Fortune's Proposal Read Online Free Page A

on inside her belly.
    Marry Drew Fortune?
    Her?
    Nerves skittered through her.
    She paced back. “How do I even know that you’re not exaggerating the situation?”
    He gave her a look. “For what purpose? To get myself a wife? Come on, Dee.”
    She flushed. All right. So that was pretty unlikely,given Drew’s opinion about marriage. And if he weren’t practically allergic to the very idea of it, he’d have had ample opportunity to find a wife among the scores of women he’d dated. Just because she’d considered the majority of them to be shallow twits didn’t mean that he had to think of them the same way.
    He got up and rounded his desk and her nerves reached a screaming pitch when he dropped his arm over her shoulder.
    The warmth of him seared her right through the lightweight wool of her suit and she felt like she might scream right out loud to match those nerves, note for note.
    â€œYou always play fair, Deanna,” he coaxed smoothly. “Think about all the people who’re going to be affected by this.”
    â€œDon’t try to schmooze me, Drew Fortune. I’m immune, remember?”
    If only.
    She shrugged out from beneath his easy, buddy-to-buddy arm, putting some much-needed space between them. “I’ve seen you in action too many times before.”
    â€œFair enough.” He exhaled and sat on the edge of his desk. “I need you, Deanna. Trust me. We can make this work.”
    His words sounded so sincere that he could have been trying to persuade her to marry him for real. Forever.
    Her throat felt infuriatingly tight. “For a year,” she reminded.
    He gave a brief nod in acknowledgment. “Don’t make it sound so horrible. Since the dawn of time, people have been making marriages of convenience.”
    She almost laughed. “Somehow I never thought that term would ever pass your lips.”
    He grimaced. “True enough. But my point is that plenty of people have married for reasons that had nothing to do with love.”
    â€œWell, pardon me, but I never figured that I would be one of them!”
    â€œI never figured I’d be forced to barter for the company that I’ve earned the right to run with a marriage license, either. S…tuff happens.”
    How well she knew that.
    She had only to think about her mother if she wanted proof.
    He flipped off his hat and tossed it unerringly onto the iron-armed coat stand that he’d once told her had been a gift from his mother and watched her. “I don’t expect you to get nothing out of this, either,” he said seriously.
    Which made her all the more nervous.
    She had defenses against Drew the Schmoozer and Drew the Charmer. She could trade insincere banter with him until the cows came home.
    But when he dropped the tactics? When he was just Drew Fortune, straight talking and perfectly sincere?
    That’s when she knew she was wading in waters much too deep for her peace of mind.
    â€œI told you. There’s nothing I want,” she insisted.
    He stood again and closed the distance between them. It took all of her willpower not to nervously back away. And when he reached out an arm toward her, she positively froze.
    But all he did was reach into her pocket and withdraw her cell phone that had been buzzing almost constantlysince she’d stuck it there. He held it up so that she could see the display.
    Gigi, it read.
    â€œNot even to send your mother on a vacation of her own?”
    She grabbed the phone, and this time, she did power it off. Her mother could call the office line all she wanted. At the moment, Deanna considered that a lesser problem than Drew. “It would take more than a vacation to solve the matter of Gigi.”
    â€œWhat would it take?”
    She huffed and threw out her hands. “About fifty grand.” Which might as well be fifty million because it was just as unattainable. And the admission was just proof that