A Christmas Seduction (11 page)

Her embarrassment had been acute as had been her confusion. Usually she would have gone straight to Meredith to discuss such an event. Usually, she would have been excited that she’d had her first kiss and, it had been, admittedly, extraordinary. But
usual
had no place in a discussion about one of the princesses kissing one of the frogs. He hadn’t even turned into a blasted prince! He’d remained the arrogant, cocky, Hugh Mayford.

As time had gone on, however, and she had replayed the kiss over and over in her mind, she began to naïvely think that perhaps Hugh cared for her. Hard as it was to believe, there was no way he could have kissed her like that if he hadn’t wanted to, was there? And there’d been so much passion, so much feeling in that kiss!

So it was, that in the space of thirty minutes, Louisa had managed to convince herself that Hugh Mayford had been secretly, desperately, in love with her all this time, and
that
was why he’d put worms in her bedchamber and rotting kippers in her bed. The poor soul hadn’t had any outlet for his feelings.

And, if she were being honest with herself only, she could admit that as much as she hated him, there was a small but persistent part of her that didn’t hate him at all… that felt quite the opposite.

Jackson, though a handsome young man, was far too young and immature. Lucas scared the living daylights out of her; he was forbidding and commanding and everything an heir to a dukedom should be.

But Hugh; Hugh was always so laid back, so relaxed about things. He had a charming manner, a wicked smile, and a penchant for never really taking anything seriously. That had been a heady combination to a young lady in the first flushes of adulthood.

Louisa looked around the conservatory, seeing it as it had been that day. Hot and humid and filled to bursting with exotic flowers, their colors and smells combining to make her head spin.

Stupidly, she had allowed her mind to wander so far that she could practically hear church bells ring as she and Hugh walked down the aisle, her in a confection of satin and lace, him looking devilishly handsome in wedding clothes fit for a king.

A sudden noise behind her brought Louisa back to the present day, and she whirled round to see the source.

Oh, how she had been brought back down to earth with a bang.

As though her memories had conjured him up, there stood Hugh Mayford in all his conceited, handsome glory.

Louisa was horrified at the jolt of lust she felt upon seeing him. Had she learned nothing of the man’s black heart?

It had been three years; here was her chance to show him how sophisticated and singularly unaffected she was by him.

“What are you doing here?” she blurted out, sounding petulant and very much unsophisticated.

“I live here,” he drawled in response, and Louisa ruthlessly pushed away her reaction to his mellifluous voice.

“Here in the conservatory?” she snapped back. “Quite a tumble from lord of the manor.”

He smirked in response.

“I see time has not mellowed the viper, though it has improved you drastically in other areas.”

His heated gaze travelled leisurely down her body and back up making her feel as though she were slowly catching fire. She didn’t know whether to slap him or throw herself at him.

“I would thank you for the compliment, but since it’s you, I can only assume there was an insult in there somewhere.”

This time his smile was a full blown grin, and Louisa almost staggered back at the impact.

The dratted man! He had no business making her stagger.

“If you must know, I followed you in here,” he spoke now, stepping closer to her, his voice quiet and deep and wicked.

“How could you have followed me in here? Nobody knew I was even coming in here, and you weren’t at the ball.”

“I was at the ball. And I have been watching you all evening.”

Louisa gulped.

If anyone else had said it she probably would have worried for her life. But as awful as Hugh and his incorrigible brothers had been over the years, she’d never actually feared them. Rather than make her afraid, therefore, his words made her positively combust.

Stop it, Louisa,
she scolded herself,
remember what he said about you.

Deciding to ignore his words, because really, what sort of answer could she give to that, she focused instead on the reasons for his shadowing her.

“Why did you follow me?” she demanded.

“Perhaps I’m hoping for a repeat of the last time we were alone.”

His words, spoken so softly, had the effect of rendering Louisa entirely speechless. And that was a first.

“Come now, Louisa, do not pretend you have forgotten.” He smirked wickedly, stepping closer to her.

“I-I don’t know what you mean,” she stuttered, desperately wanting to back away from him but refusing to give him the satisfaction.

“Oh, you don’t?” He quirked a brow and Louisa had the ridiculous urge to reach up and run her finger along it. She, who had never been particularly attached to eyebrows in her life.

“No,” she said forcefully, hoping to remind herself, as well as he, that they were sworn enemies, and this was highly inappropriate.

“Hmm. I must admit to a rather bruised ego,” he said with a rueful grin that was much more endearing than it had a right to be.” Perhaps I should remind you.”

Yes,
her body cried out.

“No,” her mercifully more logical mouth said. “You should not.”

Louisa thought she saw a flash of disappointment in his cobalt blue eyes but that was madness of course.

He stepped back, and she schooled her features not to show the disappointment she felt.

“What do you really want?” she asked, desperation tingeing her tone now.

She wanted to run away from him, gather her scattered wits, and set about putting the arrogant earl who had upset Meredith in his place.

Her question seemed to take him aback slightly. His eyes widened infinitesimally, before his brow furrowed.

“I’m starting to think I have no idea,” he said roughly.

And once again, Louisa was speechless.

W
HAT THE HELL WAS
wrong with him?

Hugh hadn’t been lying when he’d told the delectable Louisa Bright that he’d been watching her all evening.

In fact, he’d taken rather a lot of abuse from his irritating little brother because of it.

And yet, he hadn’t been able to stop himself.

He’d been held in rapt fascination by the shimmer of gold in her hair caused by nearby candlelight, by the musical lilt of her laugh as it reached his ears from across the room, by her grace and elegance as she took to the dance floor with more partners than he was happy about.

Mostly, he was base enough to admit, he’d been held captive by the sway of her hips as she walked, the curve of her lips as she smiled, the way her dress clung, then swirled away from her body, causing him no small amount of discomfort.

Of course he’d watched her. He’d be a fool not to.

She was silently waiting for him to actually tell her what he was doing here, so he forced himself to concentrate.

In his own defense, he had had genuine reasons for following her in here. He’d noticed, just as Jackson had, and no doubt how she had, that Lucas was getting a little more distracted by Meredith Bright than anyone was happy about.

It was time to bring this encounter to a close lest he do something idiotic, like kiss her again or, worse yet, ask her why she hadn’t been as affected by their first kiss as he had been.

“I think it’s fair to say that after years of enmity between our families, a truce is not something you would be agreeable to.”

Hugh, for one mad moment, wished for her to deny his words, to say she wanted nothing more than to end the feud. Perhaps to even begin a relationship which would be the exact opposite of a feud…

Her unladylike snort was all the answer he needed, however.

“So then, you wouldn’t be thrilled to learn of my older brother’s — er — sudden fascination with your sister?”

He watched as a frown creased her brow, her green eyes snapping.

“Fascination?” she scoffed. “Hardly. The great big oaf gave her the cut direct. And you can tell him from me,” She stepped forward, her finger prodding his chest, “that if he so much as looks at my sister again in a manner that she finds anything less than respectful, I shall—”

“You shall what?” Hugh interrupted, his temper flaring. “You shall screech at him like a common fishwife?”

Her jaw dropped open at his words and then snapped shut. Hugh could actually hear her teeth grinding together.

“How dare you?” she finally gasped, her outrage doing terribly distracting things to the low-cut bodice of her satin gown.

“I dare because your Ice Queen sister is no more innocent in this than my brother,” he snapped. “Which is exactly why I wanted to talk to you.”

He watched emotions dash across her expressive face while some internal battle or other raged. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, she closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and then leveled her gaze at him.

“Alright. What is it?”

Hugh gritted his teeth at her imperious tone but made no comment.

They’d been at this to-ing and fro-ing long enough as it was.

“For some inexplicable reason, Lucas has taken a shine to your sister,” Hugh started. The hypocrisy of his words did not escape his notice. Lucas’s shine to Meredith couldn’t have been any less than his own to Louisa.

“Are you deaf?” she interrupted, raising his hackles yet again. “Did you not hear me when I said he’d been unpardonably rude to her?”

“I heard you,” he responded through clenched teeth. “But as shocking as it is, he hasn’t stopped bloody watching the chit all night, according to Jackson, and that presents a problem.”

“You have just admitted to staring at me all evening, Hugh. Why should Lucas and Meredith be cause for concern?”

Well, she had him there. Hugh steeled himself against the wave of pleasure at hearing his name on her lips. Her distractingly plump lips, one of which she was currently nibbling.

“Because,” he croaked. “Because I have the good sense not to do anything. Lucas, well I’m not so sure about Lucas.”

She looked mightily affronted at his words. But really, did the little shrew really think he would be pleased about this inexplicable desire he had for her?

“Pity, then, that you didn’t possess the same good sense three years ago when you accosted me in your mother’s garden,” she answered with a frown he tried not to find adorable.

The reminder of their kiss, of his reaction to her, the memory of her soft, supple body pressed so firmly against his own, was enough to make Hugh want to run from the danger of her.

“Louisa.” He tried for his most reasonable tone. “Do you want your sister wedded to my brother?”

Her rather insulting gasp of horror was answer enough.

“So I thought. Now, unless you want us all to be one big happy family, you’re going to have to help me do something about it.”

He watched as yet again as myriad emotions raced across her face.

It really was a lovely face.

She didn’t deserve it, the little harpy.

“Fine,” she eventually bit out, bringing his thoughts back to the problem at hand. “I shall help you.”

CHAPTER THREE

L
OUISA ROSE EXHAUSTED FROM
a distinct lack of sleep the night before.

Why had she allowed Hugh Mayford to bother her so, when she had promised herself that it wouldn’t happen?

He was an arrogant cad but he was so handsome. She had known, even flirted with plenty of handsome men. Well, some. Well, one. But he hadn’t compared to Hugh, unfortunately. Worse still, he didn’t seem to possess whatever magical powers Hugh did that drew her in.

Until he’d kissed her that fateful day, Louisa had carried a healthy dose of dislike for the man, just like the one she carried for his awful brothers.

But that kiss had changed more than she liked to admit, even to herself.

Now the hatred she felt for him was based on the humiliation she had felt upon overhearing that conversation he’d had with his brothers.

A knock on the door heralding the arrival of the girls’ shared abigail distracted Louisa from her dour musings, but whilst Ellie set about dressing her hair with a pink ribbon to match the long sleeved, pale pink muslin she wore, Louisa couldn’t help but worry about Hugh’s words the previous night.

Could it really be that Meredith and Lucas could come to care for each other?

Impossible. Meredith despised the handsome earl just as much as she despised his bothersome brothers. She would never allow herself to become embroiled in anything less than warfare with one of them.

It wasn’t long before Ellie had pulled Louisa’s hair into a creation of twists and curls that Louisa had paid no attention to. Good or bad, it would do. She hadn’t time to be worrying about such things, in any case. She needed to ascertain whether or not Meredith was in danger.