Chapter Seven
Louis stared across the table at Marian and watched the candlelight shimmer on her pale skin. From the moment he’d first seen her this evening, he’d found his eyes returning again and again to the woman he’d never really examined before tonight. Certainly he’d noticed her beauty, but this evening she no longer hid behind her matronly image and widow’s weeds. Tonight an elegant gown wrapped around her figure, framing her full hips and trim waist in such a way that he wanted to skim his hands over her shapeliness.
She appeared graceful, almost regal, with her hair dressed high on the top of her head, a few curls soft and tempting around her face. The unexplainable urge to release her midnight tresses and tangle his hands in all that hair, or better yet entwine them together in her silken mass of curls tempted him. Since the first time he met her, she had worn only black dresses, her hair carefully coiffed in a more dowager style than the way she looked tonight. Still, just once, he’d like to see her with her hair down, loose and flowing around her.
Tonight, the widow’s black garb was gone. Dainty white lace curved around her delicate throat crossing over her breasts in a teasing display of cleavage that drew his gaze and every other man’s in the building.
He didn’t know much about women’s fashion, but Marian’s dress flaunted her figure to womanly perfection. And Louis had the job of keeping wayward George Morgan under constant surveillance this evening. Instead of a business dinner, he felt more like a duenna protecting an innocent charge. Though being married to Jean Cuvier certainly couldn’t leave Marian naive, she didn’t appear to be accustomed to the flirtatious games George engaged in.
An old fuss budget, married, yet known for stepping out with single ladies who lived on the fringes of society, George Morgan’s taste in women obviously included widows. And Marian’s defiant show of backbone had whetted the man’s sexually charged appetite.
George raised his champagne glass in a toast, dragging Louis’s attention from the pearly swells of Marian’s breasts. How do you protect a woman when she is in even greater danger from yourself?
“To Mrs. Cuvier, whose beauty and charm are both a delight and a temptation,” George said, his eyes ogling her bosom. Louis wanted to toss his champagne in the man’s face to cool him off.
Louis promised himself he’d feel that way if it were any woman. Mr. Morgan had a wife and, until death did them part, his eyes had no business straying to Marian’s décolletage or his hands to her slender waist.
Where could Mrs. Morgan be this evening?
“So, George, why didn’t your wife join us tonight?”
Louis asked, doubting that George had extended his wife an invitation.
The man directed his annoyed gaze at Louis, a frown on his weathered face. “She wasn’t feeling well and decided to stay home and rest.”
“Pity. I hoped she would join us tonight. Mrs. Cuvier would enjoy meeting the charming woman you’re married to,” Louis said trying to remind the man of his marital status, though vows probably meant little to him.
“Yes, sometime I’ll bring her.” He turned his body toward Marian, shutting Louis out “Tell me Mrs. Cuvier, why did you take over your husband’s position in his company?”
Louis shook his head, determined to protect Marian from this old geezer, who he could tell wanted more than just a business relationship with his partner. He watched as George leaned toward Marian and picked up her hand, giving the appearance of listening intently.
“After Jean died, Louis tried to convince me to sell, but my son is only ten and I wanted to save his father’s business for him. I felt I needed to be involved, to stay in touch with the business until my son is old enough to take over,” she explained.
“Don’t you trust Louis?” he asked.
Marian glanced at Louis and their gazes locked as he wondered what her response would be. How could she trust him? They had been adversaries almost since the moment they met. Their agreement to work together was yet new and fragile.
She smiled and discreetly pulled her hand away from George, picking up her champagne glass. “It’s not that I distrust Louis. By being involved, I know that my interests in the company are protected.”
She grinned at Louis as if to say, I had you worried for a moment, didn’t I? Her gray eyes were clear and luminous and twinkled at his obvious discomfiture.
He breathed a sigh of relief. She’d responded brilliantly without saying she distrusted him, but she hadn’t said she trusted him, either.
George laughed. “Very smart of you. Louis is a good manager, but looking after your own interests is indeed the best. You strike me as a very intelligent woman, Mrs. Cuvier.”
“Why thank you, Mr. Morgan.” She set her glass down, and he picked up her hand again.
Intelligent wasn’t a word most women wanted to be associated with, but Marian responded favorably.
He bowed over her hand and pressed his lips to her fingers, which he held in his large hand. “Mrs. Cuvier, you’re a bright woman and I’m honored you’re handling my account.”
Louis felt ill watching the older man fawn over Marian, though she didn’t appear to discourage his attention. She must realize that George’s attempt at charm would conclude with an attempt to seduce her! Hell, Louis had used the same tactics often enough himself. A lot of women enjoyed the flirtatious compliments and hand stroking. The next step would be to get her on the dance floor with him, then into a carriage with him, and from there wherever or whatever the woman was willing for.
“Would you care to dance?” George asked.
Louis cursed to himself. He intended to ask her to dance and while they were on the floor, he would enlighten her as to George’s maneuvers. After all, she’d been married to Jean for over twelve years and he doubted that during that time she’d even considered another man. She may be susceptible to someone like George, who would soon have her in a nice little lover’s cottage, meeting her twice a week because his wife didn’t understand him.
“I would love to,” Marian exclaimed.
George jumped up out of his chair faster than most twenty-year olds. He moved Marian’s chair back and Louis watched with dismay as George took her hand and led her to the dance floor. Louis stared at them waltzing around the floor, George’s lusty gaze focused on Marian’s cleavage. He held her closer than Louis liked and when his hand slid below her waist, Louis stood. One more inch and George would find himself dancing on his butt. Just then, Marian pulled back, forcing George’s hand back around her waist.
Louis eased back down in his chair still ready to jump to her rescue. This was the reason women were not in business. They tainted a man’s thought processes and created problems of jealousy and possessiveness that didn’t belong in the workplace. If Louis had met George for dinner alone, none of this would be taking place and he wouldn’t be ready to tell his largest account their last shipment with Cuvier Shipping just left the harbor. Marian was not a permissive woman for George to maneuver into his bed and Louis wasn’t going to sit back and watch him try.
At the end of the dance, the couple strolled back, laughing, to the table, where Louis sat scowling at the two of them.
“More champagne?” George asked Marian.
“Oh no, thank you, I can’t. One glass is more than enough,” Marian said breathlessly.
“How about you, Louis? You look like you could use some more refreshment,” he said.
Louis raised his brows and returned the man’s gaze. George had noticed his displeasure. “Thank you, I think I will. So George, tell me how your sugar mill is doing. I hear that most plantations are closing their mills and moving toward centralized mill operation.”
This was Louis’s dream: owning a mill where all the plantations in the area brought their sugar cane to refine and sell. He would buy their crop, mill it, and ship it down river.
“We’ve been considering it, but so far we’re still operating our own. It could be that I close it down in the next few years. It�
�s expensive to run, and letting someone else have that part of the business seems to work for a lot of plantations,” he said to Louis.
Instead of George focusing his attention on Marian, maybe now they could discuss their business interests. The waiters brought their food, placing the steaming platters before them.
“How are your children doing since their father passed away?” George asked turning his attention once again to Marian as he speared a bite of his steak.
Marian glanced down at her hands and then up at George, her eyes big and shining luminous gray in the glow from the lone candle on the table.
“Philip, my son, has had some problems, but he’s doing better. For the first time, he got into a fight at school.” She shook her head. “Mothers don’t quite know how to handle fighting.”
“He’s a boy, Marian.”
“Fighting never solves a disagreement, but he let his temper get the best of him. I hope that next time he’ll think before he jumps into a situation with his fists.”
“Never stopped my sons,” George acknowledged.
“I want my son to use his brains to solve his problems, rather than his fists.”
George laughed. “Spoken like a woman.”
Louis didn’t know how much longer he could sit here and listen to George’s honeyed phrases and watch the philanderer pursue Marian. He wasn’t jealous; he simply had too much pride to watch her be treated like a prize worth taking.
And she was a prize. Intelligent, beautiful, kind, and caring, Marian would be a man’s full partner in many ways. As her business partner, he could barely stomach the old man gawking at her bosom, trying to charm his way into her bed.
“How about your children, George? Are your sons still living at home?” Louis asked, once again hoping the subject of his family would help the man see reason, though George’s family had never slowed him down before.
“No, my boys are all grown and have moved away, except for the oldest one who is helping me with the plantation. I’ll have to bring him in to meet you, Marian.”
“I’d love to meet your son and your wife too,” she said, eating the last of her fried shrimp.
“How about dessert, and then we’ll take another spin on the dance floor,” George said, pouring more champagne into everyone’s glasses, not asking this time.
“Dessert? No, thank you,” Marian said and Louis felt a sense of relief.
George glanced at her. “Now don’t tell me you’re watching your figure. From what I can see, it looks just fine.”
Louis bristled at the man’s remark.
“George, how was your steak?” Marian asked, obviously trying to divert the old man’s attention.
“I get the hint, Mrs. Cuvier. But I have to tell you, I may be sixty years old, but I’m not dead. And I’d have to be dead not to notice what a fine looking woman you are,” he said as Louis ached to wipe the man’s smile away with his fist.
“Thank you, Mr. Morgan. You food will get cold if you don’t eat,” Marian said pointing to his almost untouched plate.
Louis breathed in and slowly released the cleansing air from his lungs, hoping it would clear the rage he felt while trying his best to let Marian handle this situation. One more crack like that and Louis feared he would be defending Marian’s honor with his fists.
“Would you care to dance, Marian?” Louis asked needing to speak with her alone.
“Yes, I’d love to,” she said, throwing down her napkin.
He pushed back his chair and offered her his hand. She rose slowly from her chair and took his proffered arm. They walked to the dance floor and began to waltz.
“You know he’s trying to seduce you, don’t you?” Louis questioned, not wasting any time or holding back any punches. He had one waltz to convince Marian to conclude her first business dinner.
“Louis, don’t be ridiculous. He’s being friendly, maybe a little too friendly, but actually I blame that on the champagne.” She shook her head. “I may have had a wee drop too much champagne myself.”
“Don’t Marian,” Louis said, stronger than he intended. “George has turned his charm on you and he will probably offer to take you home and then in the carriage he will make his move to get you into his bed.”
Marian stared at him with surprise, and then began to laugh. “Don’t be ridiculous.”
“I’m not,” he said his voice rising.
She gazed at him a moment, her face showing surprise. “I think you’re jealous, Louis.”
“Now who’s being ridiculous?” he said, with a chuckle that felt forced. He wasn’t jealous, was he?
“George Morgan is our customer. I’m being nice to him because he’s our client. I’m having a great time tonight and for the first time in a long time, I feel well ... pretty.”
“Damn, Marian. What do you mean, you feel pretty? You’re gorgeous. You’re beautiful. You deserve someone a lot better than George Morgan.”
“I’m not looking for a man.” She smiled at him. “You are full of surprises tonight. I bought this dress especially for this dinner and I think you didn’t even notice.”
“Oh, I think every man in here noticed,” he replied. She giggled, closed her eyes, and moved with the music.
“I don’t want George Morgan, but I’m having such a lovely time tonight. There’s really no need for you to worry about George seducing me. Remember I’m the woman whose husband married two other women, just so he wouldn’t have to ...”
The music ended and she opened her eyes. “Oh my, no more champagne for me.”
What had she meant to say? Why did she think Jean had married other women? Just when things were getting interesting, the music ended and she realized what she’d been about to reveal. He watched her orienting herself on the dance floor, the spell obviously broken.
“Come on, let’s finish our dinner and then I’ll take you home,” he said reluctant to let her go, enjoying her in his arms.
She stepped out of his embrace and glanced at him as they walked off the dance floor. “Why are you so worried about me?”
“I’m not. I just don’t want George to—”
She smiled, reached up and patted the side of his cheek, her humor restored. Her hand felt warm and silky against his skin and the sudden contact had him taking a sharp breath to hide his reaction.
Suddenly he didn’t want to return to the table.
“Don’t worry, Louis. Nothing will happen. You’re taking me home,” she said her gaze sparkling with amusement.
He shook his head realizing he’d been unable to convince her, while trying to break the spell she’d cast upon him. “This is why women are not involved with business. If this had been just a dinner for two men, it would be over by now. I wouldn’t be worrying about how to protect you.”
“Oh, that’s so sweet Louis. I never would have thought you would want to protect me.” She laid her hand on his arm. “Don’t worry. As for your nasty comment about women in business, I’m going to let it slide tonight because I don’t want to spoil my good time. But I’m warning you, don’t say it again during working hours. Now try to enjoy the rest of the evening without worrying about Mr. Morgan.”
Louis stared at her, stunned. Didn’t she understand?
They arrived back at the table and Louis pulled out Marian’s chair, but before she could sit down, George took her by the hand.
“Come on, let’s dance,” he said, and whirled her out on the floor.
Marian laughed at the older man’s antics and Louis realized she seemed more carefree than he’d ever seen her. In the last two months he had watched her go from being completely shocked at the death of her husband to fighting mad trying to protect her place in the business. Tonight for the first time he had seen her actually enjoy herself and have fun. Tonight for the first time he’d seen her in clothes other than that dowdy black and she looked more beautiful than he thought possible.
Tonight he’d found her irresistible and though he knew any attraction between them w
as doomed, he realized he wanted her for himself, at least for one night.
Wronged (Book 1) Page 21