The Heiress (36 page)

“I’m ready,” she said, unable to keep her hips from moving.

“I don’t think so.” Tom chuckled again and slid lower still.

Grace gasped as he kissed the inside of first one knee, then the other. They had never indulged in this kind of love play. She had never permitted it. “Tom—”

Tom rested his face against her thigh, lifted her hips and spread her legs to allow him better access. “Let me love you, Grace. Let me love you the way I’ve always wanted to love you.”

Aware they were really headed toward uncharted territory, Grace shut her eyes, trembling all the harder. More from nerves now than desire. And then Tom’s lips were on her skin once again, caressing. Frantic at the out-of-control way she was beginning to feel, she gripped his shoulders, intending to push him away, but he caught her wrists and anchored them against the mattress on either side of her, increasing her vulnerability tenfold. Grace tensed, not knowing what to expect, and then his tongue flicked over her, every caress of his lips exciting her all the more. “Oh, Tom,” she whispered, no longer knowing if she wanted him to stop or go on, only knowing that the pressure inside her was building, heating, and she was moving beneath him as she opened herself up to him. Needing, wanting, pleading.

To her dismay, he refused to be hurried. The hardness of his shaft pressing against the inside of her leg, he aroused her body by slow inexorable degrees, until both their bodies were slick with sweat, and she was rocking against him uncontrollably, feeling as if she would die if he didn’t complete their lovemaking. “Please, Tom,” Grace whispered. “Please don’t make me wait.” She wanted to feel him deep inside her. She
wanted them joined together in the most intimate way possible.

“I don’t want you to wait,” he whispered back, slipping his finger deep inside her as he stroked the pearl hidden in the tender petals with his tongue, making her twist and writhe beneath him. Grace’s heart filled with love as she met his passion unreservedly for the first time in her life. Barriers came down. Pleasure built, and then she was rocketing past the edge of control, into sweet, sweet oblivion. The impact of her release rocking her to her soul. As if from a great distance, Grace heard Tom’s low mutter of satisfaction mingle with her whimpered incoherent cries, and then he was loosening his hold on her wrists, and sliding up the length of her body. Lifting her hips, and surging, hard and hot and commanding, inside. Taking her, pleasuring her, once again, until the world fell away, and it was just the two of them, this moment, this place, and the love they could no longer, would never again, deny. Loving and wanting Tom more than she had ever loved anyone in her life, Grace lifted herself high to receive him, and then he, too, was flying, taking her with him, sweetly, securely. And for the first time in years, Grace knew everything really was going to be all right.

B
UCKY
J
EROME WALKED INTO
his father’s office, wondering what Adlai was summoning him about this time. As far as he knew, he hadn’t done anything objectionable. Yesterday or today, anyway.

Adlai frowned at Bucky and motioned him to a seat. “I just got off the phone with Tom Deveraux.”

Bucky dropped into a chair and let his hips slide all the way to the end of it. He frowned back at his father,
wondering when these dressing-down sessions were ever going to end. “I didn’t
do
anything,” Bucky said.

“I know that,” Adlai interrupted in exasperation. “This time I called you in here for a good reason.”

Bucky let his rebellious scowl fade. “Oh.”

“Tom and Grace Deveraux are throwing a black-tie party at Tom’s house this evening. They are planning to make a big announcement and they specifically asked that you be there, covering it for the newspaper. They’d like whatever it is to be mentioned in your column tomorrow, along with a picture, if possible.”

So now he was a puppet on a string. Or a reporter getting handed a scoop. Bucky decided to think of it as the latter. “Did they say what they’re announcing?” he asked his father curiously.

“No.” Adlai continued sifting through a pink stack of messages. “But I have the feeling it’s important. Tom sounded both happy and serious.”

Bucky rubbed his jaw speculatively, wishing he’d thought to delay his shave until tonight. Now he’d have to do it twice. And wear a tux. “You think those two are getting married again?” Bucky asked his father, trying to see if Adlai was holding out on him or really had no clue. “They’ve been seen around the city, holding hands and kissing, the past couple of days.”

“He didn’t say.” Adlai shrugged, not that interested. “You got any problem being there tonight?” He looked at Bucky speculatively.

“No. None at all.” Bucky started to exit the office.

“Bucky—”

Bucky turned.

“The item about the Templetons this morning, about Charlotte Templeton filing for divorce from her husband, Richard? That was a pretty big scoop.”

Bucky shoved his hands in his pockets and tried to act nonchalant about it. Inside, however, he was beaming. Praise from his father was rare. Bucky looked his father in the eye. “Everyone knows about it. Charlotte kicked Richard out of their home day before yesterday. She brought in movers to clear out everything from his personal suite of rooms.”

Adlai took a second to think about that. “You didn’t say why they’re divorcing.”

“Mrs. T. caught Mr. T. with his pants down, so to speak, on the property. Apparently, there are pictures.” Bucky removed a hand from his pocket and gestured offhandedly. “At least that’s what the rumor mill is saying.”

“None of that is in your column.”

Bucky knew what his father was thinking by the look on Adlai’s face. Here was the paternal criticism he had expected. “I’m not going soft,” he declared.

“Then why didn’t you allude to Richard Templeton’s indiscretion in your ‘Around the City’ column?”

Because it would have hurt Daisy, Bucky thought, and he didn’t want to inflict any pain on Daisy. He figured her parents’ divorce and humiliation had to be bad enough. But not about to tell his own father that, he merely shrugged. “Just trying to shield the newspaper from any defamation claims.”

“Right,” Adlai retorted dryly, clearly not believing that for one second.

“Besides, Richard Templeton isn’t even in the area anymore. Apparently, he was barred from their country estate, Rosewood, too—so he’s gone off to Europe to lick his wounds. And you know what they say, out of sight, out of mind.”

Adlai set the messages on his desk. “You wouldn’t happen to still be sweet on Daisy, would you?”

Bucky put both his hands over the back of the chair and braced his weight on it. “There’d be no point in that, either, since Daisy has already found her man.”

“Her husband, Jack,” Adlai guessed thoughtfully.

Bucky nodded.

Briefly, compassion showed in Adlai’s eyes. “When that marriage was announced, I wouldn’t have given a plug nickel for it,” Adlai remarked.

Bucky wouldn’t have, either. Which just went to show how much he knew.

“I
S IT MY IMAGINATION
, or are Grace and Tom glowing?” Daisy asked as she and Jack arrived at Tom Deveraux’s mansion for the party in her honor.

Jack hazarded a glance at Grace and Tom, who were busy consulting with Theresa and the catering company. Grace was in a pretty sea-foam-green evening gown and Tom was wearing a black Armani tux. They were standing side by side, and although they weren’t holding hands, they might as well have been, for all the intimacy flowing between them. “They’re definitely glowing,” Jack said. In fact, he had never seen his boss looking so happy in all the years he had known him.

“You think they’re in love again?” Daisy asked hopefully.

Jack grinned. “I know I am.” Unable to keep his hands off his woman a moment longer, he steered Daisy into the closest room—which happened to be Tom’s study. He took the purse from her hand, tossed it onto the sofa, then tugged Daisy toward him, positioned her intimately against him and delivered a heart-stealing kiss that left them both breathless.

“Much more of that and we’ll never make it through the party,” Daisy whispered emotionally.

“And we can’t have that, not given the announcement Tom and Grace are going to make tonight,” Jack murmured, wrapping his arms around her all the tighter. He held Daisy against him, loving her softness and her warmth. He still couldn’t believe she was all his.

“I keep wanting to pinch myself, to prove this is really happening,” Daisy murmured as she rested her cheek on his chest. When Tom and Grace had called to tell Daisy of their plans, she had been first flabbergasted, and then moved to tears, by the ex-spouses’ bravery.

“Believe it,” Jack said, glad Grace had finally seen Daisy for the wonderful person she was, and that Tom was finally doing the right thing by Daisy in claiming her publicly as his child. Figuring both things were worth celebrating, Jack slipped a hand beneath Daisy’s chin, lifted her face to his and bent his head to kiss her once again.

The sound of a masculine throat clearing had them moving apart. “Sorry to interrupt,” Tom said, smiling warmly at them both, “but Daisy, you’re needed in the sunroom. Nick and Grace want to talk to you. Something about a change in the show’s taping schedule.”

“Okay.”

Daisy gave Jack’s hand a squeeze, then, leaving Tom and Jack alone in Tom’s study, she went off to find Grace and Nick.

Tom waited until Daisy had left before turning to Jack. “I’d like to have a word alone with you, too.” He gestured for Jack to sit down in a chair in front of his desk. “First, I want to tell you how pleased I am
by everything you’ve done for Daisy,” Tom said quietly.

Happy to have Tom treating him like a member of the family instead of a simple employee and trusted friend, Jack replied sincerely, “I care about her.”

“I can see that.” Tom gave Jack a satisfied glance and leaned back in his chair. He rubbed the back of his neck, looking sheepish. “Which makes me feel all the worse about what I did.”

Jack frowned. “I don’t know what you mean.”

Tom shook his head, sighed his regret, then continued candidly, “I should never have sent you after Daisy the night she got back from Switzerland, when she left here all upset.”

Jack hadn’t minded that, and in fact would have gone after Daisy in any case, to make sure she was all right, even if Tom hadn’t instructed him to do just that.

“And I certainly shouldn’t have pressured you to make things right after the two of you spent the night together,” Tom continued even more regretfully.

“I would have done that anyway,” Jack said firmly.

“Because of her pregnancy,” Tom guessed, looking at Jack with new respect.

“And because I take responsibility for my actions,” Jack confirmed, still feeling damn guilty about that. “I never should have slept with Daisy that night. I knew it then. I know it now.” As her father, Tom had had every right to punch Jack out for that.

“But the point is, you two did become intimate that night, Jack, and then Daisy got pregnant and lost the baby. That could have been the end of your relationship with her. My point is that I had no right getting you involved in my personal problems regarding Daisy, or later, getting involved in your private life by asking you
to remain married to Daisy after the miscarriage, Jack. And for that, I’m very sorry.”

“Things have turned out all right.” He didn’t like the new defensive note in his voice.

“It seems so,” Tom said happily, then paused a long, telling moment. He leaned forward across his desk and continued meaningfully, “I just want you to know I’m grateful for all you’ve done, Jack. And from here on out,” Tom continued firmly, “whatever you need, you just name it.”

“H
AVE YOU SEEN
D
AISY
?” Jack asked Mitch. Almost an hour had passed since she had left him and Tom and gone off to talk with Grace and Nick. The Deveraux mansion, formerly quiet, was now filled to overflowing with guests. And Tom and Grace were getting ready to make their big announcement.

“She’s around. She’s been flitting from room to room talking to guests as they arrive,” Mitch said. He looked at Jack closely. “Did you two have a fight or something?”

“No,” Jack said uneasily, wondering if Tom and Grace’s second-oldest son knew something he didn’t. “Why?”

Mitch shrugged, and ever the tactful business executive, said, “She seemed kind of—I don’t know—agitated when Lauren and I came in. Maybe she’s just worried about the announcement, you know, how it will be received, how Bucky Jerome will write it up.”

“I think Bucky will do right by her,” Jack predicted, spying Daisy, who looked more beautiful than ever in a pale-tangerine halter dress, gliding in through the doors from the garden, as white-coated waiters brought
around trays of champagne, and Tom and Grace headed for the staircase at the front of the house.

“Bucky didn’t at first,” Amy pointed out, joining her brother Mitch.

“Things have changed,” Jack murmured. Thanks in no small part to his dealings with Daisy, Bucky had found he had a heart in there, after all. And so had Jack.

Tom nodded at Jack, then Daisy, signaling Jack he wanted the two of them together when Tom and Grace made their announcement. Charlotte and Iris Templeton, looking as confident as only old money Charlestonians could, joined Grace and Tom on the sweeping front staircase. Jack took Daisy’s hand and led her to the stairs, too, as the people gathered there with them circled around down below.

Tom lifted a palm, asking for silence, and then waited until he had everyone’s attention. “Grace and I have asked you here tonight because we have something we would like you all to know.”

Jack was relieved to see Grace reach over and squeeze his hand, demonstrating her support of her ex-husband and current love.

“There’s no easy way to stay this, so I’m going to say it straight out,” Tom continued soberly. “Years ago I made a mistake that eventually cost me my marriage to Grace. But there’s a saying that out of everything bad comes something good. And that has never been more true than in this case. I want you all to know that I have a daughter with Iris Templeton-Hayes. And that daughter is Daisy Templeton.”