Her Forbidden Bridegroom. Susan Fox P.

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СКАЧАТЬ had no more than put her handbag into her desk drawer and casually reached over to press the button on her computer screen when Kendra got her attention.

      “Lorna?”

      Lorna made herself glance Kendra’s way and forced a faint smile as her sister approached the desk with Mitch Ellery at her side. Ever the proper, accommodating employee, Lorna stepped around the desk for the dreaded introduction.

      “This is my stepbrother, Mitch Ellery,” Kendra began, and Lorna shifted her gaze to meet the fiery darkness in his eyes. “Mitch, this is Lorna Farrell.”

      Lorna’s heart shot to her throat and pounded painfully. Three hard beats and she jerkily extended her icy hand. Three more hard beats as she waited for disaster.

      The dizzying thought—that putting out a hand to Mitch Ellery was no less risky than putting her hand into the mouth of a ferocious beast—threatened her waning courage.

      But then his hand came up and took hers. The callused strength in his fingers could have crushed hers with one casual flex, but his firm grip was as gentle as his skin was hot and work-hardened.

      As he’d been that day years ago, he was dressed in a black suit, and his boots carried a muted shine. The suit was in keeping with his millionaire taste, but his callused hand, black boots and the pearl-gray Stetson he’d left on the sofa were proof that beneath his millionaire oilman look, he was a rancher.

      And not only a rancher who ruled over a small empire but, from the rough feel of his palm, an everyday cowboy who sweated and bled and dirtied his hands to keep it his.

      Long seconds stretched longer as they stared at each other, their hands clasped together as if neither of them could risk letting go just yet.

      The hot bolts of feeling that radiated through her from the engulfing strength of his hand arrowed straight to every deeply primal, feminine place in her body and set off a series of quivering earthquakes.

      Mitch’s voice was low and his drawl pronounced. “A pleasure, Miz Farrell.”

      His fingers tightened ever so slightly, prompting her to stammer out a half choked, “Mr. Ellery, nice to m-meet you. Miss Jackson has mentioned you warmly.”

      Mentioned you warmly? Warmly? Mortification scorched her face. Mitch’s dark gaze seemed to flicker then and the quiet rage she saw in his rocky expression eased. She continued to stare into his eyes, searching for some bit of mercy. The hint of reprieve was there, but she knew better than to take it as anything less than a momentary one.

      And she was right, because she suddenly understood he wouldn’t confront her now. He’d never do it in front of Kendra. That meant he’d come after her as he had years ago. But this time their meeting would end differently. What she’d done by not rebuffing Kendra or quitting her job ensured that.

      Kendra’s soft voice startled Lorna.

      “My goodness. That must be one of the longest handshakes in history.”

      Lorna reflexively jerked her hand from Mitch’s, but his big fingers tightened, forcing her to retreat much more slowly. To the young woman looking on, the separation of their hands must have seemed reluctant, and the slow release lingering. Like two people intensely attracted to each other who only stopped touching because propriety compelled them to behave circumspectly.

      Lorna couldn’t look at Kendra’s face because she already sensed her speculation. Instead she looked past her sister and brought her hands together in front of her in a way she hoped appeared natural.

      “If you’ll both excuse me, I need to get back to work.”

      It all ended quickly then, though it felt as if it took hours for Kendra to pop into John Owen’s office with her stepbrother in tow, then scant minutes later, to walk out with Mitch and wave a goodbye to Lorna before they walked to the door then on into the hall.

      The frantic clack of keystrokes during those endless moments ceased once Lorna heard the elevator door close. When she was able to recover, she paged back through the screens she’d just filled up with gibberish, then highlighted it all before she hit the delete button.

      Determined to occupy her still frantic mind, she picked up the dictation she’d taken that morning and tried to settle down to real work. Concentration was difficult, and it was another frustrating eternity before she could focus enough to make headway with the correspondence. By the time she finally finished at ten minutes before five o’clock, her boss had signed the correspondence and gone home.

      Fresh worry settled in then, and Lorna stayed in the office to finish the mail and organize everything else as much as possible. Who knew what these next hours would bring? It wasn’t beyond the realm of possibility that she would be prevented from returning to this office on Monday or that she might be facing a several day absence. Depending on what Mitch Ellery chose to do and if the police became involved as he’d threatened before, she might never have another opportunity to take care of a few odds and ends.

      Once those minor tasks were finished, she removed the few small personal items from her desk drawers and from the top of the desk to put in her handbag. What wouldn’t fit in the handbag she put in the cloth satchel she normally used to carry extra work to and from the office. She had a last glance around, picked up the mail she would drop off at the post office, then switched off the lights on her way out.

      It was a relief that most of the other workers had left the building hours ago so she wouldn’t have to put on a more friendly expression for anyone but the security guard. When she arrived in the lobby, her gentle smile and soft “good night” prompted the guard to step ahead of her to chivalrously open the door before he once again locked up for the night.

      Her head began to pound once she reached the nearly empty parking lot where she’d left her car that morning. Trying hard to resign herself to the idea that Mitch Ellery might already have found her apartment and taken up a convenient place to keep watch for her, she started her car and drove out of the lot to the post office, then home.

      There was no point in hoping for another reprieve or even a delay. The suspense of waiting even a few hours was already more than she could tolerate. She’d known this day was coming for months. She should have contacted Mitch Ellery long ago, but selfishness was the real reason she hadn’t.

      Through Kendra, she’d got a taste of family that she’d hungered for since childhood, and she hadn’t had enough character to keep from taking it. And since the notion of family and home and belonging were the sweetest and most sacred things in the world to her, it made sense that those small tastes and rare glimpses of what mattered most would come at a steep price.

      Now it was time to pay for those treasures in whatever coin Mitch Ellery decreed. Though she knew the payment was certain to devastate her, she’d pay quickly and, because she was guilty, she wouldn’t complain.

      As she finally turned onto her street then pulled into the driveway between her building and the next one, she resisted the urge to glance around for unfamiliar vehicles. She made it all the way inside to her apartment before she heard the buzzer sound from the call box outside the front door of the small lobby downstairs.

      The simultaneous knock on her apartment door came before she could cross to the tiny foyer and press the button on the intercom. Rattled, Lorna belatedly recognized the knock and gratefully opened the door.

      Melanie Parker, her closest friend, greeted her with a СКАЧАТЬ