An Invitation to Sin (35 page)

Chapter 10

Gavin was stunned. When he had accepted Alec Forsythe’s invitation to visit his home, he had never imagined that Charlotte Wilton was Alec Forsythe’s stepsister! He was not sure if acting as if they were meeting for the first time was a wise decision or not, but he had been so astonished to see her it was all he could do. She had not rushed forward in recognition nor appeared especially happy to see him. Nothing less than shock had registered on her beautiful face. At the time, his behavior had seemed the best course of action.

He had not said another word to her, and she had grown eerily quiet. She had disappeared to her room claiming a headache, but Gavin’s instinct told him he was the reason for her distress. She had remained in her room for supper as well. He idly wondered if she would hide for the duration of his visit. After the pain she had caused him he felt slightly mollified by her obvious discomfort at his presence in her home.

Gavin spent the night in a restless mood, unable to sleep.

He had found Charlotte Wilton and was in her house! After four months of wondering about her, dreaming about her, missing her, and cursing her, she had turned up on a whim. And she was even more beautiful than he remembered. She had looked so carefree when she first entered the hallway, before she had recognized him. She’d obviously just come in from outside, holding a straw hat in her hand and wearing a pink striped dress. Her blond hair was tousled and her cheeks were full of color. The genuine delight at seeing Alec had been clearly written in her expression.

Until her eyes met his. Then all the color had drained from her face.

Meanwhile all he had wanted to do when he saw her was shout for joy. He had believed he would never see her again, so when she appeared before him, so great was his happiness at finding her, it took every ounce of his self-control not to pick her up and spin her around as her brother had done.

The next morning Gavin breakfasted with the family. He was amused by the antics of the four younger Forsythe brothers and noted how much Charlotte and her mother, Elizabeth, looked alike, yet Charlotte was nowhere to be seen. He knew she was avoiding him and it irritated him. He spent most of the day with Alec and his father, the Baron of Glenborough, looking over their estate and learning about their management methods.

Later that day he was returning to his room to change for supper when he ran into Charlotte in the upstairs hallway.

They both stopped walking and stood in awkward silence. Neither of them made a move to pass by but held each other’s gaze. Already dressed for supper and apparently willing to be seen by him again, she looked stunning in an elegant evening gown of deep blue edged with black lace, her blond hair swept back from her face. He recalled all too vividly the sight of her with her golden tresses spilling around her naked shoulders, looking like a goddess in pale silk.

Finally Gavin reached out and grabbed her arm, drawing her quickly into his guest room. She did not resist but she did not seem overly eager to go with him either. He closed the door once they were inside.

“Charlotte, this is ridiculous. We can’t pretend not to know each other.”

She said nothing, but he noticed that her breathing had become more labored and her eyes, the color of aquamarines, were wide with panic. She took a step back from him. He so desperately wanted to hold her in his arms, to kiss her.

“Charlotte,” he said again.

“What are you doing here?” she whispered.

“I had no idea that Alec was your brother.”

“You must leave.” There was a note of pleading urgency in her voice.

“Why?” He stepped toward her and her familiar lily of the valley scent washed over him. The need to touch her became unbearable. “Why? Because you cannot run away from me here?”

She gasped as the truth of his comment hit its mark and her eyes flashed in anger. She made a move toward the door.

He prevented her from doing so by pulling her into his arms. And then he gave in to his desires and covered her enticing lips with his own. God, but she tasted like heaven! How he had missed her. He held her tightly against his chest, feeling her body next to his.

Melting against him, she kissed him back as his tongue delved deeper into her mouth. Her arms went around his neck and the soft sigh that escaped her sent his mind reeling. They moved back until he had her against the wall.

The thrill of kissing her once again excited him more than he could have anticipated. Judging from her eager response she had missed kissing him as much as he had missed her. And he
had
missed her. Not a single day had passed that he had not thought of her, not wanted her, not longed for her.

They continued to kiss and he wanted to devour her. She clung to him, her fingers splaying into the hair at the back of his neck. He wanted her desperately, wanted to strip her of her gown and lavish her naked body with his kisses. As his desire for her grew, he could sense her own heightened passion. Her tongue intertwined with his and her body arched against his. His hand moved to cup one luscious breast and she moaned at his touch.

“Charlotte,” he murmured her name into her sweet mouth.

“Charlotte!” A young and quite impatient voice wailed from the hallway. “Chaaaaarrrlotte!”

They both froze at the sound. Her hands fell from his neck and she shoved at Gavin’s chest. With great reluctance he released her and stepped aside.

“Charlotte!” the voice called.

“It’s Andrew,” she whispered frantically. “He’s looking for me. What shall I do?” She covered her kiss-swollen lips with her fingers, her cheeks still flushed with desire. Tendrils of her blond hair had spilled from its arrangement atop her head and now framed her face softly.

Gavin wanted nothing more than to carry her to the large bed in the center of the room and make love to her for days.

“Charlotte!” Andrew continued to cry, his five-year-old voice filled with anguish. They heard his little footsteps stomping farther down the hallway. “They’re being very mean to me! Chaaaaarrrrrlotte!”

Gavin grabbed her hand and squeezed it reassuringly. She stared up at him but he could not read her thoughts.

As Andrew’s childish wails faded, Gavin carefully opened the door and peered down the hallway. He nodded at Charlotte and she scurried out of his room and fled down the hallway in search of her distraught brother. She did not look back at him, but Gavin watched her until she disappeared into the boys’ nursery.

Chapter 11

“So what do you think of our estate, Lord Langdon?” Elizabeth Forsythe, her blond hair swept stylishly atop her head, asked her guest.

Charlotte kept her eyes on the delicate china plate in front of her, piled with roast partridge and squash, although she still could not swallow a single mouthful. She had not been able to eat anything since Gavin had arrived yesterday. Her stomach rebelled at the mere thought of food.

“Glenstone Manor is beautiful. I was quite impressed at how well you have been able to drain your fields,” Gavin said. “The system you have employed would work well at our estate since we have similar problems with the hills above the fields. I would like to bring my father to visit to see what you have accomplished here.”

Charlotte could not suppress a surprised glance at Gavin, who sat beside her at the elegantly set dining table. Since when had he taken an interest in his father’s estate? Or in farming? This was a startling change from the indolent and carefree man she met this summer. And Lord Langdon? He never referred to that title while they were in Spain! She remembered him mentioning his father’s earldom, but oddly enough she never thought to ask about his title and everyone at the villa had simply called him Señor Ellsworth.

He was still as handsome as ever, though. That had not changed. If anything he had become even more attractive. As he sat at the table in his formal evening attire, the jet black of his jacket and the crisp white of his shirt set in stark contrast to his golden blond hair and tanned skin.

Her heart skipped a beat at the memory of the passionate encounter they had shared in his bedroom not an hour ago. She touched her lips, which were still tingling from his kiss. Being in his arms again had brought to the surface long suppressed memories of their last night together in Spain and she found it difficult to breathe. She trembled to think what might have happened in his bedroom if they had not been interrupted by Andrew’s shouts.

“Of course, you and your family are welcome to visit us anytime you wish. How are you getting on at school?” her stepfather, Alexander Forsythe, asked him.

“I’m finding Cambridge much more to my liking than Oxford, but it might be that my change in attitude has more to do with it than anything to do with the school,” Gavin explained.

“Why is that?” asked Alec.

“You see, I had a bit of an epiphany while abroad this summer.”

Charlotte dropped the fork she had been holding onto her plate. The clatter caused everyone to look at her.

“Excuse me,” she murmured in apology, carefully placing her fork back on the table. Her pulse quickened as Gavin continued to speak.

“I realized that I was a very fortunate man, indeed, and I ought not to squander the opportunities I have in my life. Much to my father’s delight, I have changed my wild ways and have focused on my studies and placed my energies into improving and modernizing my family’s estate.”

“That is very commendable,” her stepfather commented. “Fathers do appreciate sons who take their inheritances as the serious responsibilities they are instead of spending every last pound on frivolous pursuits.”

“You’re very welcome, Father,” Alec quipped dryly and gave a sly wink across the table to Charlotte.

“Where did you spend the summer, Lord Langdon?” Elizabeth asked with polite interest.

“I spent a great deal of it in Spain.”

Elizabeth cried in wonderment, “Why Charlotte was in Spain this summer too!”

The sound of Charlotte’s crystal water goblet shattering against the gleaming mahogany table startled everyone, Charlotte most of all.

“Whatever is the matter with you, Charlotte?” scolded her mother, before Roberts, the butler, hurried to clean up the watery mess and glass shards. “That was my grandmother’s crystal!”

“I … I am terribly … I am so sorry,” she stammered awkwardly. “I don’t know what happened.”

“Please be more careful, dear,” her stepfather said gently with a pointed look in her direction.

“So what did you think of Spain?” Alec asked Gavin.

Charlotte silently blessed her brother for drawing the attention away from her.

“It was quite beautiful,” Gavin began. “I met some very interesting people. In fact, I fell in love while I was there.”

Charlotte held her breath. The room began to tilt a little. She held tightly to the edge of the table in order to stay upright in her chair.
Will this supper never end?

“With a Spanish lady?” Elizabeth asked, intrigued by his story.

Gavin smiled, showing the dimple that so enchanted Charlotte. He said, “No, she happened to be English, surprisingly enough. And astonishingly beautiful.”

“How romantic!” Elizabeth cried in delight. “Imagine going all the way to Spain and falling in love with someone you could have met here at home!”

Charlotte quickly picked up her fork again and stabbed a bit of squash. She shoved it into her mouth to keep from screaming.

“Just a moment.” Alec looked confused. “This is not the same woman you just became engaged to, is it?”

Unable to swallow, Charlotte choked on the bite of squash she had just placed in her mouth. Covering her lips with her linen napkin, she began to cough hysterically.
Engaged? Gavin is engaged? He is getting married?
Her coughing increased, growing louder and more violent. She could not stop.

Concerned for her daughter, Elizabeth cried, “Oh my goodness, Charlotte!”

Gavin, who was seated beside her, sprang from his chair and began patting her back. Charlotte continued to fight the terrible coughing spasm and the entire meal came to an abrupt standstill.

“Give her some water!” Alec exclaimed from the other side of the table.

As the coughing fit began to subside somewhat, Charlotte gratefully sipped the water from the crystal goblet that Gavin held to her lips. She gasped and sputtered, her eyes tearing.

“Are you all right, Charlotte?” Gavin asked, his hand still on her back. With one knee on the floor beside her chair, he stroked her with infinite tenderness, his hand moving up and down her back in a soothing motion.

She nodded as the need to cough continued to weaken.

Gavin urged, “Take another sip.”

She obeyed his command and drank from the glass he still held for her.

“Better now?”

“Yes, thank you,” she finally managed to utter, with another nod of her head.

“Take a deep breath.”

She inhaled with a shaky breath and the action seemed to calm her aching throat.

He still rubbed her back, his hand touching her possessively. “Are you sure you are all right now?” he asked, his voice soft and full of tenderness.

She sniffled a little, feeling foolish for her ridiculous display. His hazel eyes were intent on her. “I’m fine now, Gavin. Thank you.”

He set down the goblet and touched his hand to her cheek, gently brushing a tendril of hair from her eyes. “You must take more care, Charlotte. You gave me a terrible fright.”

She closed her eyes and leaned into his hand. How had he the ability to both calm and excite her with the merest touch?

“Ahem.” Alexander Forsythe cleared his throat with a pointed significance.

Charlotte looked up then and her eyes grew wide. Their mouths agape, her parents and her brother were staring at her in amazement. And at Gavin. Who was kneeling on the floor beside her chair and touching her rather intimately. For a moment it had seemed that there were only the two of them in their own little world. She now cringed at the sight of her family.

Slowly and with great care, Gavin removed his hands from her. Without a word he rose to his feet and sat back in his chair. He picked up his linen napkin and placed it in his lap.

An awkward silence fell over the table.

Mortified not only by her own behavior, but by the fact that her family had witnessed the affectionate exchange between her and Gavin, Charlotte avoided the peculiar looks her mother was sending in her direction. She could not face her stepfather or Alec either. She kept her eyes on the dish of barely touched food in front of her. The evening was interminable.

“Now that Charlotte has recovered, shall we finish our meal?” her stepfather suggested, breaking the tense silence.

They resumed eating, although Charlotte could not take a single bite and allowed the butler to remove her plate.

After a sharp look at her daughter, Elizabeth turned her eyes to Gavin. “I believe you were telling us of your engagement, Lord Langdon?”

Charlotte wished with all her might that her mother would close her mouth and cease her infernal questions to Gavin.

“I am not officially engaged yet,” Gavin explained, his lips forming a tight line. “I merely agreed to marry the woman my father thinks would be a good match. Her family’s estate is adjacent to ours and we could merge the two properties.”

“Again, very commendable,” Alexander Forsythe declared. “You have a good head on your shoulders, young Langdon.”

Charlotte could not believe her stepfather was speaking of Gavin. At least not the Gavin she knew in Spain. She doubted her stepfather would applaud Gavin so heartily if he knew of his affair with Charlotte!

“Yes, but what of the English woman you fell in love with in Spain?” Elizabeth questioned, her eyes moving sharply between Charlotte and Gavin.

A sudden wave of nausea swept over Charlotte. She wondered if she looked as green as she felt.

Gavin paused before answering. “It’s quite an unfortunate story, you see. The woman broke my heart. She left the country without saying good-bye. I have not seen her since.”

“Oh, how tragic!” Elizabeth said in a clipped tone. “But you’re not going to marry the other girl, are you?”

Charlotte definitely wanted to crawl under the table.

“My father would like for me to,” Gavin stated simply.

“Do you see how well the boy obeys his father, Alec?” Alexander’s teasing voice lightened the mood.

“Really, Gavin, you must stop showing me up in front of my father!” Alec said with a laugh. “Soon he will be choosing a bride for me!”

“Where did you say you were staying in Spain this summer, Lord Langdon?” Elizabeth asked.

“In the south of Spain, near a town called Málaga.”

“Charlotte,” Elizabeth eyed her daughter with avid interest, “isn’t that where you stayed with Aunt Louisa?”

“Yes,” she squeaked.

“How funny that you were both in the same place at the same time!” Elizabeth again looked pointedly between her daughter and her son’s friend.

“Yes, it’s a very small world,” Gavin said with charming ease, flashing a smile that revealed his distracting dimple.

“Let’s adjourn to the study for some brandy, shall we?” Alexander stood, signaling the end of the interminable meal.

Charlotte would have held a parade in her stepfather’s honor so thrilled was she to be released from the table.

“Yes, why don’t you gentlemen enjoy your cigars?” Elizabeth stated. “We shall join you later.”

Gavin did not glance in Charlotte’s direction as he left the room silently with her stepfather and brother. The minute they were gone, Charlotte rose from her chair.

“Sit down, Charlotte,” Elizabeth commanded softly.

Slowly she sank back into her seat. The silence between them was palpable.

Her mother folded her elegant hands on the table in front of her. “Is there something you need to tell me?”

Charlotte swallowed. “No.”

Elizabeth paused for a moment and tilted her blond head to the side. “I have eyes, you know. You have acted strangely since the moment that young man entered the house. And your behavior this evening—”

“Mother, I’m sorry for how I’ve acted during supper. It’s just that …” Charlotte could not bring herself to finish.

Elizabeth waited patiently for her daughter to continue. When it was clear Charlotte would not, her mother said, “It is fairly obvious that you and Lord Langdon already know each other. Did something happen between the two of you in Spain?”

“I would rather not discuss it at present.”

A rather long silence ensued as her mother pondered her options. Charlotte wished herself anywhere but where she was.

“Very well.” Elizabeth sighed in resignation, clearly irritated. “But we will discuss it at some point, I promise you that.”

“Yes, Mother.” Charlotte left the dining room on unsteady legs and somehow made her way slowly up the stairs.

Her mother
knew
. Trepidation filled her heart. She would be forced to disclose everything. Yet would that be so terrible? To finally bare her soul? She had never told anyone what had happened between her and Gavin. Not even Aunt Louisa, although her aunt suspected something. Charlotte had fled Spain and buried all her tumultuous and intense feelings for Gavin that day for she did not know what else to do with them.

Now those feelings seemed determined to overwhelm her, to bury her.

On the verge of tears once again, she entered her pretty bedroom and closed the door behind her in relief. Then she almost jumped out of her skin.

“Gavin!”

“I didn’t mean to startle you so,” he apologized hurriedly.

“I just wanted to see you. Talk to you.” He stepped toward her and drew her into his arms. “Are you all right?”

Unable to resist, she instinctively curled her body into his. The warmth of him soothed her agitated state of mind and she breathed deeply of his familiar scent. He was being too nice to her and she did not deserve it. Not after what she’d done. Hot tears ran down her cheeks.

“What are you doing here?” she cried.

“I don’t know,” he whispered into her hair. “Charlotte, Charlotte, don’t cry.”

“You must leave.” If he left her house right away, she could pick up the pieces of her life and move on. No one would know and she could bury those feelings again. She could forget he had returned. She could forget she wanted him so much. Couldn’t she? Had she ever truly forgotten him? “If you don’t leave, everyone is going to find out.”

He asked softly, “About us?”

She shoved away from him, angrily wiping the tears from her cheeks. “Don’t you have a fiancée to go back to?” Her voice was sharper than she intended it to be.