AN HEIRESS FOR HIS EMPIRE

by Lucy Monroe

  His kiss took her by surprise. It shouldn’t have. Wasn’t it natural to kiss to seal an engagement?

  But the kiss did surprise her. And then it overwhelmed her, his lips coaxing a response that radiated throughout her body. They took possession of hers, no longer coaxing, but insisting on the two things she’d said only that morning she wasn’t capable of.

  Submission and trust.

  But then, like with so many other things in her life, the rules did not apply to Viktor Beck.

  She found herself melting into him, no thoughts for self-preservation or holding anything back.

  And he accepted her surrender with a forceful masculine desire that belied any claim for a lack of passion between them.

  He devoured her mouth, his arms coming around her, his hands pressing her body against his, one thigh pressing between her legs as far as her skirt would allow.

  Maddie’s knees would have given out, but Vik’s hold on her was too tight.

  She’d thought the kiss this morning had been hot, but it was nothing like Viktor Beck staking claim to the woman who promised to marry him and give him his dreams.

  * * *

  Viktor knocked impatiently on Madison’s door thirty minutes before they needed to be at Jeremy’s ostentatious home in Presidio Heights.

  Viktor had not given himself time for a drink or idle chitchat on purpose. After the kiss at the overlook, he did not want to risk his self-control before the dinner.

  If his grandparents weren’t going to be there, as well as the photographer from the magazine, he would never have left Madison that afternoon. But she deserved to show up to her engagement dinner on time and not looking like she’d spent the hours before in bed.

  He’d told her the truth earlier. Six years ago he’d seen her as barely a woman when she’d kissed him.

  He’d been shocked by his own body’s response to her overtures, realizing for the first time that she was an adult and not a child. Not that he’d given that revelation much credence.

  Not at first, but after a year of avoiding her and indulging in more liaisons than his workaholic regime usually allowed for, two things had become obvious.

  He missed Madison and she was the only woman he wanted sharing his bed. She was still too young and Viktor’s plans didn’t include marriage for at least a few more years.

  Anything else with the daughter of AIH’s president and owner was out of the question. And not just because Viktor considered the older, driven businessman a friend.

  Viktor wasn’t sure when he realized his own business ambitions included marrying Madison, but it was well before he broached the subject in any oblique way with Jeremy. The older man’s concern regarding what would happen when Madison inherited full control of the trust gave Viktor the traction he needed for Jeremy’s approval of his own future plans.

  He’d had the rings commissioned and intended to launch his courtship of Madison in the coming weeks when Timwater sent a spanner into the works with his “breakup interview.”

  If Viktor had started his pursuit of Madison earlier, the opportunistic man would not have had a chance to hurt her with his lies. It was unacceptable bad timing that had left Madison vulnerable.

  It angered him. Viktor did not do bad timing. And he did not get caught by surprise. But he had not anticipated Timwater’s betrayal of his long-standing friendship with the heiress.

  While it had not precipitated long-term action on Viktor’s part that he wasn’t already planning, the intolerable situation had brought things to a head before he intended. And it had forced him to work around Jeremy’s knee-jerk response to his daughter’s misadventure.

  While that might have ended up working in Viktor’s favor, it had come with additional emotional cost to Madison.

  He might be ruthless, but that was not okay with him. Her well-being was his responsibility now.

  The door opened and Viktor’s thoughts scattered.

  Madison’s copper curls flirted around her face, her blue eyes vibrant and flashing with a response to his presence that found a corresponding reaction in his body.

  Lips entirely too kissable despite the dark color staining them in a perfect scarlet bow curved in a smile of welcome. “Hi, Vik. Are you coming in?”

  She’d encased her tempting body in a 1950s-inspired couture cocktail dress in a shiny dark blue that rustled as she moved.

  The skirt was full, nipping in at the waist, and the bodice fitted, the artistically cut neckline dipping to reveal the hint of cleavage he found more sexually alluring than any woman he’d seen in a dress that revealed most of her breasts.

  “You...” He cleared his throat, finding it unaccountably dry. “You look beautiful.”

  Only after he spoke did it occur to him that he had not answered her question.

  “Thank you.” She blushed, something she rarely did anymore. “It works?” The nerves that slipped in to tinge her smile were something else she didn’t show others. “Only I wanted your grandparents to see me, not the...”

  She didn’t have to finish. “It will be all right. Deda and Babulya are eager to see you and welcome you into our family.”

  “They know we are engaged? Have they seen the articles?”

  Ignoring his own best intentions, he pushed into the apartment and right into Madison’s personal space.

  She gasped and looked up at him, eyes wide, breath hitching. “Vik? What?”

  He curved his hands around her waist, enjoying the soft slide of the fabric and the heat of her skin under it even more. “They know we are engaged and they are delighted.”

  “Oh.”

  “They know about the stories and they are furious with Timwater.”

  “They don’t believe them? You told them he lied, didn’t you?”

  “I did and they don’t.” Viktor reveled in the implicit trust in his ability to make things right that could be read into her questions.

  “Thank you.”

  Mindful of the crimson color on her lips, he bent down and pressed a soft kiss to the side of her neck, staying to inhale the subtle fragrance of honeysuckle mixed with orange and a hint of vanilla and her own unique scent. “You smell good.”

  “It’s my perfume.”

  “It’s you. Rosewater would smell just as delicious against your skin.”

  She trembled against him, her hands pressing into his chest. “Vik.”

  That was all she said. Just his name. But it was a plea, whether to step back or to do something about the electricity arcing between them, he did not let himself contemplate.

  He stepped back. “We need to go. Everyone is waiting.”

  “Including the photographer.”

  “He has his instructions to be as unobtrusive as possible.”

  Madison grimaced, her opinion of how unobtrusive that could actually be very clear.

  He looked around and spied her coat over the back of an armchair. Viktor had always enjoyed Madison’s efficiency and was glad to see that she had not developed the habit of keeping a man waiting that he always found more irritating than intriguing.

  Grabbing the coat, he offered it to her. “We need to head out.”

  “You cut it a little close.” But she didn’t hesitate to let him help her into the fitted wool trench coat the same crimson red as her lips.

  He saw no reason to hide the truth. “Protecting us both from how much I want you.”

  “What are you talking about?” she asked, sounding genuinely confused as she did up the oversized black buttons and tied the belt on her coat.

  “You must realize the prospect of having you in my bed has my libido in overdrive.” The truth of that was never more blatant to him than in how hard he found it to lead her out of the apartment without once mussing the color of her lipstick.

  However, nothing said he had to curb his desire to touch her completely. They made their way to the elevators with his arm around her waist.

  “But why would it?” Could she sound more innocent?
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  He didn’t think so.

  “You are an incredibly beautiful woman.” But more importantly, she was the one woman who sparked desire hot enough to do his ancestors proud.

  “You didn’t want me before.”

  “We discussed this. You were barely more than a child.” And he had wanted her.

  “You’re right,” she said distractedly. “But—”

  “Nothing. Trust me. I want you. Six years ago, the timing was wrong, but I will gladly offer you all the proof you desire later tonight, after dinner with our respective families.”

  “You want to come back to my apartment tonight?” she squeaked, charming him.

  The elevator doors closed, giving a false sense of privacy he had to once again fight taking advantage of.

  “You have no reason to be nervous,” he assured her. “I am not an animal in the bedroom.”

  Even if he wanted her with heretofore untapped primal mating instincts.

  “Vik...” She blinked up at him, her lips parted slightly. “I told you, I’m a virgin.”

  “What?” The elevator doors opened but he didn’t step out, his brain short-circuiting.

  “I told you—”

  “That you hadn’t been in a serious relationship.” But that didn’t mean she hadn’t had sex. Things happened. She was twenty-four. This was not possible.

  “No random hookups.”

  “Ever?” he asked in disbelief.

  “I told you I had no experience.”

  “In BDSM.”

  “In anything.”

  “That will change.” Viktor was not above using whatever means necessary to ensure the future he planned. Including being Madison’s first lover.

  The fact he wanted her more than any woman he had ever known was beside the point.

  She stepped off the elevator into the parking garage. “I don’t think being engaged to you is going to be anything like I was imagining.”

  “If you thought it was going to be without sexual intimacy, I’d have to say you are right,” he said as he helped her buckle into the passenger seat of his car.

  He gave in to the urge that had been riding him since the moment she’d opened her door and kissed her. He reined in his desire. Barely. And stepped back.

  He closed her door and took several deep breaths before moving around the car to slide into the driver’s seat.

  Her eyes glowing with blue fire, she asked, “No pretense of waiting for our wedding night?”

  “We made our vows at the overlook this afternoon. Nothing said later between us will be any more profound.” He started the engine, but didn’t back out of the parking spot, waiting with an odd feeling in his chest for her reply.

  “I thought it felt that way...like it was profound.”

  “It was.” He put the car in gear.

  “So what? You consider us married now?” She sounded like she didn’t believe her own words and yet he knew she had felt the weight of the promises they’d made earlier.

  “As good as, yes.”

  “You make your own rules, don’t you?”

  “You are just now figuring this out?”

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  THE ENGAGEMENT DINNER was a lot more enjoyable than Maddie had expected it to be.

  Especially considering the fact the guest list had grown to include some Archer second cousins, a Madison great-aunt, one of Misha’s nephews and his wife, who just happened to be visiting friends who owned a vineyard outside of Napa, and Romi.

  Maddie’s father was all smiles, though underlying his bonhomie was an unfamiliar reticence with her that gave Maddie a certain level of comfort. He had not escaped this morning’s debacle in the conference room unscathed.

  Small winces indicated he did not like her new habit of calling him by his first name, either, but if he wanted her to stop, he’d have to ask. Nicely. And behave like a father. Somehow.

  She hadn’t started calling him Jeremy to hurt him, but because it simply hurt her too much to refer to a man who treated her like a stranger more often than not as Father.

  Vik acted as a buffer between them, not exactly a new role for him, but one he hadn’t played with any consistency in six years.

  Taking it a step further than he used to, Vik actually physically stood between her and others in unconscious protection whenever she felt herself growing uneasy. While no one had the bad taste to actually mention the articles spawned by Perry’s lies, family could manage intrusiveness in subtle ways strangers never could.

  Thankfully, Vik seemed to recognize her moods—sometimes even before she did—and took steps to make sure the questions didn’t get a chance to edge into being blatantly intrusive.

  Tellingly, no one seemed to find it hard to believe they’d been carrying on a relationship outside the media’s radar for months now. Not even Misha’s nephew evinced surprise at the engagement.

  Everyone was happy to congratulate Maddie and Vik, making her feel like maybe this thing could really work.

  Regardless of what had precipitated the engagement, their friends and family considered them a good match. A big part of her agreed.

  She only hoped she wasn’t making a huge mistake...that Vik was the man she was discovering. More the white knight in Armani than the heartless tycoon following in her father’s footsteps that she’d seen him as for the past six years.

  Vik’s grandparents were wonderful, as always.

  Misha was a gray-haired, slightly stooped version of Vik with an exuberant warmth very unlike his more reserved grandson. A retired scientist, Ana was both highly intelligent and gently affectionate by nature. She wasn’t as overt as her husband, but she would make a wonderful great-grandmother for Maddie and Vik’s children.

  The magazine photographer turned out to be extremely good at fading into the background and Maddie found herself relaxing and enjoying the first real family dinner she remembered since her mother’s death.

  * * *

  “Your grandparents are such nice people.” Maddie allowed Vik to remove her coat and his own before taking both of them and hanging them in the hall closet.

  Such a simple thing to do. She’d done it hundreds of times for other guests, but never with the same homey feeling—or sense of irrevocability that washed over her as she closed the closet door.

  Vik was staying the night.

  And Maddie’s heart was pounding in her chest like a bass drum.

  Not from fear, though. No, nothing like it, though that surprised her. Shouldn’t there be at least a little anxiety?

  She’d never done this before, after all.

  But all she felt was excitement.

  Maybe it was because she knew Vik would leave if she asked him to. Only she didn’t want him to leave.

  She wanted him to follow through on the promise of passion in their kisses earlier. Besides, if they weren’t compatible in bed, that could be a real problem.

  Right?

  Only what were the chances when his kisses turned her inside out. Self-justification much?

  She made a sound of self-deprecating humor.

  “Liking my family is a source of amusement for you?” Vik’s hands landed on her shoulders before he turned her to face him.

  His expression wasn’t mocking or judging, just inquisitive.

  She smiled up at the beloved handsome face as she shook her head. “No, I was thinking about the things we tell ourselves to justify doing what we want to do.”

  His look promised things she’d never experienced but was pretty darn sure she wanted to. “What things do you want to do?”

  “Like you don’t know.”

  He shook his head. “I’m still a little stunned you’ve never done them before.”

  “Pretty pathetic, huh?”

  “In what way were you pathetic?” Vik asked in a tone that didn’t bode well for anyone who might have used that word to describe her.

  Including herself.

  She liked the feelings his instant protectiveness eng
endered in her despite the fact she thrived on her independence.

  Feeling a little odd about that, she moved away from him and crossed the living room, which was decorated in her favorite shabby chic. While she loved the perfect blend of distressed wood furniture, floral damasks, lifelike silk bouquets set in epoxy to look like water, the pristine whites and abundance of feminine styling screamed “single woman living alone” to her.

  And while there was nothing bad about that, she wasn’t as pleased by the fact she’d never even had a short-term relationship. She’d be happier if something in her home indicated the need to take someone else’s preferences, or even needs, into account.

  “What would you call a twenty-four-year-old virgin?” she asked, turning back to face him.

  “Picky.” His smile melted her.

  She grinned up at him. “That’s one word for it.”

  “You were waiting for me.” She could tell by his tone he thought he was joking.

  A sudden revelation hit her. Romi had definitely been right all along. “I was.”

  She might have been able to get over her first love, but Maddie had never moved on from thinking that Viktor Beck would be the ideal lover. And so she had turned down every other man.

  Yes, trust was an issue for her, but right along with her lack of trust in other men had been a primal certainty of whom she wanted to share her body with.

  A certainty she’d been consciously denying but living under for the past six years.

  Espresso eyes darkened with unmistakable lust, blowing her mind. He wanted her. He’d said he did. He’d kissed her like he did, but that look?

  It was imbued with the same primitive passion she’d acknowledged in herself. So predatory. It sent shivers chasing along her nerve endings.

  “You were made for me,” he said, confirming it wasn’t her imagination.

  The driving force between them was very mutual.

  “A pity you didn’t realize that six years ago.” She regretted the words as soon as she said them and shook her head. “Forget I said that.”

  Maddie got why Vik had turned her down before. Wishing they’d already taken this step so she wouldn’t be dealing with her public humiliation right now was both futile and borderline ridiculous. Because even if they’d gotten together then, there was no guarantee they would still be together now.