Fortune's Valentine Bride. Marie Ferrarella

his family’s lives entirely upside down, tossing them on their collective ears.

      Katie had deliberately brought only carry-on luggage with her. She had no desire to spend the extra time required to wait for luggage.

      So, in the interests of speed and efficiency, Katie had stuffed into a single piece of luggage everything she felt she would need that couldn’t be purchased at some local shop between the airport and Red Rock. After engorging the suitcase to the point that it looked as if it would explode, she’d sat on the lid and fought with the zipper until she’d managed to bring the closure full circle.

      She managed to secure the very last ticket for the next outgoing flight to San Antonio International Airport.

      She didn’t relax the entire flight, her mind busily embracing the key phrase Blake had used when he’d called her.

      I need you.

      Part of her still didn’t believe she’d finally lived to see the day when everything she’d dreamed about for so long would actually start happening.

      Don’t start sending out the wedding invitations yet, her mind warned. That was the part of her that was still waiting for the other shoe to drop.

      She could warn herself all she wanted about not getting too excited—but she still was.

      When the plane landed—reasonably on time for once, she noted, hoping that was a good omen—she was debating whether to just rent a car and drive to Red Rock or splurge and have a shuttle service do the driving for her.

      The latter would prove to be the more expensive route, because of the distance that was involved, but she really wasn’t too keen on driving by herself all that way. She was tired and the prospect of falling asleep behind the wheel was unnerving.

      Maybe if she had a really strong container of coffee—

      As it turned out, there was no need to debate the pros and cons of driving versus being driven, because, as she was weighing her options, she realized that she was being paged over the P.A. system.

      Heading over to the customer service desk, she didn’t actually see Blake, she saw his smile. But she knew that smile even at this distance. It belonged to Blake. Blake was here! And he was walking toward her.

      Reviewing their phone conversation in her head, she couldn’t recall him saying anything about picking her up at the airport. She knew where he was staying, thanks to the directions he’d texted to her on her phone. Scott Fortune had bought a ranch here and Blake was staying with him. Since, according to Blake, the company would be paying for her flight, she’d just assumed that she would wind up charging either the car rental or the shuttle service to FortuneSouth Enterprises. Never one to wantonly spend money, even if it was someone else’s, she was just trying to make the best decision.

      Was Blake this eager to see her that he had driven over himself?

      The pounding of her heart went up another notch.

      The exhaustion that had been slowly laying claim to her completely vanished as Katie picked up her pace, all but breaking into a run as the distance between them shortened noticeably. The heavy suitcase became nothing more than an unwieldy pull toy in her wake.

      “You made it,” Blake called out to her, obviously pleased at how quickly she’d managed to get here after he’d called her.

      Katie beamed at him. “Nothing could have kept me away.”

      “Good,” he pronounced with approval. “Then we can get right down to work as soon as you’re ready. Here, let me take that for you,” he offered, putting his hand over hers on the suitcase handle.

      The brief contact still managed to steal her breath away, as it usually did. But what he’d just said pushed reality in, front and center.

      “Work?” Her heart fell. Blake was still making noises like a workaholic. The hope that he would be just a little more laidback, a little more … personal … died a quick, bitter death.

      Katie had a strange expression on her face. He took it to mean that she was experiencing a little jet lag. Maybe she did need to rest awhile, although he’d known her to work tirelessly when the occasion called for it.

      “Yes. Work,” he repeated. “That’s the reason I sent for you. It was Wendy’s idea, really. She thought you could help me get my campaign underway.”

      “Your campaign,” she repeated numbly. Was this why he “needed” her? To work on some marketing campaign? Here? She felt confused. Even so, she sensed her slim grasp on happiness slipping away as her heart constricted within her chest.

      “Yes. My campaign,” he asserted, then added the damning phrase: “To win back Brittany Everett.” Not seeing her face all but fall, he laughed a little self-consciously. “I know it’s not exactly what you’re used to doing, but I thought that if I went about winning Brittany back the way we go about landing an account for FortuneSouth Enterprises, then I’m almost guaranteed to be successful.”

      So this was what shock felt like, Katie thought. Shock, mixed with acute disappointment. Her pounding heart now felt like utter lead in her chest.

      “And Wendy suggested you send for me to help you procure this woman?” she asked in disbelief.

      “Not procure,” he corrected, bristling at the word she’d used. “That makes it sound sordid.” He didn’t want Katie starting out with the wrong idea about this. Otherwise, she’d be no help at all and, he had to admit, he had come to rely on her shrewd instincts pretty heavily these past two years. “Brittany and I had a connection in college.”

      “Yes, I remember,” she answered grimly as they made their way down the escalator to the first floor.

      There was deep regret in his voice as he concluded, “And then I didn’t follow through. I want to win her back. I’ll be taking her to the Valentine’s Day fundraiser in Atlanta in a few weeks. That’s when I intend to make my move.”

      Were they talking about the same woman? As she recalled, the woman was a little too Scarlett O’Hara for her taste.

      “Kind of hard to get close to someone with that kind of a throng surrounding her,” she recalled.

      That, Blake thought, disturbed by Katie’s comment, was an unwarranted, uncalled-for assessment. “It wasn’t a throng,” he protested.

      “Okay, a swarm, then. Or maybe ‘mob’ might be a better word to use,” she suggested crisply.

      How could he? her mind cried. How could he think about getting together with a girl like that again? She’d never understood what had compelled him to get together with Brittany in the first place. Yes, she had what amounted to an almost-perfect body, but it was coupled with a completely imperfect personality for him.

      They were outside the terminal now and approaching the valet’s booth. Blake glanced in her direction as he gave the valet his ticket.

      “I’m sensing a little hostility here,” he noted.

      “Just a little?” Katie muttered under her breath.

      Blake cocked his head, bringing his ear a little closer to her. The noise level outside the terminal was even louder than it was inside, making it hard to maintain a conversation without resorting to shouting. And Katie hadn’t shouted. Had he not seen her lips moving, he wouldn’t have even been aware that she’d said anything at all.

      “What did you just say?” he asked.

      Katie was quick to shake her head. There was no point in arguing. “Nothing.”

      Besides, what did she expect? she silently upbraided herself. For the world to suddenly change? For Blake to suddenly wake up, come to his senses and see what was right in front of him? A woman who was willing to love him, flaws and all, for the rest of his life—for the rest of her life.

      Leopards didn’t change their