Page 71 of One Dangerous Desire
“Not at all, Seymour. Your daughter is sufficiently formidable on her own.” Mr. Graves crossed his arms and cast her father a pensive look. “I think she has all the makings of success, don’t you? Both as the wife of an entrepreneur and a lady of commerce in her own right.”
“You’ll learn this is one of Douglas’s strategies, my girl. He presents a question as a challenge.” Her father closed his eyes and heaved a weary sigh before gazing at her again. “I see I am outnumbered. If you two are in allegiance, I have no desire for the battle.”
“Then you’ll give us your blessing, Papa?” May’s heart leapt to her throat as she posed the question. The love she felt for her father, despite his foibles and the decision he’d attempted to force on her, made her hope. She’d marry Rex regardless of his answer, but she much preferred peace and goodwill between them.
Rather than a reply, he offered her a hug, opening his arms wide as he’d done when she was a child.
After a moment’s hesitation, May embraced him. He held her tight and then released her, grasping her arms and ducking his head to look into her eyes.
“If he harms you or brings you misery, I will make him regret it.”
“Calm yourself, Seymour,” Mr. Graves intoned, ever the voice of reason. “Give the man a chance to make her happy.”
Her father patted May’s arm, then his face grew serious again. “Will Leighton accept your involvement with Sedgwick’s?”
May had never considered the question. If forced to decide between Sedgwick’s and Rex, he’d always been her choice. What if he didn’t wish his wife to spend her days managing a branch of the family business? What if they started a family of their own?
Chapter Twenty-Four
“YOU COULD PUToff the notion of marriage for a while.” Sullivan’s irritatingly practical suggestion made Rex clench his teeth like he was attempting to bite through a bar of steel.
“Not an option.” Resisting May, pushing her away in an attempt to protect her, might have once seemed a loss he could force himself to endure. Now it was unthinkable. She’d given him her trust. He’d made love to her, knew what it was to hold her as she fell asleep, and to wake with a pleasure-soaked sense of peace.
“Then if you plan to marry her, you must do it while Cross remains free. I’ve set a Scotland Yard man on his trail, but it will do you little good if he’s arrested for some petty crime.”
Rex paced in a circle around Sullivan as he stood in the center of what would eventually become Rex’s managing office at the Pinnacle. The room had just been wallpapered and the scent of paste lingered in the air.
“You’re urging me to be patient. You do know it’s the least of my virtues.”
Sullivan arched an eyebrow and pursed his lips, as if considering whether Rex possessed any virtues. Then his mouth softened into a grin. “In this case, I cannot fault your impatience. You have a chance at happiness, sir. Any man would be a fool not to grasp it.”
“If I trace that comment backward, I believe you’re acknowledging that I’m not a fool, Jack.”
The detective assumed an innocent expression, eyes wide. It suited him ill. “I never thought you were, Mr. Leighton.”
Rex stared at his hired investigator a moment. As usual, Sullivan refused to back down or look away first. “Just tell me it’s begun. That your detective inspector friend has started to build a case against my father.”
“I can assure you on that point.” Casting his gaze down, Sullivan flicked a pocket watch open. “And the guards you asked me to employ for the building site should be here within the hour. I’ve also stationed a man at your house.”
“Just make sure he’s inconspicuous. We don’t want to frighten the neighbors.”
“Of course, sir.”
“Good. You can carry on with your day, Jack. I’ll wait for the guards to arrive and orient them to the building’s vulnerable areas.”
Sullivan surveyed the room, tracking his gaze around every inch. “You don’t even have a chair to sit on.”
“I’ll walk the building.” Not only did he consider it his duty, but Rex enjoyed inspecting each aspect of the builders’ progress. Every nail hammered tight, every brick laid, felt like a victory. The Pinnacle, an impossible dream to the child he’d been, was becoming reality before his eyes. In uncharacteristic moments of wistfulness, he imagined his mother watching its progress. She’d take pleasure in the lush furnishings and the building’s modern design. He hoped she’d feel pride in his accomplishment.
After Sullivan departed, Rex started on the ground floor. The carpenters, painters, electricians, and bricklayers didn’t work on a Sunday, and the lobby area was quiet, the tiled floors echoing his footsteps back to him. As he scanned for the changes wrought since his last visit, May consumed his thoughts. For years he’d been fixated on his own financial and business goals. Now he longed only for a future that included May. He would have to delay the opening of the hotel until the matter with his father was resolved, but he wanted to marry her as soon as he could acquire a license.
He’d take Sullivan’s advice and let the law do its worst to his father. As for Lord Camford, Rex couldn’t think of him without seeing his mother’s eyes. She’d waited for years for her father to answer even one of the letters she sent to him at regular intervals. Now, his grandfather could wait for Rex to feel anything but loathing for the man, if he ever did.
Up the stairwell, he entered the ballroom. The muscles of his face contracted into an unbidden grin. In his mind’s eye, May was here too, pinwheeling around in the middle of the unpolished floor, tracing the glitter in the wall with wonder in her gaze. Finally, after several coats of paint, the room had begun to take on the blue of her eyes.
“I thought I might find you here.”
His body tensed as he turned. He recognized the sweet lilt of May’s voice, but there was a dissonance to it today, like a chord played out of tune.
