Guarding His Fortune. Stella Bagwell

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      She shook her head. “I don’t need to sit.”

      Actually, she was impatient to get back to her bedroom, where suitcases and garments were laid across every inch of the king-sized bed. By the end of the day, she wanted to have everything packed and ready for the move.

      “Sit down anyway.” He adjusted the knot of his tie, then placed the report about Charlotte Robinson into the leather briefcase he carried to work.

      Biting back a sigh, Savannah eased into the chair nearest to her and smoothed the hem of her mint-green skirt over her knees.

      “Okay, I’m sitting,” she said cheerfully, then shot him a smug smile. “I assume Mother told you my good news.”

      Easing a hip onto the corner of the desk, he said flatly, “She told me. Unfortunately, that’s why we’re having this talk.”

      Instead of sounding like a preening father, his voice was crisp and resolute. It was the same unyielding tone she often heard him use on the phone with a business crony.

      Frowning, she asked, “Dad, aren’t you happy about the invitation?”

      “I’m always proud of my children’s achievements.”

      His response was hardly encouraging. “Being invited to join a study group probably doesn’t sound like much to you. But in my world, it’s quite an honor.”

      He shook his head. “Savannah, I realize the invitation from the university is a big coup for you. And normally I’d be the first to give you a proud send-off to Austin. But considering all the troubles that have been plaguing the Fortunes, I have to insist that you cancel your trip to Texas.”

      Her jaw dropped. “Cancel? You must be joking! You don’t just cancel an invitation to study with a group of brilliant graduate students and a professor who has an impressive reputation as being one of the best in his field. There are hundreds of students who’d kill to be in my position!”

      “And there’s one person out there who might literally want to kill you just because your name is Fortune,” he shot back at her. “No, Savannah, I’m very serious about this. Austin is full of Fortunes. It’s where Gerald’s business, Robinson Tech, is located. Living there would place you in the thick of danger.”

      “But Nolan lives there,” she argued. “If he can, then so can I.”

      Miles muttered something under his breath and Savannah knew better than to ask him to repeat it. Frankly, she’d never seen her father looking so stressed. Not even when the stock market took a wild plunge, or a huge investment had gone bankrupt.

      “Nolan is a grown man with a family,” he reasoned.

      And being twenty-five and a single woman made her incapable of taking care of herself? She wanted to fling the question at her father. But she was smart enough to know that sparring with him in that manner would only send his blood pressure to the boiling point. Miles Fortune was old-school. Women of the family were to be pampered and protected. Men were expected to show strength and wisdom.

      “I’m fully grown, too, Dad. And my career, my education are very important to me.”

      “Your life is more important to me,” he retorted.

      Frustration caused her head to swing back and forth. “But, Dad, I’ve already rented an apartment in Austin and purchased a plane ticket! I’m in the process of packing!”

      “Sorry. Cancel everything. When this ordeal with Charlotte Robinson is over, then you may reschedule your studies.”

      Reschedule? By the time Charlotte Robinson was tracked down and punished for her misdeeds, Savannah wouldn’t be able to fetch herself an invitation to a dogfight, much less to the university study!

      She leaned toward him, her expression beseeching him to understand the importance of her trip to Austin. “Dad, you’ve been a businessman for the major part of your life. More than anyone, you understand that to get ahead you have to strike while the iron is hot. I have to jump at this study now! I won’t have another chance like this.”

      His expression was unrelenting. “I won’t have a daughter of mine running around on her own in Austin! You’d constantly be in the crosshairs! You might as well pin a sign to your back with the name Fortune written in bold letters.”

      “Dad, for heaven’s sake, most of my waking hours will be spent at the university. I’m sure the security there will be more than adequate.”

      Before he could shoot a negative reply at her, Savannah rose from the chair and started out of the study.

      “Savannah, I’m serious about this. You’re not going.”

      Glancing over her shoulder, she smiled at him. “This is my life. My career. I am going, Dad. And I hope it will be with your blessings.”

      “That isn’t going to happen, young lady!”

      Her chin high, Savannah walked through the door, then carefully closed it behind her.

      * * *

      Living in New Orleans all her life, Savannah was long accustomed to hot, steamy weather, even for the first day of April, so when she stepped through the glass doors of Austin-Bergstrom International Airport, the oppressive afternoon heat hardly caught her attention. But a man walking straight in her direction had definitely caught her attention. Somewhere near thirty, he was at least six foot three or four with enough muscles to suggest he spent hours in the gym. His tanned complexion and black close-cropped hair coupled with a neatly trimmed goatee and mustache conjured up an image of dark and deliciously dangerous.

      And the danger grew even closer as he stopped a few steps in front of her. “Miss Fortune?”

      She instinctively glanced around the busy entrance to make sure the dreamy hunk of a man wasn’t addressing someone else. “That’s right,” she finally answered. “How did you guess?”

      A faint, almost cocky grin lifted a corner of his masculine lips and for a brief moment, Savannah couldn’t tear her eyes away from the sexy sight of straight white teeth, an unyielding jaw and chocolate-brown eyes fringed with thick black lashes.

      “I’m Chaz Mendoza and it’s my job to be a good guesser.” He gestured to a sleek black car parked at the curbside of the sheltered portico. “I’m here to take you to your destination. Are those your bags?”

      The question snapped her out of her survey of his chiseled features, and she glanced over her left shoulder to where a valet was pushing a cart loaded with the luggage she’d just collected from the baggage carousel. “Those are all mine.”

      Before she could ask him if the university had sent a car to collect her, the man was already directing the baggage attendant to the trunk of the waiting car.

      Standing to one side, Savannah allowed her gaze to wander discreetly over the driver. The navy short-sleeved polo shirt and tight jeans he was wearing showed off every hard muscle of his brawny physique. Everything about him exuded authority and strength.

      Chaz Mendoza. The name sounded very familiar, but try as she might, she couldn’t recall exactly where she might СКАЧАТЬ