Kate Fortune’s Journal Entry
Sometimes people just need a little push in the right direction. Take my nephew, Garrett, for instance. He fancies himself the independent type—you know, too smart to get roped in by any pretty young thing. Poor man! Anyone with eyes can see that he’s head-over-heels for Renee Riley. That’s why I had to send her out to Final Destination Ranch.
And not a moment too soon! Can you believe her father would have forced her to marry a man she didn’t love? Now all we have to do is wait for nature to take its course. By this time next week, I predict a wedding of a far different sort….
ELIZABETH BEVARLY
was born and raised in Louisville, Kentucky, and earned her BA in English with honors from the University of Louisville in 1983. Although she never wanted to be anything but a novelist, her career sidetrips before making the leap to writing included stints working in movie theaters, restaurants, boutiques and a major department store. She also spent time as an editorial assistant for a medical journal, where she learned the correct spelling and meanings of a variety of words (like microscopy and histological) that she will never, ever use again. When she’s not writing, Elizabeth enjoys old movies, old houses, good books, whimsical antiques, hot jazz and even hotter salsa (the music, not the sauce). She has claimed as residences Washington, D.C., northern Virginia, southern New Jersey and Puerto Rico, but she now resides with her husband and young son back home in Kentucky, where she fully intends to remain.
Society Bride
Elizabeth Bevarly
Meet the Fortunes—three generations of a family with a legacy of wealth, influence and power. As they gather for a host of weddings, shocking family secrets are revealed…and passionate new romances are ignited.
RENEE RILEY: This dutiful daughter was all set to marry Mr. Wrong to save her family’s business until she found herself secluded on a remote Wyoming ranch with Mr. Right!
GARRETT FORTUNE: This stubborn rancher had learned that most women only wanted one thing from him—his money. But sweet Renee Riley seemed different. Could he really trust her?
KATE FORTUNE: The indomitable, forever-young family matriarch is at it again!
Meanwhile, away from the ranch…
JACK FORTUNE: Garrett’s brother has just become a single dad. Will his unexpected new role force this powerful tycoon to see what—and who—is right under his nose?
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Chapter Eleven
Epilogue
One
“But, Daddy, I barely know him. How can you ask me to do something like…like that with him?”
Renee Riley chewed anxiously on her thumbnail and stared dumbfounded at her father in light of what he’d just asked her to do. Then she remembered that one of her New Year’s resolutions was to stop biting her fingernails— Hey, so what if it was only New Year’s Eve? No time like the present, right?—and she forced her hand to her side. Unable to keep still, however, she immediately lifted it again, this time to run her fingers through her curly, chin-length, dark brown hair.
All around her was music and laughter and joyful noise, and it struck her as ironic that she would be standing in the middle of a wedding reception—and playing the role of maid of honor, too—pondering the request her father had just made of her. Another ripple of distaste rolled through her, making her queasy, and her fist tightened around the bouquet of red roses and baby’s breath nestled against the sleeveless burgundy velvet sheath she wore.
“Renee, sweetheart,” Reginald Riley pleaded in that cajoling tone that had always been her undoing, “what Lyle Norton wants to do isn’t so surprising. You’re a beautiful girl, after all, and he’s a young, red-blooded man, so naturally he’d want you to—”
“But, Daddy,” Renee interrupted him, something she normally never did. Which just went to show how very desperate she was. “It’s such a…such an intimate thing to do. I mean, how can Mr. Norton ask someone he hardly knows to… How can you ask me to—”
“Oh, come on, Renee.” Reginald interrupted her. “Be reasonable. It’s not like I’m asking you to sleep with him.”
She narrowed her eyes. “Daddy, you’ve just told me that a man I barely know wants to marry me, and you approve of the idea. Now, aside from the fact that this whole thing is totally archaic—a fact upon which I won’t even comment at length right now—hasn’t it occurred to you that, if I do marry Mr. Norton, then at some point, sleeping with him is going to figure into the deal?”
Her father furrowed his brows thoughtfully. “Oh,” he replied blandly, as if that particular part of the arrangement hadn’t quite jelled in his brain. “Oh, yeah. Then I, uh, I guess I am asking you to sleep with him. But only under the sanctity of marriage.” He hastened to qualify his words, as if that made everything perfectly okeydoke.
Oh, well, gee, Renee thought, in that case…
“And you talk like the two of you are strangers, honey,” he continued. “And that’s just not true.”
“Showing up at three parties where he also happened to be a guest does not a relationship make,” she told him.
“Hey, your mother and I got engaged the second time we saw each other,” Reginald reminded her.
“Oh, sure, the night before you boarded a plane for Vietnam,” Renee reminded him. “There was an element of urgency there that isn’t exactly consistent with this situation. Besides, you always said it was love at first sight with you and Mama.”
“And you don’t think you could love Lyle?”
Renee hunched her shoulders uncomfortably and didn’t answer straight out. Instead, she said, very quietly, “Daddy…he’s your business rival.”
Her father made a face, as if he really hadn’t wanted to be reminded of that particular fact. To counter his sour expression, he said, just as softly, “He’s only doing his job.”
She managed a chuckle at that, but there wasn’t an ounce of good humor in the sound. “His job is corporate raider,” she pointed out unnecessarily. “His whole reason for existence is to take advantage of failing companies and consume them in one big bite.”
Her father nodded disconsolately. “And now he’s going after Riley Communications because it’s one of those failing businesses. I know.”
“So how can you ask me to marry a man who would snatch your livelihood right out from under you?”
He sighed resolutely. “Because, Renee, it’s the only way to save the company.”
She