Beautiful Distraction (3 page)

This was not a man who ever doubted himself. She found herself a little jealous of that fact. And irritated by his dismissal of her.

If there was one thing she had learned in the past seven years it was that she knew how to control a man with her body and the promise of pleasure. But this man had not surrendered so readily. Oh yes, he’d kissed her…my, how he had kissed her. She didn’t think she had ever been so thoroughly kissed. Even now, her lips tingled at the memory and her body reacted with as much desire.

But then he had withdrawn, talking to her about
choice
.

“Choice,” she muttered to herself as she slid her finger around the edge of a long-ago abandoned teacup. “It is easy for a man to say when he has nothing but choices in his life. I’ve never had a choice. Pretending is my only way of survival.”

She turned and looked at herself in the mirror above the fireplace. She saw the fraud she hid from the world, but had Malcolm sensed it? Was that the true reason he had denied her advances? She racked her mind for any slip of her accent, for any way she might have shown her true self and put him off.

Her thoughts were interrupted by the sound of voices in the foyer down the hall. Violet had come home, and Olivia took a long breath. Even with her friend, she sometimes pretended. Today would be no different. She would have to hide her own experiences with Malcolm and focus instead on Violet. She smoothed her gown, then moved to the door and threw it open with a wide smile that she hoped masked her confusion with what had transpired with Malcolm.

“And?” Olivia asked without preamble. She was curious, that was not invented. Had Violet had better luck with the earl?

“And?” Violet repeated as she stepped into the parlor to pour herself a cup of tea.

Olivia couldn’t help but notice that the ends of her friend’s hair were wet.

“I have been waiting here for you forever. How did it go with Windbury?”

Violet sank into the closest chair and took a long sip of tea.

“Violet?” Olivia said with a laugh when her friend had stalled for far too long. “You are making me mad! Tell me.”

“Well,” Violet said slowly, “he is—”

When she broke off, Olivia stepped closer. “A beast?”

Violet flinched. “No. Well, yes, but no.”

Olivia shook her head. “You are terrible at this. I want to know details.”

“He is scarred, of course,” Violet said. “But it is anything but unattractive on him.”

Olivia blinked as her mind brought her unbidden images of Malcolm’s face. She shook them away swiftly.

“And were you able to enact your plan?” Olivia pressed.

Violet nodded. “Yes. As soon as you distracted his friend…thank you, by the way.”

Olivia forced a wide smile, but she didn’t lie when she said, “It was entirely my pleasure.”

Violet’s brow furrowed. “How far did
you
go?”

Olivia hesitated. She was not about to admit the humiliating truth to her friend. That Malcolm had refused her was something she would keep to herself.

“Not as far as I would have liked,” she said carefully. “That man is very attractive.”

Violet laughed and Olivia sighed in relief. Her words and demeanor had worked and now there would be little prying from her friend.

“Well, once you distracted him I was able to enter the private bathing room and…” Violet trailed off with a smile that left no doubts as to what had happened.

“Your seduction is underway,” Olivia finished and was shocked at the spiraling attack of jealousy that mobbed her in that moment. She clenched her fists at her sides and ground out, “So what is your next step?”

Violet bit her lip. “I have captured his attention by giving him pleasure, then walking away.”

Olivia blinked. That certainly sounded familiar, though she had been on the receiving end today.

“He was taken aback,” Violet continued, oblivious to Olivia’s thoughts. “I know that from his demeanor. He will be thinking of me, I’m certain, but if I pursue him, his desire may fade. When we next meet, I must make him believe it is an accident.”

“Reel him in,” Olivia whispered. That was the way it normally worked, wasn’t it? Just not today.

“I suppose that is one way to say it.” Violet sighed. “But for now my next move will be to write to Lord and Lady Rothcastle and tell them I have encountered Lord Windbury. I’m sure they are awaiting my report.”

Olivia arched a brow. “And will you give them details of that ‘encounter’, as you so appropriately put it?”

Violet shook her head swiftly. “Of course not. They know what methods I shall employ to gain his trust, but I would never be so crass as to elaborate on them. There are some things better left unsaid.”

Olivia pressed her lips together. That was a most certainly true statement. She lived her life leaving things unsaid. She had found it was the only way to protect herself. And despite the confusion of the day’s events, she had to
keep
protecting herself. Even if she did meet again with the alluring Mr. Graham.

Chapter Three

There was no doubt that Liam had been utterly distracted by his encounter with Violet Milford. And Malcolm could not have been happier at the change. Instead of brooding over the past, his friend was caught up in the woman who had invaded his bath.

Mal couldn’t say he didn’t understand the obsession. Since his meeting with Olivia just two days ago, he had found himself thinking of the beautiful blonde almost constantly. And scolding himself for not taking what she’d offered, regardless of the reason behind it.

“Are you here?”

Mal jolted at the question and looked across the carriage toward Liam. His friend was staring at him, a mixture of amusement and annoyance on his face.

“Here?” Mal sputtered. “Of course I’m here.”

“Really? I’ve said your name three times since the carriage stopped and you haven’t moved a muscle.”

Mal blinked and looked toward the carriage window. They had indeed stopped. His cheeks filled with heat as he tried to play off his distraction.

“Woolgathering,” he muttered. “Estate business.”

Liam’s brow wrinkled. “Is that all?”

“What else could it be?” Mal asked as he unlatched the door and threw it open to step into the street.

Liam followed him, his gaze still fixed on Mal. “If you say so, my friend. I have that book to check on. Will you be at Mathers?”

“I will,” Mal said. “I’ll see you there shortly.”

The carriage pulled away as Liam headed up the stairs toward the bookstore they had parked in front of. As the vehicle pulled away and Mal was about to cross the street, he stopped. There, standing on the opposite side in front of a shop, was Olivia Cranfield.

She had her head bent, examining something in the window, so he had a moment to observe her without her knowledge. Over the past forty-eight hours, he had relived every brief moment they’d spent together, but now that he looked at her, he realized she was even more beautiful than the image of her he had created in his mind. Every move she made was graceful, every selection—from the way she wore her hair to the cut and color of her gown—accentuated all her finest physical qualities. Of which there were too many to count.

He found himself moving across the street toward her, not paying attention to the traffic on the lane, hardly noticing anything else but her. He just needed to get to her.

She still hadn’t noticed his presence as he sidled up to her softly. He could smell her honeysuckle hair, and it roused his cock to partial attention as he thought again of pinning her against the wall just two days before.

“Olivia,” he said softly, close to her.

She jumped and spun toward him, eyes wide and expression startled. Her look quickly turned to one of pleasure as she realized who it was that had crept into her personal space.

“Mr. Graham,” she said, raising a hand to cover her heart, which only served to draw his attention to the smooth curve of her breast.

“Mal,” he said, voice rough as he forced himself to stop looking at that breast, to stop picturing what it would look like naked or taste like between his lips.

She blinked. “Mal?”

“I insist you call me Mal,” he clarified, “since I intend to be improper and call you Olivia.”

A slight smile turned up her lips. “Very well,
Mal
. What in the world brings you here?”

“Into town?” he asked.

“In front of a hat shop,” she said, motioning to the window where dozens of fancy bonnets were on display for wandering female eyes on the street.

He laughed. “I do not think they are my type.”

“The blue one there is your color,” she teased as she tapped the glass with a fingernail.

He laughed before he gestured toward the bookstore across the street. “Windbury wished to come to town to check on a book he ordered.”

Olivia nodded slowly. “Ah, well, he will likely encounter Violet. She also wished to look at the books.”

“And yet
you
are here,” Mal said, drinking in her every move.

She looked at him, wickedness in her dark stare. “Indeed I am. And so are you. In fact,
you
approached me. Was that the order of your employer? Are
you
sent on the errand this time, Mal?”

“As your distraction?” he said with a smile.

She nodded.

“Do I distract you?” he purred, moving closer even though he couldn’t exactly mold himself to her, not on the busy street.

She swallowed hard at his ever-increasing proximity. “I would be lying if I said you did not. Is it by design?”

“I’m happy to hear I affect you as much as you do me,” he said. “But it is not something I was sent to do by anyone.”

A flutter of a smile turned up her lips before she spoke again. “Then if you were not sent to keep me busy, that means you are here for yourself. As am I.”

“This time it appears that is true,” he whispered, though he knew that wasn’t entirely true. He hadn’t been wholly for his own desires in so long he couldn’t recall it.

“What will we do, then?” she asked, her gaze locked with his, unblinking, unwavering. She did not simper or pretend or hide her desire. It was written on her face and in her intense gaze.

He shrugged. “My friend desires your friend,” he said. “If I know him, he will encounter her in the bookstore and I would wager he’ll invite her to supper tonight because he cannot get her out of his mind. Which means
I
will come to you tonight, here in town.”

Her eyes widened. “Will you now? Without my leave?”

He laughed, enjoying their sparring more than he had enjoyed anything as of late. “Do I not have your leave, Olivia?”

She hesitated and then nodded. “If you came to my home, I would not turn you away. Are you always so bold?”

He pondered the question and then answered her honestly, despite what she might think of it. “Not recently. But you apparently bring it out in me. I will be there tonight at eight.”

He longed to kiss her, but instead he merely took her hand, lifted it to his lips and then moved to leave.

“Wait, you don’t even know where we are staying,” she called after him.

He laughed as he turned back toward her. “Oh, my dear, of course I do. I found that bit of information out the very same day I met you. I will see you later.”

He left her gaping after him and felt her eyes on his back long after he had moved down the street, his step lighter and his mind filled with images of what he would do once he had her alone.

Olivia glanced at the clock on the mantel and sighed.

“Why are
you
pacing around so?” Violet asked as she paused to glance at herself in the mirror. She looked beautiful, of course.

Olivia shifted beneath the question. She hadn’t told Violet about Mal’s intentions to come to her tonight. She couldn’t place why she’d hesitated. Normally she confessed nearly everything to her friend, at least when it came to sex. But she didn’t want to tell Violet about him. Perhaps because then whatever was happening between her and Mal would become even more entangled in Violet’s seduction and deception of the Earl of Windbury. Olivia wanted her attraction to Mal, his flirtation and, she hoped, his dalliance with her to be hers and hers alone.

Even though she knew it wouldn’t be possible. The further Violet went with the earl, the more she’d want Olivia to be a diversion for Mal. But tonight wasn’t about that.

“Olivia?” Violet said as she faced her.

Olivia shook her head. “My, you are beautiful,” she said as a means to avoid the answer her friend sought. “The earl won’t be able to resist you.”

Violet frowned. “I fear I won’t be able to resist him either.”

“He is that attractive to you?” Olivia asked in surprise. Violet always seemed so in control, but now she nibbled her lip nervously and there was a blush to her cheeks.

“He is, somehow,” she admitted softly.

Olivia glanced out the window toward the drive. The earl’s carriage had been parked there for nearly ten minutes, waiting for Violet to be ferried to his estate somewhere outside of town.