The Secrets of Seduction (The Ladies of The Burling School Book 7)

by Elizabeth Lennox

  In the late afternoon, Ella interviewed a woman named Cindy who told Ella about several consumer issues that had been dead-ended on this person’s desk. Ella felt her phone vibrate, indicating that she had a text message, but she ignored it while Cindy spoke.

  For a half hour, Ella took notes, but she couldn’t stop thinking about the text message, wanting to see if it was from Malcolm. Cindy was quite the talker though! Thankfully, Ella got a lot of great information. “Thank you so much for your time,” she said. “I know that you need to get back to work. But thanks for taking your lunch break to give me this information.”

  “Is the guy going to get fired?” Cindy asked, standing up and picking up her purse.

  Ella’s attention was raised with that question. “I don’t know what’s going to happen. I have a lot of others to talk to.” Ella stuck out her hand. “Cindy, thank you!” she said again.

  Ella watched Cindy walk away and scribbled down a few more questions. The main one, “Was the boss just unliked? Were these employees trying to get him fired?”

  She picked up her phone and glanced at the message, smiling as she read it. “Dinner tonight?” Malcolm asked. Nothing else, just that.

  “Just dinner?” she texted back.

  “Feel free to use me however you desire,” he replied at once.

  Ella laughed, feeling a bubble of happiness envelope her. “Not love,” she reminded herself as she texted back, “What time?”

  He replied back, “As soon as you are finished. Text me your schedule.”

  She told him that she could meet him at six o’clock that evening and smiled as she dumped her phone back into her messenger bag. “Not love,” she repeated like a mantra as she stood up.

  Over the next four weeks, Ella felt as if she were walking on clouds. She was enjoying the bribery investigation and it was looking as if the guy, named Bernard Lingus, was difficult to work with. Ella still didn’t have evidence that he was accepting bribes, but she was getting closer. He definitely lived outside of his salary. She’d also discovered that his family wasn’t wealthy. So the fact that he drove a Porche to work while living off of a salary of about sixty thousand euros didn’t make sense. His house was plain. Very non-descript. But he also owned a nice motorcycle.

  From a distance, Ella snapped pictures of him pulling out of his garage in the shiny, new Porsche. She also got pictures of the guy trying to drive his motorcycle, but he was clearly needed more practice.

  But every night, she returned to Malcolm. They always met at his place though. There was never a discussion about meeting at her place, since she didn’t have any of the creature comforts in her apartment that he did.

  Once a week, she met her father for dinner and he’d asked about her glowing happiness, but Ella wasn’t ready to tell her father about him. For some reason, telling her father about dating Malcolm would make it real. Or maybe, telling her father would make it more…intimate somehow.

  So when she went for dinner once a week, they discussed her investigations, his flowers, and his budding relationship with Ingrid, which seemed to be blooming. But nothing about her relationship with Malcom.

  She also felt the need to spend the night at her apartment after dinner with her father. The night before she did that for the second time was the advent of their first argument.

  “Explain to me why you can’t just come back here after dinner with your dad?” he asked, lifting his chin as he shaved that morning.

  Ella stepped out of the shower, grabbing one of the big, fluffy towels his housekeeper kept stacked right by the shower door. She wrapped it around her, feeling relaxed and wonderful after yet another night in Malcolm’s arms.

  “Because I don’t get to see him very often when I’m gone. So, when I’m in town, I make time to see him.”

  “I thought you spoke to him on the phone almost every day.”

  “I do,” she said as she left the bathroom, knowing that his eyes followed her. “But having dinner with him is different than talking to him on the phone. You know that.”

  Malcolm’s eyes were hard as he looked at her in the mirror. “I don’t talk to my dad. Ever. And I don’t go to his place either.”

  That news startled her. “I know that you have a strained relationship with your father,” she said as she pulled on underwear, jeans, and a tee-shirt. “But I didn’t know that you two didn’t see each other at all.”

  “Never.”

  “Not even for holidays?” she asked, surprised.

  “No,” he replied simply.

  She stared at him for a long moment, stunned by his response. “Wow. I guess…”

  “Why don’t you invite your father here for dinner?” he asked, grabbing a towel to dry off his smoothly shaven jaw.

  That stumped her. She still hadn’t told her father about their relationship.

  Malcolm wasn’t an idiot. At her stunned expression, his eyes narrowed and his lips thinned. “You haven’t told him about us, have you?” he demanded.

  Immediately, Ella saw his eyes darken, but this time, it was with anger and not desire. “I haven’t hidden anything from him,” she replied evasively.

  He tossed the towel onto the counter and walked over to the closet, leaning a shoulder against the frame. “You haven’t actually told him though, have you?”

  Ella hated feeling guilty. “I haven’t lied to him.”

  A dark eye lifted in response. “So, you don’t consider a lie of omission to be a lie?”

  Oh, good one! “Yes. It’s a lie, but…” she wavered, knowing that she was in the wrong here. Closing her eyes, she felt defeat tighten her throat. “You’re right.”

  He pushed away from the frame and walked into his dressing room. Ella brought clothes back and forth from her place to his each night.

  “When are you going to tell him?” he asked, his voice slightly muffled as he pulled on a dress shirt.

  This was normally one of her favorite parts of the day. Second only to the moment that she came back to be with him after work. She loved being with him, talking with him. She loved feeling his arms wrap around her as she sighed at the end of a long, hard day. That moment of happiness continued while he cooked dinner for the two of them, they discussed their days, and then he pulled her into his arms and made love to her. That moment lasted until she fell asleep, sated and blissfully happy in his arms.

  “Ella?” he prompted, and by the look in his eyes and his compressed lips, she knew that he was really upset.

  “I’ll tell him tonight,” she promised, hoping that would ease his frustration with her. She couldn’t even counter his anger with her own, because his anger was justified. She hadn’t told her father about their relationship. And Ella wasn’t exactly sure why. “I told my friends about us,” she offered as he started to leave the bedroom. He paused and turned, his eyes sharp and intense.

  “When?”

  Ella felt good that she could honestly answer, “After that first weekend.”

  “So, I’m good enough for your friends, but not good enough for your father.” He paused, his eyes moving over her features. “Interesting.” He turned away from her and headed downstairs. “I have a breakfast meeting. Let me know when I’ll see you again.”

  Ella stood in the decadent luxury of his huge bedroom for a long moment. Malcolm hadn’t mentioned a breakfast meeting before now. He always cooked breakfast for her, otherwise, she’d just skip it or have something on the run, something he didn’t deem healthy.

  She’d hurt his feelings, Ella realized. By not telling her father about their relationship, she’d hurt his feelings! That realization crushed her and she felt a painful stab in her chest. Ella’s hand reached up, her fingers rubbing in the general vicinity of her heart. She’d hurt Malcolm! The ache wasn’t going away.

  Closing her eyes, she took a deep breath. “I don’t have time for this!” she snapped. “I have another investigation to look into!” she muttered. Walking out of the house, she made her way towards the gar
age. Her car was parked just outside of the garage, even though he’d suggested that he could move one of his cars to make a place for her small hatchback. At the time, Ella had laughed, pointing out that each of his vehicles cost about ten times the amount of her own small, economy car and it would be silly to move an expensive vehicle out of the way to make room for hers. But now, staring at her small car with new eyes, she realized that he’d wanted to make room for her, not just her car. He was making space in his life for her and she’d rejected that offer.

  She’d rejected him.

  “Damn it!” she muttered and slammed her car door with more force than strictly necessary.

  Chapter 10

  Malcolm struggled to keep his cool that morning. But the realization that he was falling hard for Ella and yet, she hadn’t even mentioned that they were seeing each other to her father had really pissed him off. She refused to bring more clothes to his place, even though he’d pointed out that there was an entire empty closet that she could use, with drawers and shelves, places that she could put all of her clothes and underwear so that she wouldn’t have to drive out to her house every day to grab clean clothes. Hell, she didn’t really have that many clothes because she traveled for her job so often. Damn it, she wouldn’t even park her ridiculous car in his garage for safety. Hell, he’d give her one of his cars if she’d take it. He didn’t like her driving around in that cheap, beat up old car that must be at least ten years old. Yeah, it drove fine, but he’d still feel better if she’d drive his SUV. He rarely used it except when traveling long distances. It was a convenience, so why wouldn’t she use it while she was in town?

  For the past three weeks, he’d been trying to move their relationship from just an affair where they had sex, then went their separate ways, to something more. Something intimate and long lasting. Hell, he wanted her to move in with him. No, that wasn’t what he wanted. His hand slid into his pocket and felt for the ring. He’d bought it last week, but because she’d rejected every other way to make their relationship more permanent, he hadn’t proposed to her yet.

  And now he knew that she hadn’t even told her father about their relationship. “Great!” he snapped. “Perfect!” Dropping the diamond ring back into his pocket, he grabbed the reports for his next meeting and stalked out of his office, trying to banish Ella from his thoughts.

  “Sir!” his assistant called out.

  Malcolm considered ignoring Joan, but in the end, he knew that Joan only interrupted him when there was a problem. “What’s wrong?” he asked warily.

  Joan clutched the phone nervously. “It’s your father, sir,” he explained, holding the phone away from her ear. “The hospital just called. He had a heart attack.”

  “Malcolm?”

  Malcolm turned, to find Ella’s soft, concerned eyes.

  Two feelings hit him at the same time and he wasn’t sure what to do. He stood there for a long moment. It was Ella who broke the tense moment. He watched with amazement as she dumped her messenger bag onto the floor and rushed across the room to him, wrapping her arms around his waist and hugging him tightly. Automatically, his arms wrapped around her and he absorbed this moment, closing his eyes to savor her comfort.

  Not that he needed it, he thought. For a long time, Malcolm had hated his father for what he’d done to his mother. The old man had beaten her so often that she’d eventually died from kidney failure brought on by repeated trauma to her abdomen. The coroner had even wanted to declare her death a murder, but the old Duke had bribed the right people and avoided an investigation.

  But this…feeling Ella’s arms around his waist meant that she felt something for him other than just lust. She felt sadness at the idea of him being upset by his father’s latest cardiac incident. Malcolm accepted her comfort, loving her even more for it. He knew that she’d had a busy day, so her presence here meant…something. He wasn’t sure what, but he knew that it was significant that she’d canceled meetings to come here and talk with him.

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. Pulling back, Ella looked up at him. “I’ll drive you to the hospital so you can be with him.”

  Malcolm brushed her hair away from her eyes. Damn, he loved her hair. It felt like silk and he’d run his fingers through it after they’d made love every night until she fell asleep.

  “I’m not upset about this, Ella,” he told her, needing to be honest.

  She blinked. “But your father is in the hospital,” she repeated needlessly.

  He shrugged. “My father and I have been estranged for more than twelve years.”

  Ella mentally did the math in her head. “That was the year that your mother died, right?”

  “Exactly. He killed her,” he told her.

  For a brief moment, Ella looked as if she might argue with him. But as she stared up at him, Ella nodded her head. “I’m sorry,” and she leaned in, laying her head against his chest as she hugged him. Ella remembered her mother’s death and the vicious cancer that had taken her. She couldn’t imagine the pain of seeing someone she loved die because of someone else’s hand. “How did he kill her?” she asked, still startled by his revelation.

  “He beat her at least once a week,” he explained, his voice gruff and his arms tightened around her. “She died of kidney failure. It had been bruised too many times during his brutal beatings.”

  She gasped and looked up at him. “That’s murder!” she blurted out.

  “Exactly,” he replied blandly.

  Ella wasn’t sure what to say to that. His father had beaten his mother so much that…she’d died of her injuries? “How…why was he not charged?” she asked, confused.

  “Because he’s a bastard who invited the local police chief to dinner often enough, and donated enough money to his campaigns over the years, that it wasn’t even an option for the police to charge my father with a crime.”

  Ella’s reporter’s mind was swarming with questions. “Okay, so…do you want to go to the hospital?”

  Malcolm sighed, but she realized that he hadn’t released his arms from around her waist. “I suppose I should, just for legal issues. And to determine how sick he actually is.”

  Ella’s heart ached. She loved her father and would be devastated if he even got a scrape from a rose bush thorn. “I’ll go with you,” she told him and stepped out of his arms. Taking his hand, she looked up into his eyes. “We’ll do this together.”

  He squeezed her hand and she smiled, trying to be reassuring, but this was foreign territory for her. For a child to hate their parents so much was…entirely outside of her experience. There was that girl from school, Willow. Willow had been pretty, but…okay, so maybe Willow hadn’t been as bad as the other girls on that hallway. Willow’s father had shipped her off to boarding school because his newest wife had wanted some quality time alone with Willow’s dad. Willow’s father had been a bastard with a sexual addiction. It didn’t matter that he was also one of the top country music stars of the industry. He’d basically abandoned his daughter.

  “Come on, I’ll drive.”

  Malcolm pulled back, laughing. “No way. I wouldn’t fit in your tiny car. I’ll drive,” and he pulled his key out of his pocket. He turned to Joan. “Tell the hospital that I’m on my way.” He turned to Ella, tightening his hand on hers. “Come on.”

  Thirty minutes later, the director of the hospital greeted them personally. “My lord,” the man said, bowing as Malcolm stepped into the building. “Your father is currently stable, but I’m afraid that it doesn’t look good. We have the head of our cardiology department treating him. She is a brilliant surgeon and is examining the Duke now.”

  Malcolm heard the words, but wasn’t sure how he felt yet. His father was dying and…he felt nothing.

  No, that wasn’t true. Anger. He was angry because the man would die without being punished for his crimes.

  “Call the chief of police,” he snapped. “I want to speak with him immediately.”

  The director’s eyes widened
. “I can assure you, my lord, that there was no foul play here. Your father was walking outside and fell. His housekeeper and gardener witnessed the incident and hurried to his aid. They called the ambulance immediately, my lord.”

  Malcolm shook his head. “Different issue. Get him here now.”

  At that moment, a woman in scrubs stepped out of the hospital room. “My lord,” she said and sighed. “I’m sorry, but your father is in bad shape. He’s had several smaller heart attacks over the past three years, and ignored his doctor’s warnings about smoking and drinking. Apparently, his doctor recommended heart surgery two years ago in order to repair two of the valves in his heart and to place stints in the others to ease the pressure on the heart. But he refused.”

  “I understand,” Malcolm replied. “I’m sure that you’ve done everything you can to help my father. He’s very stubborn and opinionated.”

  The doctor seemed relieved as she nodded. “As I’ve explained to your father, there is still a chance that we could save him. But we would need to do emergency surgery now. Unfortunately, he has refused. He has also refused to sign the forms stating that he is refusing medical advice.” She paused. “I’m sorry, my lord, but there isn’t much we can do for him other than make him comfortable. He is very weak, and is not getting enough oxygen to his vital organs. This is causing him to be impatient and short of breath.”

  “In other words, his body is slowly shutting down.”

  The doctor’s lips pressed together. “I’m sorry, my lord, but yes, exactly.” She shifted on her feet. “You are his heir and, normally, a person in that role is legally allowed to make decisions on his behalf, but he has papers that deny you the right to make those decisions.”