Stella Bagwell – Her Sweetest Fortune (страница 2)

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.