Page 28 of The Heiress Masquerade (Dollar Princess #2)

Cocooned in Harrison’s arms, Aimee felt more content than she ever had, her whole body having experienced an ecstasy she hadn’t understood was possible until she’d met him. No wonder so many couples partook in such delights with each other, though she suspected Harrison’s skills in the bedchamber were more impressive than other men’s, given he excelled in anything he put his mind to.

And he’d certainly put his mind to pleasuring her; she could still feel the aftermaths of his exquisite touch upon nearly every inch of her body. Even the thought of how she’d orgasmed around him as he thrust inside her was enough to simultaneously make her blush and send a delicious thrill of excitement down to her toes.

“I suppose we’d better dress and head downstairs for afternoon tea,” he murmured against her ear before beginning to trail kisses down the back of her neck.

Aimee sighed, not quite ready to leave this bubble of bliss just yet. “Must we?”

Harrison laughed. “Unfortunately, we must. However, I’ll be more than happy to satisfy your every desire later tonight, and every night once you’re my wife.”

“That would be wonderful,” she replied, but then his words registered, and panic started to claw at her chest. Very real, very raw panic, and not because he was talking of marriage, but because it had sounded so natural that she hadn’t even flinched…almost as if she was starting to consider it.

“Are you agreeing to marry me?” he asked, his body tensing behind her.

“No,” she was quick to assure him, and herself, as she pushed away from him and sat up, pulling the bedsheet to her chest. “I was referring to the first part of your statement, not the latter part, which you know I won’t agree to.” She couldn’t seriously consider being his wife…not unless she wanted to throw away all her dreams. Which she wouldn’t do. She couldn’t. Not even for Harrison… could she?

“Why do you have to be so stubborn about it?” He sighed, a long, drawn-out sound tinged with frustration.

She twisted around to face him. “And why do you always have to ruin these moments by talking about it? Can’t you leave well enough alone and accept we’re simply having an affair?”

A frown was his answer. “You’re Thomas Thornton-Jones’s only child and heir. You can’t simply have an affair . Marriage is an inevitability for you, and you know it.”

She was worried he was right, especially because the more he mentioned it, the more a small part of her was getting used to the idea. “It’s not inevitable at all.” At least she sounded convincing, given she felt anything but.

“You know it is, and the sooner you accept that, the better.” He raked his fingers through his hair and sat up in the bed, staring at her. “The two of us marrying makes perfect sense, and if you think about it with logic instead of emotion, you’d realize it, too.”

“Perfect for you, not perfect for me. You’re the only one who benefits from us marrying. You’d get my million-dollar dowry, inherit my father’s company, and have a wife to bear your heirs and run your households. What would I get, except having to give up all of my dreams?”

“Why do you assume you’d have to do that?”

“You’d allow me to play an active role in running the company if I was your wife?” She stared at him with undisguised skepticism.

“Honestly, I don’t know. It’s not something I’ve had to consider before I met you. Though I’d never want you to give up your dreams.”

“You wouldn’t?” Her heart skipped a beat at the thought.

“No, I wouldn’t,” he replied. “But you know women in our circles don’t work, let alone run companies. It’s not done.”

She gave a mirthless laugh. “I’ve been trying to convince my father to let me be part of his business since I was a little girl and I’ve been so unsuccessful that I’ve had to resort to swapping place with my cousin simply to learn what I can of the company. So, yes, Harrison, I’m aware it’s not done. But it can be. Someone has to do it first and lead the way. Now, if that’s something you could accept me doing, then I’m willing to consider marrying you.”

And, in the moment, she realized she was…if he’d agree to abandon the traditional notions of what a wife’s role should be, and if any man liked to push the boundaries of what could be done, it was Harrison Stone. Not to mention he was the only man she could ever see herself marrying. The only man, aside from her father, she cared about… The only man she’d started to fall in love with…

The dawning awareness of her feelings was as terrifying as it was liberating.

Was she really falling for Harrison Stone? Or was she caught up in their whirlwind ride of passion? It had to be the latter, but with a sinking heart she suspected it was the former, especially given she was considering marrying him when she’d never thought she’d marry at all.

“If you want a wife who’s happy to run your households and be a perfect little countess,” she continued, “you need to look elsewhere because I intend to play an active part in my father’s company, marriage or not.”

“Do you think you’ll convince him to let you?”

She pressed her lips together and nodded. “I’m determined to. He’s stubborn but I’m even more stubborn.”

He was silent for several seconds. “Before I met you, I’d never have thought a woman would want to have anything to do with business, and I certainly never envisaged my future wife working.”

No man ever did. “Which is why I refused you, and unless you’re willing to reconsider, then I’ll continue to refuse you.”

“So let me see if I understand you correctly. If I do agree to let you help run the company, you’ll agree to marry me?”

“Are you agreeing to?”

“I’ll agree to consider it.”

It wasn’t the answer she’d wanted. Not even close. “My father taught me the devil is in the details, and I know he taught you the same. Agreeing to consider it is not agreeing to it at all.”

“You’re right, it’s not,” he said without a hint of expression on his face.

“It doesn’t matter anyhow, because, in the end, who are we fooling?” Aimee shook her head. “You’re the heir to an earldom, and Society will never condone your wife being involved in running a company alongside you.”

“You’re right. They wouldn’t.”

His words sent an unexpected pang of hurt right through her heart. “I’m glad you’ve finally accepted the futility of us marrying.” She was lying through her teeth, because how could she be glad when she felt so heartbroken? And why she felt heartbroken when she should be relieved was something she’d consider another time. A time when she could look back on the whole situation and laugh instead of wanting to cry.

“I wouldn’t say that,” he murmured. “I’d say it’s more a case that I’ve finally accepted how determined you are to pursue your dreams, and who am I stop you, even as your husband.”

She tried to make sense of his words. “Are you saying you’d agree to let me work if I was your wife?”

“I am,” he replied with a definite nod of his head. “I intend to be an unconventional earl, so why shouldn’t my countess be unconventional, too?”

Part of her desperately wanted to believe him, but the other part wasn’t quite ready to. “You’re not just saying that to get me to agree to marry you, and then you’ll change your mind after.”

“I promise you, if that’s really what you want to do, I’ll support you, and I’ll even speak with your father about how much of an asset you’ll be to the company.”

She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. It was as if her dreams, which had seemed so far out of reach only moments ago, were now so close she could touch them.

He leaned over and took her hand in his. “Now, will you agree to marry me?”

She stared into his eyes, trying to see if there was any hint of artifice in the green depths, but all she could see was honesty. She nodded her head. “Yes.”

“You will?” Now he was the one who seemed hesitant to believe her.

“I will.” She couldn’t believe she was agreeing to marry him, but she was, and rather than fear she felt excited.

A grin spread over his face. “Good.”

“Good?” She grabbed one of the pillows from behind her and swatted his chest with it. “I finally agree to marry you, and all you can say is good ?”

“How about very good?” He winked at her, before his lips swooped down and captured her own, silencing any of her further protests.

She wrapped her arms around his neck and kissed him back with ardor, a part of her still reeling. Her parents would be thrilled of course, and news of their engagement would definitely lessen the scolding she’d get for swapping places with Evie.

Hmm, already she could see the benefits of being engaged. That and Harrison’s kisses. God, he was a wonderful kisser. She imagined she could kiss him forever and never tire of his touch.

He gently pulled away from her. “As much as I want to again explore every inch of your delectable body, we probably should get dressed and go downstairs before Mrs. Holbrook sends out a search party.”

Aimee laughed. “You’re right.”

“I usually am.” He winked at her again before swinging his legs over the edge of the bed and striding completely naked to where his drawers and trousers had been tossed to the floor.

“Very funny.” She lay there happily watching him as he pulled on his drawers over his muscled legs, followed by his trousers. Her fiancé had a very fine figure indeed. Her fiancé…it sounded so odd yet felt so right. “How will we get any work done after we’re married, when your kisses are so distracting?”

He laughed before grabbing his rumpled-up shirt from the floor and putting it on. “It could prove difficult. But who knows? You may end up changing your mind about wanting to work.”

She went from happy to furious in the blink of an eye. “Is that why you agreed to let me work as your wife, because you think I’ll change my mind?”

“No.” He shrugged. “But your priorities might change, especially after having children.”

“They won’t.” She narrowed her eyes at him before scooping up the bedsheet and storming out of the bed toward where her clothes were in a bundle on the floor. “And if that’s what you’re hoping will happen, you’re going to be sorely disappointed.”

“I’m not hoping for anything. I’m being realistic about the fact that people can, and do, change their mind about things,” he replied, tying up his shoelaces with more force than needed.

“Like agreeing to marry someone?” She raised her brow at him before bending down and picking up her clothes.

His hands paused over his shoes. “I walked right into that one, didn’t I?”

“You did.”

He nodded and finished tying his laces before glancing up at her. “Are you reconsidering marrying me then?”

“I said I’ll marry you, so I will.” She stalked over behind the dressing screen and yanked on her pantaloons, then her petticoats, nearly ripping the stitching in the process. “But don’t be under any illusion that my priorities will change after we marry, because they won’t.”

Aimee grabbed her blouse and began to put it on, and then a question began to burn at the back of her mind, and she stopped buttoning up her blouse midway. “Why do you even want to marry me, Harrison? I’m not so naive to think my dowry isn’t a part of it—”

“I’ve already told you I don’t want your bloody dowry. I never want to feel beholden to you, or to anyone, ever again.”

“Again?”

He blew out a breath. “Did you know that after my parents died, my grandfather came to New York?”

“No, I didn’t know that.”

“He came to retrieve my father’s body and take him back to England to be buried in the family plot on his estate.”

“What about your mother? Surely, they should have been buried together.”

“Oh, she was only a maid according to my grandfather, and she’d done the unforgivable by marrying well above her station, hence she wasn’t worthy of being buried alongside my father.” A muscle in his jaw twitched, while his hands clenched by his sides. “And why I as her son also wasn’t worthy of returning to England with him.”

Aimee’s heart broke for the little boy he had been, and she had to anchor her legs in place to stop herself from running over and hugging him, knowing he wouldn’t appreciate her sympathy, even if it was warranted. “Your grandfather was a monster.”

“He was,” Harrison agreed. “He wouldn’t give me a dime to bury her properly, so she was buried in an unmarked grave in the paupers’ cemetery on Hammond’s Hill.”

Aimee gasped. “You’re the anonymous buyer who bought the cemetery and had that beautiful monument built.” The land was prime New York real estate and all of Society had been abuzz when the new anonymous buyer hadn’t developed it into small lots, but instead ordered an elaborate monument be built and placed in the center of the cemetery as a tribute to all the nameless souls resting there.

“It was the least I could do for my mother and all the others buried there without even a name holder to mark their graves.”

“Your mother would have been proud of you.” The more she found out about Harrison, the more she realized how wrong she’d been to judge him.

He unclenched his fists. “Perhaps. In any event, after I’d begged my grandfather for some money to bury her with and he refused, I promised myself I’d never ask for money from anyone again, nor would I accept it. So the only way forward was to make a fortune and prove my grandfather wrong.”

“You’ve certainly done that.” Her heart broke for the eight-year-old boy he’d been. How scared he must have been to be on his own, with absolutely no support from his family. “Your grandfather was a bastard.”

“He was,” he replied. “But, in the end, his rejection and cruelty made me into the man I am today. Which is why I don’t want a cent of your dowry. You can put it into trust for our children.”

Aimee gulped. He said the word “children” so casually and with such certainty that it scared her, especially as she’d never really thought she’d have children given her life goals. “What if I don’t want children?”

“Don’t you?”

“I don’t know,” she answered truthfully, tugging on her earlobe. “I never thought I was going to marry, so I never thought I’d have children. Not to mention my mother had such complications giving birth to me that she could never have children again… I don’t know if I want to go through that. Perhaps you should marry someone else, someone who wants to be a wife and have children, instead of running a company.”

“I don’t want another woman. I want you.”

“But why?” she beseeched him, still trying to comprehend his motivation. If it wasn’t for her dowry, could she dare to hope that he was starting to care for her, as she was him? That perhaps he was even falling a little in love with her, too?

“I’ve dishonored you,” he replied. “I need to do the right thing and rectify that.”

A bitter sense of disappointment rose in her throat. Had she really expected him to profess any love, when he’d made no secret that he had no intention of loving her? She was a fool to have hoped, even for a moment, he might. “Of course that’s the reason why.”

“It’s not the only one.” He rubbed his temple, looking oddly uncertain. “And it’s not because of your father or the company, either.” He paused and took in a deep breath before exhaling. “I suppose, aside from being insanely attracted to you, I actually like you, Aimee Thornton-Jones.”

“You sound surprised by that.”

“Aren’t you? We’ve been at loggerheads since meeting, yet I think you might even like me, too.”

Like him? She’d come to do more than just like him.

“Which is why I’m not going to keep dishonoring you, or your father, by having an affair with you. I respect you too much for that.”

She took in a big breath, not sure how she felt about his answer. Was him liking her going to be enough? Somehow, she doubted it, especially after growing up seeing how much her parents loved each other.

Suddenly, almost desperately, she wanted that sort of marriage for herself, but not with simply anyone. She wanted it with Harrison. She wanted him to love her as she was starting to love him.

“Do you think you might ever do more than just like me?” Gathering her courage, she raised her chin until her eyes were staring directly into his. “That perhaps one day you could possibly even…love me?”

Silence followed her question, Harrison’s whole body going rigid and his eyes turning completely impenetrable.

“I’ve told you I can’t do that.” There was a finality to his voice that suggested he wouldn’t say a thing more on the topic, but Aimee wasn’t one to give up.

“Can’t or won’t?”

“Both, and you know the reason why,” he said, his brows knitting together.

“I don’t think your parents would want you to forgo love for the rest of your life because they died.”

“You say that so flippantly! But you have no idea what it was like… Life took away the two people I loved most in the world. Hell, they were my world. Then they were gone in the blink of an eye, and I was all alone.” He took in a deep breath and then exhaled it slowly. “The only thing that’s given me comfort since is succeeding in business, which is the only thing I’ll ever love. I’ll never subject myself to the pain of loving someone then losing them, ever again. Not even for you.”

He spun away from her and stalked over to the closed door.

“So that’s it?” Aimee called out after him. “End of discussion?” She felt like raging at him, or bawling. But she wouldn’t give him the satisfaction of showing him how his refusal to love or even consider it was devastating her.

“I’ve said all I need to on the topic,” he replied, pausing at the door as his hand reached out for the handle. “And we need to get to Wilheimer’s afternoon tea.”

She bit her bottom lip to stop herself from crying, unwilling to let him know how upset she was with his refusal to even consider loving her. Which, clearly, he didn’t. The realization opened a hole in her heart she didn’t think would heal. So instead of saying anything further, she simply followed him out the doorway and down the hall.

Had she really expected him to say anything else when he’d never been anything but blunt about never wanting to love again? Perhaps her heart had hoped he might have changed his mind, but her head knew otherwise. And at least he was being honest with her, unlike the men who’d previously asked for her hand, professing their supposed undying love and admiration in the process, when they’d barely spent two minutes alone together.

Her marriage to Harrison wouldn’t be the same as her parents’ marriage, not by a long shot, but most people married for a lot less, and if she couldn’t have his love, then at least she could put all her energy and passion into her dream of being an active part of her father’s company, couldn’t she?

At least she hoped so, because, in the end, business was what had made her happy in the past and it would make her happy in the future. It had to, because if it didn’t, she didn’t know what she’d do.