Harlequin Desire September 2015 - Box Set 1 of 2: Claimed\Maid for a Magnate\Only on His Terms (31 page)

“You can't be serious.” Panic flooded her face. “This is rushed. You can't expect me to just say okay and we'll be on our way to happily-ever-after. It's too fast.”

Will laughed. “I've known you since you were a little girl. I dated you four years ago and last weekend you spent nearly three days in my bed. You said you love me and I love the hell out of you and you think this is too fast? If we move any slower we'll be in a nursing home by the time you wear my ring on your finger.”

“I can't think.” Once again she pushed him aside and moved past him. “I can't take all this in. I mean, your dad and my mom...all of the things that have kept us apart. And then you corner me in a laundry room of all places to tell me you want me forever.”

“So we don't do things the traditional way.” He came up behind her, gripped her shoulders and kissed the top of her head. “I'm done with being by the book and boring. I want adventure, I want to be on a deserted island with the only woman in the world who can make me angry, laugh and love the way you do. I want to take care of you, I want to wear out the words
I love you
and I want to have no regrets from here on out where we are concerned.”

Cat eased back against him, her head on his shoulder. “I want to believe all of that is possible. I want to hold on to the hope that I can still fulfill my dreams and I can have you. But I won't give up myself, no matter how much I love you, Will.”

Wrapping his arms around her waist, he leaned his cheek on her head. “I wouldn't ask you to give up anything. I just didn't want you leaving Alma without me. We can live wherever you want. I have a jet, I have a yacht...well, I'll have a new one soon. I can travel where I need to be for work and I can take you where you need to go in order to fulfill this goal of yours. I want to be with you every step of your journey.”

“I want to do it on my own,” she stated, sliding her hands over his.

“I wouldn't dream of interfering,” he replied. “I'll support you in any way you need. I'll be the silent financial backer or I'll be the man keeping your bed warm at night and staying out of the business entirely. The choice is yours.”

Cat turned in his arms, laced her hands behind his neck and stared up at him. “Tell me this is real. Tell me you don't hate me for keeping the secret and that you will always make me first in your life.”

“It's real.” He kissed her forehead. “I could never hate you.” He kissed her nose. “And you'll never question again whether you're first in my life.”

He slid his mouth across hers, gliding his hands down her body to the hem of her shirt. Easing the hem up, he smoothed his palms up over her bare skin, pleased when she shivered beneath his touch.

“Are you seriously trying to seduce me in a laundry room all while your sister-in-law is throwing a party to raise money for her foundation a few feet away?”

Will laughed as his lips traveled down the column of her throat. “I'm not trying. I'm about to succeed.”

Cat's body arched back as her fingers threaded through his hair. “I hope no partygoers take a stroll through the backyard and glance in the window of the door,” she panted when his hands brushed the underside of her breasts.

“We already made headlines.” He jerked the shirt up and over her head, flinging it to the side without a care. “Another one won't matter at this point.”

“What will your brother think if you don't show at the party?”

Will shrugged. “James is pretty smart. I'd say he'll know exactly where I am.”

Cat started working on the buttons of his shirt and soon sent the shirt and his jacket to the floor. “We still don't have a solid plan for our future.”

Hoisting her up, Will sat her on the counter and settled between her legs. “I know how the next several minutes are going to play out. Beyond that I don't care so long as you're with me.”

Will kissed her once more and eased back. “But I already have the perfect wedding present for you.”

Cat laughed as her arms draped over his shoulders. “And what's that?”

“A maid. You'll not lift a finger for me ever. I want you to concentrate on your design career and the babies we're going to have in the future.”

When Cat's smile widened and she tightened her hold on him, Will knew the four years he'd worked on getting back to her were worth it. Everything he'd sacrificed with his father and personal life was worth this moment, knowing he was building a future with the only woman he'd ever loved.

* * * * *

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ISBN-13: 9781460386736

Maid for a Magnate

Copyright © 2015 by Harlequin Books S.A.

Special thanks and acknowledgment are given to Jules Bennett for her contribution to the Dynasties: The Montoros miniseries.

All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical,
now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are either the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, business establishments, events or locales is entirely coincidental. This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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He's a rich bachelor. She's inherited his fortune. Let the fun begin! Only from
New York Times
bestselling author Elizabeth Bevarly!

Meet Gracie Sumner, reluctant Cinderella. When the down-to-earth Midwesterner learns her deceptively humble neighbor left her fourteen billion-with-a-
b
dollars, she doesn't know what to do. Especially when said neighbor's shunned heir, Harrison Sage III, stakes his claim.

Harrison is not amused, especially when the quirky gold digger gets under his skin. How can the sophisticated New Yorker let himself be attracted to the woman who stole his father's fortune? Soon a contested will turns into a contest of wills—one whose outcome could very well be determined in the bedroom!

She closed her eyes, and for the merest, most exquisite millisecond, she thought she felt the brush of his lips over hers.

But she told herself she'd only imagined it.

The crowd had dispersed, caught up in another song, another dance, another moment. But Gracie couldn't quite let this moment go. And neither, it seemed, could he. When he began to lower his head toward hers—there was no mistaking his intention this time—she didn't know how to react. Not until his mouth covered hers completely. After that, she knew exactly what to do.

She kissed him back.

The feel of his mouth was extraordinary, at once entreating and demanding, tender and rough, soft and firm. By the time he pulled back, her brain was so rattled all she could do was say the first thing that popped into her head. “I thought you didn't like me.”

He nuzzled the curve where her neck joined her shoulder. “Oh, I like you very much.”

“You think I took advantage of your father.”

“I don't think that at all.”

“Since when?”

* * *

Only on His Terms
is part of The Accidental Heirs duet: First they find their fortunes, then they find love.

Dear Reader,

I confess I'm a bit of a TV addict. And also a major insomniac. Put the two conditions together and you have someone who discovers all kinds of interesting stuff on the higher cable channels at three o'clock in the morning. Such was the case with a British show called
Heir Hunters
, which I found fascinating. The members of a probate law firm search for long-lost relatives of people who've passed away without a will or who had no known heirs. Often the heirs they found had no idea they were the recipients of—sometimes significant—estates.

This kind of situation is just perfect for that writer question “What if...?”

What if someone going about his or her normal daily life was suddenly informed s/he was the heir/ess to a fortune? What if, say, a waitress working her way through college discovered her former elderly neighbor, a retired TV repairman and stand-in grandfather, was in fact a twenty-first century Howard Hughes who left her his entire estate when he died? And what if he left behind an estranged son who suspected her of conning his father out of that fortune for nefarious reasons? Talk about an opportunity for sparks to fly!

Gracie and Harrison's story is the first in a series of such what-if situations. I hope you have fun reading about them. And I hope you'll check back for the rest of the Accidental Heirs books. Because I'm having a lot of fun writing them.

Happy reading,

Elizabeth