Fortune's Greatest Risk (The Fortunes 0f Texas: Rambling Rose Book 4)

by Marie Ferrarella

  “Good,” she whispered as she stood there, willing him to kiss her.

  The next moment, she found that she had the gift of mental telepathy because he did.

  Dillon kissed her.

  And this time, it was even better than it had been the first time. There were no outside sounds to block, no extraneous noises to filter out. No milling people to ignore.

  They could have easily been the only two people in the whole world because, at this moment in time, they really were.

  The moment his lips touched hers, her head instantly began to spin, raising her body temperature and accelerating her heart rate.

  Sinking into the velvety kiss, Hailey leaned into him, twining her arms around Dillon’s neck and wishing with all her heart that she could invite him in.

  But for all intents and purposes, this was their first date and she didn’t want him to think that this was the way all of her first dates went.

  Because they didn’t.

  Damn, Dillon thought, but she was making things really difficult. Without any apparent effort on her part, she had breached all his barriers, leaped over all of his well-placed walls. One second she was on the other side and then, wham, she was right there, nestling in through a crack he hadn’t even been aware existed.

  If he weren’t careful, he was in danger of allowing her to get in far closer than he wanted her to be.

  Even as he reasoned with himself, he had to fight the very real desire to lead her inside and take this date to its natural conclusion.

  But just as he felt that he was about to capitulate and lose the battle with himself, Dillon felt his cell phone suddenly begin to vibrate, demanding his exclusive attention.

  Without looking at the screen, he knew who was calling.

  It had to be her.

  Dillon forced himself to return back to earth. Taking a deep breath, he drew his lips away from Hailey’s.

  “I’d better get going before it’s tomorrow,” he told her.

  But even as he said this, Dillon could feel himself being trapped between a reluctance to leave and the need to go.

  Hailey nodded, drawing back.

  “Can’t have that,” she agreed, although she didn’t sound all that convinced.

  But maybe he was just reading into her reaction, Dillon thought, branding her actions with his own reluctance. He took a deep breath. He needed to stop vacillating and just go before he did something that they were both going to regret for very different reasons.

  He began to walk away from her, then turned back and caught her up in his arms for one last deep quick kiss. When she looked at him, stunned because she thought he’d changed his mind about leaving again, Dillon told her, “One more for the road.”

  And then he was gone.

  Forcing herself to move, Hailey slipped inside her house, then closed the door. Once she flipped the lock, she leaned her back against the door and slid down to the floor.

  “You are definitely not what I’m used to, Dillon Fortune,” she murmured into the darkness.

  He definitely wasn’t what she was used to. But she was really looking forward to finding out what he was like.

  * * *

  The rest of the week spread out before her like an obstacle course to be maneuvered through and conquered with the prize being the man on the other side of that week. Dillon Fortune and his ranch.

  She couldn’t wait to go riding with him. Couldn’t wait to see Dillon looking all masculine and incredibly sexy on top of a horse.

  Couldn’t wait to see him.

  Suddenly, every minute was precious to her as it went by because it was one less minute she had to live through before she could finally get to go horseback riding with Dillon.

  Telling herself that she was behaving like some smitten teenager didn’t make her change her behavior, other than force her to bury it—but only while she was at work.

  And even then, some of her clients, the ones who knew her before the wellness spa had ever opened its doors, detected a difference in her behavior, a certain lightness about her manner.

  “Someone new in your life?” Maryanne Edwards asked her.

  Maryanne had known Hailey since they were both in their senior year in high school. Although not anywhere as close to her as Janelle had been, Maryanne had still witnessed Hailey going through several relationships over the years. She had also seen them all crash and burn for one reason or another.

  “Lots of new someones lately, Maryanne,” Hailey had answered.

  “Let me be more specific,” the other woman said, trying again. “Are you juggling two guys at once?” Maryanne asked enviously.

  “No, it’s more like juggling forty or fifty at the same time,” Hailey answered.

  When her friend could only stare at her, speechless, Hailey had to laugh.

  Taking pity on the woman, Hailey said, “Clients, Maryanne. I’m talking about clients at the spa. I’m juggling forty or fifty clients at a time—and ready to juggle more.”

  Maryanne frowned, disappointed. “You know what I mean.”

  “Yes, I do,” Hailey replied. “And if you’re asking me if I’m juggling a guy, I can assure you that the answer is no, I’m not. Besides,” she continued with feeling, “when would I possibly have time for a new guy when I’ve got so much work to keep me busy? I have to schedule breathing these days.”

  “I know you, Hailey,” the woman told her. “If you like the guy, you would definitely find a way to fit him into your schedule.”

  “Ah, you give me too much credit, Maryanne,” Hailey told the woman as she began to briskly walk away from her friend.

  “Do I?” Maryanne called after her.

  Hailey didn’t answer her. But she smiled as she kept on walking.

  One hour closer to her target.

  Chapter Eleven

  She had told Dillon that she would be ready at 6:30 a.m. Although she was carefree to a fault, Hailey had made it a point never to keep anyone waiting. Which was why the next morning she was ready by 5:30 a.m.

  The last thing she wanted to do was take a chance on having Dillon arrive early, then decide to leave because he didn’t want to wait around while she was getting dressed. Not that Dillon struck her as being the impatient type, but the truth of it was, Hailey was not all that sure exactly what he was.

  While she had to admit that Dillon seemed to be acting less like he was carrying around the weight of the world on his shoulders than when she had first met him, she still sensed that there was something reticent about him. Like he was deliberately holding something back.

  But as to what, she didn’t even have a clue.

  Hailey decided that the easiest explanation was probably that he had been burnt in a relationship by some self-centered, unfeeling woman. As a result, Dillon behaved far more guarded about his emotions than the men she’d known in the past.

  But, she concluded, all that did was present her with a challenge. A challenge she was more than happy to take on and vanquish.

  If that meant getting up slightly before any self-respecting rooster woke up, well so be it. It was a small sacrifice to make.

  To keep her mind off how terribly early it actually was and how much she really wanted to go back to bed, after she showered and dressed for the day at Dillon’s family ranch, Hailey busied herself preparing breakfast for the two of them.

  Not just a simple breakfast, but one that she felt confident any diner on the East Coast would have been more than happy to put on their counter. She was motivated by his apparent attachment to the state where he had originated from: Florida.

  To that end, Hailey made scrambled eggs, toast, bacon and sausage. She also made pancakes and waffles. By the time she finished, there was definitely enough on the table to feed a small army. She willingly admitted that she had indulged in overkill, but she had done it to g
ive Dillon his choice of anything he might have wanted for the first meal of the day.

  In order to ensure that it all kept hot, she put everything on a warming tray that she usually kept tucked away for use during the holidays.

  Hailey had just finished arranging the pancake stacks on two different platters when she heard the doorbell ring. She automatically glanced at her watch.

  Surprisingly, Dillon was ten minutes late.

  Putting the platters where she wanted them, she hurried over to the front door.

  Then, taking a deep breath and bracing herself, she smiled and threw the door open.

  “Hi,” she said, greeting him. “You’re later than you said you’d be. I thought that maybe you had changed your mind.”

  “I would have called if I’d changed my mind,” he assured her. “I just thought I’d let you sleep in a few extra minutes.” He laughed softly to himself, acknowledging his mistake. “I guess I should have known better.”

  And then he stopped, taking in a deep breath and inhaling a number of different aromas, all delicious. He looked at Hailey quizzically.

  “Am I interrupting something? What is that fantastic smell?” he wanted to know.

  Pleased by his reaction, she smiled. “Breakfast. Come,” Hailey coaxed, beckoning for him to follow her as she led the way into the kitchen.

  “You made breakfast?” he asked, surprised. He hadn’t expected her to do that. He had just thought he was coming by to pick her up.

  “I had to,” she answered, then deadpanned, “The elves have gone on strike.”

  He wasn’t prepared to see all the food that was laid out on the counter. Dillon was clearly caught off guard. For a moment, he didn’t know what to say. And then, when he found his tongue, he told her, “You didn’t have to do all this.”

  “Well, once I got started, I kind of did,” she told him. “I wasn’t sure what you’d like to eat and I thought it safer just to give you a wide choice.” She gestured toward the counter. “Take your pick,” she invited, pleased by the stunned expression on his face.

  The sight of all that food really did catch him by surprise, especially in light of what he said in answer to her invitation.

  “I usually just have coffee,” he told her.

  “Oh.” Hailey struggled not to sound as disappointed as she felt. However, Dillon could clearly hear it in her tone.

  Thinking of all the effort she had put into this breakfast—effort she had obviously exerted because of him—Dillon quickly backtracked. “But everything looks so good, I can’t just walk away from it.” He looked at her, giving her a wide smile. “I’ll have to taste everything.”

  She didn’t want him forcing himself to eat on her account. “That’s all right, you don’t have to.”

  “Oh, but I want to,” he insisted.

  Dillon felt that although he might not be up on his dating etiquette, he was definitely up on his manners. He was convinced that it would be bad form to have her go to all this trouble and then have him just take a pass on all of it. Besides, even though he wasn’t hungry to begin with, he had to admit that this food did smell pretty damn tempting. He would have had to be dead not to have that aroma arouse his appetite.

  Dillon’s eyes met hers. “Join me?” he asked.

  Hailey flashed a smile at him as she picked up two plates. She handed him one and took the other.

  “I’d love to,” she told him, turning her attention to the extensive array. “I know there’s a trend to skip breakfast these days, but I always felt that a healthy breakfast laid the groundwork for a productive day.”

  Hailey took a little of everything so that, when she was finished, what was on her plate just equaled a normal sized serving of breakfast. Dillon followed suit right behind her.

  “Oh.” Hailey had barely sat down when she realized that she had forgotten something.

  “What is it?” Dillon asked as he saw her getting up again.

  “I forgot all about putting out some dry cereal,” she explained. “I didn’t know if maybe you would prefer that to this.” She nodded at the table.

  She really did know how to overwhelm a man, Dillon thought. But then, he had a feeling that this wasn’t her first time for that. Any man she would have gone out with would have been overwhelmed in her presence.

  He put her mind at ease. “Dry cereal never smelled this good.” He nodded at her chair. “Please sit and enjoy this with me.”

  Hailey liked the way he had put that. She did as Dillon suggested, sinking back down in her chair. She really was hungry at this point.

  They ate in silence for about a minute, and then he had to ask, “Do you always go this overboard?” He nodded at all the food that was still left on the warming tray.

  “Only when I’m not sure of my audience,” Hailey told him truthfully.

  “I thought that maybe your plan was to get me so full I couldn’t move,” he said, breaking off another strip of bacon and eating it.

  “No,” she laughed, “No plan. I just prepared everything I could think of.”

  He wasn’t in the habit of overeating, but everything tasted so good, it was hard to get himself to stop. “I guarantee you that once I finish even half of this,” he said, glancing down at his plate, “my horse is going to go on strike when I try to mount him.”

  She had a sudden image of that and found herself grinning. “I highly doubt that.”

  “I don’t,” Dillon countered, finishing another piece of toast. “Rawhide has a mind of his own, and whatever is on it, he makes sure you know about it.”

  “Rawhide?” Hailey repeated quizzically.

  “My horse,” Dillon told her.

  He was volunteering details and she eagerly soaked them up.

  “What kind of a horse do you have?” Hailey wanted to know. Then, before Dillon could answer, she held up her hand, stopping him. “Wait, let me guess.” She thought for a second, picturing Dillon on his horse. “A black stallion, right?”

  “I’m afraid that Zorro claimed that one,” Dillon deadpanned.

  She ate the last of her scrambled eggs. “All right, what do you ride?” Hailey asked.

  “A dapple gray.”

  She had to admit she felt a little disappointed by the image that sprang up in her mind. “Named Rawhide?” she questioned.

  “That’s the name he answers to,” Dillon told her. “Why? Something wrong?” he asked. She had a disillusioned expression on her face.

  She lifted her shoulders in a shrug. “His name doesn’t suit his appearance.”

  Her answer amused him. He never thought about the horse’s name one way or another. “Well, you can tell him that yourself when we go out riding later today,” he teased.

  “I didn’t mean to sound as if I was being critical.” She felt she owed him an explanation for her reaction. “It’s just when you said his name was Rawhide, I got this image of a jet-black stallion dramatically rearing up on his hind legs.”

  Finishing his coffee, Dillon set down his cup. “I don’t know about the rearing part, but Rawhide runs a fast mile and he has to be one of the smartest horses I’ve ever come across.”

  “Well, I’d really love to meet him,” Hailey told him, hoping that she hadn’t ruined anything by allowing her fantasy to get the better of her.

  “You will,” he assured her. Damn, but he felt full, he thought. He shouldn’t have eaten as much as he had. “Along with Delilah.”

  “Delilah?” she echoed.

  “Your horse,” Dillon told her. “At least she is for today. You did want to go riding today, right?” he asked, realizing that maybe he had assumed too much.

  “Oh, yes,” she told him. The dapple gray might not be living up to the image she had projected for Dillon, but the bottom line was that they were going to go riding together and that was what she really wanted. “What
color is my horse?” she asked, then quickly added, “No expectations. I’m just curious.”

  Dillon smiled. He was getting a real kick out of this woman. “Tell me, does a palomino work for you?”

  Her face lit up with anticipation. “Very much so,” she answered with feeling.

  Dillon took a deep breath as he looked down at what was left on his plate. He had eaten more than he had thought he could. It had all been exceptionally tasty, but there was only so much he could consume without the risk of exploding.

  He raised his eyes and looked at her. “Would you be very insulted if I didn’t finish everything?”

  She laughed softly. “I’d be surprised if you did. I told you, I didn’t intend for you to eat everything. I just wanted to give you a variety to choose from.”

  “Well, you certainly did that,” Dillon told her. He rose, picking up his plate and cup and heading for the sink. “You ready to go?”

  “Since five-thirty this morning,” she told him. Suddenly realizing what he was doing, she said, “You don’t have to do that.” Hailey began to take his plate from him, intending to put it on top of her own and bring them both to the sink.

  But he raised his plate up out of her reach. “My mother made a point of teaching us all to clean up after ourselves. I might be a Fortune, but that doesn’t mean I think I’m entitled to special privileges.”

  Despite their different tastes and approaches to things, she was beginning to really like Dillon and the way he thought.

  “Just put your dishes into the sink. I’ll wash them when I get home,” she told him. Turning her back on him, she unplugged the warming tray and deposited what was left of breakfast into plastic containers and put those into the refrigerator.

  When she turned back around to face Dillon, Hailey saw that he hadn’t listened to her. He had not only brought the plates over to the sink, but he had washed said plates and was now putting them on the rack to dry off.

  “You know, I could get used to this. You’re spoiling me,” she told him.

  In her opinion, the smile that curved the corners of his mouth was positively sexy. “I could say the same thing about you making all that breakfast for us this morning,” he said.