Her Sweetest Fortune
Page 19
Early the next morning, Sophie carried a steaming mug of coffee into the bedroom and with her free hand reached down and touched Mason’s bare shoulder.
Groaning, he lifted his head and opened his eyes to see her standing at the side of the bed. His navy blue robe swallowed her small curves and her face was bare of makeup, but she didn’t feel self-conscious about letting Mason see her this way. During the past twelve hours she’d learned that Mason loved her for the person she was inside, not for her looks, or name, or bank account. And that fact made her so deliriously happy she was certain she was walking on air instead of a hardwood floor.
“Sophie, honey, what are you doing up already?” he asked with a sleepy smile. “And you made coffee, too?”
Laughing softly, she said, “I know it’s hard to believe, but I can do one or two things in the kitchen.”
He quickly propped a pillow against the headboard. Once he’d scooted up to a sitting position and settled back against the pillow, he took the coffee from her.
She watched him take a sip, then his brow arched with surprise. “Mmm. This is delicious. What did you do to it?”
She cut him a saucy glance. “I put in water and coffee grounds and turned the switch to ON.”
Chuckling, he took another sip, then set the mug on the nightstand and reached for her. Sophie let out a happy squeal as he pulled her down onto his lap.
“Good morning, beautiful,” he whispered against her lips.
She kissed him deeply, then eased back to look at him. With his dark hair rumpled and a shadow of a beard covering his face, he looked incredibly handsome and terribly sexy. Yet to know that he loved her—not because she was a Fortune, but because she was simply Sophie—filled her heart with a joy that was almost impossible to contain.
“Good morning, my darling. How does it feel to wake up to a woman and a cup of coffee?”
His eyes narrowed to a provocative slant. “I think this is going to be pretty darn easy to get used to. Uh—what do you think your family is going to say when I slip an engagement ring on your finger?”
She held up her left hand and imagined a ring sparkling back at her. “When is that going to happen?” she asked coyly.
“Today. That is, if I can find a stone that suits you and one that I can afford.”
Shaking her head, she cradled his face with her hands. “Mason, I don’t care if it’s a tiny chip of a diamond or a plastic ring out of a toy machine. As long as it means that you love me. And as for my family, I’m sure my siblings will be very happy for me. As for my parents, they’re in no position to give me advice about marriage.”
His expression turning sober, he threaded his fingers through her long hair. “Sophie, the other day—when I said all those awful things about you being a Fortune—I was wrong. And I’m sorry. I said them out of frustration.”
“It doesn’t matter now, honey. Really, it doesn’t.”
“Yes, Sophie, it does matter. I want you to know that I do understand that being a Fortune can’t be easy for you. In fact, I can see how hard it is for you to deal with your father’s infidelity and illegitimate children.”
“I feel like I’ve gone through an earthquake and I’m still searching for solid ground,” Sophie admitted. “But in a way it’s helped me see exactly what’s most important in life. Wealth, social position, gossip and reputations, none of that means anything compared to having someone to love and share your life with. That’s all I want for us, Mason.”
She glanced away from him and let out a rueful sigh and Mason quickly touched a hand to her cheek.
“You’re not still worried, are you? About us?”
Smiling wanly, she turned her gaze back to his. “No. But now that we’re so happy and I feel so blessed, I’m beginning to see how wrong I’ve been about Chloe Elliott. She was at the Fortune dinner party the other night and I’m ashamed to admit I said some very nasty things to her. I was so outraged to see her there acting like family. But now—well, I’ve come to realize she can’t help the circumstances of her birth any more than I can. I’m going to do my best to make amends with her as soon as I can.”
He patted her cheek. “That’s my sweet Sophie. The one I love.”
A while later, after they’d eaten a quick breakfast of toast and jam, Mason headed to the shower, but Sophie wasn’t in a hurry to leave the little breakfast table. Instead, she picked up her cell phone and scrolled through her contact list until she reached the name Ariana Lamonte.
The woman answered on the third ring and as Sophie responded, she turned her gaze toward the bright morning sunlight streaming through the kitchen window. Today was a new beginning to the rest of her life, she thought. From now on things could only get better.
“Ariana, this is Sophie Fortune Robinson. I hope I’m not calling too early.”
“Not in the least,” Ariana replied. “I’m already at my desk. Is there something I can do for you?”
Sophie took a deep breath. “As a matter of fact, there is. I’m ready to help you find out my mother’s real story.”
“I’m so pleased you’ve decided to go after the truth, Sophie. So when will you be free to meet?”
A few minutes later, Sophie had scheduled a meeting with Ariana and ended the phone call just as she felt Mason’s hands settle gently on her shoulders.
Already dressed in black slacks and a pale blue dress shirt with a tie tossed around his neck, he’d clearly overheard the end of her conversation with Ariana and couldn’t keep the concern from his voice. “What if you find something unpleasant about your mom? Will you be able to handle more bad news about your family?”
Their gazes met and the love she saw in his brown eyes filled her with courage and strength. “As long as you love me, Mason, I can face anything.”
Bending his head, he kissed her thoroughly, then whispered against her lips, “And I’m going to love you for a long, long time. Like forever. So hurry and get ready. We have some engagement ring shopping to do.”
“I’ll be ready in a flash,” she promised.
Ready to start their new life together.
*
Look for the next installment of the new Harlequin Special Edition continuity
THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS: THE SECRET FORTUNES
Young widow Chloe Elliott falls for an ex-soldier-turned-ranch-hand with PTSD—but will her discovery that she’s linked to the famous Fortune family destroy their chance for a future together?
Don’t miss
FORTUNE’S SECOND-CHANCE COWBOY by USA TODAY bestselling author Marie Ferrarella
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His Pregnant Courthouse Bride
by Rachel Lee
Prologue
Circuit Judge Wyatt Carter had just finished a pleasant dinner at home, a too-rare occurrence, because he lived alone and was generally too busy to take the time to indulge in cooking. But this was a quiet Sunday evening after a comfortable day of catching up on his reading, and he’d made the effort to cook chicken Alfredo for himself and enjoyed it with a glass of pinot grigio. He felt somewhat self-indulgent, but considering how little time he had for indulgences, he didn’t feel guilty.
When the phone rang, he assumed it was his father. Earl Carter ran the family law practice, although lately it had shrunk because Earl was getting older and didn’t take as many cases. Earl seemed content enough to let the practice contract even though he’d once said it was his legacy to his son. Then Wyatt had become a circuit court judge, and the plans of a father-son practice had melted away.
But it was not his father, much to his surprise. It was a voice out of the past.
“Wyatt?”
He recognized Amber Towers’s voice. They’d kept in touch over the last decade, mostly by email and occasional phone calls. Amber had moved on from law school to a large firm in St. Louis, then recently to a much bigger firm in Chicago, headed for the heights. Wyatt, who had graduated two years ahead of her, had joined the military and spent three years in the judge advocate general’s office. Then he’d come back to out-of-the-way Conard County to fulfill his father’s dream of a shared practice.
He and Amber had once been very close friends, although nothing more than that, and since then they’d maintained a long-distance friendship, except for dinner or lunch at a bar association conference.
Now he heard her voice with astonishment, since she hadn’t called in ages, and concern popped into his mind. “Amber? What’s wrong?”
“You’re never going to believe it. I’m in a mess. Got an hour or so?”
“Of course.”
His mind dived down the byways of memory, recalling Amber as he had first seen her. She was young for a first-year law student, having gone to college two years early and finishing her bachelor’s degree in three years.
She had, in short, been barely nineteen. He’d been twenty-seven, because he’d taken a couple of years after college to try his hand at other things before going to law school. She’d been very pretty, so pretty that every guy who wasn’t already married—and some who were—chased her. He hadn’t chased. It wasn’t that he hadn’t found her attractive, but facing his tour with the military in exchange for them paying his law school expenses, he felt it was the wrong time to get involved, especially since the direction she wanted to take was far from his path. He’d also felt that given the difference in their ages, it might be close to cradle robbing. Amber had seemed so young to him then.
So they’d become friends over textbooks and in oral arguments. He’d mentored her, having already taken the classes she was in, and she’d challenged him with her sharp mind.
A lovely woman barely emerging from adolescence, with dark hair, a pleasant figure and a face that had been pretty but painfully young. Of one thing he had been sure, though: Amber would rise to the top. He wouldn’t have been surprised if she reached the Supreme Court.
But now she was in trouble?
He poured himself another glass of wine, carried it to his easy chair and prepared to listen.
It didn’t take an hour, either. Amber was indeed in a mess.
Copyright © 2017 by Susan Civil Brown
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Stella Bagwell for her contribution to the Fortunes of Texas: The Secret Fortunes continuity.
ISBN-13: 9781488013997
Her Sweetest Fortune
Copyright © 2017 by Harlequin Books S.A.
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