DesignedtoSeduce

by Nan Comargue

  Designed to Seduce

  Nan Comargue

  Ten years ago, Mallory agreed to her best friend Kelsey’s shocking request—to seduce Kelsey’s eighteen-year-old nephew to rescue him from a toxic girlfriend. It’s the hottest sex either of them has experienced—but Mallory’s guilt prevents her from continuing the relationship.

  A decade after the incident, Mallory’s life has gone downhill. Recently divorced, she’s struggling to pay the bills and keep her small design company limping along when Jamie appears at her door—all grown up and sexier than ever.

  Jamie wants the truth—why did she leave him all those years ago? Using every sexual trick in his arsenal, he plays havoc with all of Mallory’s defenses as he attempts to wrest the reason from her.

  As passionate as their sexual encounters are, Mallory still refuses to reveal her secret. But how long can her body—and her heart—hold out against the all-out erotic war this hot younger man is determined to wage against her?

  A Romantica® older woman/younger man erotic romance from Ellora’s Cave

  Designed to Seduce

  Nan Comargue

  Chapter One

  Ten years ago

  “Oh no.” Mallory shook her head until her brown hair flew up in a dark halo around her head. “No Kel, I can’t. I absolutely can’t.”

  For a woman who claimed that her life depended on a positive answer, Kelsey Douglas looked remarkably calm.

  As her best friend, Mallory knew that look. It meant that the other woman still intended to get her way—over all of Mallory’s objections.

  Kelsey leaned to close the distance between them, the distance of a couch cushion. Mallory’s couch cushion. She’d invited her friend over to her apartment to see the new living room set that had just been delivered the previous day and instead found herself fending off a difficult attack on her integrity.

  “Mal, it’s important. You can’t believe how important.”

  Mallory tried and failed to dislodge the other woman’s strong grip around her arm.

  “I know, Kel. Trust me, I understand how important this is to you.”

  Kelsey took her hand away, leaving Mallory to contemplate the reddish mark that had arisen as a result. It didn’t matter. Kel, an outstanding amateur tennis player, didn’t understand how strong she was. Plus she’d never seen her friend so desperate before.

  “You don’t understand,” Kel told her, her voice contemptuous. “If you loved him you might be able to.”

  “I do love him,” Mallory insisted, feeling the lie heavily within her. She cared about Jamie, but love? That was reserved for devoted aunts—like Kel.

  “You don’t,” her friend scoffed. “I love him. I love him so much. He’s had such a difficult life and he’s overcome it with hardly a complaint. And now, just as he’s on the verge of setting his future along the right path, he threatens to destroy it all. For what? For a stupid, silly girl! A rebel from a nice upper-middle-class family! What does she have to rebel against, I ask you? The car her parents bought her on her sixteenth birthday? Or just the whole life of stinking privilege?”

  Mallory sat silently, letting her friend rant. She’d already heard the speech once before that evening and she could safely ignore the regurgitation now. Besides, she already had the summary in her head.

  Jamie, Kel’s one and only nephew—who she’d raised since he was twelve—was threatening to drop out of school and run away with his girlfriend.

  In some families that would lead to locking him up in his room until he came to his senses or cutting him off from further financial backing. But all of Kel’s friends knew eighteen-year-old Jamie better than that. No punishment or bribe could force him to change his mind once he’d made it up. Only persuasion could work with him—and to hear her tell it, Kel was all out of coaxing. And threats. And shouting.

  Mallory tuned back into her friend’s voice.

  “Don’t get me wrong,” Kel was saying. “I was happy to take him in. Me, a woman in my late thirties without a clue about what to do with a child, much less a boy on the verge of becoming a teenager. What else could I do after his parents went to jail? Let him go to a foster home? There really were no other options.

  “I took him in. I raised him. I even scrimped to make sure he could stay in that snotty private school where my sister and her husband had him enrolled—that was the only completely legal investment they ever made in their lives, by the way. I thought the biggest problem I would have with him was that concussion he got on the rugby field.”

  Mallory had to smile at that. She remembered that day clearly. Kel getting the call from Jamie’s school, turning white and racing out of the office as if she had wings on her sensible leather pumps. Later she’d telephoned Mallory in hysterics because Jamie was still unconscious. She’d thought he was about to breathe his last breath. But when Mallory made it down to the hospital an hour later, Jamie was sitting up and eating ice cream and Kel was stroking his fair hair off his forehead as if she were trying to remove it through rubbing.

  The incident had happened four years ago yet Mallory still remembered that slow smile Jamie gave her from his hospital bed. He’d probably been greatly relieved when she came to distract Kel and stopped her from making him completely bald in that one spot.

  “What do you say to a cup of coffee? Of course, you have to promise not to spill it on the new chairs.”

  Mallory spoke casually into the growing silence, hoping to inject some normalcy into her friend’s visit. It was strange. At work Kel was one of the most stable and productive designers in the firm, not in the least bit subject to the fits of creative temperament that hit most of them from time to time. But when it came to Jamie all of her logic and resolve disappeared.

  Kel waved the coffee aside, her blue eyes suddenly fixing on Mallory’s face as if she’d never seen her before.

  It was easy enough to guess what she was seeing. The oval face framed by a heavy mass of hair so dark brown it looked black in soft lighting. Light-brown eyes that looked gold in any light, too large for her small face. Everything about Mallory was petite and pretty in a way that made her look years younger than her actual twenty-eight.

  Kel spoke softly. “It would be so easy for you, Mal.”

  At that Mallory had to laugh. “To seduce a young boy? One I’ve known since he was a small child?”

  “You’ve known him since he was twelve,” her friend corrected her. “And he’s not a boy. He’s eighteen now. Old enough to do anything worth doing in this country. He’s a man.”

  But Mallory shook her head, remembering the eighteen-year-olds she’d dated when she was that age.

  “He’s a kid, Kel, and you know it. A kid in love, which is the most dangerous kind. Besides, what makes you think I could have any influence on him?”

  “I told you,” the older woman said. “He’s had a crush on you for forever. He worships the ground you walk on. All you have to do is show him how shallow this thing with this girl is. Not worth throwing his life away. Not worth breaking my heart.”

  The tiny hitch at the end of the last sentence made Mallory pause just as she was about to launch into another argument.

  Kel was right. The girl was trouble. Even acknowledging the strong bias her friend had, it was obvious that any teenager who spent so much time before the courts on marijuana and mischief charges was a problem.

  Now she was dragging Kel’s nephew right down with her. Because he was parentless—his mother wasn’t due to finish serving her fraud sentence for another twelve years and his father was likely to spend the rest of his life in jail—Jamie was just likely searching for a primal human connection. And of course the first girl he slept with would be that bond.

  “When I found the co
ndoms,” Kel was saying, “I told myself that I had no reason to be angry with him. He’s legally an adult now and if he’d been screwing around before he turned eighteen he kept it very well hidden. Then when I realized how much I disliked his girlfriend I told myself that it was because I was jealous. For six years I’ve been the only relative in Jamie’s life. I’ve been his mother and father combined. But it’s more than that. I loved him before, when he was just my nephew I saw at holidays. But I can’t even begin to explain how much I love him now, when I’ve nurtured and protected him for so long. I’m so proud of him, Mallory. I would do anything in the world to save him from himself.”

  Mallory tactfully shifted the tissue box on the coffee table closer to her friend. “But he doesn’t want saving. He wants to take a few years off from college and see the world with his girlfriend. It’s not anything incredible. People do it all the time.”

  “Not Jamie,” her friend insisted, rubbing her nose with a wad of tissues. “I know him too well. Once he’s with that girl full-time, he’ll end up living her life. Or she’ll dump him somewhere in Asia and he won’t want to live at all.”

  Mallory sighed. She remembered being eighteen all too clearly. She wished she didn’t.

  At Jamie’s age she’d been sleeping with her first-year Designing for a Natural Space professor and believing she was the most cool and sophisticated woman in the world. During the next term, when she’d learned that the forty-year-old prof had also been fucking three other first-year students, she’d wanted to die. Only her parents’ unstinting support had gotten her through those months.

  But Jamie didn’t have his parents’ support. They were locked away for a massive fraud that made the whole family the subject of remorseless publicity for much of his adolescence.

  And now, just as he was starting to put it all behind him, he’d stumbled into another grievous calamity.

  “All right,” she said to her friend. “What do you want me to do?”

  * * * * *

  Mallory kept checking the delicate gold watch strung around her left wrist. She could hear her heartbeat racing in her ears.

  Eight o’clock. He should be home any time now.

  It felt strange to be sitting in Kelsey’s living room without her friend anywhere in the vicinity. Like Mallory’s condo, this one was lovingly decorated with unique furniture and tasteful colors. Unlike Mallory, Kel didn’t feel the need to update her surroundings every few months. They were very different designers in that way. Kel’s tastes were timeless. Mallory was always chasing the next new trend—and often trying to start one along the way.

  Eight-oh-five. Past dinnertime. Although from everything Kel had told her she wasn’t surprised that Jamie Reynolds was choosing to ignore the household habits of the past six years.

  Sighing, she settled back into Kel’s plush chocolate-brown sofa. She might be in for a long wait.

  A key jangled in the lock. Mallory instantly straightened up, adjusting the sleeveless silk blouse and short black skirt Kel had insisted she change into.

  A blond head appeared in the partly opened door, blue eyes darting around the room for a second before they spotted her.

  After a brief pause the door was pushed all the way open and a man walked in.

  For just a moment Mallory thought it was a stranger. A man certainly, not the boy she’d been expecting.

  When was the last time she’d seen Jamie? It must have been eight months ago at Kel’s birthday party, which had been held at a popular local restaurant. He’d spent most of the time with his head bent over an electronic gadget, ignoring the festivities completely.

  He must have grown a couple of inches since then. He’d always been a tall boy but now he was easily six feet. He didn’t need the extra inch or so his spiky hairstyle gave him.

  He was wearing the standard teenage apparel of worn jeans and a t-shirt with the slogan faded enough not to offend decency. The shirt hugged his lean, muscled torso.

  “Hey, Mallory. What are you doing here?”

  He walked with a new saunter. Sexy, Mallory thought approvingly—then was immediately appalled by her thoughts.

  Focused on Jamie, it took Mallory a few seconds to realize that he had brought a guest home with him. So that was why he checked the condo out before he let himself inside.

  Mallory repeated the story her friend had fed her. “Your aunt had to go to Montreal to put the final touches on that hotel project. She said she wouldn’t be back until Friday or possibly Saturday.”

  Jamie’s eyes were very blue but also quite dark. Midnight-blue eyes.

  “She didn’t think I could stay by myself for a couple of days? I have before.”

  Pulling her eyes away from his face, Mallory shrugged lightly, the movement drawing attention to her bare arms. “I only know that she made me promise that I would keep you fed and watered on time. I thought we’d order in.” She ran her fingers through her tousled curls before letting her hand drop negligently to her neckline. “I waited to see what you felt like having.”

  For just a second, Jamie’s eyes flicked to her creamy cleavage before he dragged them back to her face.

  A thin, high laugh filled the spacious room. It was the girl.

  “Is that your idea of keeping him fed? Ordering delivery? That’s pretty funny.”

  She appeared to be the only one finding any amusement out of the situation.

  Mallory felt the color rising to her cheeks as she got her to feet and crossed the room to the couple. Her stilettos made a terrible racket against the wood floor.

  “I don’t believe we’ve met.” She held her hand out to the girl. “I’m Mallory Scott, a friend of Jamie’s Aunt Kelsey. And you are?”

  “Erica Bishop.”

  The girl had to let go of Jamie’s hand to reluctantly shake hers. But she reclaimed it immediately.

  She was pretty, Mallory had to admit. Blonde and blue-eyed, she made a good match for Jamie. The girl looked clean and normal except for a streak of pink in her short hair and the hard look in her lovely eyes. They were eyes that held nothing sacred—not even love.

  Kel was right. Jamie was no competition for this shrewd-eyed girl.

  Mallory was determined to be pleasant. “Well Erica, if you and Jamie can decide what you want to eat for dinner, I can order it.”

  “We were going out,” Jamie said quickly. “I just came by to pick up something.”

  “On a school night?” Mallory shook her head. “I don’t think so.”

  The pair exchanged looks. Perhaps they were getting ready to run out on her.

  “Look,” Mallory added, “you can stay here and hang out. I don’t mind. After dinner, I can make myself scarce.”

  It was the last thing she wanted to do but it felt good saying it. Right. Yes, she ought to leave the two teenagers together, not try to blow up their relationship.

  Erica looked relieved but Jamie was scowling faintly.

  “You don’t have to do that, Mal.”

  Mallory hid a smile. He didn’t want her to leave them alone. That was a good sign.

  They ordered sushi from a place around the corner and ate it at Kel’s oversized wood-plank dining table. Surprisingly the conversation flowed well. Jamie talked readily about his classes at college, which were mostly related to business and finance. He made no mention of any intentions to drop out. He also showed a solid understanding of design principles, encouraging Mallory to tell him about her latest projects.

  “Mal works with my aunt,” he stopped to explain to Erica.

  “Yeah, I got that.” Erica’s voice was sulky. She hadn’t spoken more than a few words since they sat down to dinner. Standing up suddenly, she pushed away her plate. “Can we get out of here now?”

  “It’s still a school night,” Mallory pointed out in a mild tone.

  Jamie glanced from one woman to the other, clearly torn.

  “Why don’t we stay in?” he finally said, his eyes appealing to his girlfriend.

 
But Erica wouldn’t be appealed to. “Bo-ring. That’s not my idea of a good time.”

  Mallory stood and began clearing the containers away. After a moment Jamie started helping her.

  “I’ll tell you what I think would be a good time,” she said brightly. “Let’s watch a movie. I rented Deep Dark Woods if anybody’s interested.”

  Mallory loved horror movies but they scared her terribly. Or perhaps she loved them because they scared her so much.

  And she knew who else loved them.

  “I wanted to see Deep Dark Woods in theaters!” Jamie exclaimed, smiling across the table at her. “Let’s put it on now.”

  Erica stood beside him with her arms crossed over her chest. “I’m not watching a horror movie.”

  Exasperation showed plainly on Jamie’s boyish face. “Come on, it’ll be fun.”

  The girl’s expression changed as she leaned close to him. “I know what else could be fun.”

  Jamie’s eyes slanted to Mallory’s carefully blank face. “Not here, Er,” he whispered fiercely.

  His girlfriend didn’t bother lowering her voice. “Why not? Because of her? She understands how it is. Even if she is so much older.”

  To emphasize her point, she grabbed his head and pulled it down for a long, loud kiss that made Mallory flinch. It sounded like it hurt.

  Jamie’s face had reddened by the time he lifted his head.

  “Uh, Mal, I think Erica and I will just hang out in my room.”

  She shrugged to show it didn’t affect her one way or the other. “Suit yourself.”

  The couple disappeared down the hallway while Mallory finished cleaning up the remains of dinner.

  This evening was a complete disaster.

  Kel was going to kill her.

  * * * * *

  Mallory must have drifted off to sleep in front of the television because the next sound she was aware of was a door being slammed.

  She sat up to find Jamie perched at the other end of the sofa.

  “Sorry about that.”

  There was no need to pretend confusion. “What happened?”