His Forever Valentine by Marie Ferrarella

Author:Marie Ferrarella
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2013-12-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Ordinarily, she could sleep anywhere, any time. Her father liked to joke that she could probably sleep hanging in the closet on a wire coat hanger. But tonight, sleep took its own sweet time in coming to her.

Val didn’t know exactly when she finally did manage to drift off, but it had taken her quite a while—and then there was dawn, slipping in through the open curtains, making itself known as it nudged her awake.

Feeling like something that the cat had dragged in, Val stared at the ceiling for a couple of moments, trying to orient herself and remember exactly where she was. Waking up in beds that weren’t her own wasn’t unusual for her. Because of the nature of her job, she traveled a great deal. Even so, putting a name to her latest locations was tricky for her at times.

Like now.

And then she remembered.

Remembered discovering the ranch and feeling confident that she had lucked out. Remembered Jim’s pleased voice when she’d sent the photographs she’d taken of the ranch. Remembered feeling good because she’d been right.

Remembered Rafe’s kiss.

The last had her smiling languidly for exactly ten seconds, and then she bolted upright when her thoughts began to take her to places she had absolutely no business going.

Places that, while wonderful, she’d already been to and had no intention of revisiting. Because those places were coupled with disappointment and heartache. She knew that as certainly as she knew that night followed day.

Enough of this “castles in the sky” nonsense. She needed to get going, Val told herself. Grabbing her discarded shirt, jeans and boots, she rushed into the bathroom, hoping that a quick shower would make a new person out of her—or at the very least, revive the person she’d been before moonlight and Rafe had robbed her of her ability to focus clearly.

Fifteen minutes later, Val was sailing down the stairs, ready to do whatever it took to get Miguel Rodriguez to agree to lease the production company the use of his ranch for their movie.

Preoccupied, she sailed right into Rafe, who was just about to go upstairs to knock on her door and wake her.

Obviously, he thought wryly, that was unnecessary at this point.

Catching hold of Val’s shoulders to keep from knocking her down, he was surprised at how sturdy they felt. This was not some delicate little flower no matter what she looked like.

“Whoa. Where are you going in such an all-fired hurry?” he asked. When she looked first at one of her shoulders, then the other before fixing him with a stare, he dropped his hands from them and held them up as if in partial surrender.

“The kitchen,” she answered, banking down a wave of embarrassment because she’d almost run him down. “I wanted to catch your father at breakfast.”

“He’s still very ‘catchable,’” Rafe assured her. “Trust me, right now, he’s not going anywhere.” Captivated, he cocked his head as if to study her a little more closely. He could see that she really didn’t look all that rested.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.