Wendyâs breath, soft and maddeningly enticing, seemed to whisper along his skin.
Temptation tightened his gut to the point that he had no breath of his own. The breath he drew in was hers.
The spoonâand dessertâwere forgotten, as was decorum. Her eyes seemed to hypnotize him, turning him into someone he didnât recognize. Someone with longings that were being unleashed.
Like a man trapped in a dream, Marcos saw himself sliding his fingers around her face, framing it.
Wanting nothing more in life than to kiss her.
His breath stopped again.
As did hers.
Dear Reader,
Welcome to the newest installment of the Fortunes saga. Weâre back in Red Rock, Texas, where we get to meet another tall, dark and handsome member of the Mendoza family. Marcos Mendoza, once an exciting bad boy, has settled down to make something of his life and is running Red for his aunt and uncle, Maria and Jose Mendoza. Then Fate throws a monkey wrench into the works in the guise of Wendy Fortune, the youngest child of the Atlanta branch of the Fortune family. At first glance, Wendy comes across as a spoiled little rich girl, accustomed to getting her way and being indulged.
To his dismay, he finds that Wendy, left on her own to experiment in the kitchen, can create absolutely heavenly desserts, and more patrons are appearing at the restaurantâs door. But Wendyâs popularity is not the worst of Marcosâs problems. He finds himself strongly attracted to the woman, and as days go by, Marcos feels that his bachelor days are numbered.
I hope you enjoy this latest installment of the family saga. I thank you for taking the time to read it and, as always, from the bottom of my heart I wish you someone to love who loves you back.
Love,
Marie Ferrarella
March
Marcos Mendoza knew better than to allow his anger to show on his face. Especially in front of people who were more than familyâthey were his employers.
But there was no denying that he was angry. After proving over and over again to his aunt and uncle, MarÃa and José Mendoza, that he had the business savvy to run Red, their wildly successful restaurant in Red Rock, Texas, his opinion had been completely discounted. Worse, it had been ignored to the point that neither one of them had even asked him for it.
If they had, he would have gladly told them that hiring Wendy Fortune was as bad an idea as serving their loyal patrons five-day-old salmon.
Never mind that the twenty-one-year-old heiress was as beautiful as a Texas June sunrise, that she had long brown hair, sparkling brown eyes and a figure that could make a grown man babble like a two-year-old when it was set off to its best advantage. Marcos knew a flirt when he saw one, and this barely-out-of-her-teens woman was a flirt with a capital F-L. She was also trouble.
He was well acquainted with her type.
Marcos had to admitâsilentlyâthat a woman as attractive as Wendy would have definitely piqued his interest on an after-hours, social level. But as a non-productive member of his crew, well, that was an entirely different matter.
Heâd been exposed to her type more than once and was well aware of the ingrained flaws that were as much a part of someone like Wendy Fortune as her high cheekbones and her expressive eyes.
The youngest sibling of the Atlanta branch of the Fortune family wasnât born with a silver spoon in her mouthâsheâd had an entire place setting.
He keenly resented being saddled with this fluff of an employee just because her parents were friends with his aunt and uncle and had asked the pair to indulge them with this one favor. The productive rhythm at Red was being threatened because the senior Fortunes were desperate to teach their college-dropout daughter some kind of work ethic.
Let her be a dead weight somewhere else. Not in my restaurant, he thought grudgingly.
It wasnât as if the Fortunes didnât have a great many other businesses scattered around the state and beyond. Heâd heard via the grapevine that their darling daughter had already failed miserably at the Fortune Foundationâs office in Red Rock. But why didnât they send her to one of their other places of business? Heâd nurtured and babied Red for the last year as if it were a beloved extension of himself. His ultimate goal was to learn all he could about the business end of running a large restaurant and then, one day, to open up a place of his own.
Heâd worked hard for his opportunities, Marcos thought dourly. Someone like Wendy, a young woman born to privilege and surely demanding more of the same, couldnât possibly measure up to his standards. Every man had his breaking pointâand he had this uneasy feeling that she was going to be his.