“You held up your end of our agreement,” Ben’s gruff voice broke the silence. “Just because I couldn’t keep my hands off you doesn’t change anything. You found Keaton Whitfield. You earned every cent.”
“I don’t want your money!”
“Not even for the security it offers?”
“I told you before that security based on anything other than truth is nothing at all.”
His eyes went dark. “You think I’m lying to you?”
“I think your conscience works overtime trying not to be like your father,” she said thickly. “But you don’t have to pay me off.”
“If you say something like that one more time, I’m not going to be responsible for what I do.” His voice turned flat. “You brought the check to my office. Didn’t you.”
She swallowed, wishing she’d just stuck a postage stamp on the envelope and mailed the check back to him. Or that she’d torn it up and thrown it in the trash.
She still wasn’t sure what insanity had driven her to Robinson Tech.
“I left it with the girl at the reception desk.”
“So you threw it in my face from a safe distance.”
She couldn’t deny what was true. “You mailed the thing to me in the first place!” She pushed the reminder through her tight throat. “I didn’t take it up to your office because I didn’t want to do this.” She waved her hands.
“Do this.” His jaw worked and she finally noticed the loose tie and the tired lines around his eyes and the five o’clock shadow that he’d only let show once when they’d flown to London.
Even his hair looked disheveled. As if his fingers had been raking through it.
“Deal with me in person,” he said in a flat tone. “That’s what you mean?”
“I can’t think straight when you’re here in person!”
“That makes two of us, then.” He turned and walked away.
Ella wrapped her arms around her stomach and leaned back against the wall for support. If she collapsed, she’d probably end up hauled into a hospital room of her own.
But he only went about ten paces before he stopped. “No,” she heard him say. “No, this is not how this works.”
Then he wheeled around and came back to her, not stopping until the toes of his shoes were touching the toes of hers.
His gaze bore into hers and when she tried to look away, he caught her chin in his hand. “Look at me.”
She couldn’t bear it. “Why can’t you ever let anything go, Ben?” She knew it sounded strange when they’d only known each other a month, but she felt like they’d packed a lifetime in the whirlwind of those days. “You’re holding on to Henry’s room like it was a shrine. You’re holding on to your father’s sins like they were your own. You’re—” His thumb pressed over her lips, cutting off the words.
“I’m my father’s son,” he said gruffly.
Tears burned behind her eyes. “You’re not anyone but you.” She let out a choked laugh entirely devoid of humor. “The man who doesn’t do normal stuff. Like girlfriends.”
“Is that what you want?” His voice was low. “To be my girlfriend?”
She trembled. She wanted so much more than that. “You don’t even want to work with me.”
He started to swear again, only to bite it off when that same nurse passed them by with her squeaky, rubber-soled shoes and looks of disapproval. His teeth visibly clenched, then he exhaled deeply. “When did I ever tell you that?”
“You didn’t have to. Your actions—”
“What actions?” He took a step back and threw out his arms. “You got on the plane in London not talking to me. Okay, I get that one,” he admitted quickly. “You heard what I said to Keaton. But what the hell did you expect me to say to him? I’ve never kissed and told, even when I didn’t give a flying fig about the one I was kissing.
“Should I have told the guy who we’d just learned was walking, talking, living proof that my father was as bad as I’d ever feared that I’d just spent the best hours of my life with you? A girl he knew worked for me? A girl who deserved protection from guys like me?”
Ella blinked, and the stinging behind her eyes worsened. “Best hours?”
But Ben wasn’t listening. “You got off the plane from London and decimated me without so much as a blink of your blue eyes. ‘No harm, no foul,’” he said, quoting her. “You made sure I knew what happened over there hadn’t mattered to you. It was just all part of the experience.”
He pressed his fingertip against her chest, squarely between her breasts, where her heart was pounding. “You finished things between us, Ella. You made sure I knew you weren’t coming back even before I got that call from Spare Parts.” He yanked his hand back and shoved both fists into his pockets. “All I did was close the checkbook on my end of the deal. Because I thought it was right. And fair. But you— You obviously think otherwise.”
“It did matter to me,” she whispered. “What happened meant everything. You meant everything.”
He shook his head, looking down at the floor. “You didn’t tell me about Rory getting sick. If I’d known—”
She blinked, but her vision wouldn’t clear. There were too many tears trying to get free. “You’d have what? Called the president this time to make sure my brother got the best care possible?”
He looked at her. “I’d have been here with you.”
A breath shuddered out of her. The tears escaped, sliding down her face. She wiped her nose inelegantly on the long sleeve of her thermal shirt.
He slowly moved toward her again. Until the toes of his shoes were once more against the toes of hers.
And this time, he lowered his forehead until it rested against hers. “I don’t do girlfriends, Ella, because I’ve never known how before. The only place where I’ve ever succeeded was in business. So imagine, if you would, what I’m contending with when it comes to you.”
Her breath was jerking unevenly through her. “I don’t know what that means.”
“It means I can’t seem to get through the day without a pain here.” He grabbed her palm and flattened it against his chest. “Just because you aren’t with me. It means I want what we had in London. And more. And if I haven’t ever successfully navigated having a girlfriend, how much worse would I be at having a wife?”
Everything—breathing, shaking, crying—stilled. She wasn’t sure if maybe the world hadn’t stopped moving, too. She looked up at him.
“Somewhere between walking a snowy Boston street with you and watching you twirl around in a London elevator, I fell in love with you,” he said roughly. “And thanks to my mother and father, I’ve got one of the worst examples of marriage to learn from. But even knowing that isn’t enough to stop me from wanting to marry you.”
The earth spun again in a dizzying rush. Her tears fell even faster. “Ben.”
He slid his hand into her hair, tangling his fingers in it. “I’m the worst sort of risk for a girl who wants security.”
“Maybe a girl who wanted security is exactly the sort of risk you need.” She wrapped her hands around his neck, rubbing her thumbs slowly over his bristly jaw. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I didn’t know I could hurt you.”
His fingers tightened in her hair. “I don’t want your apologies. I just want you.”
“You have me. You’ve always had me.” She went up on her toes and brushed her lips against his. “I don’t need money for security. I just need to know you love me as much a
s I love you.”
He caught her wrists in his hands and pulled them from his neck. But only to press his lips to her knuckles. “You’ll marry me.”
She smiled through her tears. “Is there a question mark at the end of that demand?”
He looked at her over their clasped hands. “What do you think?”
Warmth spread through her, feeling like the sun was hitting after she’d feared she’d never feel it again.
In turn, she pressed her lips to his knuckles. “Yes.”
“Yes, it was a question mark, or yes, you’ll marry me?”
She felt the smile stretching her lips. “What do you think?”
He exhaled and dragged her closer. “I think my entire life has been on hold, waiting for you to come into it.”
Fresh tears flooded her eyes. “Yes, I’ll marry you.”
“When?”
She threw her head back and suddenly laughed. Because some things might have changed where Ben Robinson was concerned, but his constant forward motion wasn’t one of them. “As soon as Rory’s out of the hospital.”
He swore softly. “I didn’t even think. Is he doing okay? I didn’t know how bad off—”
“It’s his third case of pneumonia,” she said. “But he’s on the mend. The doctors are keeping him for a few more days to be extracautious. We expect he’ll be released early next week.”
“What does he need?”
“For you to stop making out with his sister in the hall outside his door!”
They both looked over to see her brother standing with his crutches in the doorway to his room. He was looking disgusted and pleased all at the same time. Elaine, who was standing beside her son, looked weepy.
* * *
And in that moment, Ben wrote off any notion he had of hustling Ella off to the nearest justice of the peace. He wasn’t marrying into a family who did things as expediently as possible.
“I’m marrying your sister,” he told Rory. “That okay with you?”
Rory grimaced. “No accounting for taste. She’s pretty bossy most of the time.” Then he grinned slyly. “You could sweeten the deal with that new OS Robinson Tech’s coming out with.”
Ben’s laugh barked out of him. “Rory, you can have the first copy of the new operating system as soon as testing’s finished. First, you’ve got to get yourself well enough to get out of this place so you can give away your sister at our wedding.”
“When’s that going to be?”
“If you’re out of here next week, I don’t know. Maybe Valentine’s Day?”
Ella gaped at him. “That’s only a few weeks away! Can we really put together a wedding that fast?”
“Your father and I planned our wedding in two weeks,” Elaine said. She was smiling slightly. “Where there’s a will, there’s a way.”
Ben looked down at Ella. “I’d marry you tomorrow, but if you need more time, I’ll wait. As long as it takes, I’ll wait. But in the meantime, I’m calling my jeweler. He can bring engagement rings here. You can pick out whatever—”
She pressed her fingers over his lips, silencing him. “I don’t want to wait to marry you,” she whispered. “To plan some elaborate, fancy wedding. If you want me to have an engagement ring, that’s fine, but the ring that matters most is the wedding ring you’ll slide on my finger. I want to be your wife. The sooner the better.” She slid her arm around his back and pressed her cheek against his shoulder. “Go back in your room, Rory.”
“See? Bossy.” But the kid was grinning when he turned and disappeared into his room again.
And that left Elaine standing there.
“I’ll take care of your daughter, Mrs. Thomas,” he promised. “She’ll never want for anything.”
“Call me Elaine. And as long as Ella never wants for love, she’ll have all that I’ve ever hoped.” Then she, too, turned and disappeared inside the hospital room, but this time, she closed the door with a soft click.
Ben turned back to Ella and he gently wiped his thumbs over her wet cheeks. “You’ll never want for my love,” he promised gruffly. “I never thought those words would ever come out of my mouth.”
Her translucent eyes shimmered. “Another first. A good one?”
“The best.” He kissed her softly.
Until he heard the ominous squeak of those nurse’s shoes again and he looked up to see the testy-looking woman with her hands propped on her generous hips. “You’re not planning to start your honeymoon right here on my ward, are you?” she asked.
Ella let out a gasping laugh that she tried to bury against his shoulder.
But then the nurse gave him a quick, wholly unexpected wink. “Room 509,” she said. “Empty. Might want to give it a try.”
And she turned on her squeaky soles and sashayed away.
* * * * *
Don’t miss the next installment of the new Harlequin Special Edition continuity
THE FORTUNES OF TEXAS:
ALL FORTUNE’S CHILDREN
Vivian Blair thinks that passion is overrated—and that her new app is the ideal way to find the perfect partner. Until she falls head over heels for her boss, Wes Robinson—the one man with whom she’s got nothing in common!
Look for
FORTUNE’S PERFECT VALENTINE
by
USA TODAY bestselling author Stella Bagwell
On sale February 2016, wherever
Harlequin books are sold.
Keep reading for an excerpt from A MARINE FOR HIS MOM by Christy Jeffries.
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A Marine for His Mom
by Christy Jeffries
Prologue
September 4
Dear Soldier,
My name is Hunter Walker. I’m a fifth grader in Miss Gregson’s class. I live in Sugar Falls, Idaho, which is the most boringest town you can think of. I love football and baseball, even though my mom won’t let me play. Gram says my dad was the best football player to ever come out of Sugar Falls, but he died when I was a baby and before he made the pros. Since I’m not allowed to play, I never have anything to do when my mom is busy working or with her friends.
My mom is nice but she is way to into her girl stuff. She has a cool bakery that’s famous for cookies and her friends are always trying to find stuff for me to do. Aunt Mia had me in yoga, but I got sick of being the only boy. Aunt Kylie wanted to enter me in one of her glitz pageants last year, but when I saw the glittery pink bow tie, I said no way. Gram tries to talk mom into letting me play football, but my mom says it’ll never happen. Mom says Gram is to pushy and needs to learn to back off. I think Gram is fine except when she buys me clothes that make me feel like a big fat loser. I never get to do any cool boy things. Even though I don’t remember him, I sometimes miss my dad. It would be nice to talk to a guy once in awhile. I don’t reall
y have anything in common with the other boys in my class and they make fun of me a lot.
I put in a picture of me so you would know who your writing to. Can you send me a picture of you? Maybe one of you on an M1A1 tank or in a fighter plane. Any plane or Huey would be cool, but Jake Marconi says his uncle flies a Harrier jet and I saw one when I looked it up online. I think Jake is lying because I met his uncle at Jake’s 8th birthday party and he didn’t look like a fighter pilot. Can you be a fighter pilot when your 18? Do they have fighter pilots in the coast guard?
Its ok if your not a fighter pilot. I’ll still write you back. But you are a man right? I don’t want to have to write to any girls cause I have to be around them enough already. Do you like baseball? Or UFC? I’m not allowed to watch UFC, but my mom lets me watch baseball. The Colorado Rockies are my favorite team and I know every stat about them for the last three years. Anyway, I hope your a boy and that you like baseball and that you write me back.
Sincerely,
Hunter Walker
Copyright © 2016 by Christy Jeffries
Special thanks and acknowledgment to Allison Leigh for her contribution to the Fortunes of Texas: All Fortune’s Children continuity.
ISBN-13: 9781488002168
Fortune’s Secret Heir
Copyright © 2015 by Harlequin Books S.A.
All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.
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