by Kim Lawrence
‘It didn’t occur to you to mention it?’
‘No.’ Elbows set on the table, he leaned forward. ‘So are you going home?’
‘Home?’
‘For your birthday.’
Eve retreated behind her wine glass. ‘I have no home.’
‘Boo-hoo! Wow, you really do have a chip on your shoulder, don’t you?’
She responded to the callous charge angrily. ‘I lived at Brent Manor for t-ten years but it was never my home, we were just the help.’
‘Yet being the help, as you put it, did not prevent you and Hannah becoming friends and now your mother is the mistress of the house.’
Eve was not about to satisfy his curiosity, but he was not the first to remark on the unlikely upstairs, downstairs friendship. Hannah Latimer with money, charm and princess looks, who went to a prestigious private school and the painfully shy cook’s daughter who went to school in the local town.
For Eve it had been hate at first sight and she had gone out of her way to avoid the daughter of the house with her golden hair and her permanent smile. She’d had numerous hiding places on the estate and when she’d found Hannah in one of those she’d initially been furious—until she’d seen the tears.
The girls had discovered they had something in common a long time before they’d found out their parents were having an affair. They’d both hated school and had both been bullied, although for different reasons.
‘People find the entire rags to riches story fascinating…not literally rags, I know that, but don’t be surprised if you find details of your mother’s life popping up in gossip columns. We all have skeletons,’ Draco warned.
She stiffened, horror seeping into her at the thought of her parentage becoming public knowledge, and retorted defensively, ‘What are you implying?’
Draco realised immediately from her reaction that there was definitely a skeleton in the Curtis family closet. Hell, all he’d wanted to do was steer the conversation in the right direction… Oh, well, that left the direct approach.
‘There is a photo that has been posted online. I thought you should know about it.’
He pushed his phone across the table and watched her face as she looked at the explicit photo of the two of them in an abandoned embrace the night of the wedding. He saw the colour run up under her fair skin when she saw what it was, and then recede leaving her paper pale. ‘One of your enterprising ex school friends I assume.’
Eve closed her eyes and for a long moment she said nothing. Then in a hopeful whisper said, ‘Perhaps no one will see it.’
There was no gentle way to break it so he just said it. ‘Sorry, but apparently it has already gone viral.’
She covered her mouth with her hand, and above it her green eyes registered total horror. How could he sound so calm?
‘You have to stop them.’ He shook his head and she added wildly, ‘What if your daughter sees it?’
‘The odds are she already has. On the plus side it is quite flattering.’
She closed her eyes. Flattering? Was he insane? She was an intensely private person and the idea of that photo out there made Eve… ‘I feel sick.’ She waited until the strong wave of nausea had passed before asking, ‘So what are we going to do?’
He arched a brow. ‘Do?’
‘A plan.’
‘There is no plan beyond damage limitation. Take my word for it—I have been here before.’
‘Well, I haven’t!’
‘My best advice is to laugh it off, or maintain a dignified silence…’
A hoarse laugh was shaken from her throat. She could see precious little dignity in having pictures of yourself in a passionate clinch posted on the internet. It wouldn’t just be strangers who would see it, but people who knew her: her mother, her friends, people she worked with.
‘Or I could deny vigorously that there is anything going on between us.’
She exhaled. ‘Good.’
‘Which will convince them that something definitely is and prolong the interest in us.’
Eve clenched her teeth, her body rigid as she fought the urge to rush around the table and shake him. She firmly believed that violence never solved anything but on this occasion it might make her feel a hell of a lot better!
He met her eyes. ‘Tell me what you want me to do?’
‘I don’t kn-know,’ she admitted miserably.
‘Then shall I tell you what I want to do? I want to get up and leave this place.’
‘What about coffee?’
‘Then I want to take you back to my place and do what I badly wanted to do with you this morning. I can promise you a birthday present you will not forget, cara.’
He…they had a problem and his solution…? Seduce her right here in a public place! Where anyone could have heard the things he’d said.
It was laughable; he was ridiculous.
Only his voice, the rich, rich bitter chocolate with that curious tactile quality, was not something she found herself able to laugh at. Their glances connected and a faint sigh left her parted lips. Desire zinged along her nerve endings, closing down her logic circuits and opening her pupils wide.
The seconds ticked away and with each one the sexual tension that crackled in the air mounted and the clenched core of desire in Eve’s belly tightened. Draco just continued to stare at her with the same soul-stripping intensity, the carnal message in his eyes very clear.
She took a deep breath. ‘Yes…’
They both got to their feet in unison, Draco almost knocking his chair over in the process.
He flung a handful of notes on the table without even glancing at the denominations, grabbed her hand and growled.
‘Let’s get out of here.’
* * *
He didn’t roll away but remained heavy and hot above her. His face was pressed against her neck, his breath warm and moist against her skin. She liked it, everything about it, the skin-to-skin contact, his weight, the musky smell of sex mingled with soap.
They were lying naked on a massive leather chesterfield in Draco’s study. They hadn’t managed to make it up the stairs; they had barely even made it out of the cab.
The room was littered with the clothes they had ripped off in a mutual frenzy of haste for skin-to-skin contact.
The frenzy had passed but Eve’s breath still came in a series of shallow gasps; her ribcage lifted with each gasp, making the breast not compressed by Draco’s head quiver. One arm curled over her head and the other in his hair, she lay on her back, staring, eyes half closed, at the ceiling. Her body was gently humming still in the aftermath of a climax that had rocked her body with wave after wave of intense pleasure.
‘How did this happen?’ she murmured.
‘Do you want bullet points or shall I run through it step by step?’ She heard the smile in his voice.
‘Neither, but happy birthday to me.’
He curved a hand over her breast. ‘I’ll second that.’
‘Draco…?’
‘Give me five minutes.’
She laughed. ‘I have to go.’ She tried to push him off her but he resisted.
‘No,’ he groaned.
She arched a brow. ‘Please, Draco, I have to.’
With a show of reluctance he rolled away.
Eve felt his eyes on her as she got dressed. His dark stare made her feel self-conscious but also empowered. She could be naked in front of him; she could stutter and not want to die… Was that bad…good…dangerous? She gave her head a tiny shake. Eve just knew it felt good. To have a man like Draco act as though he couldn’t get enough of you was a pretty ego-enhancing experience.
Midway through fastening her shirt, she stopped and tilted her head to one side in a listening attitude.
‘The
re’s someone here.’ She could hear the sound of a door closing and voices…female voices?
‘No, I told you—’ This time Draco heard them too. He closed his eyes then sat up with a sigh.
‘I think there’s more than one of them,’ she confided in a hushed whisper.
He left the chesterfield in one lithe motion. Reaching for his trousers, he angled her a carnal look that made her insides flip and her eyes glow.
‘Hold that thought,’ he commanded thickly.
‘That wasn’t what I was thinking.’
He dragged his shirt together; some lies were just too obvious to justify a response. ‘Stay here—it’ll be safer.’
The comment sent her imagination into overdrive. ‘Safe from what? Do you know who it is? Should I call the police?’
‘It’s nice to know you care, but I can handle this.’
Eve wanted to yell she didn’t care after him, but suddenly she had an awful feeling it would be a lie.
CHAPTER TEN
BEFORE HE LEFT the room Draco buttoned up his shirt and dragged a hand through his hair.
The three females who were standing at the far end of the hallway didn’t immediately see him when he walked through from the library, and it was Josie who first spotted him.
Her expression was a revealing mix of guilt and relief, which cut a long story short for him.
‘Hello, kiddo, so let me guess—your mother sprang you from school to do something educational like—?’
‘Shopping in the sales,’ Josie supplied with a sheepish shrug.
‘Good afternoon, Clare. You look gorgeous, as usual.’
‘Draco.’ She moved forward to offer each cheek in turn to him for a kiss. ‘And you look…’ She stopped, a speculative look entering her eyes as she looked at him. ‘And you look…’ responding to the warning flash in his eyes, she glanced at her daughter ‘…gorgeous too, darling. Something definitely agrees with you.’
‘Mother,’ Draco greeted Veronica.
‘Draco, you should not wander around the house in your bare feet. It gives the wrong impression.’
‘To who?’
‘Standards,’ she responded somewhat mysteriously.
‘And I suppose you were just passing…?’
‘Do I need a reason to visit my own son?’ Veronica broke off, frowning, as a loud noise came from the library. ‘Is there someone in there, Draco?’
In the library with the shoe she hadn’t dropped clutched to her chest, Eve closed her eyes while the moment stretched and thought, Please, please, say no. Hearing the mumbled conversation and not being able to make out what was being said had been frustrating so she had been moving towards the open door when she had dropped her shoe.
‘Yes.’
She opened her scrunched eyes and clenched her fists. Would it have killed him to lie?
‘Eve, cara, come out and say hi to Josie.’
Short of hiding behind the curtains, which did not seem such a terrible option to her at that moment, Eve didn’t have much choice. She glanced at her flushed face in the mirror.
‘She knows Josie?’
Besides Draco’s daughter there were two women in the room. The older one had jaw-length dark hair streaked with silver, and as she glanced her way Eve received the impression of energy and simple elegance. She realised she was looking at Josie in forty years’ time—lucky girl.
The other was a stunning blue-eyed blonde whose impressive curves were displayed in a tight bandage-style red dress that nipped in her minuscule waist and displayed a cleavage that would have made her a perfect model for Eve’s Temptation.
Yes, stunning about described her, Eve decided. Her face, figure, her long river-straight blonde hair, everything more than deserved that accolade—stunning.
‘Eve!’ With the energy of youth but none of the awkwardness, Josie was across the room in moments, her admiring stare on Eve’s hair, which fell in a rippling curtain of pre-Raphaelite waves down her narrow back. ‘Wow, I just love your hair that way.’
Eve lifted a self-conscious hand to her hair. ‘It has a life of its own.’
‘Mother, this is Eve Curtis.’ Draco took her by the arm and drew her forward. ‘Eve, my mother, Veronica Morelli.’
‘Mrs Morelli…’
‘And this is Clare.’ Eve felt his arm go around her shoulder and stiffened.
‘I’m his ex-wife,’ the blonde said, gliding forward on her five-inch heels and displaying a wide friendly smile. ‘It’s really nice to meet you, Eve. So where have you been hiding her, Draco? And how long have you two been together?’
‘We met yesterday morning,’ Draco said evasively.
‘All right, I know it’s none of my business,’ Clare replied.
‘I need to get back to the office,’ Eve said abruptly.
‘Office?’ Veronica enquired.
‘Eve runs her own company, Mother.’
‘Really?’ We must have coffee sometime and you can tell me all about your business.’ It was obvious from her sudden change of attitude that his mother was now viewing her as potential bride material.
She was embarrassed but Draco had to be hating it. He could have simply outed her there and then as a casual fling but he hadn’t, and she even felt a little guilty as she would not have expected this sort of consideration for her feelings from him.
‘I guess if you’re your own boss you can spend the afternoon…?’
At another warning look from her ex-husband, the blonde subsided.
‘Sorry, but I must go—’ Eve started.
‘And Josie needs to get back to school.’
Josie pouted at her grandmother’s pronouncement. ‘But Clare said that I could have the day off—we were going shopping and getting our nails done.’
‘I’m sure your mother realises that your schooling comes first—and you call your mother Clare now?’ This disapproving addition from Veronica drew a wry look from her son.
‘Would you mind dropping Josie off at school on your way back to your office, Eve?’
Startled by the request, she nodded. ‘Fine.’
The older woman grabbed Josie’s hand. ‘Come along, Josephina. You need to get into your uniform. We must not keep Miss Curtis waiting.’
‘Sorry about the interruption, you two.’ Clare smiled as her daughter left the room with her grandmother. ‘Sex in the afternoon is just so beautifully decadent and naughty, I always think.’
‘You’re embarrassing Eve,’ Draco chided.
‘Really!’ Her astonishment seemed genuine. ‘Sorry, Draco, it’s just when you strolled in here looking all…’ She gave a reminiscent little sigh. ‘I remember that look.’
Eve felt a sharp stab of something too near jealousy for comfort. She closed her eyes and thought, I have to get out of here. She’d heard of amicable divorces but this was ridiculous!
Veronica Morelli reappeared with a neatly uniformed Josie at her side. ‘She couldn’t find anything and I’m not surprised. Why you insist on living in this cramped doll’s house I will never understand.’
Eve’s jaw dropped. If Draco’s mother thought this was cramped what was she used to? It must be a castle at least.
‘Very nice to meet you both,’ Eve lied as she left.
* * *
In the taxi Josie was talkative. ‘You have no idea how glad I am that you’re with Dad.’
‘I’m not—’ Eve encountered the teenager’s questioning look and closed her mouth. You couldn’t tell your lover’s teenage daughter that you were just having casual sex with her father, rather than a meaningful relationship.
As she recalled Draco’s comment about his daughter trying to find him a wife a worried frown pleated her brow. She didn’t want to encourage the girl’s fantasy bu
t brutal honesty was obviously not an option. ‘I’m glad you’re glad.’
‘And you’re nothing like Dad’s usual type…’
Tell me something I didn’t already know, Eve thought, an image of his incredibly gorgeous ex-wife drifting into her mind. There had to have been a lot of Clare clones since, and then me.
‘I’m not supposed to know he has a type, which is kind of unrealistic but because he never brings them home he thinks I don’t know.’
That got Eve’s attention. ‘He never brings them home?’ She told herself firmly that she was not going to read anything significant into that.
‘You think he does when I’m not there, like Lily’s dad?’ Josie shook her head vigorously. ‘Lily said she could always tell when her dad’s girlfriend had been in their flat as she could smell her and things got left behind and moved—and she was right as they got married last month.’
Did Draco’s bed smell of her?
‘I’m sure it’s very hard when a parent decides to remarry.’
‘Gosh, no, I’d love it, and Gran would too. She’s always nagging him about it, but she doesn’t think anyone’s good enough for him and Mu— Clare is really bitchy about the ones he dates sometimes. But you’re different and if you did marry Dad or even if you were his girlfriend, they wouldn’t be able to send me to live with Mum and her fiancé, cos you’d definitely be a stable female influence in my life, wouldn’t you?’
Eve digested the stream of artless confidences in silence, finally asking casually, ‘Is there a chance of you going to live with your mum?’
Josie shook her head. ‘No, Dad promised he won’t let it happen, no matter what.’
* * *
She sat in the cab until Josie had gone through the school gates, then gave the address of her office to the driver. The cringingly embarrassing scene she had endured had been playing in her head on a loop like background noise since they had left the house, only this time, in the light of Josie’s revelations, it took on a very different slant.
They said knowledge was power but Eve didn’t feel powerful; she felt grubby and used. The worst part was she had really thought Draco had been sparing her embarrassment, that he had allowed the assumption they were in a relationship to stand uncorrected out of consideration for her feelings.
