Fortune's Valentine Bride

“You know what’s wrong with you?

“You don’t know what you want. Love isn’t something you can form a stupid campaign around. You don’t ‘execute strategies’ to win someone—you watch them, you find out what they like, what makes them smile and then you try your damnedest to do the things that make them smile. You protect love, you nurture love, you don’t run a campaign for it.”

Katie closed her eyes, willing herself not to cry even though she could feel the angry tears starting to form. “You’re obtuse and blind and it’s my damn bad misfortune—pardon the pun—to be in love with you.”

Blake focused in on the only thing that was important to him. “You’re in—?”

“Yes!” she snapped. He might as well know. This way, maybe someday he’d realize just what he had allowed to slip away. “Love. L-O-V-E. Love. I’m in love with you. Or was,” she deliberately amended. “But I’m over you now. Oh, and by the way, I quit!”

MARIE FERRARELLA, this USA TODAY bestselling and RITA^>® Award-winning author has written more than two hundred books for Mills & Boon, some under the name Marie Nicole. Her romances are beloved by fans worldwide. Visit her website, www.marieferrarella.com.

Dear Reader,

I have been fortunate enough (no pun intended) to periodically revisit the Fortune family ever since I first wrote about one of them in Forgotten Honeymoon. This time it’s a doubly nice experience for me because Wendy Fortune Mendoza was the heroine of my last book about the family. In this one, I get to watch her baby come into the world.

I also get to meet Wendy’s best friend, Katie Wallace. Wendy and Katie have been friends since childhood—which is about the time that Katie fell in love with Wendy’s brother, Blake. He has always been the center of her world, and with that in mind, Katie had gotten a business degree so that she could work with Blake at his father’s company. So, when Blake asks his incredibly competent assistant to help him win back his ex—the one who got away—Katie is torn. She’s never said no to Blake, but the request really makes her heart ache. Until Wendy comes up with a plan to make her brother fall in love with her best friend.

As ever, I thank you for reading, and from the bottom of my heart I wish you someone to love who loves you back.

Best,

Marie Ferrarella

www.millsandboon.co.uk

To

Helen with love, despite the fact that she has now moved to a galaxy far, far away

“Don’t take this the wrong way, Blake,” Wendy Mendoza said to her brother as she tried, and failed, to find a comfortable spot on her bed, “but with all this hovering about you’re doing, I’m beginning to feel like a watched pot.”

Blake Fortune dragged over the chair he’d brought into his younger sister’s bedroom earlier and straddled it. “Isn’t that actually a good thing?” he pointed out. “Watched pots aren’t supposed to boil, or, in your case, give birth prematurely.”

Which was, between the terbutaline injections to stop her contractions and the enforced bed rest, exactly what the doctor and she were trying to prevent.

But that didn’t mean that she had to be happy about this state of affairs, Blake knew. And the longer she lay there, inert, the more restless she grew.

“Isn’t there something you could be doing?” she pressed, more accustomed to his teasing than his concern. “I mean, I really do appreciate you deciding to drop everything and come running back to Red Rock to hold my hand, but having everyone practically walking on eggshells around me is really making me feel very tense and nervous.”

Which was, he knew, counterproductive to what they were all really trying to do—keep her pregnant until the baby was strong enough to survive on its own when she emerged.

“If this keeps up,” Wendy warned, “I’m going to wind up giving birth to a neurotic baby who’s going to go straight from the delivery room to some psychiatrist’s couch.”

Blake laughed, shaking his head. At least she hadn’t lost her offbeat sense of humor. The whole family had gone through one hell of a trauma when that tornado had hit. And then on top of that, when Wendy had suddenly gone into premature labor, it had put a scare into all of them.

Thank God for modern medicine, he thought. Now she was back to her feisty self—except for not being able to get out of bed, he amended.

“Well, obviously the tornado had no effect on your imagination,” he commented. But one look at her expression told him that she was being serious. She wanted him out of her bedroom. He supposed that if he were in her place, he might feel a bit crowded, too. “You’ve already kicked me out of your house to bunk with Scott at his place,” he reminded her. “You want me to go altogether?”

Reaching out, Wendy caught her brother’s hand and threaded her fingers through his. She loved all her siblings, but, as the baby of the family, Blake was the brother she was closest to. He was the second youngest. Together they were the bottom of the totem pole.