Page 54 of A Fortunes of Texas Christmas (Fortunes of Texas)

She replied immediately.

No need. I’m downstairs. Meet me at the elevator.

A couple of minutes later, he met her by the elevator door. He didn’t say a word. Neither did she. He simply grasped her elbow and led her into the elevator, and they traveled up to the top floor in silence. Once they were in his suite, he poured her a glass of wine, grabbed the one he’d obviously been drinking—since it was half-full—and sat down on the sofa.

She took a good look at him and realized he looked tired and as though he had some great burden pressing down on his shoulders. He hadn’t shaved, so dark stubble shadowed his jaw, and his clothes were crumpled. They looked like the same clothes he’d worn the night before. He wasn’t looking at her. He had his elbows on his knees and was staring into his wineglass. Something, she realized, was seriously wrong.

Robin decided there was little point in playing games or stalling simply because she didn’t want to face the truth. So, she jumped right in.

“Are you sleeping with Olivia Fortune Mendoza?”

That made him look up. And right into her gaze. His mouth was a harsh, thin line.

“Don’t be ridiculous.”

Robin winced. “Then what?” she demanded.

He shrugged and looked away. Clearly, it wasn’t a conversation he wanted to have. Well, too bad.

“Oh, no,” she said and moved around the coffee table. “This isn’t where you get to be all moody and closed off. Because if you don’t answer the question, Amersen, I will walk out the door and we’ll never see one another again.”

His gaze rose instantly. “I can’t...” His voice was ragged and uneven, and he placed the wineglass on the table with an unsteady hand. “I don’t know what to tell you.”

“The truth,” she said, gentler this time, because she saw a kind of raw vulnerability in his expression that she’d never seen before. “I just want the truth.”

He took a long breath, sounding as though it was one of the hardest of his life. “Olivia is... She’s my...”

She’d never seen him struggle for words as he did now. And when he spoke again, his blue eyes were glittering bright and were filled with uneasy emotion.

“She’s my sister.”

Sister?

Robin absorbed his words, trying to make sense of them and failing. It didn’t make sense. Amersen’s sister was called Claire and she lived in Paris. And Olivia was a Fortune who’d married a Mendoza. What possible link could there be between her and Amersen? Robin tried to connect the dots in her head and failed, coming up with more questions instead of answers. She remembered what he’d told her about his parents and that Luc wasn’t his bio

logical father. And then the penny suddenly dropped in spectacular fashion.

Oh my god...could it be true? Could Amersen Beaudin be one of the illegitimate Fortunes?

“But...but that would mean...that would mean that Gerald Robinson is your—”

“Nothing!” He got to his feet and paced around the sofa, hands clenched, arms at his sides, his shoulders tighter than she’d ever seen them. “He’s nothing to me. Just the man who got my mother pregnant.”

She heard the pain and resentment in his voice, and her heart ached for him. “Who knows?”

“No one,” he replied flatly. “Just my parents. And Keaton Whitfield and Ben Fortune. And Olivia, by her reaction last night.” He ran a weary hand through his hair. “And probably the rest of the damned Fortunes.”

“Kate?” she asked quietly.

He shrugged. “I’m not sure. She’s never mentioned it—but I have no idea if that’s why she invited me to Austin, or whether it really was about the business deal. All I know is that seeing Olivia last night made me think I should reconsider this whole cologne idea.”

“Why?” she asked.

“Because I’m not sure I want anything to do with anyone named Fortune,” he replied harshly. “You saw the look on Olivia’s face... She was no more impressed by the meeting than I was.”

“She was probably surprised,” Robin suggested, trying to act impartial—which was hard when he looked so achingly vulnerable. She’d never seen him lacking confidence like he did in that moment. “But, despite that...you are related. Once the shock wears off, you might be able to get to know her...and the rest of them.”

“I’m not sure I want to.”

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