One Night With Morelli (11 page)

CHAPTER TEN

B
EFORE
HE
LEFT
the room Draco buttoned
up his shirt and dragged a hand through his hair.

The three females who were standing at the far end of the hallway didn’t immediately see him when he walked through from the library, and it was Josie who first spotted him.

Her expression was a revealing mix of guilt and relief, which cut a long story short for him.

‘Hello, kiddo, so let me guess—your mother sprang you from school to do something educational like—?’

‘Shopping in the sales,’ Josie supplied with a sheepish shrug.

‘Good afternoon, Clare. You look gorgeous, as usual.’

‘Draco.’ She moved forward to offer each cheek in turn to him for a kiss. ‘And you look…’ She stopped, a speculative look entering her eyes as she looked at him. ‘And you look…’ responding to the warning flash in his eyes, she glanced at her daughter ‘…gorgeous too, darling. Something
definitely
agrees with you.’

‘Mother,’ Draco greeted Veronica.

‘Draco, you should not wander around the house in your bare feet. It gives the wrong impression.’

‘To who?’

‘Standards,’ she responded somewhat mysteriously.

‘And I suppose you were just passing…?’

‘Do I need a reason to visit my own son?’ Veronica broke off, frowning, as a loud noise came from the library. ‘Is there someone in there, Draco?’

In the library with the shoe she hadn’t dropped clutched to her chest, Eve closed her eyes while the moment stretched and thought, Please,
please
, say no. Hearing the mumbled conversation and not being able to make out what was being said had been frustrating so she had been moving towards the open door when she had dropped her shoe.

‘Yes.’

She opened her scrunched eyes and clenched her fists. Would it have killed him to lie?

‘Eve,
cara
, come out and say hi to Josie.’

Short of hiding behind the curtains, which did not seem such a terrible option to her at that moment, Eve didn’t have much choice. She glanced at her flushed face in the mirror.

‘She knows Josie?’

Besides Draco’s daughter there were two women in the room. The older one had jaw-length dark hair streaked with silver, and as she glanced her way Eve received the impression of energy and simple elegance. She realised she was looking at Josie in forty years’ time—
lucky girl
.

The other was a stunning blue-eyed blonde whose impressive curves were displayed in a tight bandage-style red dress that nipped in her minuscule waist and displayed a cleavage that would have made her a perfect model for Eve’s Temptation.

Yes,
stunning
about described her, Eve decided. Her face, figure, her long river-straight blonde hair, everything more than deserved that accolade—stunning.

‘Eve!’ With the energy of youth but none of the awkwardness, Josie was across the room in moments, her admiring stare on Eve’s hair, which fell in a rippling curtain of pre-Raphaelite waves down her narrow back. ‘Wow, I just love your hair that way.’

Eve lifted a self-conscious hand to her hair. ‘It has a life of its own.’

‘Mother, this is Eve Curtis.’ Draco took her by the arm and drew her forward. ‘Eve, my mother, Veronica Morelli.’

‘Mrs Morelli…’

‘And this is Clare.’ Eve felt his arm go around her shoulder and stiffened.

‘I’m his ex-wife,’ the blonde said, gliding forward on her five-inch heels and displaying a wide friendly smile. ‘It’s really nice to meet you, Eve. So where have you been hiding her, Draco? And how long have you two been together?’

‘We met yesterday morning,’ Draco said evasively.

‘All right, I know it’s none of my business,’ Clare replied.

‘I need to get back to the office,’ Eve said abruptly.

‘Office?’ Veronica enquired.

‘Eve runs her own company, Mother.’

‘Really?’ We must have coffee sometime and you can tell me all about your business.’ It was obvious from her sudden change of attitude that his mother was now viewing her as potential bride material.

She was embarrassed but Draco had to be hating it. He could have simply outed her there and then as a casual fling but he hadn’t, and she even felt a little guilty as she would not have expected this sort of consideration for her feelings from him.

‘I guess if you’re your own boss you can spend the afternoon…?’

At another warning look from her ex-husband, the blonde subsided.

‘Sorry, but I must go—’ Eve started.

‘And Josie needs to get back to school.’

Josie pouted at her grandmother’s pronouncement. ‘But Clare said that I could have the day off—we were going shopping and getting our nails done.’

‘I’m sure your mother realises that your schooling comes first—and you call your mother Clare now?’ This disapproving addition from Veronica drew a wry look from her son.

‘Would you mind dropping Josie off at school on your way back to your office, Eve?’

Startled by the request, she nodded. ‘Fine.’

The older woman grabbed Josie’s hand. ‘Come along, Josephina. You need to get into your uniform. We must not keep Miss Curtis waiting.’

‘Sorry about the interruption, you two.’ Clare smiled as her daughter left the room with her grandmother. ‘Sex in the afternoon is just so beautifully decadent and naughty, I always think.’

‘You’re embarrassing Eve,’ Draco chided.

‘Really!’ Her astonishment seemed genuine. ‘Sorry, Draco, it’s just when you strolled in here looking all…’ She gave a reminiscent little sigh. ‘I remember that look.’

Eve felt a sharp stab of something too near jealousy for comfort. She closed her eyes and thought, I have to get out of here. She’d heard of amicable divorces but this was ridiculous!

Veronica Morelli reappeared with a neatly uniformed Josie at her side. ‘She couldn’t find anything and I’m not surprised. Why you insist on living in this cramped doll’s house I will never understand.’

Eve’s jaw dropped. If Draco’s mother thought this was cramped what was she used to? It must be a castle at least.

‘Very nice to meet you both,’ Eve lied as she left.

* * *

In the taxi Josie was talkative. ‘You have no idea how glad I am that you’re with Dad.’

‘I’m not—’ Eve encountered the teenager’s questioning look and closed her mouth. You couldn’t tell your lover’s teenage daughter that you were just having casual sex with her father, rather than a meaningful relationship.

As she recalled Draco’s comment about his daughter trying to find him a wife a worried frown pleated her brow. She didn’t want to encourage the girl’s fantasy but brutal honesty was obviously not an option. ‘I’m glad you’re glad.’

‘And you’re nothing like Dad’s usual type…’

Tell me something I didn’t already know, Eve thought, an image of his incredibly gorgeous ex-wife drifting into her mind. There had to have been a lot of Clare clones since, and then me.

‘I’m not supposed to know he has a type, which is kind of unrealistic but because he never brings them home he thinks I don’t know.’

That got Eve’s attention. ‘He
never
brings them home?’ She told herself firmly that she was not going to read anything significant into that.

‘You think he does when I’m not there, like Lily’s dad?’ Josie shook her head vigorously. ‘Lily said she could always tell when her dad’s girlfriend had been in their flat as she could
smell
her and things got left behind and moved—and she was right as they got married last month.’

Did Draco’s bed smell of her?

‘I’m sure it’s very hard when a parent decides to remarry.’

‘Gosh, no, I’d love it, and Gran would too. She’s always nagging him about it, but she doesn’t think anyone’s good enough for him and Mu— Clare is really bitchy about the ones he dates sometimes. But you’re different and if you did marry Dad or even if you were his girlfriend, they wouldn’t be able to send me to live with Mum and her fiancé, cos you’d definitely be a stable female influence in my life, wouldn’t you?’

Eve digested the stream of artless confidences in silence, finally asking casually, ‘Is there a chance of you going to live with your mum?’

Josie shook her head. ‘No, Dad promised he won’t let it happen, no matter what.’

* * *

She sat in the cab until Josie had gone through the school gates, then gave the address of her office to the driver. The cringingly embarrassing scene she had endured had been playing in her head on a loop like background noise since they had left the house, only this time, in the light of Josie’s revelations, it took on a very different slant.

They said knowledge was power but Eve didn’t feel powerful; she felt grubby and used. The worst part was she had really thought Draco had been sparing her embarrassment, that he had allowed the assumption they were in a relationship to stand uncorrected out of consideration for her feelings.

And I stood there like a puppet feeling…grateful. She felt her temper rise and didn’t fight it.

An expression of grim determination spread across her face as she suddenly leaned forward in the cab. ‘Change of plan.’

By the time the cab drew up outside Draco’s home, in her head Eve had verbally demolished him and made a dignified exit. She was still riding the crest of a wave of righteous anger when she battered on the door with her fist, glaring at one of the several strategically placed cameras above her head that zoomed her way as she did so.

When the door was finally opened Eve, who had been leaning up against it, almost fell inside, narrowly avoiding a collision with the smartly dressed middle-aged woman who had opened it.

‘Can I help you?’

Of course he didn’t open his own door, she fumed. He probably saved himself for the fun stuff in his life like manipulating and lying.

Eve didn’t waste time on small talk. ‘I want to see Draco.’

There was a short silence. ‘I’m afraid you have the wrong address.’

The outright lie made Eve blink, but she refused to be put off. ‘I know he lives here.’

‘Now, here is a nice surprise.’

The drawled comment made both women turn their heads as Draco, wearing sweats and a vest, emerged through a door. He had a towel slung around his neck and his skin glistened with a layer of sweat.

Eve reacted to the testosterone-fuelled sight and, forgetting every word of the cutting and incisive speech she’d prepared, she stabbed an accusing finger in his direction and barked,
‘You…!’

Wow,
said the voice in her head.
Powerful stuff, Eve, that’s really telling him.

After holding her eyes for a long simmering moment, he turned to the older woman. He unhooked the towel and dragged a hand through his damp hair.

‘Thanks, Judith.’ The smile was for the older woman but his eyes only left Eve’s face for a split second. ‘I’ll take it from here. You get off and go straight home after your appointment.’

‘Are you sure?’ The older woman cast a doubtful glance Eve’s way as she stepped towards the open door.

‘What time is your dental appointment?’

The reminder drew a click of her tongue followed by a wince. ‘Gracious, is that the time? You’re sure…?’

Eve endured the other woman’s suspicious glance, able to be more philosophical about being cast as a dangerous lunatic than she was about her visceral reaction to the raw power of Draco’s sweaty body post workout.

Eve waited until the door closed. ‘That woman said you didn’t live here.’

‘She’s very protective. She popped in to see if I was all right on her way to the dentist.’

‘Do you expect all your staff to lie for you?’ All the self-discipline in the world couldn’t stop her eyes drifting over his powerful muscular frame. She swallowed and licked her lips, managing to inject the scorn that had been absent from her lustful stare into her voice as she sneered sarcastically, ‘You being so weak and defenceless.’

An army of housekeepers couldn’t have defended him from the lust that had slammed like a hammer through his body at the sight of her standing there looking mad and so desirable it physically hurt.

Hurt…! Talk about self-delusion!

It seemed amusing to him now that midway through his workout he’d actually convinced himself that he was totally in control and he could go back to feeling smugly superior to men who allowed their hormones to rule their actions.

‘I was heading for the shower.’ And possibly therapy! It was one thing to recognise all the warning signs of a dangerous addiction, but it was another not to feel the need to fight it.

Why fight something that was so pleasurable? he mused.

Enjoy it while it lasted seemed a much more pragmatic approach to something that was so hot it would inevitably burn itself out soon enough, he told himself.

‘If that was an invitation to join you, I’ll pass.’ She choked, her cheeks heated from the vividly arousing images of water sliding off his slick muscled body.

Ashamed of the heaviness and ache low in her pelvis, Eve dragged her gaze free of the invitation in his heavy-lidded eyes and pretended to look around.

‘Your guests gone?’

His glance was drawn to the tears glazing her eyes. ‘Are you all right?’

The fake concern after what he’d done brought her teeth together in a silent snarl of disbelief.

‘No, I’m not bloody all right. I’m furious.’ With him for being a manipulative liar, but mostly Eve’s anger was aimed at herself. ‘How d-dare you use me? I swore I’d never let any man use me the way my father used mum. You planned it all, didn’t you?’ she flung wildly. ‘It was all cold-blooded calculation.’

The last comment drew a laugh from him. ‘Nothing between us is cold-blooded,
cara
. Who is your father?’

Her face froze. ‘A bastard like you.’

She saw the flash of anger in his dark eyes and lifted her chin, welcoming the thought of confrontation…then watched incredulously as he began to stroll across the hallway to the central staircase.

‘You’re walking away?’

‘I’m taking a shower before my muscles seize up and we both say things we might regret later.’ He had been headed for the shower in the well-equipped basement leisure suite when he had seen her image on one of the security cameras.