Page 23 of The Heiress Masquerade (Dollar Princess #2)

Every step he took up the stairs felt like a mountain. A mountain he wanted to climb but also dreaded, because on the other side she’d be waiting for him. Aimee Thornton-Jones, not Evie. But Aimee, his boss and mentor’s daughter.

A willful heiress who liked to barge headfirst into situations, without much care or thought. The opposite to the way he normally approached matters.

And she seemed to want to barge headfirst into an affair with him… God help him. What was he to do?

His head was telling him to stay well away, but his body couldn’t get him up those stairs fast enough. Damn it, but he couldn’t disrespect Thomas’s daughter by having a liaison with her, could he? No, of course he couldn’t, even as much as his cock was semi-hard just thinking of it.

He’d never had a problem with controlling his emotions or desires before, so why was he having so much difficulty doing so with the only woman whom having a liaison with was out of the question?

Cresting the final step to the fourth level, he turned to his right and saw Aimee waiting for him in front of the lifts. One of her perfectly shaped eyebrows was raised as she watched him stride over to her.

“Why don’t you use the lifts?”

Of course she’d be curious to know. When wasn’t she curious about everything? She was just like her father in temperament. It was no wonder Thomas butted heads with her so much. And an even bigger wonder how Harrison hadn’t picked up on her being Thomas’s daughter sooner. “I don’t like being stuck in a box that could potentially plummet to the ground.”

“Has that happened to you before?” There was concern in her eyes.

“The plummeting part, no. The stuck part, yes. When I was six, I was trapped in one for over four hours. Since then, I’ve always chosen the stairs.” He was brusque in his reply. “Now where’s your room? I want to see those ledgers.”

“And here I thought you meant you were going to have a bath with me.” She sighed as she pulled out her room key from her satchel but then laughed, and he knew the vixen was having fun teasing him. “How disappointing, but understandable given I’m keen to look through the ledgers again, too. After my bath, though, seeing as I look like a drowned rat.”

Harrison couldn’t help but glance down at her figure, noting how the blue skirt of her outfit was still damp, and plastered rather indecently against her slim thighs. Thighs he suddenly imagined wrapping around his waist while he slid inside her and began to thrust against her until they were both panting with need.

He gulped heartily as his cock started to stir. Focus, man, focus. Get her into her room and get the hell away from her. “What suite number?”

“Six zero five,” she replied, leading the way down the corridor.

Her suite was only a few doors down from his own. Wonderful. How the hell would he be able to concentrate on anything, let alone any discrepancies in the ledgers, knowing she was naked in a bath so close to him?

Fifteen minutes later after seeing her to her suite, then grabbing the ledgers and fleeing to his own suite, Harrison tossed the second ledger to the side and swore. He couldn’t bloody concentrate on anything except the thought of her in her damned bath, and that he’d been an idiot not to take her up on her offer.

But, surely, that wasn’t what she’d really been suggesting? After all, she had to be a virgin, and mustn’t have known what she’d been asking of him. Unless she wasn’t a virgin? The thought brought with it a scowl. She was bold and confident, and curious about everything. Perhaps she’d also been curious about men? The thought sent a simmering anger down deep in his belly.

Damn it, maybe he should’ve agreed to having a bath with her. He’d have peeled off her wet clothes, revealing inch after delectable inch of her soft skin. Then he’d have scooped her up and carried her to the bath, where he would have caressed every part of her supple body.

Just the thought was making him as hard as a rock.

A knock at his door jolted him from his ridiculous fantasy and he cursed once again. “One minute,” he growled, shifting uncomfortably in his seat before he stood up and strode over to the door. He paused there for a good thirty seconds, while he let the wayward member of his anatomy calm down, trying to think of anything and anyone but Aimee Thornton-Jones.

He peered through the peep hole in the door and cursed again as his cock leaped to attention. It was hard not to think of the darn woman when she was standing right outside his door.

“I thought you’d be longer,” he said, ripping open the door and glaring at her. She had a slight flush of pink on her cheeks from the warmth of the bath, and she’d swept up her damp hair into a bun, a few strands curling down the nape of her neck. Harrison’s fingers were itching to deftly push them away and replace them with his mouth.

“I’m too excited to discuss what you thought about the ledgers.” She strode past him, heading into the suite’s living room. She spun around back to him as he closed the door and trudged in after her. “So? What did you think?”

For a moment, he considered telling her of how distracted he’d been thinking about her, but he got the sense that would only encourage her conversation from earlier, and he really didn’t have the willpower at that moment to resist her. Even just having her here in this room was dangerous.

He’d never even entertained Jane here, preferring instead to keep his own world very separate from her and anyone else. Yet, here Aimee was. Looking so clean and fresh, and so excited to talk about ledgers of all things that he had to clench his jaw hard to stop himself from swinging her up into his arms and carrying her to his bed.

He nearly groaned with the image of it. Resist, Harrison, bloody resist.

“You look troubled,” she said, blithely unaware of his inner turmoil. “Were they that bad?”

Taking in a breath, he shook his head. “I haven’t properly gone through them yet.”

“Why not?”

“Because I haven’t been able to bloody well stop thinking about you in a bath is why not.” He hadn’t meant to tell her that, but the words came out nonetheless.

“Really?”

“Yes, really. And you need to leave now before I do something we’ll both regret.”

Instead of fleeing, she stayed there, staring at him. “What if I want to stay?” Her voice was a breathless whisper as she took several steps over to him, until she was mere inches away.

Harrison groaned. “Oh God, don’t say that.”

“I want to be with you, Harrison Stone,” she said. “I want you to show me what passion truly is.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking of me…” His voice was a choked whisper, his body tense as he resisted reaching out and pulling her to him.

“I do.” She reached her hand out and trailed her fingers across the front of his shirt, then leaned up on tiptoes and whispered in his ear, “Take me to your bed, Harrison. Make me yours and yours alone.”

…

The words were out of her mouth before she could stop herself, and rather than embarrassed, she felt emboldened. She wanted Harrison Stone with a longing she knew only he could satisfy.

“Are you sure, Aimee?”

She pulled back to look him in the eyes and smiled. “I couldn’t be any more certain.”

Her words seemed to be all the encouragement he needed, and with a low growl, his lips found hers, and he kissed her with a thoroughness bordering on desperation.

Aimee wrapped her arms around his neck and closed her eyes in bliss. In that moment, there was nothing else in the world but her and him, and the building heat between them.

“You drive me insane with desire, do you know that?” he whispered, trailing kisses down her neck as his fingers deftly began to unbutton her blouse, slowly exposing her undergarments beneath.

He peeled back her chemise and the pads of his fingers brushed against her bare skin. Aimee moaned; his touch was so wickedly delicious that she felt like melting. Slowly, his fingers pushed away the material, until her breasts were exposed to his view, her nipples hardening with the undisguised desire in his gaze. He lowered his head to her breast, and she whimpered in pleasure as his mouth nuzzled her nipple.

“So soft,” he murmured in between kissing her breast, while his hands worked on the buttons of her skirt and petticoat, until the garments fell to the ground at her feet.

She gasped when he knelt in front of her, his mouth kissing down her stomach, while his fingers tenderly rolled down her stockings over one thigh and then the other, until she was naked in front of him.

“God, you’re gorgeous,” he said in reverence, before he scooped her into his arms and carried her across the room to his bedchamber. His mouth found hers again as he laid her on the bed, his body coming down gently beside her.

Every inch of her body felt on fire, and suddenly she wanted to feel his bare skin against her own. She yanked on the buttons of his shirt, tearing it open and exposing the smooth planes of his chest beneath. He was all steel and muscle, and so very masculine, she felt the thrill of it deep inside her, the area between her thighs tingling with a need that was begging to be satisfied.

She traced her fingers down his chest toward the waistband of his trousers to where his manhood was straining against the material, demanding her attention. She began to flick open the buttons of his pants and then his drawers, and he moaned as his cock sprang free.

“Oh my,” she gasped, having never seen such a sight before. She’d never thought that a man’s appendage could be so beautiful, but Harrison’s was. It was thick and long, proudly jutting to attention, and she couldn’t stop herself from touching it, marveling at how silky smooth it was.

She wrapped her fingers around his shaft, and he groaned loudly. Quickly, she let go. “Did I hurt you?”

“No,” he replied with a half laugh, half groan. “It just feels so damn good that if you keep doing it, I might embarrass myself before I can pleasure you.”

“Oh.” Aimee gulped, not quite certain what he meant.

“Come here,” he said, before pulling her up next to him and rolling on top of her.

Now it was Aimee who groaned as his mouth found hers and he kissed her until she was wet with need. She ran her hands across the broad expanse of his back, while his thigh nestled in between the junction of her core.

“Rub yourself against me,” he murmured into her ear.

She did as instructed, and instantly a heady sense of euphoria filled her. “That feels so good.”

He smiled. “How does this feel?”

His fingers replaced his thigh and began to caress her nub, and Aimee nearly bolted upright, her fingers digging into his shoulders as she arched her back in pleasure. She’d never imagined he could do that, and how ridiculously amazing it would feel. Then, he gently inserted one finger into her passage and instinctively, she began to rock her hips against his hand. He inserted another finger into her wetness, his thumb still rubbing against her as his fingers pushed in and out, bringing her to the brink of pleasure.

“Are you sure about this, Aimee?” he grunted, pausing in his machinations, and looking down at her with concern. “We can stop if you want to.”

“Don’t you dare stop.” That was the very last thing she wanted, so she grabbed his neck and pulled him down until her lips were ravishing his own, their moans of bliss mirroring each other’s.

He pulled back from her. “This might hurt a little,” he murmured, sweat beading on his forehead, as he positioned himself above her. “Are you sure, Aimee?”

“I’m sure,” she assured him, knowing she wanted to experience this with him.

With a nod, he slowly pressed his manhood against the opening of her passage, and he felt so large against her that for a moment she wondered if he would actually fit? But then his lips found her own, and he was kissing her with such abandon that she forgot to worry, and her hips urged themselves against him.

With a groan, his cock swiftly pushed inside her wetness, and she gasped at the pain and the fullness of him.

He stilled above her, while beads of sweat grew on his brow. “I’m sorry, my darling. The pain should settle soon,” he murmured, before returning his hand to the junction of her thighs and gently rubbing against the nub of her womanhood.

Thrills of pleasure began to radiate through her core with each stroke of his fingers, and, gradually, the pain lessened, but then he started to withdraw his manhood from her.

She grabbed his shoulders and held him to her. “No, don’t leave.”

He grinned. “I’m not going anywhere.” He slid back inside her, pushing himself in and out of her passage, in a rhythm that sent ripples of desire through every part of her body once again.

With each of his thrusts it felt like she was building to a precipice, her heart beating frantically as she was consumed by passion. And she wanted more, so much more. Her hips joined his, thrust for thrust, and Aimee felt like she was about to burst.

“That’s it, my darling,” he murmured against her ear as she moaned, writhing under him. Then everything froze for a split second, as wave upon wave of ecstasy flooded through her as her whole body burst in pleasure.

Harrison groaned loudly as he spilled his seed inside her, then collapsed down on top of her, his ragged breathing and racing heart mirroring her own.

They lay together there for a moment, until Harrison twisted to his side slightly so as not to crush her with his weight, then gathered her in his arms, and she nestled against him. She’d never felt so content or blissful before, and as she drifted off, she rather thought this would be the best part of her holiday, and how lucky it was she’d switched with Evie after all.