An Heiress to Remember (The Gilded Age Girls Club #3) - Maya Rodale Page 0,78

also nothing to be concerned about at all whatsoever.”

Beatrice closed her eyes for just a second of respite and when she opened them, Dalton was down on one knee before her, holding out a blue velvet box with a giant, pear-shaped diamond ring. This was a ring that made no whispered suggestions but bold declarations. This was a ring that would be heavy to wear.

“Beatrice, will you marry me?”

“No. Of course not. Why would you even ask?”

“With this ring, no one will trouble you. With this ring, the world will know that you have me to protect you. To cherish you. I can’t lose you again, Beatrice. We have something that transcends years and continents and circumstances. Because you and I are uniquely suited to understand each other. We share passion and purpose. And we are good together, Beatrice. You know it as well as I. Dare I say, we even belong together?”

“I cannot, Dalton. I told you that. I told you that the other night, before . . .”

“You also said I could try to change your mind.”

“There have been moments where I have thought maybe. But now you’re here in my office, distracting me, demanding decisions and commitments, and saying I should go home and wait just to be safe. In other words, that I should shut myself away and flit around the castle. Well, I’ve done that already, and it’s the last thing I want to do. So now I’m thinking . . . no.”

“What if there is a child?” Dalton challenged. “I know you’re not afraid of a scandal, but it’s not fair to inflict it upon an unborn child.”

“A noble, thoughtful, and decent sentiment that I do agree with. If there would be a child. But there will not be. And I know there will not be because I have taken precautions.”

“You have taken precautions.”

“Yes. They’re not infallible but it’s something.” Beatrice sighed. “If only there was a pill one could just swallow and be assured there was no risk of conceiving.”

“Indeed,” Dalton said, rising to his feet with the grace and ease of a jungle cat. Even rejected, he was powerful and graceful and she wanted him.

But not enough.

“Assuming my precautions worked, there won’t be a child and as such, there is no need to marry. And don’t try to scare me into a match by mentioning a scandal should anyone find out about us. To say nothing of this scaremongering to make me wed you out of desperate need for safety.”

“Give me a little credit, Beatrice. I’m not going to shame you into a match. I’m not going to terrorize you into my arms. That’s not how I want to win.”

“Glad to hear it.”

He held the ring awkwardly. This hunk of strong, valuable, and eternal stone, bright and shiny and awkward between them. Beatrice looked at that ring, imagined it on her finger and all the women who looked at her as a beacon seeing that she belonged to another, to a man, to her rival. Wearing his ring, promising to obey.

She couldn’t. She simply could not.

What would they think of her, their fiercely independent beacon, dimming her light to be with a man? Especially one who made no bones about wanting to dominate her professionally, who had said he wanted to see her lady land reduced to rubble? Who moments ago admitted wanting to stash her away in his castle?

She just couldn’t.

Besides she still had doubts and sneaking suspicions.

“And besides, I cannot be certain this isn’t some ploy to get Goodwin’s.”

“Do you really think I would propose a lifetime of holy matrimony just to get my hands on your store?” Dalton nearly shouted.

“It’s been your burning ambition for the past sixteen years. I’m supposed to believe it just changed overnight?”

“Not overnight. Over the course of nights and days when I realized that the reason I’ve done everything I have done is for you. I thought it was revenge, I only wanted your love. That’s my after.”

“I’m you’re after.”

“I hope so.”

And it was an enormous pressure, that, to be someone else’s purpose and happiness, their nights and days. She felt overwhelmed and exhausted by it already. It was another tremendous burden for her slender shoulders.

“I just want to be with you, Beatrice. That is all I ever wanted.”

She was not unmoved. She was a hot-blooded woman with a head and a body he pleasured expertly last night, and a heart that did have feelings for him. Because when they were good, they were