An Heiress to Remember (The Gilded Age Girls Club #3) - Maya Rodale Page 0,39
Or he could wait it out. Wait until Goodwin’s went bankrupt, then hire back all those employees at their former rate when her great experiment failed.
And he really had to put someone on the case of Josephine Shaw Lowell and her White List.
Standing where he was, in the wreckage of the store and memories, it seemed impossible that she would make a success out of this dusty mess of wood, glass, and mirror. And toilets. And . . . the strangest-looking chair contraption that he had ever seen. It reclined, and there was an odd space indented for the neck, presumably. Two burly men were carrying it past him, toward a newly installed elevator.
They looked at Beatrice for instruction. “Where do you want these, Mrs. Archer?”
“Oh, I remember. And it seems we’re playing dirty.”
“If that’s how you want to play, Dalton,” she replied, and if he didn’t know better he’d say she sounded flirtatious. But this was no flirting matter. She gave him that smile again. It did things to his insides. It made him feel like he was falling from the very top of the New York World Building. Falling and flailing and anxiously reaching out for something to hold on to. His instinct was to reach out to her.
He was mad. Furious. That was why his heart was pounding. All the dust was the reason his chest felt tight and his breathing fast and shallow.
It certainly wasn’t desire.
It couldn’t be.
That was a complication he didn’t want or need.
“You’re upset,” she said calmly which did nothing to calm him. “You’re upset that I’m not selling you the store. You’re upset that I’m not just going to add floral arrangements and hope for the best. You’re upset that I’m not going to let you have your revenge so easily. You’re upset that you have nothing else to occupy your mind other than business and stupid ideas of revenge.”
Every word landed like a sniper’s shot.
“Upset? Men do not become upset. I am righteously enraged.”
“Perhaps you need to take a walk around the block. Breathe deeply. Count backward from a thousand.”
“You don’t know what I need.”
She stopped and whirled around, nearly colliding with his chest. She pushed him. Her palms thumping against the wool of his suit jacket.
“I don’t care what you need. In case you hadn’t noticed, I am trying to do something here and it doesn’t concern you. No matter how much you stomp about trying to make yourself the center of attention. Look at me, Dalton. I’m not the girl who broke your heart. I’m a woman trying to run a business.”
Fine. He looked at her, really looked at her.
Upswept hair with flecks of dust. Deep blue eyes, bright and fiery. He saw faint lines around them, but that didn’t make them look any less beautiful. It suggested that she had seen things, that she could really see him if he’d let her.
He dropped his gaze to her mouth, full and sensuous and firm. He could just picture those lips telling him what to do and damn if the orders she gave in his fantasy weren’t ones he wanted to follow.
She wore a dark, stylish yet serviceable shirtwaist, skirt, and jacket. It hadn’t escaped his notice the way she moved confidently through this wreckage of a store. The way she stood before him, unapologetic and defiant.
He didn’t see the girl who broke his heart. He saw a woman trying to run a business.
And she was magnificent.
“What is that look, Dalton? If I didn’t know any better I’d think you wanted to kiss me.”
“Don’t tempt me,” he said sharply.
“Or what?” Beatrice challenged.
“Or I just might.”
“Oooh,” she breathed. “Oh I am so . . .”
“So what, Beatrice?”
Dalton took a step close, too close. There were mere inches separating their thundering hearts. He either wanted to kiss her or throttle her and it took all of his self-control to keep himself in check.
This was not usually how he conducted business.
He would never stand so close.
He would never feel so much.
He would never think of kissing.
That’s what this felt like. A prelude to a kiss. An up-against-the-wall, cannot-even-breathe, about-to-explode, scorching kiss. One long overdue.
He noticed the quick rise and fall of her chest, the darkening of her eyes, her refusal to step back and relinquish even an inch of ground.