Read Fortune's Proposal for Free Online

resting against the backseat of the limousine that had been waiting for them when they’d landed in San Antonio, it slid sideways until it was resting on his shoulder.
    Her hair smelled like green apples.
    He closed his eyes for a minute, reminding himself that this was Deanna. His young assistant who was, once again, smoothing out the kinks in his life.
    Yeah, okay, so she was going to get something out of it. Namely, getting some help with her crazy mother.
    But as far as Drew was concerned, that was a drop in the bucket compared to what he was going to get out of it.
    The right to head up Fortune Forecasting once and for all.
    â€œDeanna.” He started to reach for her hand where it was resting on her lap, but hesitated.
    The diamond solitaire that he’d chosen from the two-dozen rings that Bob had brought by the office less than an hour after Drew had called him was on her ring finger. Even in the dim light in the back of the limo, the ring gleamed.
    How many times had he said that a wedding ring was just a noose in disguise?
    Yet now, he had a his-and-her pair of the damned things—platinum to match the band on the engagement ring—in his pocket. All ready to go for the big day.
    Whenever they decided that would be.
    Given the way his father was harping on the subject, it wouldn’t be soon enough for William.
    Drew ignored her slender fingers and jiggled her narrow wrist with the oversize watch on it instead. “Rise and shine, Dee,” he said more loudly.
    Her head shifted again and her eyes slowly opened. She stared at him drowsily. “Hmm?”
    She’d have that expression in bed, he thought, and abruptly went hard.
    An oath zipped around inside his head and he stared over her head out the window, focusing on the lines of the fencing that marked off his brother’s property.
    Deanna was his assistant. His fiancée for convenience’s sake. Not a woman he needed to be envisioning—way too easily envisioning, at that—in his bed. Or pressed back against the deep limo seat…
    â€œWe’re almost at Molly’s Pride.” He cleared his throat. “My brother’s ranch.”
    She blinked a little, then seemed to realize that shewas all but sprawled over the side of him, and straightened like she’d been stung by a bee.
    Her hand went to her hair, smoothing it back from her face. “I fell asleep.” She grimaced. “How embarrassing. I hope I wasn’t drooling.”
    She hadn’t been, but knew he was damnably on the verge of it. “Snoring, maybe,” he said blandly.
    She gave him a narrow look, then rolled her eyes. “I was not.”
    No, she hadn’t been. She’d been soft and warm and the desire had hit him nearly out of the blue. He’d thought he’d conquered it a long time ago when she first started working for him. And he’d made a monumental ass out of himself by kissing her at one of the lowest points in his life.
    Good assistants were hard to find.
    Sexual partners weren’t.
    Fortunately, she’d turned her attention out the windows and he ran his hand around the back of his neck, feeling like he was ready to boil over.
    â€œOh, my. Is that your brother’s ranch?” She was practically pressing her nose against the window like a little girl.
    Only thanks to the way she’d slept for the past hour with her body snuggled up against his, he knew that beneath the shapeless green sweater she’d changed into at her apartment before they’d gone to the airport, the little girl was all woman.
    â€œIt’s so beautiful.” Fortunately, she was oblivious to his failure to comment. “It looks like it should be in an old movie. A Western.” She looked at him over her shoulder, her smile flashing. “With John Wayne striding over to the old hacienda. I can’t wait to see it when the sun is up.”
    Deanna was an excellent assistant and extremely good with