Beautiful Distraction (2 page)

Olivia refocused. Violet wished to strategize and that was the best she could do for her friend at present.

“Lord Windbury might not keep a woman,” Olivia conceded, “but he does please them. I’ve heard very good things about his prowess, so at least you can have fun.”

Violet seemed to consider that point, though her expression did not become less troubled.

“They are letting a place for me in Bath and covering my expenses while I’m there.” Violet bit her lip. “Do you think you might come with me? I think you’ve heard more about the man than I have and I could use your help and advice.”

Olivia couldn’t help but smile at the offer. “A few weeks in Bath! Of course I’ll come. There is no downside to that offer.” Violet nodded, absentmindedly, so Olivia continued after a brief pause. “And I have no protector at present…”

Violet friend snapped her attention back to Olivia. “So you
did
end things with David this morning?” A slow nod was all Olivia could manage, and Violet’s face fell. “Was he very cruel?”

“He was not entirely kind,” Olivia said softly. “He was angry.”

“He was an ass from the beginning. I do not know why you choose such wretched men to cater to,” Violet said, wringing her hands in frustration.

Olivia shrugged, continuing to maintain the façade of flippancy. “Because they have money?”

Violet frowned. “You are so much more than that, Olivia. I am truly asking you the question.”

Olivia bent her head. Being honest was difficult, even with her best friend in the world. “Because it makes it far easier to keep myself distant and remember every day that when I’m with them I’m not the real me. And when it’s over, I don’t miss them or think of them again.”

Violet was quiet for a long moment, then reached over to take her hand. “You deserve to be
you
, to be happy.”

“Impossible,” Olivia protested with a weak smile. “And I
am
happy.”

Violet looked at her closely, but then she nodded. “Well, all the more reason to escape stuffy London and go to Bath together. A change of scenery will do us both good.”

Olivia laughed with relief that her friend had not further pursued the subject. It was better not to think of it, of any of it, too much. “Yes, I think Bath sounds divine. No distractions, and I can be of help to you. It sounds exactly like the holiday I need.”

Chapter Two

Malcolm leaned against the cold stone wall next to the little door that led into the exclusive, private bathhouse and shook his head. Liam was utterly predictable in so many ways. He would growl and sputter and allow his emotions to overtake him. When Mal pointed it out to him, he blustered. But within a few days, he was all apologies and attempts to make amends.

It hadn’t always been like that. There had been months, especially just after the accident, when he had feared Liam would take his own life. Nightmares of the times he had thwarted the earl in his designs to do just that still haunted him.

Mal squeezed his eyes shut to block out the thoughts. He drew a few deep breaths before he opened them again. To his surprise, he was no longer alone in the narrow alleyway that hid the secret entrance to the baths. A lady stood in the entrance to the side street, watching him.

An extremely beautiful lady.

She did not wear a hat and her blonde hair was spun up in an elaborate style. Little tendrils fell down to perfectly frame a heart-shaped face. She had full lips, finely boned cheeks and dark-brown eyes that were currently focused on him. She wore a silk gown in a fetching shade of green that highlighted the warmth of her creamy skin. She was obviously a lady of breeding and money, though that made her appearance in the dingy alleyway all the more confusing.

“Good afternoon,” he said, not moving from his leaning position against the wall.

“A very good afternoon to you as well,” she replied, the corner of her lip tilting into a seductive half smile. “Mr. Graham, isn’t it?”

Now he straightened up, stepping toward her. “It is indeed, though I don’t know how you know it.”

She laughed, a low, husky sound that hit him in the gut and wound its way into his loins. Already his body stirred with a reaction that he fought to tamp down.

“A woman of my kind has means, Mr. Graham,” she responded.

A woman of her kind. He looked at her more closely. She was staring at him boldly, brazenly, with the knowing heat of a woman who recognized sex as a tool in her arsenal. So not a lady after all.

She slid toward the street, and he found himself following behind, lured by her presence.

“You leave me at a disadvantage,” he said, coming around the corner to find her waiting for him. The street was quiet, a mere means to the back entrance to the private baths.

“Because you don’t know my name?” she asked, arching a brow.

“That is one reason,” he conceded.

She laughed again. “I cannot imagine there are others. You do not appear to be a man who is often at a disadvantage to anyone else.”

He shrugged. “Not often. I find it interesting, I admit. So, what
is
your name?”

“Olivia Cranfield,” she said, extending a hand in greeting.

He took it. Just as her head was bare, she also wore no gloves, and her skin was exquisitely soft against his. He lifted her hand and without thinking, flipped it over to press a most inappropriate kiss to her palm.

She shivered almost imperceptibly and her pupils dilated, showing him the reaction he craved. She wanted him. That was real, even though he knew she had an ulterior motive in approaching him, namely the woman who was now creeping past him into the alley toward the entrance to the bath where Liam was taking the waters.

He should have stopped that mystery woman, but he didn’t. Liam could use a woman’s touch to calm him down. In truth, he could himself. Mal was realizing now just how long it had been since he’d felt soft skin on his, smelled honeysuckle and mint on a woman’s hair and breath, felt wide eyes watching him with desirous intent.

Too long.

“And what is your friend’s name?” he asked.

Her gaze, which had been heavy and hooded, suddenly widened. “My friend?”

“The one who just scurried down the alley in order to seduce Lord Windbury?” he pressed, drawing Olivia closer, close enough that he could feel her body heat in the cool spring-afternoon air.

She tensed, and there was a flash of fear that briefly crossed her face before she erased it with the effortless pretending of a woman of a certain profession.

“Do you intend to have her arrested?” she asked, her tone even and still flirtatious despite the question.

He grinned. “For what, exactly? I assume she has no intentions of hurting him.”

“None whatsoever,” Olivia reassured him swiftly. “Nor do I have any intentions of hurting you, Mr. Graham. Quite the opposite, in fact.”

She leaned in and he felt the gentle stir of her breath on his cheek. His blood was pumping hard now, making it nearly impossible to think of anything except her—taking her, seeing her naked beneath him.

But he somehow managed to control all those instincts.

“I assume you were sent here as my distraction?” he whispered, touching her cheek with the back of his hand.

“Something like that,” she verified, breathless.

“Because
she
asked you to?” he pressed as he jerked his head toward the alley.

Her gaze locked with his. “Yes,” she admitted calmly. “But that doesn’t mean I find the task to be an unpleasant one.”

He held her stare for what seemed like an eternity as thoughts invaded every corner of his mind. She was willing to seduce a stranger for her friend. The fact that she now found him attractive didn’t change the fact that she had probably taken that duty before she knew anything about him. Which meant she would do anything for that friend.

Something he knew a great deal about. And yet he wasn’t entirely pleased at being on the receiving end of such a “sacrifice”.

“You must care for her a great deal,” he mused out loud.

Her brow wrinkled, not that he blamed her. They were a hair’s breadth apart and yet he was talking about some other woman instead of taking Olivia’s offer of distraction.

“I do care for her,” Olivia admitted softly.

“And you are willing to do what she asks,” he continued.

She withdrew a fraction. “Yes.”

“But do you do anything for yourself, Olivia?” he pressed, tilting his head to explore her pretty face closer. “Or are you so wrapped up in her welfare that you forget your own, forget what you want and need?”

He realized as he said it that it was a question he also asked himself. A question he had avoided for a very long time. But now that he had said it out loud, even ostensibly aimed toward another person, he felt the question sink into his skin, his body, his soul.

“You think I only martyr myself for someone else?” Olivia asked, interrupting his troubled thoughts.

Her eyes flashed as if she was angry and her face flushed with pink color that made him wonder if she blushed the same way when at the heights of pleasure.

“I don’t know,” he said. “I’ve only just met you.”

She scowled at him for a moment, then to his shock, she stepped up to him, cupped his cheeks and drew him down to press her lips to his.

He was stunned by the unexpected kiss, but only for a moment. Then he sank into it, his arms coming around her waist, drawing her against the length of his body as he angled his head for better access to her mouth. Her lips parted, an invitation to further pleasure, and he dove in, driving his tongue to duel with hers as he spun her around and pressed her against the cool stone wall of the building behind them.

She offered no resistance as his kiss grew more demanding; in fact, she parried his attack with a passionate offense of her own. Her arms came up to wind around his neck and she moaned softly as she lifted herself, ever so slightly, into his embrace.

Everything was rapidly spinning out of control. What had started as her response to his jab was now a kiss so erotic that he found himself gliding his hand down her side, feeling her shudder as he settled his fingers against her hips. He wanted to pull her skirts up and have her, right here in the street, in the broad daylight. He wanted to feel her body ripple around his in release and watch her face when she found that pleasure.

He had to stop this before all that became reality and they were arrested. After all, this wasn’t exactly the kind of neighborhood where such acts of public obscenity would be ignored.

He tangled his tongue with hers one last time, memorizing her taste, the feel of her kiss, and then he gently set her away and stepped back, panting with desire as he stared at her.

“Go home, Olivia,” he managed between ragged breaths.

Her desire-glazed expression faded and there was no mistaking the confusion and hurt that replaced it.

“I beg your pardon,” she said, edging away from him and folding her arms as a shield in front of her breasts. “Are you dismissing me?”

He nodded even as he reached out to run a finger along the angle of her jaw. “Only with great difficulty,” he said softly. “The next time you see me, Olivia Cranfield, offer yourself to me again. But this time, I want you to do it only for your own pleasure. And mine.”

He leaned forward to steal one last kiss and then took all his wavering self-control to turn away from her.

“And where are you going?” she called out from behind him.

“To get a very stiff drink in the hopes it will make other things less stiff,” he said without looking back. “I have a feeling my friend will be a while before he finishes his fun.”

“You could have had your own fun, you know,” she called out.

He paused and turned back toward her. He wanted to rush back and take her somewhere quiet and have that fun. Just not on these terms.

“I hope I’ll have another opportunity, Olivia,” he said. “Until I do, trust that I will think of you often and in most uncomfortable ways.”

With that, he saluted her and then forced himself to continue walking away as he questioned if he had lost his mind entirely.

Over an hour had passed since her encounter with Malcolm Graham, but Olivia couldn’t stop thinking of him as she paced the small parlor in the pretty little house they were letting in Bath. Being asked to seduce Lord Windbury’s friend to help Violet hadn’t exactly been the escape Olivia had been thinking about when she accompanied her friend here, but once she saw the man…

Well, the seduction had ceased to be a duty almost immediately.

He was
beautiful
. That was the only accurate description of him. He was a head taller than the average man, with close-cropped black hair and dark eyes that were almost obsidian when they focused on something. Or someone. Her. She had been captured by that stare, held captive until he chose to release her.

And his body. Great God, it had been too long since she’d touched such a specimen. He was thickly muscled from head to toe—she had felt that beneath his coat when he’d spun her against the wall and pinned her there with passionate kisses. His physical strength was impressive, almost as impressive as the confidence with which he wielded it.