One Dangerous Desire (Accidental Heirs) (23 page)

Epilogue

Three months later

“D
ELIVERY HAS ARRIVED
.” One of the work crewmen stood in the doorway of Rex’s management office at the Pinnacle.

“Do I need to sign for it?” he asked, looking up from a letter he was crafting to one of his factory managers.

“Think it’s for the missus.” The man tipped his chin toward the adjoining office, separated from Rex’s by a half wall and four panels of artfully cut glass.

Rex stood and approached the open door between the two rooms, smiling at the sight of May bent over a watercolor. “Delivery for you, Mrs. Leighton.”

She offered him a beaming smile that set off a current of frisson, warming him, arousing him, stoking that powerful mix of tenderness and need that she always sparked in him.

“It’s my fabric, I think.” Setting her paintbrush aside, she started toward him, stroking a hand down his arm before crossing the room to direct the workman as to where the bolts of fabric should be stored.

Rex got an inordinate thrill out of watching her work, managing people and activities with effortless ease. He didn’t know if business acumen could be inherited. But whether innate or learned from her father or Mr. Graves, May’s skills were impressive.

When the messenger departed, he came up behind her, wrapping his hands around her waist. “Are these fabrics for the hotel, Ashworth’s house, or London Sedgwick’s?” His wife was the busiest woman he knew.

She’d begun making suggestions for the hotel’s décor as soon as they’d moved into their rooms, and the decorator he’d hired seemed willing to entertain her ideas. The redesign of Ashworth’s house had begun soon after they’d wed, and the refurbishment of the Sedgwick property on Oxford Street was well underway. At first, her continual jaunts to the duke’s house, where she might encounter Devenham, set Rex’s teeth on edge. But after one visit to see the changes made based on her designs, he understood the nature of her endeavor. Design was a passion, and her talent for it transformed a room so completely that people seemed to behave differently in it. As if the colors and textures affected their moods and outlook. Lady Emily and her father certainly seemed pleased with the changes.

“For none of those projects, actually. I’ve taken on another.”

He appreciated his wife’s energy and her need to stay busy. He was the last to complain about anyone’s commitment to work, but May sometimes worked more hours than he did. “Do you really wish to juggle so many?”

She tipped back her head to gaze at him. “This one may cause me to step back from the others. Or at least take them at a bit slower pace.”

“Sounds like a big project.” He couldn’t imagine any task being so daunting it could slow her down.

“Perhaps, but I’m hoping for your help.”

For a lady who’d been raised in luxury, served and pampered in every way, Rex had quickly learned May possessed a fiercely independent streak. He loved that she was asking him to help her in any endeavor.

“You can always count me in, love.”

“Excellent.” She smiled back at him. “Though I should warn you that it will involve extensive hours, a good deal of worry, and a long-term investment.”

“Are you going to tell me what this project is, or do I need to seduce it out of you?” He nuzzled her neck, tilting his hips suggestively against her.

She laughed and grasped his hands where they rested at her waist. With a tug, she pulled them down to cover her belly. “I like to call this project Baby Leighton.”

For a lost moment he froze, everything in him tensing, not in fear, not in those terrible hot-cold shivers, but in disbelief. He’d dreamed of having a child with May. They’d even discussed the prospect, but now that the moment was upon him, it seemed almost too great a blessing to take in.

If meeting May again and marrying her was the answer to all he’d been seeking his entire life, this was a reward beyond even his loftiest daydreams.

She turned in his arms and placed a hand on his face. “We have months to plan. When he—or she—arrives, the hotel will be nearly finished.”

He managed a nod while looking into her eyes. “Yes.”

When she offered her sunniest smile, all the tension in his body melted. He embraced her, lifting her in his arms, to kiss her hair, her neck, and then take her lips.

Breathless minutes later, all he could manage was “Thank you.”

May laughed. “I believe we’re equally responsible for this project.”

“We should send a telegram to your father.” A few months before, Rex would have been shocked to hear the words come out of his mouth, but he and May’s father had achieved an unexpectedly congenial peace before the man returned to New York. Returning to the States seemed to have tempered Sedgwick a bit, and he was throwing himself into the improvement of his department stores in New York and Chicago.

Before he’d left London, Rex had joined Sedgwick at his club to discuss business on more than one occasion. Not with any end or gain in mind but simply as an exchange of ideas between two businessman.

“He will be over the moon to hear he’s going to be a grandfather,” May said. Lifting her arms, May clasped her hands behind Rex’s neck. “Speaking of grandfathers, don’t forget that yours is coming for tea this afternoon.”

“Yes, I remember.” Whereas Rex had made peace with Seymour Sedgwick, his relationship with Lord Camford remained tangled. Sedgwick wanted nothing from him, except his promise to love and care for May. That was easy to give.

The baron, however, wanted more. That Rex should be pleased to join in family gatherings and, someday, accept an inheritance he’d set aside for Rex. Neither prospect interested him in the least.

Breaking through his cloudy thoughts, May asked, “Will this change anything between you and Lord Camford?”

“Maybe it will.” She was right to ask, as she usually was. Having a child did highlight the importance of family and heritage. He might detest the notion of being an aristocrat’s grandson, but he could not deny his child that connection. Perhaps their child would embrace his or her extended family and have a different kind of relationship with Rex’s grandfather than Rex ever had the opportunity to have.

“Do you think our child will wish to marry into the aristocracy? Will he want to live in an estate in the country rather than a hotel?” Even as he asked the questions, Rex sensed there was a very real possibility that the child would.

“We can’t choose our families,” May said. “But we’ll allow our child to choose his or her future.”

“Yes.” Rex grinned. “Baby Leighton might grow up and decide all these rooms would be more useful serving as a school or hospital of some kind.”

“Ever practical, aren’t you?” May teased.

“I suspect I won’t be practical when the baby arrives. I might spoil her a bit.”

May tapped her lower lip as if considering the matter. “Speaking as someone who was spoiled by her parents as a child, I do recommend it.”

Rex chuckled. “Then it’s settled.” He stroked a hand up her back, loving the way she leaned against him. She trusted that he was there to hold her. “Where’s that bolt of fabric that was just delivered going? You said it was part of your new project.”

She bit her lip again. “I hope you don’t mind, but I’ve set aside one of the rooms in our suite as the nursery.”

“How could I mind?”

“It’s the one you designated as my room to paint in, because of the light, but I think it will work perfectly as the baby’s room.” Glancing over at her office, she added, “I’m happy enough to paint in there. It gets good morning light.”

If she was already making space adjustments to accommodate the baby, perhaps the hotel wasn’t the best place for them to live. What if they had a passel of children? Their upstairs suite would need to be redesigned, with rooms halved or added where possible.

“You’re worrying. That familiar frown is scoring across your forehead again.”

“Do I often frown?”

“Not as much as you used to.” May reached back to grasp his hand and lead him out of the office. “Luckily, I know how to cure it.”

She led him up the stairs to their top-floor suite. He hated the notion of her doing the same when she was round with the baby and looked forward to the installation of elevators, which would come within a month.

When they were in the room he’d hoped she’d use as a little art studio, she stepped forward and held out her hands. “Can’t you see it as the baby’s room?”

He could, but he saw more than that. He saw a woman who lit up the room. May might have ignited his hopeless heart into life all of those years ago, but now she’d filled it, healed it, and made every day worthwhile. Not to see what he could gain or achieve but to discover how many times he could make her smile.

“It’s perfect,” Rex said before gathering her in his arms. She fit so well there. “I just have one question.”

“What’s that?”

Tipping his head toward their bed through the open doorway between the two rooms, he asked, “How long do we have until the baron arrives?”

Can’t get enough Christy Carlyle? Keep reading to check out the second enthralling book in her bestselling Accidental Heirs series,

ONE TEMPTING PROPOSAL

Becoming engaged? Simple. Resisting temptation? Impossible.

Sebastian Fennick, the newest Duke of Wrexford, prefers the straightforwardness of mathematics to romantic nonsense. When he meets Lady Katherine Adderly at the first ball of the season, he finds her as alluring as she is disagreeable. His title may now require him to marry, but Sebastian can’t think of anyone less fit to be his wife, even if he can’t get her out of his mind.

After five seasons of snubbing suitors and making small talk, Lady Kitty has seen all the ton has to offer . . . and she’s not impressed. But when Kitty’s overbearing father demands that she marry before her beloved younger sister can wed, she proposes a plan to the handsome duke. Kitty’s schemes always seem to backfire, but she knows this one can’t go wrong. After all, she’s not the least bit tempted by Sebastian . . . is she?

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