An Earl by Any Other Name

by Lauren Smith

  Even if he didn’t agree with her, she knew she had best fix this before she ruined the upcoming house party by being at odds with her host.

  “It was not you, my lord, but me. I was simply mortified that I lost my temper in front of you. I tend to laugh at my mistakes. It is better than the alternative.”

  He sidled closer and her breath hitched. As a young girl, she’d loved it when he’d been close to her but now…it was different. Everything about him being close to her made her feel alive. Her skin tingled with a heightened awareness.

  I shouldn’t feel this way, not for him. I’ve changed, and so has he. We aren’t children anymore and we’re certainly not suited for anything more. No matter what she told herself, it didn’t change how she felt or how she wanted to know how good it would feel to lose herself in a kiss.

  “What is the alternative?” he prompted curiously.

  Ivy shrugged, still trying to ignore her body’s heated reaction to his closeness. “What makes one laugh can also make one cry.”

  Leo was suddenly grinning again. “You need never cry on my account. Now let us not quarrel. I suspect that Mother played us so that we would argue on purpose. She’s been most vexing since her mourning period ended a few weeks ago. Creating scandal and trouble seems to have become her new favorite activity.”

  “I’m sorry. I heard about your father last year. Does she miss him very much?”

  Ivy knew the truth, that the dowager had loved her husband but hated loving a man who had forsaken her for another woman, but she had to feign ignorance of all this. She was not to know Leo’s family’s darker secrets if her identity was to remain a mystery during the house party.

  Leo joined her by the ivy-covered tree, leaning one elbow against the bark and studying her. She had to resist the urge to move back. There was something frightening, yet exciting, about the way he was cornering her, like a lynx she’d seen during a hunting expedition with her father. Leo and the lynx had the same cunning gleam in their eyes. As a boy, he’d been charming, but as a man, he was so much more tempting. The strong lines of his jaw, the brightness of his eyes, the strong yet elegant hands that she couldn’t help but picture on her body…Ivy jerked herself away from the dangerous trail those thoughts could lead her down. You cannot let a man tempt you, not even this one.

  “Actually, Mother’s never been happier, and she’s determined to live scandalously. I’m merely doing my best to keep her more wild desires in check.” His gaze dropped to her lips for a moment before he met her eyes again.

  Wild desires? Why did the way he say that make her body tremble? She had to keep the conversation going. She couldn’t let him know the effect he was having on her. The last thing she needed was for Leo to up his charm and make her forget her promise to herself to avoid falling in love with him. It would be a disaster for them both and it would crush her dreams of making a difference in the world for women everywhere.

  “Do you miss your father?” she asked, her voice breathless as he leaned in close, his face a mask of intensity. She felt cornered, yet not afraid, only…uneasy.

  “It is hard to miss a man I barely knew and rarely liked. He was not a kind man.” While he delivered this brusquely, there was a hint of hurt beneath it. Ivy couldn’t help but wonder if it was because Leo’s father had been cruel or because of the scandal he’d left behind was causing a stir in London.

  Her memories of her childhood at Hampton House had been shadowed with the old earl’s darkness of spirit. He’d threatened to turn her mother out when word of her pregnancy reached him. Leo’s mother had flat out refused to send her lady’s maid away, regardless of the scandal of the situation. When the two had fought over it, there had been shouting and the smashing of glass. After that, Ivy’s mother had been allowed to stay, and Ivy had grown up hiding from the old earl. Out of sight and out of mind.

  “Is your mother joining us this weekend?” Leo asked.

  The responding wince she made drew his complete focus. She had to keep up pretenses since it was quite clear he didn’t remember her as little Button tagging along on his boyhood adventures.

  “My mother passed when I was a child. My father has not married since.” There, that was vague enough, considering her parents had never married.

  Leo straightened at once, stepping back, all predatory actions halted. “I’m so sorry. I just assumed…I am sorry,” he apologized, his face reddened slightly.

  “It’s fine,” she assured him.

  “Would you care to—” he began, but a footman appeared a few feet away and coughed politely.

  “Yes?” Leo growled through gritted teeth, forcing himself away from her.

  “Mr. Leighton has arrived and is asking after his daughter and his…motorcar.” The footman waited patiently, eyes fixed pointedly at the ground, his face stoic.

  “Thank you, Will. We shall come inside directly,” Leo announced, and just like that their temporary chaperone was gone.

  Leo leaned in and cupped her cheek, his thumb tracing her lips as he studied her. Ivy’s heartbeat skittered madly. I should pull away, but, Lord, his touch makes me feel on fire in the most wonderful way…

  “He’s going to be angry with me. That Hudson was new.” She tried not to think about how much the Hudson had cost. If they couldn’t repair the damage…It was so easy to forget how much money her father had. She knew logically she need not worry, but still, worry she did.

  “Do not fret, Miss Leighton. My mechanic will have it repaired.” Leo’s voice was gentle, soothing. “Motorcars break down. The bloody things are unpredictable. If your father is upset, it won’t be because of anything you’ve done.”

  “Yes, but—”

  Without so much as another word, he bent his head. When their mouths were an inch apart, he captured her gaze, and something wild and hot passed between them as he slanted his mouth over hers. All worries and fears were destroyed in the wake of pleasure and fire.

  Heat and light burned through at that single kiss, like tender sparks shooting through the night over a healthy fire. A little moan escaped her as he teased her mouth open with his tongue. One of his hands grasped her hip, holding her firm between him and the tree as he pressed against her. The heady aroma of autumn leaves, leather, and sandalwood sent her senses spinning.

  With gentle kisses and a wicked tongue, he taught her all the ways she’d longed to kiss. It was the sort of kiss the upstairs maids whispered about, the kind that made a woman lose her head…and her heart.

  This is a terrible idea. I should stop him…but…The will to break the kiss faded like morning mist. Once upon a time, there had been nothing more she had wanted in her life, a kiss from her sunny-haired prince. But she’d changed; she’d grown up and a man’s kiss shouldn’t have been so potent that it cast a spell over her. Yet, Leo’s kiss was exactly that, a spell that bound her to him in a way she feared would break her heart.

  He nipped her lips, and she felt his mouth curve into a smile against hers before he finally drew back. His eyes were dark with passion, and his breathing was rough and warm against her face. Their bodies were so close, the intimacy making her feel like there was nothing outside of them in that moment.

  “Why do I have the feeling you are going to be trouble, Miss Leighton?” Leo chuckled, suddenly drawing a fingertip down her nose and tapping it lightly, the way he had so often all those years ago.

  “Trouble?” she echoed faintly. Still shaken by her first kiss and the shivery warmth spreading through her limbs, she dared not move for fear of falling. Love was dangerous; love ruined a woman’s dreams. And Leo was the one man who could tempt her into falling in love.

  “Oh yes. Just when I have everything planned, you come along and remind me of why I used to be so wicked.” He bent, feathered one last kiss to her lips before he took her arm in his and escorted her back to the house.

  Ivy did not look at him. She felt changed. Their secret moment had awakened her and melted whatever defenses she’d thought sh
e’d built against his charm. How was she ever going to think clearly when all she wanted to do was relive that kiss? The carefully crafted battlements around her heart quivered, trembled, the walls crumbling.

  Oh dear…

  Chapter 6

  The house was a flurry of chaos. Servants rushed back and forth: luggage in footmen’s arms and ladies’ hats and coats carried by the upstairs maids. The high ceilings of the entryway reverberated with the voices of the guests. Leo stepped out of the way, allowing Miss Leighton to rush over to a tall, striking man with a dark mustache and olive skin. Her father, he assumed, given the similarities of their features. Certainly foreign. It was no wonder she was such an exotic beauty.

  “Hampton!” A loud voice cut across the merry din, and Leo was smacked soundly on the shoulder by Owen Hadley.

  “Hadley, I’ve never been happier to see you.” The familiar face of his friend eased the tension in Leo’s shoulders. He would have one ally in the midst of this social fray.

  Owen laughed. “Good of your mother to invite me. I think she knew you would have need of me.” He nodded toward the mixed group of men and women in the hall. Leo recognized the faces, but they were all more of his mother’s friends than his. Aside from Owen, Ivy was perhaps the only person he was interested in. Had his mother done this on purpose? He’d insisted she invite Mildred and her parents for the party after he guessed her intentions, but how was he to treat both Mildred and Ivy equally during the party? His body wanted Ivy, but the rational part of his mind reminded him he needed to focus on his future bride. It was a bad predicament. One he was quite sure his mother had contrived deliberately.

  Owen’s eyes twinkled. “What are you thinking about? You have that look in your eyes.” He leaned a shoulder against the wall, watching Leo with a piqued interest.

  “My mother is scheming. I am merely trying to outmaneuver her.”

  His friend laughed. “Scheming? Christ, aren’t you too old for that to be a threat? What’s the worst she could do?”

  Leo sighed and nodded discreetly in Ivy’s direction. “That is her latest plan. Mother does not count herself among Miss Pepperwirth’s admirers and is determined to upset my plan to propose by distracting me with a lovely young woman instead.”

  Owen’s face twisted in an unpleasant grimace. “Lord Pepperwirth’s daughter? Good God, man, do you hate yourself? Why tie the knot with such a…” He paused, caught himself, and amended more politely, “She’s a lovely lady, I’m sure.”

  “I know full well Miss Pepperwirth is not ideal. Her temperament is severe, but her father’s influence in the House of Lords would be beneficial, and her dowry would keep Hampton well set for the next several generations. I need to consider that above my own desires.” He slid his hand into his pocket, rubbing his fingers over the smooth silver of his pocket watch. The little tick of its metal heart beat against the palm of his hand. Time was eternally moving forward, another second lost, another minute wasted. Leo’s gaze drifted back to Ivy and the tempting curve of her smile as she hugged her father. Such a warm, affectionate creature. Would she be the same with a lover?

  “I never envisioned you as the martyr sort,” Owen observed.

  It was a statement Leo would have agreed with before his father had died. But in the last year, he had been forced to change as he’d taken the reins of the estate after his father’s disgraceful passing.

  “You’re fortunate you don’t have to worry about such things,” Leo said.

  A footman rushed past them and Owen lowered his voice. “Of course I worry about this, more so than you.” His friend’s face was suddenly plagued with shadows and his eyes were haunted. “My own estate in the Cotswolds is in utter shambles. Ever since I returned from the war, I’ve been fighting to get it back on sound footing. I understand how you feel, Leo, I do, but I know you. Marriage to a sharp-tongued harpy won’t make you happy. It’s liable to drive you mad. I wouldn’t risk it, ol’ boy.”

  Leo stared at Owen, shocked. How had he missed that his friend was in such poor circumstances? God, he was a bloody bastard for not knowing his friend was in a worse state than he was.

  “Hadley, I’m sorry. I didn’t know…”

  Owen shrugged but the movement lacked the carefree manner his friend used to have. “It isn’t your fault. The debts of our fathers’ estates are a burden to us all.” He glanced away for a long moment as though trying to hide his worries. Then he turned back to Leo with a forced grin. “So who is the lovely lady caught up in your mother’s schemes? Perhaps I’d like to get tangled in that web myself.”

  It was then that Leo noticed Owen’s eyes were fixed on Ivy and the look was a little too appreciative. Owen loosened the collar of his shirt as his gaze ran the length of Ivy’s body.

  A sudden desire to punch his oldest friend nearly overtook Leo. His fingers curled into a fist and it took every ounce of his willpower to not haul back and strike the other man.

  “Will you introduce me?” Owen asked, flashing Leo a wicked grin as though he could read Leo’s murderous thoughts. They were of the same height and muscular build. A battle of fisticuffs would be painful, and both of them knew it.

  Through gritted teeth, Leo nodded. “An introduction, but nothing more. Try to behave yourself with my guest. She’s…” He’d been about to say innocent, not that he could explain why.

  She was a stranger. He’d never seen her before until he’d pulled up next to her motorcar and found her glorious legs waving in the air, but he knew she was innocent to the ways of men. The memory of the kiss he’d stolen, the way he’d coaxed her into responding, taught her mouth how to move with his. Such a foolish thing, for him to kiss a woman he had no plan to marry, but he couldn’t resist. Not after the way she’d gazed at him as though he could give her the moon and the stars, and he’d had the strangest urge to tap the tip of her adorable nose…it was rather like a half-remembered dream, as though he’d done it a thousand times, yet it felt new.

  There was no doubt in his mind that Ivy was crafted by the gods to tempt him. With those almond-shaped eyes fringed by long, sooty lashes and intoxicatingly lush lips…the way she’d dressed him down over the voting issue. He’d loved the verbal sparring. She lacked the acidity Mildred possessed, whose comments always seemed rooted in scorn for everything. He shuddered. Owen was right. Marrying Mildred would be a foolish endeavor on its own, but couple it with doubling Hampton’s estate…a man could overlook an ill-tempered shrew of a wife, couldn’t he?

  Owen nudged his elbow. “Don’t leave a man out to dry, Hampton. I want to meet this lady.”

  Leo shot his friend a cool look as they walked through the throng of guests, murmuring greetings until they reached Ivy and her father.

  “Welcome to Hampton, Mr. Leighton. May I present my good friend Mr. Owen Hadley to you and your daughter? Mr. Hadley, this is Mr. Leighton and his daughter Miss Ivy Leighton.”

  “Good to meet you, my lord. I’ve heard much about you from Lady Hampton.” Mr. Leighton offered a hand, the intimate gesture catching Leo off guard, but he shook it regardless and then Leighton was doing the same to Owen. Owen then turned the full weight of his charm on Ivy, whose blush made her slightly olive skin turn a beautiful dusky rose.

  Leo had to force himself to focus on Mr. Leighton and not on his personal desire to throttle his friend, who was pressing kisses to Ivy’s gloved knuckles.

  He directed his gaze to his guest. “I understand you own the London News Weekly?”

  A knowing smile flitted across Leighton’s face and he rubbed his chin.

  “I take it you are not a frequent reader of the Weekly? It’s not traditional like the Post, I know, but I believe people should enjoy what they read and be entertained. Not everything in life must be dull and boring. Some reading ought to be for pleasure.”

  Leo laughed, genuinely surprised. Leighton seemed to be more agreeable than he had expected. The man knew of his paper’s reputation and wasn’t the least bit offended that Leo wasn�
��t an avid reader. It spoke well of Leighton that he could view his enterprise with an unbiased eye.

  “Ivy says you rescued her when the Hudson gave out on the road? I thank you for the services you provided my daughter.” Leighton’s eyes twinkled with a fatherly merriment as though he’d had to face trouble his daughter had gotten into before.

  Leo had to bite his tongue at the sudden image of offering other types of services to Ivy, primarily those best conducted in bed. He’d love to service her all night…Damn! How had the young woman gotten beneath his skin so quickly? He hadn’t been this affected by a woman since he’d been a lad.

  “I was happy to help. Apparently, there was a problem with the petrol. My mechanic should have the motorcar ready for you tomorrow should you have need of it.”

  “Thank you.” Leighton turned to his daughter and placed her hand on his arm. “Ivy, it’s nearly time for supper. We should go change.”

  Leighton’s smile was more a baring of teeth and directed at Owen, who was gazing like a moonstruck calf at Ivy. But Leo knew his friend. Owen was more dangerous than he appeared. He was not a young beau swooning over his lady. He and Leo could both have predatory tendencies where beautiful ladies were involved. One smile from a willing woman and either of them would seduce her right out of her gown. But not Ivy—Owen could not have her. Leo wouldn’t allow it, especially not under his roof. It was a good thing Leighton was protective of his child.

  Leo and Owen watched the newspaperman and his bewitching daughter ascend the stairs. When they were out of sight, Owen chuckled. The sound was grating on Leo’s nerves.

  “I think I’m going to enjoy this party.” His friend smirked. “You can have fun with Mildred. I plan to enjoy Miss Leighton.” He walked off, leaving Leo gaping and furious. Owen would bed the girl before the party’s end and move on to the next woman who caught his eye and leave poor Ivy ruined. She deserved better than that. She deserved a man who would respect her. Of course, she deserved wildness in bed, but out of it, complete respect. She wasn’t like other women of his acquaintance. He wouldn’t have cared overmuch if his friend had been out to seduce them. Ivy…was different.