An Heiress to Remember (The Gilded Age Girls Club #3) - Maya Rodale Page 0,73

and kissed her deeply. For a moment. Before there was more.

His heart was thundering so hard Wes had to wonder if maybe a man could feel too much, all at once, and it would be his undoing. This wasn’t his first time, it wasn’t even the first time he cared about the woman he made love to, but it was the first time his heart and soul were inseparable from every touch, every whisper, every moan.

It was overwhelming as all hell.

His beloved Beatrice was here, in his bed, and he had just made her climax and her cries were still echoing in his head and doing things to his heart, and now she was naked beneath him saying, “Yes, more.” And he was definitely going to explode.

So he kissed her, as if that would help him catch his breath and his wits. He gave up, gave in and when she wrapped her legs around his lower back he was done for. When she licked the sweat from his neck he wanted to die. But was there any better way to go than a tangle of hot, sweaty limbs and making love to the woman he loved best in the world?

He eased in. Inch by inch. It was a slow burn. A torture. But he’d waited years for this moment and by God he was going to savor every second of it.

Because this—Beatrice in his arms and all around him—it was everything he ever wanted. He knew that now. Ever since he first laid eyes on her and now it was better than he had ever imagined, and the devil only knew how he had imagined.

Her closed eyes, lashes upon her cheeks, her hair a tussled mess across his pillow. Her lips parted, soft moans of pleasure escaping. He kissed her.

He thrust in, harder now and harder again, and she sighed, “Yes.”

And his heart was thundering with passion and madness all at once and all together. He thrust in again, deliberate full strokes. She grabbed a handful of his hair and kissed him. He linked his hand with hers and pinned her wrist to the bed and again she sighed, “Yes.”

Her back arched up to meet him, dear God, and they found the rhythm that was a slow and steady beat to undo them both completely.

Everything he ever wanted. Losing his head and his heart with Beatrice.

Nothing else mattered, not the Marble Palace or this one, or all the years they had been stupid and so far apart. All the money in his bank account made no difference and he would have traded all of it for one more night like this.

There was only his body and hers, connected at last. The thundering of his heart, the throb of his cock, her heady moans as she cried out again. And then he was shouting his release, his body trembling.

He collapsed beside her.

“That was . . .” she started, breathless.

“Worth waiting for,” he finished.

Chapter Twenty-nine

Goodwin’s Department Store

A week later

Their days had been filled with matters of business, but their nights had been nothing but pleasure. By some miracle they were both rivals and lovers. By some miracle, she was free to do whatever she wanted and what she wanted was Wes Dalton. On her terms. He met them, respected them, and it was almost enough for her to fall in love with him all over again.

Almost.

She was already aching for him at closing hour. She stood in her corner office, overlooking the end-of-day bustle on Broadway, feeling like a pirate queen on the prow of her ship.

And then she heard him.

Beatrice held her pose for a moment, letting him see her like this: silhouette of a woman before the overlarge window overlooking the city. Letting him see how this was her office, no matter that he once upon a time aspired to claiming it as his own.

Perhaps he still did? She didn’t think so, but her mother’s caution wasn’t tremendously far from her thoughts.

She turned. Fixed her gaze on Dalton filling up the doorway. He wore a suit very, very well. She had ambitions to take it off him.

“Oh, hello, Dalton.”

“I do believe we have an appointment,” he said in a low, commanding voice.

“Urgent business,” she replied.

His gazed dropped down to the buttons on her jacket. “Terribly urgent. It cannot wait.”

“Then we better get down to it.”

He closed the door behind him and strode across the room to stand just before her desk. Her large, strong, heavy oak desk. She had ideas