Husband–Or Enemy? (Fortune's Children: The Grooms Book 4) Read online

  Kate Fortune’s Journal Entry

  If there is one thing a Fortune man knows from the moment he’s born, it’s how to woo a lady. And my Riley seems to be no exception. Ever since Angelica Dodd refused his marriage proposal, Riley has sent her enough roses in the past week to build a float for the Rose Parade. And then there are the diamond earrings, bracelet and emerald pendant…. Seems as if courtship was less expensive in my day. But then I’ve heard it on good authority that Riley and Angelica are way past the courtship stage. And even if Riley is now proposing for the sake of their unborn child, I saw the way he looked at Angelica at her brother’s funeral. And the way she clung to him. Once Angelica overcomes her foolish pride, this is a marriage that will last forever!

  Dear Reader,

  Our 20th anniversary pledge to you, our devoted readers, is a promise to continue delivering passionate, powerful, provocative love stories from your favorite Silhouette Desire authors for all the years to come!

  As an anniversary treat, we’ve got a special book for you from the incomparable Annette Broadrick. Marriage Prey is a romance between the offspring of two couples from Annette’s earliest Desire books, which Silhouette reissued along with a third early Desire novel last month as Maximum Marriage: Men on a Mission. Bestselling author Mary Lynn Baxter brings you November’s MAN OF THE MONTH…Her Perfect Man. A minister and a reformed party girl fall for each other in this classic opposites-attract love story. A Cowboy’s Gift is the latest offering by RITA Award winner Anne McAllister in her popular CODE OF THE WEST miniseries.

  Another RITA winner, Caroline Cross, delivers the next installment of the exciting Desire miniseries FORTUNE’S CHILDREN: THE GROOMS with Husband—or Enemy? Dixie Browning’s miniseries THE PASSIONATE POWERS continues with The Virgin and the Vengeful Groom, part of our extra-sensual BODY & SOUL promotion. And Sheri WhiteFeather has created another appealing Native American hero in Night Wind’s Woman.

  So please join us in celebrating twenty glorious years of category romance by indulging yourself with all six of these compelling love stories from Silhouette Desire!

  Enjoy!

  Joan Marlow Golan

  Senior Editor, Silhouette Desire

  Husband—or Enemy?

  CAROLINE CROSS

  This book is dedicated with much appreciation to my

  wonderful brainstorming partner, Susan Andersen,

  for holding my hand and keeping me on track.

  And to Ann Leslie Tuttle.

  Books by Caroline Cross

  Silhouette Desire

  Dangerous #810

  Rafferty’s Angel #851

  Truth or Dare #910

  Operation Mommy #939

  Gavin’s Child #1013

  The Baby Blizzard #1079

  The Notorious Groom #1143

  The Paternity Factor #1173

  Cinderella’s Tycoon #1238

  The Rancher and the Nanny #1298

  Husband—or Enemy? #1330

  CAROLINE CROSS

  always loved to read, but it wasn’t until she discovered romance that she felt compelled to write, fascinated by the chance to explore the positive power of love in people’s lives. She grew up in Yakima, Washington, the “Apple Capital of the World,” attended the University of Puget Sound and now lives outside Seattle, where she (tries to) work at home despite the chaos created by two telephone-addicted teenage daughters and a husband with a fondness for home improvement projects. Pleased to have recently been #1 on a national bestseller list, she was thrilled to win the 1999 Romance Writers of America’s RITA Award for Best Short Contemporary Novel and to have been called “one of the best” writers of romance today by Romantic Times Magazine. Caroline believes in writing from the heart—and having a good brainstorming partner. She loves hearing from readers and can be reached at P.O. Box 47375, Seattle, Washington 98146. Please include a SASE for reply.

  Meet the Arizona Fortunes—a family with a legacy of wealth, influence and power. As they gather for a host of weddings, a shocking plot against the family is revealed…and passionate new romances are ignited.

  RILEY FORTUNE: Nobody had ever mistaken him for a saint. But he certainly wasn’t guilty of murdering Angelica’s brother!

  ANGELICA DODD: How dare Riley Fortune think he could just waltz back into her life after a three-month absence, crook a finger and believe that she’d do anything he wanted? Especially when he wanted her to marry him for the sake of their unborn child!

  MIKE DODD: Angelica knew that trouble had always seemed to follow her little brother. And she also knew that the only crime Riley was guilty of was offering her a caring shoulder when she’d needed it most.

  Contents

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  One

  Riley Fortune narrowed his pale gray eyes against the shifting nighttime shadows and glanced at his thin gold wristwatch.

  The luminous dial read 10:45.

  With a faint sigh, he propped his hips against the gleaming fender of his silver Corvette, crossed his legs at the ankle and settled in to wait.

  Overhead, the moon gleamed like an oversize pearl in the star-strewn sky. Closer to earth, a flirtatious May breeze threaded the warm Arizona night, ruffling his thick black hair and tugging playfully at his white silk shirt and pale linen slacks.

  Riley paid no attention, his focus instead on the service entrance of the Camel Corral Steakhouse some forty feet away. Minutes ticked past, trying his already thin reserve of patience. Finally, the door opened. Amidst a burst of feminine chatter, a trio of waitresses walked out, all identically dressed in black slacks, white tuxedo shirts and black bow ties.

  He started to straighten, only to fall back as he realized that none of them was the woman he wanted.

  He felt a surge of annoyance, which he did his best to shrug away. After all, what did he expect? That after three months of avoiding Angelica Dodd he could suddenly decide he wanted to see her and she’d instantly appear?

  Well…yeah. The realization sent a faint smile—his first in more days than he could remember—curving across his brooding mouth. All right. So he was accustomed to women chasing after him, then dropping at his feet like so many overripe plums with hardly more than a snap of his fingers. So what?

  So you know damn well Angelica’s not like that. The only reason she succumbed to your charms, considerable though they may be, is because she was hurting—and because you took advantage of her. Although even for you, seducing a woman only hours after her brother’s funeral has to be a new low.

  But then, nobody had ever mistaken him for a saint. A fact that had been forcefully driven home a week ago when he’d gone from being merely a suspect to actually being charged with that same brother’s murder.

  He tensed at the thought of what had happened to Mike Dodd—and at the remembered humiliation of his own arrest, of being escorted out of Fortune Construction headquarters in handcuffs and hauled into the Pueblo police station to be booked and have his fingerprints and mugshot taken. Nor was he likely to forget the stricken look that had been on his mother’s face when he’d been brought before the judge for arraignment. He’d never forgive himself for being the cause.

  But that was a subject for another day, he reminded himself sharply, rolling his shoulders in
an attempt to relieve their knotted tension. Tonight’s little drama involved an entirely different kind of life-altering situation…

  Across the way, the restaurant door opened again and another waitress exited. And though this one was dressed exactly the way the others had been, Riley recognized her immediately.

  Angelica. He came to attention, watching intently as she came to a stop as the heavy door swung shut behind her. Blissfully unaware of his scrutiny, she yanked off her apron, tugged her hair clip loose and gave her head a shake. He knew it had to be his imagination, but he could have sworn he heard her sigh of pleasure as the shiny mass of her hair tumbled around her shoulders the instant before she resumed her trek across the parking lot.

  A sudden heaviness filled Riley’s groin as a vision flashed through his mind. A vision of her naked, her skin like satin, all that pale, silvery brown hair fanned out across her pristine white sheets, her leaf-green eyes locked on his as he slowly thrust himself inside her—

  He sucked in a breath. Damn. Why couldn’t he quit thinking about that night? Why, after all this time did it keep sneaking up on him, ambushing him at the least opportune times? And why did his recollections have to be so vivid, to the point where he knew all he had to do was shut his eyes and he’d be able to feel her, smell her, taste her?

  With an oath, he pushed himself away from the Corvette, unable to stay still a second longer.

  His abrupt movement drew his quarry’s eye. She jerked to a stop and a kaleidoscope of emotion—surprise, uncertainty, welcome, wariness—flashed across her vivid face. “Riley?”

  “Hello, Angelica.”

  She took a moment before she answered, slowly drawing an air of indifference around her like a cloak. “Well, gosh. What are you doing here? That fancy car of yours run out of gas?”

  “We need to talk.”

  “We do, huh? About what?”

  He opened his mouth with every intention of telling her. After all, he’d been thinking about nothing else for hours, ever since he’d overheard a pair of clerks at Baker’s Pharmacy avidly gossiping about him and Mike, the Dodd family’s less-than-stellar history—and Angelica’s recent purchases of a home pregnancy test and prescription prenatal vitamins.

  Under different circumstances, he might have shrugged that last bit off as nothing more than a bit of malicious slander. But there was no way he could forget that—for the first time ever—he’d failed to use protection the night they’d spent together. Or that she’d reportedly fainted on the job last week.

  Taken all together it had made a kind of sense that had made him reel as if sucker-punched, then prompted him to track her down here, determined to get some answers.

  Yet now he hesitated. For all that Angelica was currently trying to appear as if she didn’t have a care in the world, she looked tired, he thought, noting the faint shadows beneath her eyes and the strain bracketing her soft, full mouth. Which was hardly a surprise, given the events of the past few months and what he now suspected.

  Out of nowhere, he felt a stirring of protectiveness.

  Well, great. This was a hell of a time to develop a gallant streak. Nevertheless, he found himself stalling as he tried to think of a way to ease into the subject foremost on his mind. “We need to talk about Mike,” he improvised. “I guess you must be upset about everything that’s happened—”

  “Upset?” A glimmer oddly like hurt lit her eyes, then vanished with a blink of her dark lashes. “It turns out my brother’s death wasn’t an accident, and you guess I might be upset?” She struggled for control. When she found it, her expression turned coolly indifferent. “Go away, Riley. Please. Just…go away.”

  His jaw tightened. For as long as he could remember, his motto had been no regrets, no explanations, no apologies. Yet for some inexplicable reason, he found he couldn’t remain silent. Not with her. “I didn’t kill him, Angelica.”

  She stared at him a moment, then gave a faint sigh and nodded. “For what it’s worth, I believe you. So if that’s all you wanted…” Although her voice was offhand, a slight tremor shook her fingers as she tucked a wayward strand of hair behind her ear. “I’ll be going. It’s late, I’m tired and I want to go home.”

  The vulnerability revealed by that shaking hand rocked him. Almost as much as her matter-of-fact assertion of his innocence. He’d just assumed that everybody in town except for his family thought he was guilty. The discovery that Angelica of all people believed in him was more than he could immediately take in. So much so that it took a second to register when she turned in the direction of her car and started to walk away.

  He reached out without thinking and caught her by the arm. “Angel, wait.”

  A shudder went through her at his touch and she jerked away. “What do you want?” she demanded impatiently.

  “I know you’re pregnant.”

  She went utterly still and in that instant, without her ever saying a word, he knew it was true. The confirmation made him feel light-headed. While part of him fiercely welcomed the idea of a child, another part despaired of the timing and the circumstances, and had hoped, for both their sakes, it wasn’t true.

  But at least Angelica didn’t add injury to insult by trying to deny it. On the contrary; she took a deep breath, drew herself up and said with a trace of defiance, “So?”

  So? He was going to be a father and all she had to say was so? He reminded himself he never lost his temper. “Like I said. We need to talk.”

  She shook her head. “No.”

  “What do you mean, no?”

  “I mean my situation isn’t your concern.”

  “Are you trying to tell me I’m not the father?” Try as he might, he couldn’t keep a dangerous note out of his voice. “Because I’m warning you, Angelica, it won’t wash. If you’re pregnant, the baby’s mine—and we both know it.”

  There was no mistaking the sudden spark in her big green eyes. “Oh, I know perfectly well that you’re the father, Riley. What I can’t believe is that you really think you can just show up and think you have some say in my life. You don’t!”

  “The hell I don’t,” he retorted, doing his best to contain his building agitation. “If there’s one thing you can count on, it’s that we Fortunes take care of our own.”

  “Then I guess it’s just lucky for me that I’m not a Fortune!”

  “Maybe not now, but that’s going to change.”

  “Just what is that supposed to mean?”

  He shrugged. “Isn’t it obvious? We’ll have to get married. The sooner the better.”

  She stared at him in astonishment. “If that’s your version of a proposal, the answer is no.”

  “Dammit, Angelica—”

  “We made love, then you took off while I was sleeping and I haven’t heard a word from you in three months. You don’t get to show up now pretending concern,” she said flatly. She raised her chin. “And now, if you’ll excuse me, I’m leaving. Before I say something we’ll both really regret.” She turned and took a step away, then stopped, looking back at him over her shoulder. “And just so there’s no misunderstanding—I don’t want to see you again.” Not waiting to hear his reply, she walked resolutely toward her car.

  Face set, Riley stayed where he was, unable to think of a way to stop her from leaving short of chasing her down and wrestling her to the ground. And while it was tempting, he’d never laid an unwanted hand on a woman in his life—and he wasn’t about to start now.

  Still, it cost him to stay where he was, to do nothing as she climbed into her car, her ancient Chevy coughed to anemic life and she drove out of the parking lot.

  He reached down and picked up the dark green cotton apron she’d dropped in her agitation, balling it in his fist. Not until her taillights had faded from sight did he finally stride toward his Corvette.

  No matter what Angelica thought, this wasn’t over, he thought grimly.

  Not by a long shot.

  In the past few weeks he’d lost an alarming portion
of his freedom, his faith in the justice system and what had been left of his reputation.

  No matter what it took, he wasn’t about to lose his son or daughter, too. And since Angelica was part of the package…

  She’d just have to be persuaded to give him another chance.

  Spoiled, arrogant, overbearing jerk!

  Hands clasped tightly around the steering wheel, Angelica drove toward home on autopilot, her thoughts spinning as erratically as a desert whirlwind.

  Damn Riley Fortune! In her entire life, she’d never met anyone with so much nerve. How dare he think he could just show up, crook one of those long, clever fingers and she’d do whatever he wanted? Even if she had done exactly that at their last meeting….

  But she was smarter now. Smarter, stronger, not nearly so naive. What did she care that he looked like a fallen angel, with his inky hair, those pale, guarded eyes and that moody, sensual mouth? Or that once upon a time she’d been foolish enough to think that beneath his jaded manner was a man who cared far more about things than he ever let on?

  She was done kidding herself. She’d let down her guard once and look where that had gotten her. After nearly twenty-eight years of living like a nun in a vain attempt to live down the Dodd reputation, she was going to be an unwed mother.

  And all because she’d made a pair of foolish mistakes, thinking she was in love—and that Riley actually cared for her. She bit her lip against a wave of pained self-disgust, yet she couldn’t seem to stop herself from thinking back to the beginning, to the events that had brought them together, however briefly.