Her Sweetest Fortune
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Stella Bagwell
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Chapter One
She had to do something and fast!
For the past several hours, the words of warning had made a monotonous loop through Sophie Fortune Robinson’s mind, making it virtually impossible to concentrate on the work scattered across her desk.
As assistant director of human resources at Robinson Tech, it was Sophie’s responsibility to make sure two new training programs were ready to be implemented in a few short days. At the rate she was going, the task would never get finished.
Darn it! If Sophie hadn’t turned a corner at just the right moment, she would’ve been spared the sickening sight of her dream man with another woman. Now the image of Thom Nichols stepping off the elevator with his arm wrapped around Tanya Whitmore’s slender waist was stuck in Sophie’s head.
The sexy grin he’d been giving the willowy blonde had made it quite apparent he was enjoying every minute of her company. The realization had left Sophie nauseous and even more desperate. She couldn’t sit back and wait for Thom Nichols to take notice of her. She had to come up with some sort of strategy to snare the man’s attention.
But how did a woman go about making herself appealing to the sexiest man alive? There was hardly a female working at Robinson Tech who didn’t sigh at the mere mention of Thom’s name. Sophie didn’t want to think of her opposition in terms of numbers: it would be too staggering. Besides, she already knew the task of snaring her man wasn’t going to be easy.
But Sophie’s father, the giant tech mogul Gerald Robinson, had lectured her plenty of times about setting goals and achieving them through hard work and confidence. The same could be applied in this situation. Her goal was to have Thom Nichols as her Valentine dream date.
Now, if she could just figure out how to make that happen.
“Sophie? What are you doing here at this hour?”
Since everyone in her department had left hours ago, the unexpected voice caught her by surprise, especially when she’d been sitting there with her head in the clouds.
Glancing over her shoulder, she saw Mason Montgomery shoving back the cuff of a pale blue dress shirt to study his watch. The tall, dark-haired computer programmer had probably seen her staring off into space like some lovesick teenager. The notion sent a flood of pink embarrassment to her cheeks.
Mason was far too intellectual and mature to understand a woman’s crush on an attractive man. Or was he? With him working just across the hall from her, they’d often exchanged greetings and talked about work or current events, but they’d never been more than casual friends. He was a crackerjack programmer who’d created several highly successful apps for the company. He was also mannerly and nice-looking in a boy-next-door kind of way. He just wasn’t Thom Nichols.
“Oh, hi, Mason. I guess I’ve been so engrossed in my work I didn’t notice the time.” Which wasn’t a complete lie, she thought. It had been hours since she’d glanced at the clock on her desk, but only because she’d been too busy fantasizing about her Valentine date. At least, the man she was hoping would become her Valentine.
A frown furrowed his forehead. “Surely your father doesn’t expect you to wear yourself out. I realize he’s a stickler about deadlines, but I don’t think he’d want his daughter to collapse with fatigue.”
Laughing, Sophie swiveled her chair so that she was facing her late night visitor. “Most everyone in the building thinks Gerald Robinson is a taskmaster, but he’s really just a big teddy bear with a loud growl.”
His smile exposed a row of straight white teeth and Sophie could see the expression was sincere. She liked that about Mason Montgomery. He always seemed genuine. But Thom’s dazzling smile could charm the fleas right off a cat. How could any other man compare to that?
“Drop the teddy and I’ll believe you.”
She tossed strands of long brown hair over her shoulder before gesturing to a thick folder lying open on her desk. “I’ve been going over a presentation for a new job-training program the company will soon put in place. Actually, there’s a new program for your department and marketing.”
His brows lifting with interest, he moved inside the cubicle and rested a hip against the side of her desk. “Oh? Robinson Tech is going to put its programmers through more training?”
She laughed at his wary expression. “Only the newly hired employees. Not the old veterans like you.”
“Ouch!” he said with a chuckle. “I’m not so sure I like that old part.”
Shaking her head, she gave him another smile. “I just meant you’ve worked here for a long time. As for your age, you couldn’t be much older than me. I’m twenty-four.”
“Try five years,” he admitted. “I’m twenty-nine.”
“Ooooh, that’s terribly old,” she joked, then added in a more serious tone, “Speaking of working late, I’ve noticed you’ve been burning the midnight oil here lately. You know, my father wouldn’t want you collapsing from fatigue, either.”
His brown eyes twinkling, he picked up a hunk of raw amethyst Sophie used for a paper weight. “We’re getting a new app ready to roll in a few days. I want to make sure there are no glitches before Wes sends it on to your father for final approval. Sometimes that means losing sleep and a meal or two. But there’s no need for you to worry you might have to scrape me off the floor. I’ve been eating my spinach.”
Mason was hardly a muscle man, Sophie decided, as she studied him from beneath her lashes. But he had a trim, athletic build that implied he hit the gym on a regular basis. Although from the long hours he put in at Robinson Tech, she couldn’t imagine where he found the extra time for himself.
“Mmm. I like my spinach in enchiladas,” she said. “But I’d eat it raw or standing on my head if it would make me as tech savvy as you.”
He shook his head. “And I wish I had your gift for communicating with people. I’ve seen you in action—how easy it is for you to soothe irate employees. I wouldn’t have the patience to listen to their complaints, much less calm their tempers. And you can do something around here that no one else can do.”
Intrigued, she leaned back in her chair and arched a brow at him. “Oh? I can’t imagine what that might be.”
“You can put a smile on our boss’s face. I’ve never seen anyone but you make Gerald Robinson happy.”
Her short laugh dismissed the compliment. “That’s only because I’m the baby of his eight children. My siblings all complain that our father lets me get away with murder. But that’s not really true. I just happen to be a positive thinker.”
A doubtful grin lifted one corner of his mouth. “Positive thinker, huh? So that puts you in your father’s good graces?”
She shot him a clever smile. “In a roundabout way. I happen to think if you can dream it, you can do it. And Dad likes it when people get things done.”
* * *
Mason tossed the piece of lilac-colored quartz from one hand to the other and forced his gaze to remain on the rock rather than Sophie’s lovely face. Not for anything did he want her to think he was staring. Even though he wanted to.
Of all the women who worked at Robinson Tech, Sophie had to be the most beautiful, he decided. Her long brown hair hung straight against her back, while her creamy skin glowed as though she was lit from within. And those brown eyes fringed with long, black lashes were like looking into a cup of hot, sweet chocolate.
She was the youngest child of the famous Fortune Robinson family. Their wealth was the sort that a simple man like Mason could only dream about. And yet none of those obstacles had stopped him from watching her from afar and wondering how it might be to actually take her on a date. If that made him a fool, then he was a big one, even by Texas standards.
“So you’re a dreamer.” His gaze settled on her face and suddenly he felt a hard tug deep inside him. Unfortunately, the sensation had nothing to do with him missing dinner and everything about the effervescent glow in her eyes. “Tell me, Sophie, what does a woman like you dream about?”
Her cheeks turned a darker pink. A telltale sign that when he’d walked up on her a few moments ago, she’d been thinking about a man. What else could put that sort of spaced out look on a woman’s face?
She shrugged one slender shoulder and the slight movement caused Mason’s gaze to dip from her face to the curve of her breasts pushing against the magenta colored top, then farther downward to where a close fitting black skirt stopped just above her knees and a pair of strappy high heels covered her small feet.
“Oh, I dream about lots of things,” she said. “Like work and travel and family. But mostly I dream about—”
His eyes lifted to see a smile tilting the corners of her soft, pink lips. As Mason studied the moist curves, he felt the sudden urge to clear his throat.
“About what?” he prodded.
Her gaze dropped shyly from his. “Finding true love like some of my brother and sisters. They’re married and happy and planning families of their own.” She sighed. “But I need the right man for that. And I think I’ve found him.”
The right man. Austin, Texas was full of eligible bachelors, but he couldn’t imagine any of them being good enough for Sophie. So who could possibly be the right man for this pampered princess, he wondered, while attempting to swat away a stab of foolish jealousy.
Folding his arms against his chest, he hoped he appeared cool instead of moonstruck. “Does the lucky guy know he’s targeted yet?”
With a nervous little laugh, she said, “Uh, not exactly. But I’m planning on letting him know soon. Very soon.”
It was stupid of Mason to feel deflated, but he did. Sophie could fly to any place in the world anytime she wanted. The man who’d caught her eye could be in Paris or London, anywhere besides Austin. “Do I know this guy?”
She picked up a pencil and tapped it against a notepad. As Mason looked at her dainty hands with their perfectly manicured fingernails, he doubted she’d ever had to lift more than a pencil. But to her credit, she and her siblings contributed long hours to their father’s company, even though their financial security had been set the day they’d been born.
She said, “I’m not ready to name names, but yes, you certainly know him. He’s handsome and very smart. And has a great job here at Robinson Tech.”
Hey, she could be describing him, Mason thought hopefully. He was smart and certain people had told him he was handsome. He also had a great job with the company.
“Sounds like a nice guy,” Mason admitted.
A wistful smile put a foggy look in her brown eyes. “Oh, he’s very nice. And practically oozes charisma. When my guy walks into a room all the women catch their breath and stare. And wish he belonged to them.”
Dang. That definitely crossed him off the list of possibilities. Though finding a date for himself wasn’t exactly as difficult as moving a mountain, Mason hardly had women swooning at his feet. He was the one with the shoulder they wanted to cry on. The one they came running to whenever some reckless rebel threw them over for a biker chick or rich cougar. Always the friend, but rarely the lover. That was good ole Mason.
“Nadine, one of my coworkers, says there are plenty of hunky men working in this building. Your guy must be one of them,” he said.
A sly look crossed her face. “He’s definitely suave. But he has an edge about him, too. Just enough to keep a woman guessing. Without making him too complex, that is.”
Thom Nichols. Damn it! She was talking about that phony, two-timing womanizer who ate women for breakfast and spit their bones to his Doberman pinscher. But Mason could hardly express his opinion about the man to Sophie. He’d learned long ago that putting down a boyfriend was not the way to score points with a woman.
Clearing his throat, he asked, “Do you really think any man could be as perfect as you’re making this one out to be?”
The long sigh she released troubled Mason greatly. Even if he didn’t have a chance in a million with this woman, he’d hate to see her hurt by lothario Thom.
“Well, I think he’s perfect for me,” she reasoned. “And Valentine’s Day will be here in a couple of weeks. By then I plan to have Mr. Right exactly where I want him.”
She patted the side of her hip, but rather than envisioning Thom standing next to Sophie, Mason was visualizing himself at her side. And suddenly he was determined to make the image come true. She might be thinking of Thom as her Mr. Right, but Mason was going to do everything possible to make her see she was all wrong about the plastic marketing strategist. And that Mason was her real Mr. Right.
Placing the amethyst back on a neat stack of legal papers, Mason straightened away from the desk. “Well, it’s getting really late and I still have a few things to do at home before the morning gets here and everything starts over.”
“You should get yourself a maid,” Sophie suggested. “You’d be surprised by how much she’d ease your workload.”
Mason was thinking he’d much rather have a woman to warm his bed than a maid to clean his house. Preferably one with long brown hair, killer legs and a waist that would fit right between his two hands.
Grinning, he winked at her and started out of the cubicle. “No thanks,” he tossed over his shoulder. “I’ll just eat more spinach.”
* * *
“Have you lost your mind, Sophie? You, of all people, chasing after a man! I just don’t get it.”
She glared at her sister Olivia, who’d made herself comfortable in one of the matching wingchairs in the sitting area of Sophie’s enormous bedroom suite. Even though Olivia had recently moved into a place of her own, she often stopped by the Robinson estate to visit. Sophie had always admired her older sister and often sought her advice on personal matters. Only moments earlier, Sophie had confided her plans to snare Thom Nichols and much to her chagrin, Olivia had immediately exploded with protests.
“No. You wouldn’t understand,” Sophie said, trying to keep the bite of sarcasm from her voice. “You don’t have the same dreams that I do. You don’t care if you ever have a man in your life.”
Sighing, Olivia crossed her legs, as though talking sense to her younger sister was going to be a long, arduous endeavor. “We’re not talking about me, Sophie. This is about you. You making a fool of yourself by chasing after a man.”
Hadn’t their own mother made a fool of herself by living with a man who’d cheated on her for years? Sophie felt like flinging the nasty question at Olivia, but bit it back instead. It wasn’t her place to judge either of her parents for the artificial state of their marriage. For some reason Sophie couldn’t fathom, the two remained steadfastly together. Even so, the connection between her mother and father was about as warm as a trip to Antarctica. And Sophie was determined that she would never settle for such a cold relationship with a man.
“I’m not actually going to chase him,” Sophie corrected as she walked over to the double doors that opened to an enormous walk-in closet. “I’m just going to give him a little nudge—a reminder that I’m in the building and available.”
Olivia snorted. “Thom Nichols believes every woman in the building is available to him. I just don’t see the attraction you have for the man.”
Gasping, Sophie shot a look of disbelief at her sister. “Are you joking? He has to be the sexiest man alive! Well, at least in the state of Texas!”
“We live in a mighty big state, Sophie. Just how would you describe a sexy man? Would you know one if you saw one?”
Momentarily ignoring Olivia’s barbed questions, Sophie snatched several pieces of clothing from the closet and carried them over to a king-sized bed.
“Apparently you need a lesson in identifying a sexy hunk from the regular crowd,” Sophie told her. “He’s tall, dark haired, has a killer smile and walks with just enough swag to let a woman know he’s full of confidence.”
“Hmmp. You mean with just enough conceit to let us know he’s struck on himself.”
Sophie glanced over to see Olivia shaking her head with disgust. Her sister’s cynical attitude irked her and saddened her at the same time. With gently waving hair that was a much darker brown than Sophie’s and beautiful features to match, her older sister could attract any man she wanted, but so far she viewed men and marriage as something worse than a chronic disease.
“Why do you have to be so jaded?” Sophie asked. “I wish now I’d never told you about my plans to go after Thom. It’s obvious you don’t understand how I feel.”
With a rueful sigh, Olivia pushed herself out of the chair and walked over to Sophie. “You’re right, I don’t understand. So why don’t you tell me how you feel about Thom?”
In an effort to gauge her sister’s sincerity, Sophie looked into Olivia’s brown eyes that were incredibly similar to her own.
“Do you honestly want to know?” Sophie asked. “Or are you just patronizing me?”
“I honestly want to know.” She reached over and plucked a black knit dress from the pile of clothing on the bed. “I need to understand why a young, beautiful woman like you feels the need to change yourself just to snag a man. If you have to be someone you’re not in order to make him like you, then you’re deluding yourself that it will ever work.”
Deflated by Olivia’s negative viewpoint, Sophie sank onto the bed. “I’ve had my eye on him for a long time,” Sophie told her. “And the more I’ve watched him, the more I’m sure he was put on this earth to be my one true love.”
Olivia let out a loud, mocking groan, then immediately plopped a hand over her mouth. “Sorry. I couldn’t help it.”
Sophie turned her misty gaze on a far corner of the room and swallowed hard. Not one of her seven legitimate siblings believed she was mature enough to take on a serious relationship with a man, much less think about marriage or a family. They all viewed her as the baby, the one offspring of Charlotte and Gerald Robinson who had been so sheltered, it would take years for her to grow up and acquire a head full of wisdom. Sometimes she even wondered how she’d gotten her job at Robinson Tech. Was it because she was well trained for the job, or because her father was the boss?
“Sure. I know. It all sounds silly to you,” Sophie mumbled.
“Oh, Sophie, don’t be so defensive.” Easing down next to her, Olivia wrapped an arm around Sophie’s shoulders. “I’m sorry. It’s just that I don’t think you grasp yet what love is. And I don’t want you to get hurt while you’re learning.”
Blinking at the tears stinging her eyes, Sophie looked directly at her sister. “I’ll tell you one thing. I know what love isn’t,” she said in a brittle tone. “It isn’t like this sham between our parents! Furthermore, I’d stay a spinster for the rest of my life if it meant avoiding the sort of marriage our mother has endured over the years.”
“Sophie!” Olivia scolded. “How can you say that? Dad has given Mother and all of us kids anything and everything we could possibly want.”
“So in other words, you’re saying Mother stays with Dad because of his money and this.” Sophie waved her arm, indicating the spacious room with its extravagant furnishings. “This high-class lifestyle he can provide her.”
Frowning, Olivia tossed the black dress back onto the bed, then looked toward the door as though she feared their mother might walk in at any moment. “That’s an awful thing to say, Sophie!” she said in a hushed tone. “Mother stays with Dad because she loves him!”
“Really? How could that be when she and the whole world know that Dad has had numerous affairs? You’re telling me that love can actually exist under those conditions?”
“Of course I am,” Olivia insisted. “Why else would she stay if she didn’t love him?”
Sophie had been asking herself that very question for some time now, and the more she did, the more she considered the idea that their mother might be hiding something from the whole family. But since that was only speculation, she was hardly going to mention her suspicions to Olivia. And she definitely wasn’t going to comment about their father anymore tonight. In Olivia’s eyes, Gerald Robinson could do little wrong. She’d chosen to forgive and forget about his philandering. Probably because Olivia happened to be one of their father’s favorites and he doted on her even more than he did Sophie.
Instead she switched the conversation back to her dream man.
“Thom is handsome and dynamic,” Sophie told her. “And I plan to make him mine by Valentine’s Day.”
“Exactly what does your plan entail?”
Sophie walked over to the cheval mirror and twisted her hair into a loose knot atop her head. “Don’t worry, I’m not going to change who I am. I’m only going to tweak the outside a bit. Maybe some highlights in my hair or some new clothes. Some sexy knee-high boots might do the trick.”
“And when you do catch his attention? Then what?”
Sophie smiled confidently at Olivia’s image in the mirror. “Then he’ll begin to look at all of me. Not just the outside.”
With a rueful shake of her head, Olivia warned, “You are headed for disaster, my dear sister. Thom Nichols wants two things from a woman. Sex and money. He’s hardly interested in finding the love of a lifetime.”
Sophie’s lips pressed into an angry line as she turned to face her sister. “Go ahead and be cynical and negative. Do your best to make me look foolish just because I want a man to love and for him to love me!”
Olivia threw up her hands in a gesture of surrender. “I give up. I can see this is something you’re going to have to figure out for yourself. And far be it from me to ruin your quest for love.”
“You’ll see,” Sophie countered with conviction. “By Valentine’s Day I’m going to have my man.”
“I hope you do get the right man—for you, that is. And I hope by Valentine’s Day you’ll begin to see the whole picture. Presently, this crush you have on Thom is giving you tunnel vision.”
Sophie frowned with confusion. “What is that supposed to mean?”
“The only man you see in front of you is Thom. You might allow yourself to look around a bit. You might find out that Mr. Right is someone else.”
Sophie scoffed. “I’m not shopping for high heels. I know what I want when I see it. I don’t have to keep looking for another man. Thom is perfect for me.”
A wan smile on her face, Olivia leaned forward and kissed Sophie’s cheek. “It’s getting late. I’ll see you tomorrow.”
As Sophie watched her sister leave the bedroom, a tinge of sadness began to push her frustration aside. A few kind words of encouragement from Olivia would have been far nicer than a prediction of failure. She’d made it sound like Sophie didn’t have enough sense to differentiate between a skirt chaser and a gentleman.
Sighing, Sophie sank onto the edge of the bed and plucked a family photo from the nightstand. The framed image was one of the few pictures that included all her brothers and sisters. With their busy lives taking them in all directions her whole family wasn’t often together. But this particular photo had been taken at their parents’ twenty-fifth wedding anniversary and everyone, including Charlotte and Gerald, looked happy. Yet that had been eleven years ago, long before anyone knew about Gerald’s hidden identity or his affairs.
A year ago, her older brother, Ben, had been instrumental in uncovering the truth. Their forceful father, one of the most famous tech moguls in the world, wasn’t really Gerald Robinson. He was Jerome Fortune, a member of the famous Fortune family. As if that wasn’t enough of a stunner, during the investigation, Ben had found a thirty-three-year-old illegitimate son of Gerald’s named Keaton Whitfield living in London.
Since that time, their newly discovered half brother had moved to Austin and started building a rapport with all his siblings. Sophie had to admit she liked Keaton and didn’t begrudge his place in the family. Yet the whole revelation of her father’s other life had shaken her to the core.
All at once she’d had to accept the fact that her father had never been the man she’d believed him to be. And as for her mother, who could possibly know why Charlotte had hung around for all these years? It sure as heck wasn’t for love as Olivia had suggested.
Face it, Sophie, your parents are phonies and so are you! The only reason you have an important position at Robinson Tech, or anything else for that matter, is because of your name. It certainly hasn’t come from your brains, or beauty, or hard work. The sooner you realize the truth, the better off you’ll be.
Disgusted with the degrading voice in her head, she put the photo back and squeezed her eyes shut.
If her parents were shams, then their marriage was even more of a joke, Sophie miserably concluded. So what did that make their children? Mere symbols of a fake love? Moreover, what did it make Sophie?
Her lips pressed into a determined line, Sophie looked over at the clothes she’d tossed onto the bed. In one aspect, Olivia had been correct. The outside of her wasn’t nearly as important as the inside. Yes, she wanted to look just as attractive as her sisters and all the other beautiful women of Austin. But she also wanted everyone to see she was more than just the youngest child of a famous and wealthy family. And she was hardly a fool for wanting the same genuine sort of love that her siblings Ben, Wes, Graham, Rachel and Zoe had found, she thought.
By Valentine’s Day, Thom was going to see she was worthy of him. And then everything she’d ever wanted in her life was going to fall into place.
