An Heiress to Remember (The Gilded Age Girls Club #3) - Maya Rodale Page 0,88
meant for Beatrice to walk down Broadway wearing his exclusive color.
He dared to hope this wasn’t just a business meeting.
“You in my silk looks better than I imagined. And trust me, I had imagined. Though most of my fantasies involved removing it.”
She quirked a smile. “You’re going to sell a lot of this silk now. You’ll make a fortune. Another one.”
“Too bad I’m quitting.”
“And selling.”
“I’m assuming you’ve come to make an offer.”
She came to stand just before his desk and pressed her palms on the surface and leaned forward. His gaze dropped to her breasts straining against that silk.
“Of course. And not just any offer, either. I’m going to make you the best offer you’re going to get from anyone in Manhattan, and thus, the world.”
“Let’s hear it.”
“Three thousand dollars.”
Dalton laughed. The store generated millions in revenue each year, and each season only garnered more sales and more profits. This store had made him the third greatest fortune of the Gilded Age. He sold three thousand dollars’ worth of gloves. On Thursdays. At lunch.
“Macy offered me five million. Wanamaker offered me upward of that.”
“Oh, I’m not offering just three thousand cash dollars. I’m also going to give you something money can’t buy.”
“Now I’m intrigued,” he said, but his voice was rough, betraying all the heart-racing hope and tightening in his chest. Beatrice, here, in that color, hinting at offers and promises was enough to make him explode with hope.
“I’d like to propose a partnership.” She perched on his desk now, a vision of pink silk and pink lips. He was very interested in partnerships. “Let’s call it Dalton Goodwin. I’ll own the store outright and do what I like with it. And I will also be your wife.”
“Are you proposing marriage to me? Is this some ploy to get my store?”
“I also offered three thousand dollars,” she said. “No, Dalton, this is not a ploy to get your store. I still have my name, my land, and a tidy sum from insurance. I could rebuild Goodwin’s starting this afternoon if I wanted to. But if you’re selling anyway, why not sell it to me? You know I would do great things with what you have built. You know your legacy—our legacy—would be in good hands.”
This was true.
She was so much more inspired than Wanamaker.
“But I don’t care what happens to my store anymore,” he said. “I’m really only interested in you. And me.”
“I won’t promise you children,” she said. “I won’t promise that I will be home in time for dinner or that I won’t speak of business at the breakfast table. But I will love you, Dalton, in the way that only I can. Fully and completely, unapologetically and without reservations. I know you, Dalton, like no one else does. The man you were and the man you are. And I want to be with you to see the man you become. So if you think you can share me, I think I can share a little bit of me, too.”
Well, if this wasn’t everything he’d ever wanted. Beatrice, the best most beautiful and rule-breaking version of herself coming to him, offering herself to him. Offering a lifetime of love and laughter and being together. On terms he could very much accept.
But he’d been wounded before. His heart was pounding. And he was nervous that this was too good to be true. She was honest with him about what their marriage might look like, so he’d test her with the same.
“I mean it when I say I’m quitting. I intend to devote my time and fortune to philanthropic efforts,” he said.
“I know some philanthropically focused society women who will be delighted to welcome you into their fold.”
“You’ll have to support us financially. I’m going to give my fortune away.”
“I think I can manage.”
“I have plans to sell the mansion and live more simply.”
“Castles are overrated.”
“You’re proposing a marriage.”
“A merger, a marriage. Whatever you wish to call it. You and me. Together. In sickness and health, in business and pleasure, but definitely happily ever after.”
Dalton stepped from behind the desk to stand before her. He breathed her in. This bold, beautiful woman wanted to be with him just for himself and not for his prestige or power or fortune. She wanted to be by his side while he took new risks. She wanted to be in his bed, for the rest of their lives.
For the first time he truly felt like the most powerful, unstoppable man in the world.