Her Forbidden Bridegroom. Susan Fox P.

so she called back, “I’ll be out as soon as I change my clothes.” Lorna stepped into the bedroom and shakily found a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. She gave her mussed hair a quick brushing, then went out to join her friend.

      “I was watching at the peephole, so I saw him,” Melanie reported as Lorna came into the living room. Mellie lifted her light brows and made her green eyes go wide. “And wow. Kinda like a mix of John Wayne, Tommy Lee Jones and a Minotaur. Not handsome, but…awesome. And, dare I say it? Sexy,” she declared with a sparkling glance. “No need to explain the extra five minutes, amiga, but are you all right?”

      Lorna laughed at that, suddenly feeling worlds better than she had in ages. She’d survived Mitch Ellery and he’d virtually decreed the blood test that, if nothing else, would prove she wasn’t a liar—or at least that she was willing to have her honesty put to a definitive test. Perhaps it was good that he’d left the check. It would feel even better giving it back to him a second time than it had the first.

      “I’m fine,” Lorna said. “Pretty great, actually. I’ll tell you all about it over pizza. You can choose the toppings this time.”

      “Sounds good. You want to call or should I?”

      “I’ll buy, so you can make the call.”

      While they waited for their pizza to be delivered, Lorna began to tell her dearest friend almost everything about Mitch Ellery. Almost everything, but the stunning attraction she felt.

      Why she suddenly couldn’t confess that one thing when she’d confessed nearly everything else in her life to Melanie—was a surprise.

      If not for this thing with Kendra, I might have found you…interesting.

      It shocked her to realize how tantalizing that was. And how much she’d like to be the focus of his interest.

      Mitch’s iron-willed protectiveness toward her sister—even though it was aimed at protecting her sister from her—was as much an indication of his character as his formidable personality and his reluctant, kind care when she’d fainted.

      Men like Mitch Ellery were all too rare; she’d understood that five years ago. He’d scared her then, and he’d scared her today. But the glimpse of tenderness in him tonight had deeply affected her.

      I might have found you…interesting.

      What would it have been like to capture his interest? If she’d caught his eye in the usual way women caught men’s eyes, what would he have been like? There was a certain rough-edged gallantness about him, and even as they’d shaken hands that day when he was clearly furious to see her, his grip had been gentle. And he’d touched her tonight in the most tender way.

      For a man of his size and brute strength, the contrast between his power and his touch was breathtaking. The memory made her skin tingle as it had then. What would it be like to have someone like Mitch Ellery in her life?

      Eventually her speculation waned. The truth was, she hadn’t got his attention in the usual way. His mission—and he’d made that mission shockingly clear—was to bribe her to leave San Antonio.

      A whisper of fresh fear skimmed over her heart. If Doris wouldn’t do her part with the blood test, it was certain Mitch would bring some other pressure to bear if she didn’t quit her job and clear out.

      Wealthy, powerful tyrants like Mitch Ellery had a legion of legal help at their fingertips. And men like him were socially influential. The right word in the right ear could destroy everything she’d worked so hard to get and ruin her chances for good things for a long time to come.

      Choose a happy life, Miz Farrell.

      The silly half-fantasy about winning his interest suddenly seemed as foolish as it was futile. She must have hit her head harder than she’d thought. By the time her friend had gone home, Lorna was caught in a grip of melancholy that grew so dismal later that she laid in the dark a long time and worried about what more Mitch Ellery could do to force her out of her sister’s life.