Fortune's Secret Husband. Karen Smith Rose

so glad you’re making friends in Austin. Are you with Ella or Viv?”

      “No, not them. Amelia, I really do want to chat. We have a lot to talk about. But now isn’t a good time.”

      “I entirely understand. Maybe midnight would be better, when the day is calmed down. The problem is, then Quinn wants all my hours—”

      She stopped as if she’d said too much.

      “Of course he does. You’re still newlyweds.”

      “It feels as if we are,” Amelia admitted happily. “And truthfully I don’t want it ever to end. You should try it.”

      Wasn’t that a touchy subject? She couldn’t talk about finding Prince Charming with Chase in the barn with her.

      As if Amelia understood something was going on, she asked, “So you can’t talk freely?”

      “Not now.”

      “Okay, so you don’t have any privacy, and I know you probably have a bunch of international calls coming in later with regards to your trip.”

      Lucie had almost forgotten about those. She checked her watch. She had told contacts who were donating supplies to call her after eight tonight. Or was it nine? Chase had her so rattled. The whole situation had her rattled. This wasn’t like her at all.

      “Have you heard from Mum?” Amelia asked.

      “Not since last week. And now she’s traveling in an area with no cell phone connection. Did she tell you about that?”

      “Yes, she did. When I spoke with her last, she seemed to be in her element again. She loves the work...just as you do.”

      Lucie’s life had been about helping orphaned children. But had she chosen the work for the right reasons? Or because her mother had needed her to be just as involved as she herself was? The orphanages had become a passion project after her husband died.

      Now she wanted to tell her mother about her marriage to Chase. She wanted to prepare her in case news of it got out.

      “Text me when you’re free,” Amelia went on. We’ll have that talk. We can video-chat.”

      “I’ll text soon. Give Clementine a kiss for me.”

      “Will do.”

      After Lucie ended the call, her gaze found Chase. He was over at the loft looking up, maybe deciding what he wanted to do with it. He was acting all casual, as if he hadn’t been listening.

      But as he turned to Lucie, he asked, “So I’m a friend now?”

      He’d obviously heard her conversation with Amelia. Suddenly frustrated with the whole situation, Lucie blew out a breath. In a fit of unusual pique, she said, “I don’t know what you are. We’re in a kind of limbo. We want to live in the now, but the past is interfering. Yet we can’t resurrect the past—”

      Apparently Chase believed the simplest thing to do to get her to stop thinking was to encourage her to stop talking. She noticed a moment of doubt in his eyes. Then suddenly his arm was around her, his hand on the small of her back, urging her closer. His gaze never left hers.

      First she felt surprise, swiftly followed by anticipation. Would a kiss be as explosive as it had been ten years ago?

      There was only one way to find out. She let it happen.

      Chase’s lips covered hers before she could second-guess her decision.

      * * *

      In his adult years, Chase had prided himself on his self-control. But kissing Lucie almost destroyed it. It was the scent of her, the softness of her, the feel of her in his arms again. He wasn’t thinking about the past or the future as his tongue breached her lips, and he took the kiss deeper, wetter, more intense. The fire was still there—fire that burned away any reservations, fire that had urged him to propose to her. The main reason...she’d been a virgin. Now, when she gripped his shoulders and he felt the sweet clutch of her fingers, his desire ramped up until it was almost dizzying.

      Nevertheless, as quickly as it had started, it ended. Lucie broke away, brought her hands to his chest and put a foot between them. When he gazed into her eyes, he saw she was reeling from the kiss, too. Past dreams had been resurrected just for an instant. However, reality had rushed in, and he could see her good sense was telling her to run. That was exactly what she did, if not literally, figuratively.

      He heard her swallow hard. He heard her deep intake of breath. He needed a swig of air himself. He needed to calm sensations that he’d forgotten.

      She said, “I have to go. Can you take me back to my apartment? I have incoming international calls that I’m expecting tonight, and I can’t be late.”

      He couldn’t help asking wryly, “Isn’t that what cell phones are for?”

      “They’ll be coming in on the landline,” she informed him. “I want to make sure my conversations aren’t cut off.”

      Sure she did. She was doing important work. She’d be leaving in a month to build another orphanage. She probably had suppliers to talk to, directors to engage, donors and sponsors to extract money from. And she was telling him in a not-so-subtle way that that kiss had changed nothing, that the past was in the past, that their lives were very different and separate now.

      “Let’s go,” he said, motioning to the barn door. “I’ll have you back in no time at all.”

      And he did. They drove in silence, and when she climbed out in the parking garage, she said, “Goodbye, Chase.”

      He watched her walk to the elevator bank. He watched her nod to the security guard, then disappear inside, regretting every word they hadn’t spoken, regretting the fact that Lucie’s life was headed in one direction and his was headed in another.

      * * *

      The walnut-paneled study at the Silver Spur Ranch was the perfect place for Lucie’s meeting with Kate Fortune the following day. Lucie studied this icon, who had recently turned ninety, as she sat in a huge leather chair that seemed to swallow her up. Kate had ended up in the hospital recently and was still recovering, but she looked at least ten years younger than her age, maybe more. She had more wealth than anybody could make use of, thanks to the success of the Fortune Youth Serum, which she’d discovered and perfected in the ’90s. She was a walking advertisement for the efficacy of the product. But the future of her company was on her mind and she was looking for the right person to run it. For some reason, the two of them had seemed to connect at Kate’s birthday party and Lucie had accepted this invitation to coffee, glad to see this remarkable woman again.

      “How are you feeling?” Lucie asked.

      Kate waved her hand. “Better each day. As you know, I’m still looking for the right Fortune to work at my company. I can’t seem to find someone with all the attributes that are necessary, though the family tree does seem to be growing.”

      Kate motioned to the coffee and pastries that a butler had set up on a tray near them both. “Eat, my dear. You’re much too thin.”

      Lucie did eat, and she was fortunate that she didn’t seem to put on pounds because of it. She picked up a petite cherry Danish and took a bite. “What about you? Are you going to have some?”

      “I have to watch everything these days—sugar, cholesterol, caffeine. I suppose it all matters. This morning I’m just going to enjoy your indulgence in the pastries. Tell me what you think about Ben Robinson’s claim that his father is a Fortune.”

      “Could it be true?” Lucie asked, unsure how to answer.

      “Anything can be true, I suppose,” Kate mused.

      “I had brunch with Ella and Viv,” Lucie said. “They both seem very happy. Ben and Wes both are their Prince Charmings.”

      “Prince Charming is one thing, a Fortune is another,”