Forever Yours

by Francis Ray

  “If grandmother has her way, they won’t be my stores in nineteen days.”

  “So, she was serious about her ultimatum?”

  “Yes,” Victoria said. “My sweet, loving grandmother deliberately badgered me into borrowing money from her to open another store, planning all along to use the loan as leverage to force me to remarry. I could kick myself for thinking she was just being fanciful and that she’d forget all about her plan in a couple of months.”

  “I take it the old girl proved you wrong.”

  “In spades. Unwittingly, I helped her scheme by insisting I put up the other two stores as collateral in case something happened to me. If I default on the loan, I’ll lose everything.”

  Bonnie’s light brown eyes sparkled as she looked around the posh dining room, with its high crystal chandeliers, breathtaking murals of angelic cherubs in a blue sky, and hovering waiters in white dinner jackets. “Well, you picked the right place to find a husband.” She waved a slender hand toward the floor-to-ceiling draped window twenty feet away from them. “The hotel across the street spans three city blocks. There has to be at least two hundred eligible men registered there and probably half that many are prowling the halls in the attached convention center. Minutes from here is the historic stockyards district, where I bet you’ll find another hundred men.”

  Bonnie ignored Victoria’s warning look and continued. “If you don’t feel like going to all that trouble, there’s a man sitting about four tables behind you near the balcony who hasn’t taken his eyes off you since you came in. I’ll bet—”

  “I’ll bet he either has one of those smoldering looks guaranteed to make a woman’s knees weak or he’s showing a toothy smile that helped an orthodontist put a hefty down payment on a Porsche,” Victoria said without looking behind her.

  Bonnie smothered a laugh. “I think he was trying to pull off a combination of the two.”

  “Men! Most of them think all they have to do is show some muscle, be reasonably good looking and a woman will swoon at their feet.”

  The teasing look vanished from Bonnie’s face. “I haven’t seen you this steamed in a long time.”

  “Can you blame me?” Victoria asked, leaning back in her seat. “I’ve boxed myself in. If I don’t find someone to marry, I’ll lose Lavender and Lace.”

  Bonnie frowned. “I know you’re scared and angry, and you have a right to be, but marriage isn’t that bad. I love being married.”

  “Of course you do. You’re married to a man who worships the ground you walk on. My ex-husband only worshiped my bank account,” Victoria said bitterly.

  “I know Stephen betrayed you, but not all husbands are monsters. Dan is the best thing that ever happened to me.” Bonnie’s voice softened. “I can’t imagine my life without him.”

  Victoria nodded. “Maybe because he’s an architect, he wants to create, not destroy. The best decision you ever made was getting bids on renovating that old building for your art gallery. I vividly remember your jaw coming unhinged when Dan came by to give an estimate. He was just as taken with you. I think he loves you now more than he did when you were married five years ago. Stephen’s so-called love for me didn’t last past the honeymoon cruise.” She crunched on a piece of lettuce. “I’ve been attracting the rejects ever since.”

  “Part of that is your fault, Victoria,” Bonnie replied gently as she picked up her wine glass.

  Jerking upright in her tapestry upholstered chair, Victoria stared at Bonnie. Despite being complete opposites in background and temperament, they had been best friends since they were in the sixth grade. They met when Victoria, painfully shy and lonely, had enrolled in Eastwood Academy after the death of her parents. The outspoken Bonnie had looked at the scrawny kid clutching her books, her eyes wide and frightened, and taken her under her wing. “My fault?”

  Setting the long-stemmed glass aside, Bonnie explained. “You’re beautiful, independent, and successful. That’s intimidating enough to a lot of men. And since your divorce from Stephen, a trifle hard on a man’s ego. Only a fool, a schemer, or a man in love is going to let you tramp all over him.”

  Victoria’s delicate features hardened. “After the fiasco with my ex-husband, can you blame me?”

  “No, I can’t, but Stephen has been history for a long time. That is,” she paused. “Until last week.”

  “I can’t believe he had the nerve to call me,” Victoria snorted. “I hope the sound of the receiver crashing down gave him an earache for a week.” She played with her salad. “Yesterday I learned the reason for his sudden interest. He lost another job.”

  “He certainly made a mess of his life. On the other hand, you’ve got to get on with yours. I think your grandmother realized your hesitancy and decided to give you a little push.”

  Victoria’s fingertips drummed out an angry beat on the white tablecloth. “But why did it have to be over a cliff?”

  Bonnie laughed. “I’m glad to see you haven’t lost your sense of humor. Does it also mean you’ve decided to quit fighting and get married?”

  For once Victoria didn’t have a quick answer. No matter how she tried to find a way out of the trap her grandmother had set for her, she came up empty. Clair Benson had Victoria’s signature on a legal document. The only way she could find a way out was to sign another legal document. A marriage license. Her stomach clenched. Never again had she wanted to give a man any control of her body or of her life.

  “Well?” Bonnie prompted.

  Victoria looked at her friend waiting for an answer and knew she had only one choice if she wanted to keep her boutiques. Her face settled into determination. “I’ll do whatever it takes to save Lavender and Lace. Only this time the marriage will be on my terms. Not my grandmother’s. Not the man I choose. This time I’ll make the rules.”

  “I don’t suppose you’re going to make this easy and fall in love in the next nineteen days?”

  Victoria’s eyes narrowed. “Love has nothing to do with this. It’ll be a business arrangement. A simple transaction for which I’m willing to pay.”

  Bonnie looked as if she wanted to argue, but all she said was, “How long do you plan to stay married?”

  “A year, tops. Anything shorter and grandmother can demand payment in full on my loan.” Victoria twirled her fork.

  Bonnie pushed aside her salad plate. “I hate to bring this up, but how do you plan to keep your grandparents and everyone else from finding out the marriage is a sham?”

  “My husband will travel a great deal. His being gone so much will lend credibility to the eventual divorce.” Glancing at the lobster chowder the waiter placed in front of her, Victoria picked up her soup spoon. Her appetite had returned.

  Deep in thought, Bonnie didn’t pay any attention to the lasagna of shrimp, scallop and spinach set before her. Instead she said, “What you need is a man who has enough integrity not to want your money after the divorce, or one who has enough money not to want yours.”

  “I know,” Victoria said. “I want him to quietly disappear when the time is up. Call it pride or whatever, but I don’t want it known that the only way I can get a man is to pay for one. Once was enough.”

  “Then we need to add ‘discreet’ to his qualifications,” Bonnie said.

  Victoria put her spoon down. “You might as well add ‘kind,’ ‘sensitive,’ and ‘caring’ while you’re at it.”

  With a secret smile, Bonnie looked at Victoria. “I have your man.”

  “What!” A wave of silence followed as stylish heads turned toward their table. Victoria ignored them. “Tell me you’re not kidding.”

  Grinning, Bonnie shook her head, her dark, layered hair brushing against her cheeks. “My cousin, Kane Taggart, is thirty-six, single, and has all the qualities you’re looking for.”

  “Kane?” Victoria’s dark brows furrowed. “That name sounds familiar.”

  Bonnie sucked her teeth. “Why, Victoria Chandler. I never thought you’d forget the name of the man you f
irst slept with.”

  Outrage and indignation swept across Victoria’s face. “Stephen is the on—”

  Laughter erupted from Bonnie. “I meant ‘slept’ literally. How could you forget the night you spent at my house, when that violent storm roared across the city around midnight? We had just graduated from high school, and my parents and your grandparents were out of town. We were shaking as much as the trees.” Bonnie fingered the stem of her wine glass. “Tornadoes had been sighted in the area and hail was so loud on the roof we had to shout to hear each other. The phone was out and there was a loud pounding at the door just as the lights went out.”

  Victoria completed the story. “It was Kane. He had driven through high winds and rain to check on us. Your parents called him when they couldn’t reach us.”

  “It’s a wonder we didn’t knock him down the way we launched ourselves at him,” Bonnie laughed. “I don’t see how he managed to get out of his raincoat, because neither one of us would let go of him.”

  Victoria giggled, Bonnie’s laughter infectious. “Yet somehow he got us settled in the hall, with pillows, blankets, a flashlight and a small portable radio he had brought. You went to sleep a couple of hours later, but I don’t think I dropped off until around dawn. Sometimes we talked, sometimes we just listened to the rain.”

  A vague memory about that night tugged at Victoria. A deep, soothing voice and the gentleness with which she was held returned to her. Her parents’ hugs had been frequent, but quick. Her grandparents patted her on the hand or on the head. Victoria hadn’t realized how wonderful and reassuring it would feel to be held until Kane’s arms tightened each time her voice quivered or she shivered. Somehow she had never experienced the same sense of well-being in a man’s arms. She quickly attributed the reason to youthful embellishment.

  “That morning he was gone. I don’t think I ever saw him again,” Victoria said quietly.

  “You must have. He was in and out of my house the entire summer and so were you. But you started dating Johnny Evans around that time and he was all you talked about until you went to college.” Bonnie picked up her fork. “Anyway, Kane’s in town for a few days and he came by the house last night to say hello. He wasn’t there ten minutes before he asked about you.”

  “Me?”

  “You may not remember him, but he definitely remembers you,” Bonnie explained. “I detected a lustful gleam in his black eyes when he said your name.”

  “I don’t want lust. I want a business arrangement,” Victoria said, her voice tight and final. She owed Kane her gratitude, not her body.

  “That’s up to you and Kane.” Bonnie took a bite of pasta. “Come over to the house tonight around seven and meet him. Dan should be home from work by then.”

  “I don’t know, Bonnie. Do you think he’ll agree to my terms?”

  “Kane has a big heart for anyone in trouble. Besides, what have you got to lose?”

  Knowing what she had to lose right down to the last square footage, Victoria sighed and said, “I’ll be there.”

  At exactly five minutes to seven, Victoria walked up the curved stone steps to Bonnie’s home. A wide expanse of glass showcased the rosewood staircase and elegance of the house in the development Dan had helped design. Working together, Bonnie and Dan had built their dream house. Immediately, Victoria thought of Stephen. He had destroyed her dreams by working for nothing and grabbing with both hands for any and everything, she thought bitterly.

  With grim determination, Victoria brought her mind back to the present. Shifting uneasily in her three-inch heels, she took a deep breath, then brushed an unsteady hand over her magenta-colored raw silk jacket and skirt. She had come this far, she couldn’t back down now. No matter how repugnant marriage was to her, she couldn’t add another failure to her already seemingly long list.

  She was the only child of brilliant parents, yet she was an average student. Not once did she get the lead in a play, make the honor roll or the cut for the drill team. She hadn’t dared try out for cheerleaders. Her success on the girls’ softball team in her senior year hadn’t made up for the failures that continued to dog her after graduation from high school. Because she had dropped out of college at the end of her junior year to get married, she had failed to get her business degree from Texas Southern University.

  Lavender and Lace was the one and only success in life that she could look upon as totally hers. She would keep it at all cost. Squaring her shoulders as she always did when faced with a problem, she ran a distracted hand through her wind-tossed hair, then rang the door-bell.

  Her hand lifted again just as the heavily carved door opened. Her jaw slackened. Standing in front of her was the brawniest man she had ever seen. He had a rugged, dark brown face. Winged brows arched over piercing black eyes edged with thick lashes. A neatly trimmed mustache defined an uncompromising mouth.

  Separately, his features weren’t noteworthy, but combined, they created an unusual picture of sharp angles and hard planes, as if someone had done the impossible and sculptured his face from a mountain of granite.

  His tall, powerful body reinforced her impression of a mountain. At least six feet five, his white-shirted torso lent new meaning to the term “yard-wide chest.” Broad shoulders tapered to a surprisingly flat stomach and narrow waist. A hand-tooled belt, with the initials K.T. on the silver buckle, looped through faded jeans that displayed his muscular build with shameless disregard for propriety.

  Her drying throat caused her to snap her mouth shut. Oh, God! How could I have forgotten a man this overwhelmingly masculine and intimidating?

  Chapter 2

  “Hello, Tory. It’s nice seeing you again.”

  Victoria blinked. The soft, modulated voice contrasted dramatically with the towering giant standing in front of her. It was as if Mother Nature had tried to make up for the excess in his size by subduing his voice, then making the tone irresistibly hypnotic.

  “Please, come on in.”

  When she didn’t move, gentle, almost caressing fingers closed around her silk-covered elbow and drew her inside. Absently, she wondered why she allowed him to continue holding her once she was over the threshold.

  “I take a bit of getting used to,” he said easily as he guided her past the formal living area toward the den in the back of the house.

  “Er . . . I . . . no. You just startled . . . I mean . . .” She stammered, then flushed.

  A deep melodious sound floated over her head. She glanced up to see the walking mountain laughing. The sound was as soothing and as alluring as his voice.

  He peered down at Victoria with what she thought were the most compelling eyes she had ever seen . . . soul-stirring and midnight black. She shifted under his penetrating stare, annoyed with the tingling sensation in the pit of her stomach.

  “Beautiful women can be forgiven almost anything, Tory. Hope you don’t mind me calling you Tory. Victoria sounds too formal,” he explained easily. “Let’s go find Bonnie. Dan’s still at the office and she’s using us as guinea pigs to test her cooking skills.” He waved Victoria toward a teal leather couch.

  Automatically, Victoria perched on the edge of the cushion, her gaze on Kane. She was still trying to get her bearings, though he lounged easily against a winged leather chair with one booted foot crossed over the other. There had been no hesitation when he met her, no awkwardness. She had the feeling that there weren’t many situations where he felt as overwhelmed as she did at the moment. A man his size probably hadn’t faced too many things that intimidated him.

  A thunderstorm with wind gusts of sixty miles an hour hadn’t stopped him. She wasn’t foolish enough to think he’d let her wishes sway him. Stephen had never listened to her opinion and he had been nowhere near Kane’s formidable size.

  It would take a special kind of man not to use such obvious strength indiscriminately. The man who calmed her fears while the wind howled and the rain slammed against Bonnie’s house had been that type of man. Victoria had learne
d the hard way that people often let you see what they wanted you to see.

  “Can you cook?” Kane asked abruptly.

  “I . . . why . . . er . . . yes.”

  A slow, teasing grin lifted his mustache. “Good.”

  Victoria blinked. His smile revealed the sensual curve of his lower lip. Warmth curled through her. Unconsciously, she leaned forward to study him closer. How could she have thought his mouth was uncompromising? The sudden knowledge of what she felt, what she was doing, raced through her like wildfire, fierce and frightening. She jerked upright in her seat. The last thing she needed was a man who made her remember she was a woman.

  Bonnie entered the room, carrying a clear oblong tray. “Hi, Victoria. Let’s try these cheese appetizers while you and Kane get reacquainted.”

  Kane groaned. “You promised to feed me, not tease me with something the size of my thumb.”

  “Man does not live by bread alone,” Bonnie said meaningfully, then winked at Victoria.

  Victoria surged to her feet. “Bonnie, we need to talk.”

  “In a minute,” Bonnie said, setting the tray on a glass coffee table. “Let’s eat these while they’re hot.”

  “Now,” Victoria said, unable to keep the panic out of her voice.

  Hands braced on her slim hips, Bonnie straightened. “What’s so important it can’t wait?”

  Victoria was unable to keep from glancing at Kane. What she saw didn’t reassure her. She had never seen a person so still and watchful. She swallowed. “I’m sure Kane won’t mind excusing us.”

  “No, I wouldn’t. But you don’t have to take Bonnie into another room to tell her I’m not what you had in mind as marriage material,” he said bluntly.

  Victoria whirled to face Kane. She realized she hadn’t been able to hide the wild desperation in her voice. He returned her look with an unblinking stare.

  “But you’re exactly what she had in mind!” Bonnie argued, clearly puzzled as she looked from Victoria to Kane.