THE TEXAS TATTLER
All the news that’s barely fit to print!
Paternity Shocker!
DNA tests conclusively prove that Matthew Fortune, eldest son of Texas billionaire Ryan Fortune, is the biological father of a child whose identity has plagued and baffled a family, national law enforcement and the entire Lone Star State. Time for a quick “scandal” recap.
One year ago, Matthew and Claudia Fortune’s million-dollar-darling Bryan was snatched by kidnappers demanding a jaw-dropping ransom. FBI agents recovered a baby with the distinctive crown-shaped birthmark identifying him as a Fortune—but the child wasn’t Bryan. Matthew and Claudia agreed to care for little “Taylor” until the mystery of his parentage was solved.
Even in the face of hard scientific evidence to the contrary, husband Matthew claims he’s never strayed. Hmmm…Taylor is about one year old and the newlyweds in question tied the knot a little over two years ago…. Matthew must be using the new, new math for those figures to add up!
And more titillating tid-bits from the Double Crown Ranch… Tattler sleuths report royally gorgeous hunk Sheikh Ben Ramir in the close company of legal eagle Eden Fortune. Sources say these two had a fast-’n’-furious fling in Paris years ago. And Eden’s son, Sawyer, is beginning to look like a prince sized secret!
About the Author
KASEY MICHAELS
is the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling author of more than sixty books. She has won the Romance Writers of America RITA® Award and the Romantic Times Career Achievement Award for her historical romances set in the Regency era.
The Sheikh’s Secret Son
Kasey Michaels
Meet the Fortunes of Texas
Eden Fortune: The last thing she expected was a reunion with the father of her child. And she never anticipated that her feelings for the dashing and virile sheikh would be stronger than ever.
Sheikh Ben Ramir: He’d lost Eden due to his father’s interference. But now the time had finally come for this lion of the desert to make his move and claim the only woman he’d ever loved—and the princely heir he’d never known.
Baby Taylor: The stunning revelation about his parentage had repercussions for the entire Fortune family, especially his foster parents—Matthew and Claudia.
Wyatt Grayhawk: The rugged lawman knew the prominent Fortune family had weathered its share of scandals, and he was determined to protect his friends at all costs.
To Melissa Jeglinski, one more time.
Contents
Chapter One
Chapter Two
Chapter Three
Chapter Four
Chapter Five
Chapter Six
Chapter Seven
Chapter Eight
Chapter Nine
Chapter Ten
One
The wedding had been beautiful. But then, weddings usually were beautiful, wonderful. Eden Fortune’s brother Logan had been handsome and adorably nervous. Emily, his bride, had been lovely and serene. Together, Logan and Emily had taken their vows and become a family to Amanda Sue, Logan’s no longer motherless daughter.
Happy endings were nice.
Not that Eden would know much about that.
The digital clock next to her bed blinked itself past midnight, and Eden knew she couldn’t just lie there and watch as it passed one, then two…counting down the hours all the way to dawn.
Pushing back the soft down comforter, she slipped from the queen-size bed; a bed too large, too lonely. Too cold and empty.
Sliding her feet into her slippers, she brushed a thick lock of dark brown hair behind her left ear, pushed herself erect, and padded to the doorway, led by the light she always left on in the hallway in case her five-year-old son Sawyer woke during the night and she had to go to him.
He was quiet tonight, probably worn out from their long day. But, if he did wake, she knew she could calm his childish nightmares. She could sing him nonsense songs and hold his small body close and rock him back to sleep.
But she couldn’t answer his questions.
Ciara Wilde had heard Sawyer ask the most unanswerable question tonight, at the small wedding reception held at the Fortune ranch after the ceremony. Ciara was a sweet girl, and Eden had been happy to hear that she and her uncle, Jace Lockhart, planned to be married. In fact, Eden had been offering Ciara her best wishes when Sawyer had asked the first question.
The boy’s timing was impeccable.
“Mommy?” he’d asked, tugging at her skirt, looking up at her with those penetrating dark eyes of his, eyes that lived in her memory, in her dreams…and in her son. “Amanda Sue has a mommy and a daddy now, doesn’t she?”
“Yes, darling,” Eden had answered as her stomach knotted. She must have betrayed herself in her tone of voice, or in the quick flush of her cheeks, because Ciara had taken her hand, squeezed her fingers. “Uncle Logan and Aunt Emily are Amanda Sue’s daddy and mommy now.”
Sawyer’s bottom lip had come forward in a pout. “That’s not fair,” he’d protested, glaring past Eden to where Logan was sitting in a chair on the front porch, rocking a sleepy Amanda Sue in his arms. “Why can she have both a mommy and a daddy when I can’t?”
Eden had immediately knelt in front of her son, this five-year-old with questions and heartaches too big for his small body. “Sawyer, I—”
“Not fair! Not fair!” he’d shouted, pulling away from her, running off toward the stables.
Eden had continued to kneel in the dirt, stunned, watching Sawyer’s straight, sturdy legs carry him away from her, and then flinched as Ciara’s hand came to rest on her shoulder.
“Do you want me to go after him, Eden, talk to him?” Ciara had asked, offering her help, her friendship, her comfort.
“No, thank you, Ciara,” Eden had said, returning to her feet slowly, like an old woman whose joints didn’t always cooperate. “He’ll be fine. He’s probably going to visit with his pony for a while. Hercules is quite good at listening to Sawyer’s problems, as long as the carrots hold out. He just needs some time alone, and then he’ll be…fine. Really, he’ll be fine…”
Eden had been right. Logan had brought Sawyer back to the house about a half hour later, and the boy had held his uncle’s hand tightly as he apologized to her for running off without telling her where he was going. Then, as Eden watched, and as her brother had given Sawyer’s hand a small squeeze, her son walked closer, his body stiff and straight, and motioned that she should bend so that he could kiss her cheek.
Always the gentleman, her son, once he was over his temper. Almost princely