Fortune's Secret Husband. Karen Smith Rose

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      After all these years, he was acting as if seeing her was an emergency. “My life is full of people and activities, as I imagine yours is.”

      “I don’t globe-trot. I was beginning to have visions of my traveling to some developing country to see you.”

      “Would that have been so bad?” she asked, sensing his agitation but still not understanding any of it.

      He took off his Stetson, ran his hand through his thick hair and shook his head. “None of that came out right. I read the stories about your work with orphans and refugees. I know you and your mother are selfless in your cause. But I had to find you.”

      “Why such urgency?”

      “Because...” he started. He leaned close and lowered his voice to a whisper. “We’re still married.”

       Chapter Two

      Chase felt as if he’d been kicked in the gut. Lucie Fortune Chesterfield was even more beautiful now than she’d been at seventeen. That glossy, dark-brown hair and those expressive hazel eyes... He remembered the dimple that only appeared when she smiled, but she wasn’t smiling now. She looked worried and upset and very pale.

      She confirmed some of his conclusion when she warned him, “Come up to my apartment so no one overhears us or sees us.”

      She was obviously worried about information getting into the wrong hands. He knew the paparazzi hounded her family. Put an earl in your background, or a sir, as in Sir Simon Chesterfield, her father, and the press thought the whole world wanted to read about you. Maybe they did.

      Lucie pressed the elevator button with an impatient finger as she snuck a glance at him. He wanted to smile at her, but he had a feeling this was no smiling matter.

      “We’ll get it worked out,” he said in a low voice.

      Chase had been twenty-one and a group leader when he and Lucie had secretly married in Scotland. There, at seventeen, Lucie hadn’t needed permission. However, another member of her tour group had caught them disrobed in Chase’s hostel room and reported them. Chase’s father had swooped in with a lawyer and confidentiality agreements with promises of an annulment. Everyone had been sworn to secrecy.

      When the elevator doors swished open, Lucie didn’t respond. Maybe she was so upset because of her sister’s recent scandal. He’d read the tabloids about Amelia’s status as a run-away fiancée and that she’d become pregnant from a cowboy lover. That had probably made Lucie even more skittish of public opinion. The tabloids ran with stories that weren’t even true. He knew that. Though he had followed Lucie’s engagement a few years ago with interest, and couldn’t help being irrationally relieved when it had come to naught.

      When Chase’s elbow brushed hers, Lucie stepped away. He found himself taking a step closer. He was stabbed by the same desire for her now that he’d felt at twenty-one. Yet he was sure she must hate or resent him because of the way they’d been broken up...because of the way his father had handled it. After all, she’d never answered his letters.

      When they stepped off the elevator, Lucie motioned to the left. Chase noted there were two apartments on the floor. “I’m surprised you don’t have a penthouse. Then you wouldn’t have to worry about nosy neighbors.”

      “I don’t have to worry about nosy neighbors.” She took her keys from her purse and unlocked her apartment door. “The other apartment is rented by a businessman who travels a lot. He’s in Hong Kong right now for the month while I’m here. So I basically have the floor alone. Win-win all around.”

      She’d made her voice light and airy, but he had a feeling nothing was light and airy. There was a note of anxiety beneath her words.

      After she unlocked the door and he stepped inside the apartment’s foyer, he gave a quick glance around. “This doesn’t look like you,” he said automatically.

      She gave him an odd look. “How do you know? You’ve had nothing to do with me for ten years.”

      That sounded like an accusation, but he didn’t stop to wonder about it. The apartment was decorated in chrome and glass, black and white. There was a row of flowered throw pillows on the sofa and he wondered if Lucie had added those.

      “You weren’t chrome and glass at seventeen, and I doubt very much if you are now.”

      “I’m only going to be here a month, Chase. The sublet was furnished. Now tell me, why are we still married?” She went over to the sofa and sank down on it, motioning for him to do the same.

      He rounded the long, glass-topped coffee table and lowered himself beside her, careful not to let any parts of their bodies touch. He didn’t know why, but it just seemed to be the wise thing. Discarding that sentimental thought, he gazed into her eyes and wisdom seemed to fly out the window. This was Lucie, the girl who had stolen his heart. But then he snapped his thinking back to what it should be. She was a public figure now and here only for a month.

      He explained quickly, “I applied for a business loan separate from my father’s company. It has nothing to do with him.”

      He saw the remembrance pass through her eyes that he’d once told her he’d never work for his father and never be anything like him. Circumstances had changed that, but now they were going to change again.

      “After I filled out all the paperwork at the bank,” he went on, “the loan officer called me to tell me I needed my wife’s signature before they could put the payment through. I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. My parents said our marriage was annulled. But then I did research of my own and discovered it is still on the books. I wanted to tell you in person in case the information leaked out and somehow made the tabloids. I know how much your family has been hounded by the media.”

      Lucie looked even paler. In fact, she looked ill, as if she might faint.

      “Are you all right? Can I get you something? I don’t want you to pass out.”

      She straightened her shoulders and tossed her hair back. “I’ve never passed out in my life, though this might be a good time.”

      Apparently she still had a sense of humor. Right now, though, he didn’t think it made either of them feel better.

      “Did you see the media storm my sister went through?” she asked.

      Chase nodded. “I did. And I don’t want us to experience anything like it. That’s why I’m here. To tell the truth, I’d never be caught dead shirtless outside my house with a shotgun aimed at reporters like Quinn Drummond.”

      Quinn was Amelia’s husband, a cowboy commoner in the eyes of everyone but Amelia and now her family.

      “He was driven to it,” Lucie protested. “You can’t imagine what it’s like living in a fishbowl with every decision or faux pas analyzed to death by the media.”

      Chase felt disgruntled at her assessment. Maybe he really didn’t know what it was like. “I understand your concerns. My parents and I can’t understand what happened with the annulment. My father maintains that he had the marriage dissolved. It must have been a snafu in the paperwork. He and I have spoken with our family’s lawyer, as well as an international СКАЧАТЬ