ONE NIGHT WITH MORELLI

by Kim Lawrence

  Wanting to aggravate him, she deliberately misunderstood. ‘I like good grammar.’

  ‘Not that distinction, the one between having sex and being in a relationship. Is this to do with your mother and Latimer…?’ he pressed shrewdly.

  Feeling the pressure of his stare and reacting defensively, she stuck out her chin. ‘This isn’t about me, it’s about you; and anyway, I don’t think you’re anyone to lecture me about relationships. According to your daughter you change women the way most men change their socks.’

  Draco recognised classic deflection when he heard it; he used it himself on occasion. But unlike Eve he did so consciously. He might not be guilty of contriving the situation earlier as she’d accused, but he had felt no compunction about taking advantage of it. For the first time in months, his mother had left without dropping heavy hints about moving in to take care of Josie.

  ‘You didn’t have to pump my daughter for information, Eve. You could have just asked me if you’d wanted to know anything about me.’

  Eve rolled her eyes in response, while Draco made a discovery that utterly shocked him. He had meant what he’d said.

  He had become adept at recognising the warning signs when a woman wanted more than he was prepared to give, and even the suggestion that they were looking for weaknesses in his emotional barriers was usually a signal to walk away—but now he was inviting Eve in to walk around his head!

  ‘I didn’t pump!’ she exploded, her eyes flashing green fire at the charge. ‘You’re Josie’s favourite subject.’

  He arched an ebony brow. ‘Not yours?’

  ‘Oh, I find you fascinating,’ she trilled, taking pleasure from the flicker of something that might have been unease she saw move at the backs of his eyes.

  ‘So you have been discussing me with my daughter.’

  ‘You know how it is when girls are together…’

  He responded to this with a veiled look that made it impossible for her to read his reaction—was he worried…? She hoped so!

  ‘Don’t play games with me, Eve.’ For the first time his low voice held a thread of anger as he took a step towards her.

  ‘Am I meant to be scared?’ The adrenaline rush that sharpened all her senses to a painful degree made her respond in an uncharacteristically reckless fashion—though compared with the reckless steps she’d taken recently this one was fairly innocuous.

  He reached out and took her chin in his fingers, tilting her face up to him. ‘Some people are.’ Power, which for Draco was a by-product of his financial success, not an aim in itself, meant he was used to seeing the fear and envy that was often behind people’s smiles. They saw the public image and not the man and he had no problem with that; he had no wish to be understood or universally loved. ‘Not you,’ he said positively.

  There was no escape from his searching stare—the truth was Draco himself didn’t frighten her. It was the way he made her feel that was beginning to scare Eve witless…

  Still resisting the possibility she had more in common with her mother than she was prepared to or could admit, Eve shook her head and countered, ‘Should I be?’

  His hand fell from her face to her shoulder, where his thumb moved restlessly back and forth over her collarbone as he stared down into her face feeling a sudden surge of protectiveness.

  ‘Probably. I don’t want to hurt you.’ But that didn’t mean she wouldn’t be collateral damage in what passed for his love life. He felt a sudden knife thrust of anger at himself. She was not meant to be so vulnerable but she was—and he’d seen it right from the beginning.

  She watched him warily. His honesty had finally drained all the anger from her; maybe he deserved some in return.

  ‘I thought you had planned it all,’ she admitted in a small voice.

  Even though his hand fell away he remained so close that she imagined she could feel the warmth of his body.

  ‘After Josie told me about the custody battle and that your ex is using the emotional vacuum of what passes for your love life as leverage…’ Her eyes lifted. ‘No insult intended.’

  The tension in his jaw relaxed as he read the sincerity in her face.

  ‘I decided that when you came to my office this morning you knew exactly what was going to happen…I mean…’

  ‘That we’d end up having wild sex in my study and my family would walk in on us.’

  On the receiving end of his dark intense stare, she felt her temperature shoot up several degrees. ‘I’m trying to apologise.’

  His eyebrows rose incredulously.

  ‘I can now see that it was—’

  ‘Spontaneous?’

  She frowned fiercely at the interruption. ‘A series of coincidences.’ He saw a flicker of guilt move like a shadow across her face. A soft heart could be a major disadvantage in the business world, and it made him wonder how she had got so far.

  ‘Apology accepted. You had the details about Clare’s custody claim from Josie… Is Josie worried about it?’

  He’d thought his daughter could tell him anything…but for the first time Draco stopped to consider the suddenly shockingly real possibility that his daughter really was losing out not having a stepmother she could bond with. He didn’t like the thought of Josie opening up to someone who was almost a total stranger, needing to open up to another woman as she had done with Eve.

  His little girl was growing up and did the awful, boring Edward have a point? Was she lacking a female role model?

  ‘Josie has total faith in your ability to sort it.’ And just about anything else that might crop up. When the teenager spoke of her father, even when she was complaining, it was obvious that she adored him and had complete trust in his ability to keep her safe.

  The way her own mother had kept her safe… Had Eve always appreciated it?

  Draco nodded, feeling a surge of relief, his concern allayed slightly, yet the doubts that had been awoken remained there just below the surface.

  ‘Are you really not worried about the custody claim? I mean, don’t courts normally favour mothers?’

  ‘Potential custody claim.’

  The smooth correction drew a frown from Eve. ‘You don’t think she’ll go through with it?’

  Was he really as confident as he sounded? Or was this an example of his feelings for his ex-wife clouding his judgement?

  In his place, with a great kid like Josie to protect… But she wasn’t in his place, Eve reminded herself, and Josie wasn’t her child. Which meant she could be totally objective, unlike Draco, and probably any other male when it came to a woman like Clare.

  ‘Josie has never lived with her mother?’

  ‘No, never.’ He arched a brow. ‘Do you think that’s wrong?’

  A few minutes had been long enough for Eve to see that the beautiful woman was the last person in the world that should be given charge of any child, let alone one as special as Josie who, in her opinion, deserved a lot better.

  ‘I think that depends on the mother and the circumstances,’ she said tactfully.

  ‘Clare walked out when Josie was a baby.’

  ‘How could she have done that?’ In Eve’s mind a woman was hard-wired to care for her baby before anything else, and there were women who gave their lives for their babies.

  She supposed women like Clare were the flip side of the coin. Yet she still couldn’t see how any woman could walk out and abandon her baby and she never would.

  ‘Was there…someone else or was it post-natal depression, perhaps?’ she suggested tentatively.

  ‘No, she just got bored.’

  Watching her face, he sank down onto a sofa. ‘Take the weight off,’ he said, patting the arm in invitation.

  ‘I’ll pass.’

  He grinned and Eve almost responded, making up for the near slip w
ith a really fierce frown. She needed her anger to hide behind… Her eyes widened in alarm before she lowered her eyelashes protectively to mask her expression… Where did that thought come from?

  ‘Clare loses interest in things very quickly.’

  Shocked by the suggestion, Eve looked up. ‘Even in her own daughter?’

  He ran a hand down his jaw. ‘In anything.’ A fact that Edward had yet to learn.

  Eyes on her face, he didn’t miss another flicker of repugnance as he let his broad shoulders relax into the buttoned leather back of the chesterfield, giving a grunt as he stretched his long legs out and crossed one ankle over the other.

  His fitness regime was pretty brutal but the previous night followed by today’s session with Eve had left him with some muscles he hadn’t known he had aching. Eve in his bed beat a treadmill any day!

  ‘So you no longer think this afternoon was part of some dastardly plan of mine.’

  She shifted uncomfortably and shrugged. ‘Maybe not,’ she admitted.

  His brows lifted. ‘Maybe?’

  Maybe she deserved to squirm a little…? ‘All right, definitely not—’

  ‘This custody thing.’

  ‘That’s worrying you now, isn’t it?’

  The question in Eve’s mind was, why hadn’t it been worrying him all along?

  ‘Look, this isn’t Clare, it’s her fiancé who is driving this campaign for custody of Josie, and he has his own political agenda. What he doesn’t realise is that Clare is allowing him to manipulate her. Don’t let the ditsy blonde stuff fool you; Clare is smart and when she needs to be, she’s totally ruthless.’

  This chilling assessment made Eve shiver, all the more so because it came from Draco. He clearly still had feelings for the mother of his child—nothing else in Eve’s opinion made sense of the fact he seemed to tolerate and make excuses for Clare doing just about anything. The question was how deep were those feelings?

  ‘And you’re all right with that?’

  ‘She loves Josie.’

  But do you love Clare…? Eve just stopped herself voicing the question that loomed large in her head. What would be the point when she already knew the answer? No man could make so many allowances for a woman who had left him literally holding the baby unless he had real feelings for her. Maybe he couldn’t admit it, but it was obvious to her that the only reason that Draco had not been in a real relationship since his divorce was that he was still hooked on his beautiful, selfish ex-wife and the mother of his child.

  Eve was glad she was not competing with that!

  ‘No, I’m not in love with Clare.’

  Her eyes flew wide. ‘I w-wasn’t thinking that!’

  His brows lifted in a sceptical arc.

  ‘Look, I know you don’t want to know what I think.’

  Draco arched a sable brow. ‘But you’re going to tell me anyway…?’

  ‘Maybe you shouldn’t be too complacent about this custody issue; courts can be unpredictable.’

  He looked thoughtful. ‘You think I’m complacent?’

  She thought he was gorgeous. ‘There’s no harm taking precautions.’

  He nodded slowly.

  ‘Look, if you want them to carry on thinking that we are…together in the short term, obviously while we are still…’

  ‘Having sex?’

  ‘If we are still having sex?’

  ‘For Josie’s sake?’

  He was not making this easy. ‘For my sake,’ she admitted. ‘Then that’s fine. If, of course, you are up for it.’

  ‘Come here and I’ll show you how up for it I am.’

  It took very little persuasion to make her fall into his lap.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  EVE WAS APPLYING a final sweep of mascara when Hannah swept into the room. She spun her stool around to face her friend, who was already in full regal evening dress, the empire line not quite disguising her pregnancy bump.

  ‘How is Kamel?’

  ‘Oh, fine, according to him.’ Hannah’s eye roll could not disguise her concern for her husband’s health. ‘But in the real world he has a temperature of a hundred and two and looks like death warmed up in a gorgeous way… He’s impossible! Why can’t he do man flu like every other man instead of…? God, but I wish I could stay with him.’ Her friend took a deep breath, pasted on a bright smile and muttered, ‘But duty calls and the doctors swear that the antibiotics should have kicked in by the morning. He’s very lucky it’s not pneumonia…and if he’d left it any longer…’

  ‘He’ll be fine.’

  ‘Of course he will…you have no idea, Eve, how grateful I am that you’re here. This is the first time I’ve ever done one of these things on my own and Kamel is the charity patron, so it matters just having a friendly face in the room. I hope I’ll—’

  ‘You’ll do amazingly, and I know you’re grateful because you’ve told me about ten billion times, which was unnecessary, as was the makeover. Or maybe it wasn’t,’ she admitted, glancing down at the designer gown she had selected from the rail of similar garments her friend had wheeled into the room.

  ‘You look stunning, Evie.’

  Eve looked up, a faint flush on her cheeks. A few weeks ago she wouldn’t have believed Hannah, nor for that matter would she have had the confidence required to wear the dramatic full-length red dress that clung to her body like a second skin, hugging her breasts, emphasising her tiny waist and softly curved hips before flaring at the knee flamenco style.

  Being with Draco over the past weeks had done that, had given her that confidence in her own sexuality and sensual allure. That was the plus, that and great sex, and his earthy laugh… The downside… She pinned a smile on her face and promised herself she wouldn’t go there tonight.

  Who was she kidding? She carried it with her like another layer of skin. She had fallen in love with Draco and she had to hide it, disguise it, bury it. There was simply no other way of dealing with this situation.

  She had fallen, deeply, for a man who was everything she had spent her adult life avoiding, and they weren’t even in a real relationship. But the important thing was, it was on her terms.

  She squeezed her eyes closed as she experienced a moment of scalding self-disgust. At least Mum had been honest. On her terms, indeed…!

  In reality this meant she wasn’t available when Draco clicked his fingers, even if she was. Even if this meant she spent some really miserable nights when she could have been sharing his bed lying alone. She repeatedly told herself it was worth it, because it meant that she was in control.

  She recognised the self-delusion but she wasn’t brave enough to admit it.

  ‘And I can’t remember the last time I saw you with your hair loose. I hardly recognised you,’ continued Hannah.

  ‘I hardly recognise myself these days,’ Eve admitted quietly as the two women left the room.

  With cameras recording every inflection and under the glitter of chandeliers Hannah gave the speech on her husband’s behalf with charm and dignity. In fact, she was so good that for about ten seconds Eve even stopped wondering about Draco.

  What was he doing?

  Who was he talking to?

  What would he have thought of her in this dress?

  * * *

  Draco was putting in a token appearance towards the end of the evening because Kamel was a good friend and he had always despised men who forgot their friends the moment they became romantically involved—and he wasn’t. Eve and he had a civilised relationship; while it was different from his other liaisons in many ways, it was still not permanent.

  Josie having recently opted for the weekly boarding option at school was the only reason Eve slept over at his place, though not quite as often as he would have liked. Eve had a life he wasn’t part o
f; he had a life she wasn’t part of… He was just telling himself how well this situation worked for him when these worlds meshed.

  It was totally unexpected. He simply turned his head to see what the titled blond-haired guy he had been introduced to when he arrived was staring at, and it turned out to be a who. His Eve, looking totally at ease, smiling, charming, in a red dress that was slinky and sexy and… He felt his core temperature jump as his eyes followed the sinuous curves of her body. This was not an outfit she should be wearing outside the confines of their bedroom!

  Not even conscious that he had blanked an ambassador who had been approaching him with his hand outstretched, Draco strode across the room.

  ‘What the hell are you doing here?’ he thundered in Eve’s ear.

  It was Hannah, standing beside her friend, who blinked as her gaze moved from Eve to the tall figure who stood there glowering like some dark avenging angel.

  Eve’s shock gave way to indignation. ‘Is there any reason I shouldn’t be here?’ she retorted with deceptive calm.

  ‘You might have mentioned it to me.’

  Her feathery brows lifted. ‘You’re here; did you mention it to me?’ She lifted a hand to cover her mouth and said softly from behind it, ‘There’s a film crew here tonight, Draco. Do you really want to broadcast this to the world?’ Removing her hand and raising her voice, she added brightly, ‘You know Hannah, of course.’

  Draco tipped his head, his eyes not leaving Eve as he said, ‘Princess. I am sorry to hear Kamel is unwell.’ Then to Eve, he added, ‘I’m going home. Are you coming?’

  Hannah’s gasp was audible.

  Draco flashed a look her way then back to his lover. ‘You didn’t even tell your best friend we are together?’ He thought women shared everything…everything that mattered anyway. It felt like a betrayal. Was she ashamed of him or didn’t he even rate gossip?

  Eve narrowed her eyes. ‘No, I’m not coming.’

  He gave a magnificent shrug. ‘Fine. I’m leaving for New York on Friday.’

  ‘Have a good flight.’

  * * *