Page 72 of The Heiress

So hand in hand we strolled the sidewalks of the city park, meandering back towards the hotel. “I need a workout. Is the hotel gym safe enough?” I teased.

“Yeah, if I go with you. We’ll work out together in the morning.” He paused and turned toward me to growl against my ear. “And then I’ll make love to you, just to be sure we’re both completely worked out before we get on that plane.”

As usual, his closeness and promises made me lightheaded, so I placed my hand on his chest. “I’m already looking forward to waking up.”

“Don’t worry, you can still look forward to falling asleep too.” Then he took my hand and we resumed our walk.

It was so simple, but so electric. My hand in his. Side by side but connected. Intimate. It sent zing after zing to my heart . . . and other places.

The faint sounds of a band drifted over the air. Jace tugged me toward the source. A bandstand was set up with a large crowd singing along. Four food trucks were parked along the edges.

Jace spun me into his arms and into the shadow of a tree, far from the musicians, we danced.

“How are you feeling? Did you get the answers you need?” Jace asked as we swayed.

I was still processing everything. The amount of money running through the Cupertino facility alone was staggering. It had to be ten, even twenty times Excel’s annual budget. Maybe more. And that was just the experimental R&D facility. But if I pushed all that aside, I had a lot of fun being in a place that was just for research. Completely different from my current line of work, but fundamentally the same. I could see myself in the company for the first time.

“I like Clancy.”

Jace chuckled softly. “He’s a character.”

“He reminds me of a much more eccentric David.” These were my kind of people. Maybe working my way up the management chain of my own company wouldn’t be as awkward and unimaginable as I thought.

I could do this. Be part of my family legacy. Get to know my biological mother, and, maybe in doing so, find a way to honor my parents.

“We’ve never danced before,” I said as I tucked my head against his shoulder, his strong arm around my waist holding me to him. He rested his cheek on the top of my head.

“Another first for us.”

So many firsts. And all of them felt like a truefirst.I’d kissed many men before Jace, but none had ever curled my toes or made the tips of my ears burn. Our first kiss was so powerful it obliterated every other kiss.

Our first dance was no different. I could barely breathe. We touched from head to intertwined ankles, his hard body moving against my soft one, it was as intimate as sex, but with our clothes still on. A tease. A torturous foreplay.

His fingers skated along my jaw to my chin, tilting my face up to his for a kiss. My knees went weak.

“Fuck, Sam.” His gruff voice rumbled against my chest. If we stayed like this it would kill me.

“Take me home.”

He didn’t release me right away though. Instead he stared into my eyes, the dim lamplight dancing in a soft glow over his skin, just enough light for me to see the love overwhelming him, just as it was overwhelming me.

But we were snapped out of our heaven by a hand on my shoulder. “Excuse me?”

Jace moved like lightning, stiffening at first, then spinning me away from the hand as he barked, “Can I help you?”

Have I mentioned lately how fucking scary he could be when he wanted? Yeah. I don’t know how the stranger held his ground, quite frankly.

“Are you Samantha Rossi?” He held up his phone. I caught just enough of the screen to see a photograph of me from the Excel Research website. “It’s her!” He yelled at the top of his lungs.

I felt Jace’s body tense under my hands.

The man yelled again. “It’s Baby Victoria! She’s right here!”

Oh God, I couldn’t breathe. I was a deer in the headlights, completely frozen in shock by the unexpected sound of the man calling me out.

Jace wrapped one protective arm around my waist, putting his body between me and the man, preventing him from getting a clear picture of my face as we began to quickly move back toward the main street.

“We need to get inside the hotel,” he said low and rough. “We’re a block away. How fast can you move in those?” He nodded down at the high heels on my feet.

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