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www.millsandboon.co.uk
For my research helpers, Marilyn, Heather, Laurie, Lisa, Sarah. I couldn’t have written this one without your help.
Thank you.
Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Bronwyn Jameson for her contribution to DAKOTA FORTUNES miniseries.
Contents
Prologue
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
Coming Next Month
Prologue
“It is her.”
Max Fortune’s muttered words went unheard, swallowed by the chatter that rose and fell in waves around him. Not that Max noticed. His focus remained riveted on the woman who’d captured his attention the instant he walked into the party at his Dakota cousins’ grand estate home.
There’d been something about her posture and the way she tilted her head to listen intently to her companion’s conversation that had jangled at deeply buried memories. When she’d turned enough to reveal her face in profile, kick-gut recognition had shocked the words loose from his mind.
It was Diana Fielding.
Ten years older but there was no mistaking the distinctive dip in her nose or the low-set eyebrows that gave her face a somberness at odds with her smile. There was no mistaking that high-octane smile, either, or the startling contrast between her milky skin and night-dark hair. Still long, he presumed, although tonight she wore it up, drawing attention to the smooth line of her throat.
There’d been a time when Max had kissed every inch of that long, slender column…when he’d kissed every inch of her long, slender body.
What the hell was that body doing in South Dakota?
Max had only arrived himself that afternoon. Despite the lengthy series of flights from his home in Australia via New Zealand and L.A., he’d accepted his hosts’ party invitation without hesitation. It provided the perfect opportunity to meet all of Nash Fortune’s family—Case, Creed, Eliza, Blake and Skylar, his cousins several-times-removed—in the one place. Max appreciated that kind of efficiency. In fact, he’d accepted Nash and his wife Patricia’s invitation to base this business trip here because Sioux Falls provided efficient access to all the horse breeding farms he aimed to visit.
Visiting with this branch of his extended family for the first time was an added bonus.
Revisiting the worst moment in his life—now that was an add-on he could do without.
“What’s up, mate? You look like you’ve seen a ghost.”
Max turned to find Zack Manning, his New Zealand based friend, business partner and traveling companion, eyeing him closely. “Not a ghost,” he said with a casual shrug that belied the tension in his gut. “Just a woman I thought I knew once.”
His friend’s breath whistled out between his teeth as he studied the object of Max’s distraction. “Y’know, I think you’d remember meeting her.”
No kidding.
“Looks European,” Zack decided. “Like a Russian princess.”
She wasn’t, although speech lessons had edged her voice with an accent as regal as her show-biz-royalty blood. She’d hated him drawing attention to that; she’d determinedly played it down…until he’d mentioned how it turned him on. Then she’d employed it with impressive effect.
“Looks as though you’re about to make the princess’s acquaintance,” Zack said.
Everything inside him twanged like high tensile wire as his gaze swung across the room. There, at Diana Fielding’s side, his cousin Eliza was trying to catch his attention. Suddenly her presence here made sense. She was visiting with Eliza—the two of them had been friends at college. He should have remembered the connection since it had led, indirectly, to their meeting.
Eliza waved her hand harder and, curse it, he couldn’t ignore that summons. Or the elbow his friend used to nudge him into motion. “Geez, Fortune. I’ve never known you so reluctant to meet a beautiful woman.”
“I’m not here to meet women.”
“A good thing,” Zack quipped, “given that scowl you’re wearing would send ’em screaming from the room.”
In deference to his hosts and their guests, Max made an effort to wipe his mind and his expression clear of dark memories. Lord knew he’d had enough practice over the years.
Ten years, seven months, two weeks, to be precise.
When Eliza caught his hand and pulled him into the small group, he managed a stiff smile. “You know Case,” she said, indicating the eldest of her brothers, whom he’d met that afternoon. “This is his date, Gina Reynolds. And this is Diana Young.”
Not Diana Fielding. Not any more.
“Hello, Max.”
His smile faded. He remembered the first time they’d met and the same warm I-am-pleased-to-meet-you look in her grey-green eyes as they looked into his. And he remembered the last time he’d seen her, the day he traveled to New York with a diamond ring in his pocket.
The day he’d stood undetected in the shadows watching her walk through a petal-strewn garden to marry another man.
“Diana…Young, is it?”
He saw the confusion in her eyes, then the slight recoil as she absorbed the cool cut of his question.
But that was nothing compared to the knife of betrayal she’d driven into him ten years before. At the time he’d thought that wound had pierced his heart. Later he’d decided it was only damage to his pride, his male ego, his crushed plans. The scar shouldn’t still hurt. It wouldn’t, he declared with absolute conviction, if this meeting hadn’t come as such a god-sudden out-of-the-blue shock.
Turning his gaze to Eliza and Case and Gina, he detected a weight of curiosity in their silence and knew he couldn’t play nice for the sake of etiquette. He couldn’t fake small talk. And he was in no mood to explain his previous relationship with Diana Fielding Young.
“If you’ll excuse me, I need to pay my respects to Patricia and Nash. I haven’t caught up with them yet.” He knew his words sounded stiff, but he managed a smile for Case’s date. “Nice to meet you, Gina.”
He had nothing to say to Diana. Nothing he could say in this polite company. He nodded curtly and walked away.
One
Over the past two weeks Diana had done upset, disappointed, annoyed, indignant and a dozen other emotions too confusing and complex and maddening to label. Right now, walking through the breezeway in Skylar Fortune’s barn, she would have chosen any one of them over her current state of jittery, heart-jumping nerves.
Fitting, she supposed, since Sky’s stables were filled with similarly high-strung thoroughbreds.
Not that she could blame her current state on either the location or her semi-fear of horses. Nor could she blame the purpose of her early morning visit to the Fortune estate, which was to shoot her first professional we-pay-you photos. Ever. That caused her nerves to hum with barely suppressed excitement not to wail with trepidation.
The wailing and the jittering were all down to one thing.
Here, in the stables that were his domain, she risked running into Max Fortune again.
She hated that his snub at Case’s party had tied her in knots for the two weeks since. Had he not recognized her? Did he not remember her? Or had he left so abruptly after their short exchange because he didn’t want to acknowledge their history?
Eventually she’d admonished herself for wasting too much emotional energy on an old love affair. After three years of widowhood she’d finally found her feet. Since moving to Sioux Falls she’d lucked upon an occupation she loved and had recently taken up a position at her mentor’s studio/gallery.
The last thing she needed was a force of nature like Max Fortune messing with her newly discovered contentment.
For the duration of the twenty-mile drive from Sioux Falls to the Fortune estate, she’d reprised that lecture. Today was crucial to her aspirations. She needed to remain focused and professional.
But all the self-talk in the world didn’t stop her heart from leaping into her throat when she heard the crunch of hooves on aged brick cobblestones. Pivoting on her heels, she looked back over her shoulder at the approaching horse being led by…Skylar.
Thank you, God.
She released a long breath and smiled as the youngest of Nash Fortune’s five children came to an abrupt halt, her brows knit in a frown. “Diana. You’re here. Already.”
“I know I’m a little early.” On her first job she’d thought that infinitely better than tardiness. “I can wait until you’re ready. There’s no rush.”
“No, it’s okay. I’m pretty sure Max has your model all gussied up and ready for the camera.”
The impatient horse at Sky’s side stamped its feet in unison with the lurch of Diana’s heart. She took a half-step back from its large feet, just to be on the safe side. “Max?”
“Max Fortune. Our Aussie cousin. Didn’t you meet him at Case’s party?” Without waiting for an answer, Sky hurried on. “Not to worry, you’ll meet him now. Max and his friend Zack Manning are starting up a stud farm back home and they’re over here inspecting the setups and buying stock. Your subject is one of Max’s first acquisitions and she’s a real beauty. He bought her in Kentucky last week.”
“Do you mean that this job is shooting Max Fortune’s horse?”
As soon as the words left her mouth, Diana wished them back. Not the question itself—that was perfectly valid since Sky had made the booking without one mention of a third party—but her horror-struck tone.
Sky’s frown deepened. “I didn’t realize that would be a problem.”
“Oh, no, it’s not a problem,” Diana lied.
“Really? Because you said poor Max’s name as if you’d just as soon shoot him. And I don’t mean with your camera!”
Oh, joy. That’s exactly what she’d feared. The perfect nonprofessional start when Sky had paid her a huge compliment by booking her instead of an equine specialist.
“Would you prefer if I got someone else?”
“Oh, no, that’s not necessary,” Diana said quickly. She’d come here as a photographer, not as a woman bruised by a past breakup or a recent snub. She could do this. She could be polite, businesslike, friendly even. “I’m here to shoot whatever you point me at…and only with my camera.”
“Sure?”
Diana smiled with what she hoped passed for cheerful assurance while her chest tightened with uncheerful apprehension. “Absolutely. Now, where will I find your Aussie cousin?”
Following Sky’s directions, Diana turned from the wide central breezeway into one of two wings added to the original barn when Sky expanded her horse breeding enterprise. Barn hardly described the giant U-shaped dwelling now. The place was five star accommodation, meticulously clean and toasty warm despite the frigid winter’s morning outside.
Diana dispensed with her gloves and loosened the scarf she’d wrapped around her neck. So she’d be ready to start work. And because her fluttery fingers needed something further to do, she hitched her camera bag more securely on her shoulder and increased her pace to a confident stride.
One thing she’d learned from her stage-star mother was how to exude presence, even when her insides were trembling up a storm.
At the second to last stable, she stopped and gathered her well-learned poise. Over the high Dutch door all she could see was the tail end of a large horse. The Kentucky beauty, she presumed, although not from her best angle.
Trepidation caused her heart to drum harder as she approached the door. For a second she thought the animal was unattended but then she heard his voice. Too low to make out the words, but she recognized the deep crooning tone.
Unfortunately her hormones recognized it, too, not from the days spent at his outback stables but from the nights spent in his bed. They stretched and yawned and shimmied to life before she could do a dashed thing to control their recollections.
This was not the response she needed right now, not when the rustling of straw announced him moving around beyond the horse’s substantial frame.
She took a rapid step backward and drew a deep breath just as he came into view, looking exactly like the Max she’d tried so hard, for so long, to forget.
His suede western jacket and wide-brimmed hat were pure cowboy, although that label had amused the heck out of him whenever she’d used it. Cattleman was the term they used in Australia. And although Max worked his family’s outback cattle ranches, he spent equal time running the business side of the operation from behind an office desk.
Or he had.
Past tense, Diana reminded herself. Max Fortune might still wear his tan Akubra low to shade his deep green eyes. He might still wear his hair long enough to curl beneath the broad brim of that trademark hat, but a lot can change in ten years.
A lot had changed, but not her body’s elemental response to the man.
Everything tightened and warmed and raced as she watched one large hand smooth a path over the horse’s gleaming rump. “You’ll do just fine, sweetheart,” he murmured, his voice as languid as that slow-moving hand.
Diana felt a shivery pang in the pit of her stomach, a reaction and an anticipation as he started to turn toward the stable door. She caught the edge of his easy grin and her stomach went into free-fall.
This wasn’t the grim stranger from the party but the lover she remembered, quick to smile, to tease, to laugh.
Then he caught sight of her and the smile faded from his mouth and his eyes, leaving his expression as cold as a Dakota February dawn.
Diana resisted the urge to rub at her arms or rewrap her scarf. She searched for the right opening line but all she could find was the same simple greeting as two weeks earlier at the party. “Hello, Max.”
“Diana.”
No hello, just her name spoken in a tone as flat and dry as the outback plains of his home.
That short greeting did, however, answer her earlier unspoken question. He recognized her all right, which meant she hadn’t imagined his snub at the party. She couldn’t pretend that the knowledge didn’t hurt, but today he was her client. She had to forget their past encounters, both recent and distant, and focus on the job.
“Is this the mare you want photographed?” she asked.
“You’re the horse photographer?”
She bit back the instant response—is that so hard to believe?—because the answer was written all over his face. Way back when he’d teased her about her degree in arts and the classics, about her society-girl lifestyle and lack of a work résumé of any description. This was her opportunity to show that she could do something practical, and that she could do it well.
“That is what I’m here for,” she said crisply, reaching for the clip on her camera bag.
“Is it?”
Alerted by the skepticism in his tone, she looked up and found him eyeing her, head to toe and back again.
“Why else would I be here?” she asked.
“Beats me. From what I remember, horses scare the living daylights out of you.”
“That was a long time ago, Max. I’m not that girl any more.”
Something shifted in his expression, and Diana stiffened in expectation of what he might say about the past and the hours he’d spent coaxing the horse-shy New Yorker into the saddle on one of his Australian stock horses.
But perhaps all she’d seen was a wall going up, because he said nothing about the past, returning instead to their present situation.
“You don’t look like you’ve come here to work with horses,” he pointed out. “You’re wearing a skirt.”
A frown pinched her brows together as she glanced down at her clothes. Had she broken an unwritten dress code for equine photographers? Yes, she wore a skirt but it was a conservative A-line, teamed with a cable-knit sweater and practical low-heeled boots. The outfit would take her from this job to a charity committee meeting Eliza had roped her into, without needing to go home to change.
“I understood Sky booked me,” she said, cool, polite, restrained, “to take a simple portrait of a horse. She didn’t mention it was your horse. Believe me, I am as surprised as you about that! But I am here to do that job and if that requires me to get down and dirty for artistic angles or special effects, just say the word. I’m sure Sky will loan me some jeans.”
Although his jaw flexed, he remained blessedly silent. Diana decided to take that as a positive sign, but only because this job meant too much to blithely toss it away. Establishing herself as a photographer was the first goal she’d been passionate about in a long, long while. There was a certain cruel irony in the fact that her start involved working with the last object of her total passion. But she wouldn’t allow that joke-of-fate to drive her away. She might have set out this morning with the aim of proving herself to herself, but in the last few minutes it had become equally important to prove herself to Max.
With a brisk and businesslike nod of her head, she indicated the horse now prowling the stable at his back. “So, this is the job?”
“Yes.”
Diana met his eyes and there, behind the flat, guarded admission, she read acceptance—albeit reluctant—of her role. Silently she breathed a sigh of relief. “Then let’s talk about the photos you require.”
“What do you suggest?” he asked after a measured pause. “You’re the expert.”
It was a test, she knew, since Max Fortune always knew exactly what he wanted. He’d told her as much the night they met. The night he decided he wanted her in his bed.
He’d been the expert then, but today it was her turn.
Nerves flapped vulture-sized wings in her stomach as she considered the challenge he’d set. She had photographed horses once—Sky’s horses, as it happened. That had been a class assignment back before Christmas and she’d spent long hours alternatively perched on a railing fence and prone in the frozen meadow capturing the vibrant spirit, the athleticism, and the individual personalities of a group of colts in a field beyond Sky’s barn.
The results had impressed her teacher so much that he’d included them in a winter exhibition in his gallery and then offered her a job there. They’d impressed Sky so much that she’d offered her this job.
Which left one person still to impress….
He was leaning on the half-door, watching her watch his horse. That silent observation fed more adrenaline into her system and she had to fight a momentary attack of who-am-I-fooling panic. Throwing up her breakfast would not look expert, capable or professional.
Forcing her focus to the horse as it paced the roomy stable, she framed a series of shots through an imaginary viewfinder. What she saw settled and excited her nerves in equal measures. Could she capture that ripple of muscles beneath the horse’s burnished copper coat? Could she depict all that latent power in a single flat dimension?
“I’ll have to take her moving,” she decided, “in order to do her justice.”
“Not a portrait?”
“That would be too static, don’t you think?” He looked dubious, but the longer Diana watched the animal’s graceful stride, the more confident she became in her first instinctive call. She tried another angle. “I gather she’s a racehorse?”
“A retired one.”
“Was she a fast one?”
“Fast and strong,” he supplied, and the softened note of respect in his voice drew Diana’s gaze back to his profile. Still the same square jaw that framed his face in steely strength.
Or, when he wanted his own way, in stubborn determination.
But the years had sculpted change in the hollowed planes beneath his cheekbones, in the fretted lines radiating from the corners of his narrowed gaze, in the straight set of his unsmiling mouth.
Diana longed to ask what had turned him so stern and disapproving, and why he was directing that acrimony toward her. But in talking about his horse she sensed the first easing in the tension between them and she wanted to prolong that mood. It wasn’t exactly harmonious but it was a start.
“I would like to depict her as that fast, strong athlete you described. In motion. With the sun on her coat.” She paused, watching his face, trying to gauge his reaction. “That’s what I see when I look at her, but you’re the client.”
“And the client is always right?”
“No, but the client pays the bill so he always has the final say.”
As if she wanted the final word, the horse extended her neck over the door and whinnied softly. Aware of Max’s watchfulness, of being under his judgment, she forced herself to hold her ground. The horse seemed friendly enough. It was sniffing at her hair. No teeth were visible, which had to be a good thing. Diana took a steadying breath.
“Hello,” she said softly, and was pleased that her voice didn’t betray her horse-getting-far-too-close jeebies. “What is your name, beautiful?”
Max might have cleared his throat. Or it could have been a throaty horse noise from a neighboring stable. Diana lifted a hand—it hardly shook at all—and stroked the horse’s face. A brass plate attached to the leather halter she wore was engraved with a single word.
“Bootylicious,” she read. Brows lifted in surprise and amusement, she turned to Max. “Is that her name?”
“Don’t blame me.” He held up both hands defensively. “The name came with her.”
And it was so not a name he would have chosen. Diana couldn’t help smiling. “I think it is a very fitting name. Unique and distinctive,” she said, pleased that the tension had eased enough that she could joke and smile without it feeling like her face might split with the effort. “Perfect for a foundation mare for your new stud farm,” she continued, tongue-in-cheek. “You could name all her offspring Booty-something.”
He shot her a disgusted look. “Luckily she’s not part of the new operation.”
“She’s not? From what Sky said, I thought you and Zack were over here buying breeding stock.”
“We are.” He shifted his position, allowing the bootylicious one room to move off, before he leaned back against the door. Almost relaxed, Diana noted, with rich satisfaction. And finally he’d stopped glowering. “This mare was a champion miler but she’s got too much sprinter’s blood in her pedigree.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Not for some studs, but we’re looking to breed champion stayers…for long distance races,” he clarified, when she looked askance. “This one’s bloodlines don’t fit the bill.”
“But you bought her anyway?”
“A gift for my parents. I’m leaving her here with Sky until she’s safely in foal. That’s why I want the photos, to send them in lieu of the real thing.”
“Easier to gift wrap.”
“Much,” he agreed, and a hint of the lopsided grin she loved lurked around the corners of his mouth.
Loved? Diana gave herself a quick mental shake. What they’d shared was not love, no matter what she’d thought during those blissful months. Mention of his parents whom she had never met acted as the perfect reminder.
“How is your family?” she asked out of politeness.
“They’re all well.”
“And you, Max?” Not out of politeness, but because she couldn’t help herself. She had to know. “How have you been?”
“Fine.”
On the surface it sounded liked a stock answer, the kind you pay no heed to. But all traces of that near-smile had vanished from his face and, as he pushed off the door and started toward the horse, Diana detected a stiffening in his posture.