To her relief she saw Grant almost at once. He was immaculately dressed in a dark frock coat and narrow pin-striped trousers. His chiselled features, his glossy dark hair and his wide shoulders were emblazoned on her brain. He was standing by the main desk, talking to the concierge.
As if sensing her gaze, he turned and looked at her directly—and she saw his face, ruthless and dominating, that rebellious lock of hair dipping over his forehead. Their eyes locked—and those hard silver-grey eyes struck her to her heart—eyes that had not so long ago melted her. She clutched at her memories as recognition flashed between them at the speed of light. Without taking his eyes off her, he strode across the distance that separated them.
Grant stared at her. ‘My God!’ The words came out unbidden. ‘My God, Adeline…’ Was this really her? Plain, rather serious Adeline? This tall, stylish goddess of a creature, as rakishly elegant as a fashion picture, with her gleaming dark red hair swept back and up in a perfect chignon beneath an adorable little hat. The arched wings of her eyebrows and the thick rows of dark lashes emphasised her brilliant green almond-shaped eyes. This was a different Adeline Osborne from the one he had known before. He hardly recognised her. She looked stunning.
Then he recollected himself. The mere thought of Adeline Osborne, the reminder of his stupid gullibility where she was concerned, made him want to drown himself in liquor—which was ironic, really, when he remembered it was liquor that had brought them together in the first place. When she had left Oaklands he had told himself that it was over and done with. But it was not as simple as that. She might have disappeared from his sight after flinging his proposal of marriage into his face, but he had been unable to banish her from his heart and mind, and he resented her for having the power and the ability to do that. And seeing her now, looking as she did, was crucifying him, since he had told himself—and believed—that she was nothing to him.
His expression changed, and Adeline actually flinched at the coldness that entered his narrowed eyes—like slits of frosted glass. Her indulgent fantasy that he would be pleased to see her died an immediate death and withered into nothing. It was incredible to her that those firm lips had kissed her, that those hands had caressed and fondled her naked flesh and given her such delight.
‘Hello, Grant. How are you?’ she said, amazed that her voice sounded calm when she was trembling inside. His grim expression as he met her gaze boded ill.
‘I was doing nicely until a moment ago,’ he replied curtly. One brow lifted in arrogant enquiry. ‘What the hell are you doing here?’
Adeline’s heart sank at his uncompromising antagonism. ‘I have not come here to aggravate you, if that’s what you think. I know you do not want to be involved with anything that has to do with me—’
‘Right. At least we agree on that.’ His face tightened, but his voice was ominously soft. ‘How did you know where to find me?’
‘Lettie told me you were staying here. I had to come—though I nearly didn’t.’ Somewhere in her whirling thoughts Adeline registered that Grant was treating this meeting with a cold nonchalance that was not at all appropriate. ‘Do you think we could go somewhere more private?’
‘I was on my way out,’ he pointed out evasively.
‘This really can’t wait. I would like to speak to you on a rather serious matter. A few minutes of your time is all I need.’
With an impatient sigh and a brief look at his watch, he said, ‘Then since you’re determined to enact a Cheltenham tragedy I suppose I’d better listen to what you have to say.’
Momentary shock gave way to a sudden, almost uncontrollable burst of wrath. ‘If you think for one minute I wanted to come here and see you again, then nothing could be further from the truth,’ Adeline retorted frostily. ‘I find your company both offensive and repugnant, and I cannot wait to be out of here. You seem to enjoy humiliating me, and you will continue trying to humiliate me as long as we stand here. Are you going to listen to what I have to say or not?’
Grant’s jaw tightened, and a muscle began to twitch dangerously in the side of his neck, but he nodded. ‘My room. It’s on the third floor, so we’ll take the lift.’
‘Thank you. It won’t take long.’
‘Fine,’ he snapped.
Neither of them spoke until they entered Grant’s richly ornamented, opulent suite of rooms. Through an open door Adeline could see a huge, comfortable bed which she did her best not to look at.
‘Would you like to sit down?’ he asked, casually gesturing towards a velvet chair by the window.
‘No, thank you. I’ll come straight to the point. What I have to say is that I am deeply concerned about Lettie—and so is Marjorie.’
‘You are?’ Grant repeated with insolent amusement, perching his hip on the edge of a table and crossing his arms over his chest. The startling silver-grey eyes rested on her ironically. ‘I can’t think why. Lettie is old enough, and quite capable of standing on her own feet. She has done very much as she pleases for a long time. Mother has accepted the work she does that keeps her away from home and so have I.’
‘It has nothing to do with her work. I wish it had. But it’s more serious than that. She—she’s seeing someone…’
Grant shook his head in baffled disbelief. ‘Lettie—seeing someone? What’s so very wrong with that? I’m happy to know my sister has the same urges and emotions as every one else. She’s been so wrapped up in that damned Women’s Movement I was beginning to doubt it.’
Adeline stared at him and began to wonder what had induced her to seek out this cold and uncaring man. Spinning on her heel, she turned to the door. ‘Even for a man who believes he has justification for being hostile towards me, that was a nasty remark to make about Lettie. I can see this was a mistake,’ she uttered acidly. ‘If you cannot bring yourself to listen to why I am so concerned about your sister, then I’ll go. I’m sorry to have taken up so much of your time and inconvenienced myself. Please excuse me.’
In six long strides Grant was at the door as she opened it, shoving it closed with a force that sent it crashing into its frame.
‘Since you are here, and I’m already late for my appointment, you’d better say what you have to say.’
Adeline spun round and faced him. His black brows were up and his eyes gleamed. Anger leaped in her breast so sharply that it stabbed at her heart like a knife-thrust. ‘You really are the most appallingly rude man I have ever met. Do you really think I would be here if it weren’t important? I am extremely concerned about Lettie—and so will you be if you would have the courtesy to listen.’
Shoving his hands into his trouser pockets, he nodded. Deep inside him he knew it must be a matter of some considerable importance to have brought Adeline to see him, feeling as she did about him. Despite everything he knew her to be, when he looked at her he saw spirit and youthful courage—and also fear in her eyes. Fear for Lettie?
Going to the window, he stood looking out, his shoulders tense. ‘Tell me.’
Steeling herself against his reaction, drawing a deep breath, Adeline quickly gave Grant the facts. White and stony-faced, he listened to her, appalled by her disclosure. Scarcely able to grasp the reality of it, he turned and stood looking at her, his composure held tightly to him, his drawn face as blank as still water. Adeline had seen him angry, and she had seen him irritable, but now he was white with a quiet, controlled fury.
‘You are telling me that my sister is involved with a nightclub owner?’ He began pacing the floor in restless fury.
‘Yes.’
Fire sprang to his eyes. ‘Dear God in heaven! Is that what she’s doing when she’s not putting the world to rights? Has she taken leave of her senses? What’s he like—this Jack Cunningham?’
‘Quite the gentleman—but no more than that. I did not like him at all. There’s an air of danger about him. He’s a taker, a man of terrible force. Lettie will be like putty in his hands.’
‘How did you meet him?’
‘I was
curious about him. I asked Lettie to introduce us.’
Grant’s eyes flashed unexpectedly. ‘A brave action, and not to be commended. I know about men like Jack Cunningham. You are right to think he’s dangerous. Is Lettie determined to carry on seeing him?’
‘Yes. She is strongly attracted to him. She resented me warning her against him, and she is annoyed at what she considers to be my interference.’
Grant considered this for a moment. ‘Annoyed, is she?’ he muttered slowly. ‘It seems a poor return for all your kindness and consideration.’
‘I suspect she sees more of him secretly than she admits to. She is answerable only to herself.’
‘She might think she is—for now. Lettie has always been a bit wild, and appears perfectly independent and careless of her own welfare. Mother and I have let her be too free. We shouldn’t have allowed it all this time.’
‘Lettie is the victim of a casual affair, and I fear that any day she will be cast aside and hurt by it—deeply so. You have to speak to her. For without your intervention she is doomed.’
‘I intend to.’ Becoming thoughtful, all at once he ceased his restless pacing. He turned then, and looked at her for a long time, his face quite expressionless, his eyes hidden by the shadows of his brows. The respite had given him back his outward composure, but his face was still marked with anger. Knowing his sister as he did, he felt dread, persistent as a thorn in his foot. ‘What’s the name of Cunningham’s nightclub?’
‘The Phoenix Club. Will you go there?’
Grant studied her for a moment, eyes narrowed, and then shook his head. ‘No, not immediately. I’ll speak to Lettie first. If she agrees to stop seeing him then the affair will die a natural death. But, just in case I intend to find out all I can about Jack Cunningham.’
Adeline bent her head and lowered her eyes for a moment, to shut out the sight of the man who stood before her. He was so stern and oppressive, and yet so very attractive. He took her breath away. Why was she so strongly attracted to him? He had treated her with little more than grudging tolerance since he had known her. His eyes were filled with concern now—but not for her; she knew that. But for Lettie.
‘You cannot imagine how difficult it was for me to come here. I feel like a traitor, yet I know that Lettie is prey to her emotions and needs someone to speak some sound common sense to her. I have tried, but she won’t listen. She made me promise not to disclose any of this to Lady Stanfield, which is why I have come to you. Have I done the right thing—telling you? Have I helped her or merely betrayed a confidence?’
‘You did right to come to me. Anything that concerns Lettie concerns me. It is not for me to admit or deny her right to independence, but anything she does that will hurt my mother or our good name I will not tolerate. You have done all that could be reasonably expected of you, and I am sorry you have been burdened with this.’
‘It’s no burden. Lettie is my friend.’
‘Nevertheless, I suspect it is the most difficult thing you have ever done—and the bravest. You obviously care about Lettie.’
Adeline felt warmth begin to seep through her entire body at his stirring words, and she took heart as his sternly carved features softened. ‘Yes, I do.’
‘Are you staying with Lady Stanfield?’
‘No—at our London house in Eaton Place. I became concerned when Marjorie told me Lettie was staying out all night and implying to Lady Stanfield that she was at Eaton Place with me.’
‘And she wasn’t?’
‘No.’
‘Then Lettie ought to have thought more of your having to account for her absence. I am sorry.’
‘There’s no need to be. Lettie spends a great deal of her time organising committees, or doing the detailed work that goes into mounting campaigns, but according to Marjorie she has lately continually failed to turn up for some of her usual meetings, and is often missing from the house. It’s only a matter of time before Lady Stanfield takes note and starts asking awkward questions.’
‘Then I must speak to Lettie soon. I apologise for my callousness earlier. I appreciate what you are doing for Lettie.’
‘I can only hope she does—but somehow I don’t think so. She will take exception to me coming here, so I beg of you not to tell her.’
For a moment Grant looked at her in silence. His well-tailored coat emphasised the breadth of his shoulders. There was a warm glint in his eyes. ‘I won’t tell her you came to see me. I promise.’
‘Thank you.’
A flicker of amusement lit his grey eyes. ‘Don’t thank me yet. This could get worse. When I tell Lettie to stop seeing Jack Cunningham she’ll be like a pit bull with a headache. It could even result in war.’
Adeline laughed. ‘Then I shall be completely neutral, and let the two of you get on with it.’
‘I may have thought you to be many things, Miss Osborne,’ Grant teased lightly, ‘but cowardly is not one of them.’
‘Oh, I can be the world’s biggest coward when it comes to violence.’
‘Then we must see that it doesn’t. Tell me, has my sister managed to lure you into the Women’s Movement yet?’
‘I find the work that she does interesting—although she isn’t nearly as fiercely fanatical about it as some of the women she’s introduced me to—but I prefer not to become involved at this time.’
‘But you might?’
‘I don’t know.’
‘Why? Because you think your destiny in life is to marry, make a home and have children?’
‘I do want that—eventually—and I shall expect love, consideration and respect. But I will not marry a man who will expect me to be subordinate to my husband, who will wrap me in luxury and see that my every desire is satisfied except for independence and a will of my own.’
‘Now you’re beginning to sound like Lettie.’
‘Perhaps that’s because we’ve spent a lot of time together since I came to London. But we do also seem to spend a great deal of time shopping. As soon as I appeared in town she insisted on changing my appearance, and has almost drained my allowance dry.’
An amused quirk appeared at the corner of Grant’s mouth as he regarded her attire, cut with ostentatious flattery. ‘I’ve noticed. What you are wearing is certainly of a more eye-catching colour than I suspect is your natural choice. However, the change flatters you. But I am surprised.’
‘You are?’
He looked at her from beneath raised brows. ‘I would have thought it uncharacteristic of you to conform—to wear clothes to please society and to be noticed.’
‘You are wrong. I now wear fashionable clothes like this to please myself, not society, and I am grateful to Lettie for showing me how to. Do you find something wrong with that?’
‘Nothing at all. It’s just that I thought the prim and proper Miss Adeline Osborne was immune to the magic of pretty clothes.’
She smiled slightly. ‘Then you were wrong about that, too, for it would seem I am just as weak as all the rest.’
‘So it would. You look—extremely elegant—and very lovely,’ he murmured, thinking that she also looked so young—in fact he had never seen her looking so young. It was as if in discarding her plain clothes and unflattering hairstyle she had thrown off surplus years with them. When he’d first seen her he had imagined her to be anything up to twenty-five. Now she looked a vulnerable girl of eighteen or nineteen.
His compliment brought an attractive flush to Adeline’s cheeks. There was something in what he’d said, or perhaps in the slight tremor she’d heard in his voice as he’d said it, that made her want to believe he meant more by it than he really did. But she did not delude herself to think so. Grant Leighton really was the most unpredictable man. One minute he was making love to her, the next asking her to marry him and then rejecting her completely. He’d told her he never wanted to set eyes on her again, and yet now he was telling her she looked elegant and very lovely. What was she to think?
‘Flattery indeed, comin
g from you.’
‘I never flatter anyone, Adeline. My opinions are always given honestly.’ His eyes did a leisurely sweep of her fashionable high-necked, svelte-waisted cobalt blue jacket. Her straight-fronted skirt was making him think of the long, glorious legs beneath. A scent of warm violets filled his nostrils and made him want to lower his lips to the curve of her neck. It was all he could do to keep his hands from sliding around her waist and pulling her into his arms. ‘A woman can be as beautiful as she feels herself to be.’
‘I must confess to never having thought about it.’ Adeline looked at him almost candidly, almost shyly. ‘Do you mind if I ask you something—and will you promise not to be angry?’
‘Ask away. I am all ears.’
‘That night—when we were together—when you awoke—did you really think I was the kind of girl who would give herself to anyone?’ She looked up into his eyes, trying to read his expression.
There was a moment’s silence. Grant watched her face with a slightly cynical lift of his brows, then he shrugged slightly and turned away.
‘I must confess to never having thought about it. I thought you were beautiful—but then when a man wakes and finds a naked woman in his arms he thinks all kinds of things—a woman’s face can be deceptive.’
Adeline gave a hard, contemptuous laugh. ‘I see—and you must have thought it had been so easy to get me into bed.’
Grant swung round and came to her. Adeline could discern in his features no trace of his earlier anger. He was grave, but calm.
‘When I awoke I was in so much agony I was convinced a full orchestra was tuning up inside my head. When I saw you lying there I didn’t know what the hell to think. I have never been so confused in my life. And when I realised what I’d done I was shocked, appalled and disgusted with myself.’
Wicked Pleasures Page 13