Mendoza's Secret Fortune (The Fortunes of Texas: Cowboy Country)

by Marie Ferrarella

  “But what about the nightlife in Miami?” she asked, remembering that he had told her there was nothing like it and that he couldn’t wait to get back to it. “You said you missed it.”

  “Not half as much as I’d miss you if I left,” he told her with all sincerity.

  He knew without asking that this was where she wanted to be. He might convince her to come with him to Miami, but she wouldn’t be happy there. Besides, Horseback Hollow was growing on him, God help him.

  “Miami nightlife will have to go on without me.” He smiled at her. “I found something much better to do with my time—convincing you to be my wife. If you’ll have me.”

  “Matteo—” she began.

  He couldn’t read her expression, which meant that he didn’t know what she was going to say.

  What he was afraid of was that she was going to turn him down, saying no to his proposal. Right now, he couldn’t face hearing that hurtful word, so he began to talk quickly, hoping to steer Rachel’s conversation in a slightly different direction.

  “I want you to know I’m not going to pressure you,” he told her solemnly. “You can take as long as you like to make up your mind.”

  Rachel tried again. “Matteo—”

  And again he headed her off. “You don’t have to give me an answer anytime soon, Rachel. Really. I’m good. I can wait as long as I have to in order to hear you give me the right answer.”

  “Matteo—” There was just a little bit of an edge to her voice this time.

  “I’m serious,” he continued, talking right over her. “You don’t have to say anything now. We can go back to the ceremony like nothing’s happened and—”

  “Matteo!” Frustrated at not being able to squeeze in a single word, even edgewise, Rachel finally raised her voice to almost a shout so that it would be heard over his voice.

  “What?” Matteo asked, fearing that defeat was tottering just an inch away.

  He knew that she certainly hadn’t had enough time to think this through yet. He needed time to convince her about this.

  “Yes!” Rachel finally declared the second there was an iota of silence between them.

  For a second, the word didn’t register with Matteo, shimmering instead just on the outskirts of his comprehension. And then it hit him what she was saying yes to.

  Or at least what he fervently hoped she was saying yes to.

  “Yes?” he asked, almost hesitantly, watching her face intently.

  This time Rachel nodded as well, her smile so wide, he thought he could just fall into it and stay basking in the wattage for a couple of lifetimes, all his needs met and answered.

  “Yes,” she assured him.

  He had to be sure, crystal clear sure. “Do you mean yes, you’ll marry me?”

  “Of course I mean yes, I’ll marry you—if you’re absolutely sure you want me.” Rachel still felt she had to qualify her words—just in case.

  For his part, Matteo looked almost serene when he answered, “I have never been so sure of anything in my life.”

  “Then what are you waiting for?” she asked, clearly expecting something. “Aren’t proposals usually sealed with a kiss?”

  “You’re right,” he said solemnly. He was able to maintain that look for a total of five seconds before the smile came out. “What was I thinking?”

  “That you want to kiss me, I hope,” Rachel told him in a low, sultry voice that was meant for moments just like this.

  He left nothing more up in the air, or to chance. Neither did he allow another second to go by without kissing the woman who had simultaneously conquered him and crowned him emperor of his world, of their world, all with the same breath.

  “I have no idea what I did,” he said, enfolding her in his arms, “to deserve this. To deserve you.”

  “Santa said you were a very, very good boy this year,” she teased him.

  “Remind me to give Santa a discount shipping rate for his annual run this year,” he told her.

  “Consider it done,” she murmured just a second before her lips found his. “No more talking,” she told him. “Just doing.”

  “No more talking,” he agreed.

  And, as always, Matteo Mendoza was a man of his word.

  Epilogue

  Battling the sweetest kind of exhaustion that a man could ever wish for, Matteo fell back on the king-size hotel bed in the throes of waning euphoria. With his last bit of strength, he threaded his arm around the woman who had so quickly become the center of his universe and drew her even closer to him.

  “Wow,” he gasped when he could finally suck in enough air to form words. “You’ve completely worn me out, woman. You keep that up and I’m not going to live long enough to make it to the wedding.”

  Grinning, Rachel turned her body into his, glorying in his sensual warmth.

  “I’m afraid you brought that on yourself by being such a stud. But if you’re having trouble keeping up, we could always postpone the wedding. That way, you can build up your strength.”

  “Postpone the wedding?” he echoed. “And risk you changing your mind? Not on your life.” Running the back of his hand along her cheek, Matteo grew a little more serious. “How did I get to be so lucky?” he asked in a whisper.

  Rachel’s eyes crinkled. “Funny, I was just thinking the same thing.”

  “Now all I need is an unlimited supply of vitamins to keep up with you, and I’m all set.” He tightened his arm around Rachel just a little more. “Tell me, what do you think about the summer?” he wanted to know.

  Rachel pretended to think over his question seriously. “It’s usually a little hotter, but in general, it’s a nice season.”

  He laughed and shook his head. She was one of a kind, and he adored her. “I meant for the wedding, wise guy.”

  “Spring, summer, fall, today, tomorrow night, whenever you want to do it is fine with me.” The important thing was that he loved her. Everything else was a distant second.

  “We’re going to need some time to get everything ready,” he pointed out, nibbling a little on her shoulder. The woman had the sexiest limbs he’d ever come across. Everything about her just drove him wild.

  “I’m ready at any time,” she responded.

  Any time did not leave time for all the trappings that went with a wedding. “The words wedding gown, wedding cake, wedding invitations, reception hall mean anything to you?” he wanted to know.

  “Yes, headaches. They mean headaches,” she underscored. “I don’t need all that as long as I have you.” And she meant that from the bottom of her heart. He was all she required for her happily-ever-after.

  Matteo looked at her in amazed disbelief. “I thought it was always the woman who wanted something big and fancy.”

  She spread one hand, indicating herself. “You got the exception.”

  “So did you, I’m afraid,” he countered. He liked the idea of a big wedding, of showing Rachel off to the entire universe. “My father is very traditional. He likes to see his kids get married with all the trimmings.” Matteo paused for a moment, studying her expression. And then it came to him. “You’re worried about inviting your family, aren’t you?”

  Rachel shrugged one shoulder in halfhearted semi denial. “Not worried, exactly, but it’s been five years since I’ve seen any of them.” What if they all turned down the invitation? She tried to tell herself it wouldn’t matter—but it would.

  “Don’t you think it’s about time to put that all behind you, start fresh?” Matteo suggested. “Clean slate and all that stuff?”

  “Is that why you insisted on bringing me here to Austin?” She’d wondered about that ever since he’d told her that he’d booked a suite at the Hilton Hotel right outside Austin. Wondered and worried, as well.

  “I brought you here
because this is the best hotel I know of. The fact that it’s located in Austin is just a coincidence. Not that I mind. Coming here lets me see the city that’s responsible for raising a beauty like you.” He felt as if her eyes were boring straight into him. “Why are you staring at me like that?”

  “I’m waiting for your nose to grow,” Rachel said with a perfectly straight face.

  His expression, on the other hand, was seductively wicked. “I’m lying here naked next to you,” he pointed out. “That’s not the part of me that’s being affected.”

  She laughed and kissed him, then raised herself up on her elbow so she could get a better look at his face. “I’m being serious.”

  “So am I,” he said, cupping the back of her head and bringing her mouth down to his.

  “I can’t say no to you when you do that,” she told him, her words escaping on a breathless sigh.

  “Lucky me,” he murmured just before he began making love with her again.

  * * *

  Bemused, so in love she could hardly stand it, Rachel feigned being asleep and watched her fiancé head to the shower through barely opened eyes.

  Matteo hadn’t bothered putting anything on as he left the bed. For the hundredth time, she thought to herself that he had a truly magnificent body, the kind that created goose bumps in its wake.

  She was very, very happy and luckier than she’d ever thought possible.

  The bathroom door closed. She heard the sound of water being turned on. She was tempted to get up and surprise Matteo by joining him in the shower.

  But first she had something else to do.

  Though he hadn’t said it in so many words, she knew that Matteo had brought her back to the city where she had grown up for a reason. He wanted her to make peace with her father, to reconcile their differences because he felt that she wouldn’t have any peace until she did.

  He knew her so well, Rachel thought now, smiling as she pulled the blanket over her.

  Drawing the hotel phone over to her on the bed, she pressed a series of keys on the keypad. She surprised herself as her father’s cell-phone number came back to her so easily.

  The pit of her stomach quivered a little as she heard the phone on the other end ring. It tightened into a complete knot when she heard the deep male voice say “Hello?”

  “Daddy? Daddy, it’s Rachel,” she said. “I’m here in Austin. Can I come by the house? I need to talk to you.” Rachel paused for a second, then added, “It’s about the Fortunes.”

  * * * * *

  Don’t miss the next chapter in

  THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS:

  COWBOY COUNTRY

  Cisco Mendoza is used to getting what he

  wants—by any means necessary. But when a

  lucrative job assignment puts him at odds with

  innocent Delaney Fortune, he has to choose

  between money—and love. Can Cisco find a way

  to have it all?

  Look for

  THE TAMING OF DELANEY FORTUNE

  by Michelle Major

  On sale April 2015, wherever Harlequin books

  and ebooks are sold.

  Keep reading for an excerpt from A CONARD COUNTY BABY by Rachel Lee

  http://www.harlequin.com/harlequinexperience

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  Chapter One

  Hope Conroy sat in the City Diner in Conard City, Wyoming, waiting for a man named Jim Cashford. She had rarely in her life been as nervous as she felt just then.

  She needed the job. Her family had cut off her credit cards, she had the last hundred dollars from her bank account in her wallet and she didn’t know what in the world she would do if this guy didn’t hire her.

  Clearly she had not planned her escape well, but her need to get away from Dallas had been urgent. She couldn’t take the pressure one more minute.

  Instinctively, she lowered her hand to the gentle swell of her belly, a swelling so slight most wouldn’t notice it. But she did, just as she felt the little movements that seemed almost like bubbles popping. She would do anything for this baby, except marry the man who had raped her.

  She wondered how much she would have to explain to this Cashford guy. His ad had said he wanted a nanny for a thirteen-year-old daughter. What if he thought a pregnant unwed mother would be a bad example? He’d surely notice soon. It wouldn’t be long before the whole world would be able to tell she carried a child.

  So somehow she was going to have to explain this. Having a low-paying job for a month or two wasn’t going to help her much. A hundred dollars wouldn’t buy much gas. She doubted many people would be willing to hire a woman in her state.

  When she’d first come in here to get a little something to eat, a newspaper had been sitting on the table. She had snatched it up before the rude woman had demanded to know what she wanted. Skipping immediately to the want ads, the words about the nanny had seemed to leap out at her, and for a few glorious minutes she thought life had delivered her an answer.

  But brief as her conversation with Cashford had been, doubts had started to grow immediately. She’d hardly been able to swallow the roll she had ordered and most of it still sat on the plate in front of her. She wondered why he was so quick to come into town to meet with her. Did he have trouble keeping nannies? She feared she might be wasting nearly an hour waiting for him, and that tonight there would be no answer to her problem, merely another cold night sleeping in her car. Then what?

  She’d been a fool in so many ways, but even reaching that conclusion didn’t show her any other way she could have handled it. She needed care for her child, for one thing, and while she could have gone on assistance in Texas, getting as far as she could from her family’s reach had seemed imperative. God, they were like hound dogs with a bone. They wouldn’t give up, they wouldn’t believe her and they wouldn’t let her shame the family. A triad she couldn’t escape except with distance.

  A dusty pickup pulled up right out front. It must be Cashford. Her mouth turned immediately dry as sand, and her palms moistened. She wondered if her tongue would stick to the roof of her mouth until she sounded like an idiot who couldn’t even talk.

  A tall, lean, but powerful man climbed out. Despite what Hope considered a chilly day, he didn’t wear a jacket. Instead, he had on the basic local uniform of old jeans, cowboy boots, a chambray shirt and a cowboy hat that looked as if it had been a lot of places besides on his head. A working cowboy. She’d seen them sometimes in Texas when she got away from the city. Very different from the dudes in Dallas who only wanted to look the part.

  Sun and wind had weathered his face some, but she didn’t judge him to be terribly old. Maybe forty? A far cry from her twenty-four, but not that huge a leap. Under any other circumstances, she’d have considered him a hunk. Even in the midst of her overwhelming anxiety she felt a prickle of attraction, but quickly quashed it. Never again.

  Attractive or not, right now, this guy might be a threat or a savior. She had no idea which.

  He walked to the front door with that loose stride shared by people who spent a lot of time in a saddle. He opened it, waving to the grumpy
woman who had served her. “Howdy, Maude. How’s it going?”

  Maude frowned. “Barely getting by, as usual.”

  “Well, that’s good I guess.”

  Then he turned to scan the small diner with eyes so blue they almost seemed to cast their own light.

  “Coffee?” Maude asked him.

  “And a slice of your pie.” His gaze settled on Hope. “And bring one for the lady here.”

  Taking off his hat to reveal dark hair that silvered a bit at the temples, he crossed the short distance and thrust his hand out to Hope. She reached up to shake it, finding it warm and work-hardened. “Jim Cashford,” he said. “Most folks call me Cash. You’re Hope Conroy?”

  “Yes.”

  He smiled. It was a dazzling smile that nearly took her breath away. “Good. I’d hate to be scaring off strange young ladies who weren’t looking for me.”

  He slid into the booth across from her and didn’t say anything more until Maude had brought them both huge slices of apple pie with a side of vanilla ice cream. Those plates hit the table with a sharp clatter, but Jim Cashford didn’t seem disturbed by it. A mug of coffee followed.

  “Want some coffee?” Cashford asked Hope. “Maude makes the best.”

  “No, thank you. Water is fine.”

  He forked some pie into his mouth, his blue eyes scanning her. “I’ll be up-front,” he said when he had swallowed. “I’m not experienced at interviewing for a nanny. I usually interview ranch hands. But my ex died, I’ve got one unhappy thirteen-year-old, I can’t seem to connect with her and I’m working too much. So I want someone closer to her age to be a friend to her as much as anything, but someone old enough to have some sense. You said you studied psychology?”