringes of his mind, however, he knew he had to protect her. He had to protect himself. Deeper still, he wanted nothing between them.

  Easing her onto his bed, he watched her hair fan out on either side as her eyes glowed with a wild fire. She rubbed her thighs together and bit her lip as if she were trying to keep from saying something.

  Jason grabbed a couple of plastic packets from the bedside table and quickly applied one for protection. “What is it?” he asked her as she lifted her trembling hand to his face.