That Perfect Someone (5 page)

Chapter Seven

T
HE BALEFUL EXPRESSION IN
James Malory’s eyes wasn’t fleeting. It persisted, and because it did, Julia’s curiosity got the better of her. But she couldn’t see who or what had drawn his furious attention. Whoever it was, was on the same side of the room as she, but dozens of people in the way blocked her view. So when Carol tried to steer her back to her husband, Harry, to introduce her to the friend Harry was conversing with, Julia excused herself for a few minutes and wove her way quickly through the crowd. She had to peek over people’s shoulders and rise up on her toes every now and then to catch glimpses of James to see if she was lining up with his sight.

After a few minutes she got a clear view of him, but she was quite disappointed to find that she was too late. James had turned his attention back to his wife as he leaned down to tell her something. He even kissed her cheek, which caused an immediate oh-ah-isn’t-that-sweet collective sigh in the room, then quite a few embarrassed chuckles over it.

Georgina laughed, hearing the crowd’s reaction. James looked up at the ceiling in exasperation, no doubt, because he couldn’t help but hear that sigh, too. But then Georgina was distracted by one of her many relatives who had come up to talk to her, and James’s gaze went right back to where it had been before.

Like Carol, Julia couldn’t help the shudder that passed over her when he seemed to pin that feral gaze right on her! She realized that he must be staring at one of the four people who were standing in front of her on the edge of the crowd facing the dance floor. The music stopped briefly, so the few couples who had been dancing left the floor, which gave her a clearer view of James. While his stone-faced expression still gave away nothing, his green eyes had turned lethal. Amazing how he
could
have murder on his mind and you simply wouldn’t know it unless you caught that gaze.

Then it occurred to her that the man really did usually keep his feelings to himself, so he must be exhibiting them deliberately now. Was he sending someone a message? She tried to figure out who had James’s undivided attention.

Of the four people standing with their backs to her, a woman and three men, the woman and one of the men were obviously together. The second man was a short, stocky fellow easy to see over. The third man was tall enough to easily stand out in the crowd.

The couple were so engrossed in conversation that they hadn’t noticed anything amiss, and as soon as the music started again, they moved onto the dance floor. James’s gaze didn’t follow them, which left the two men. The short one suddenly turned and hurried off behind Julia, and she couldn’t mistake
his
shudder as he passed her. He disappeared beyond the open doors to the terrace, and James’s gaze didn’t follow his departure, either. That pretty much left the tall fellow.

She didn’t know many men outside of Malory’s family who were this tall, and James wasn’t likely to be this furious with a relative—actually, that had to be it! Georgina’s brothers, of course! How could she have forgotten James made no bones about his animosity toward them? He could barely tolerate them.

This tall, broad-shouldered man could be any one of Georgina’s five brothers. Julia hadn’t met all of them, though those she knew didn’t have black hair like this man. And come to think of it, James might not like the Anderson brothers, but he wouldn’t give any of them killing looks either.

She began to realize how silly her quest was. Unless she recognized this man, which was doubtful with everyone wearing masks tonight, what did she think she would discover? She couldn’t point out to him that he was about to die and ask him why. No, she wasn’t going to find out a single thing.

As she turned around to look for Carol, a rather loud sigh stopped her and made her glance at that wide, masculine back again. Had the man finally noticed James’s dire attention? If so, she expected to see the man run past her and out of the room, but he didn’t. Actually, that sigh had sounded rather pitiful—almost heartbreaking. That certainly wouldn’t have anything to do with James Malory, so this fellow probably still didn’t know he was in danger.

Should she warn him? While the titled ladies present might be constrained by the rule of not speaking to a man they hadn’t been introduced to, that rule didn’t apply to her. In the world of business, she had to speak to strangers all the time. But this really wasn’t any of her concern, and besides, her curiosity was prompting her to make assumptions that might not be accurate.

She turned to leave again, but then, appalled, found herself tapping the man’s shoulder instead. It was that pathetic sigh! How could she ignore something that forlorn?

“Are you all right?” Julia asked.

He swung around, and she was startled for a moment by the devil’s mask he was wearing. It was only a half mask though, with beneath it the shadow of a mustache, a pair of sensual lips, and a firm chin. But he barely spared her a glance before looking back over his shoulder where he’d been gazing.

With another sigh he said, “Look at her, she’s magnificent, isn’t she?”

He had a slight accent, though Julia couldn’t quite place it, but she wondered if he’d even heard her question. “You sound smitten,” she said, noting the obvious.

“More than smitten. I’ve been in love with her since I first clapped eyes on her last year.”

“Who?”

“Lady Malory.”

Julia managed to choke back a laugh because that had to be the last thing she’d expected to hear. But that certainly explained James’s animosity. Her curiosity had been satisfied after all.

The Malorys were extremely family-oriented. No matter which of their women this man was talking about, those present tonight were all married, so James would take exception. “Trespass against one and you’ve trespassed against them all” might as well be their family motto. Unless … no, this fellow wasn’t one of the Malory husbands merely admiring his wife from a distance. They were all present and accounted for elsewhere in the room, easy to recognize in their dominos.

“Which Lady Malory would that be?” she asked. “There are at least five of them here tonight and they’re all—”

“Georgina.”

“—married women!” she finished with a gasp. If he had to be hopelessly in love with one of them, he couldn’t have picked a worse one than James Malory’s wife.

“I am excruciatingly aware of that appalling fact,” he replied.

“But are you aware that her husband has been looking daggers at you for at least fifteen minutes?”

That got his eyes off of Georgina immediately and back to Julia. “But he can’t know it’s me! I wasn’t invited. He’d have no clue!”

She shrugged. “Whether he knows who you are or not, it’s rather apparent that he objects to how long you’ve been staring at his wife.”

He groaned. “I’m dead.”

Her thought exactly, but she was compelled to scold, “You didn’t even notice he’s been watching you?”

“When I couldn’t take my eyes off of her?”

Blinded by love? She was still feeling a smidgen of pity for him, though it was definitely tempered now because she knew the couple involved and how happily married they were. And they were her friends. This fellow wasn’t.

So she said, “You should leave.”

“It won’t help. He’ll hunt me down—unless he thinks he’s made a mistake. You could help to make him think that. Would you be willing to save my life?”

“You want him to think you’re with me?”

“Exactly.”

“We could dance, I suppose.”

“Thank you, but that won’t be enough. He must think you are the only woman in my life, perhaps even married to me. And married couples kiss—”

“Now just a minute,” she objected sternly. “I’m not willing to go
that
far when I don’t even—”

“Please,
chérie,
” he cut in again in such an appealing tone.

The sudden French startled her. He’d been speaking such clear English, she would never have guessed he was a Frenchman. His accent became more pronounced as he continued, “If I just leave without this demonstration that my affections are with another, he will hunt me down. He has promised to do that very thing if I ever went near his wife again.”

“Then you shouldn’t have come here!”

“I know.” He sighed that abject sigh again. “But I couldn’t resist when I’ve longed so much for just the sight of her. Have you never been in love to know what it’s like?”

He was making her feel sorry for him again. Of course she had no idea what it was like when she’d been stuck with her god-awful fiancé all her life, which had kept all the men of her acquaintance at arm’s length. In fact, she’d never even been kissed before. Who would have dared when she was already spoken for? Yet with his introducing the subject of kissing, she was having a hard time getting her eyes off his lips …

“Oh, very well, just be quick about it,” she said, and hoped she wouldn’t regret it. “I don’t want anyone other than James noticing.”

Chapter Eight

I
F IT WEREN’T GOING
to be her first kiss, Julia would never have agreed. But having gone twenty-one years without ever experiencing any kiss of a romantic nature was a compelling incentive. This wasn’t fleeting curiosity, it was a powerful desire to know, which had been with her since she was fourteen. Which was about the time her friends were getting kissed and telling her how exciting it was.

More fury to add to the fire of discontent that her engagement had caused her. So many things she’d missed out on while growing up because of it. The excitement of a first Season; good God, for an entire year her friends had talked and giggled over nothing else. The titillation of harmless flirtation, they were all experiencing it even prior to that first Season, but Julia couldn’t. And each time she’d realized just how much she was missing because of
him,
it added one more reason why she’d shoot him if he ever came back.

But not to be kissed, at least once, just to know what it was like, was probably the thing she’d regretted the most, that she’d had no way to experience it. It could have been the easiest thing to find out, too, since she
did
have a fiancé, after all. But the last time they’d seen each other, when she was ten and he was fifteen, they had agreed to kill each other if they ever got close enough again to do so. They hadn’t just made empty threats either. They despised each other so much that every one of their meetings had ended in violent discord of one sort or another. So they had avoided any more visits after that, and then he’d thankfully disappeared two years later so she hadn’t had to clap eyes on him again.

But it would have been nice if she’d had at least one other kiss to compare this one to. Then she might not have been so completely swept away by it.

The kiss began the moment she agreed to it. He didn’t remove his half mask because nothing was preventing his sensual mouth from reaching hers. She felt a moment’s disappointment that she wasn’t going to see the rest of his face. Green eyes were all she saw before she closed her own eyes to more fully enjoy the novelty of having her lips pressed to another’s.

It was more exciting than she could possibly have imagined. That he was a stranger might have added to that. That she didn’t even know what he looked like probably did, too. She could imagine him to be anyone she wanted, the most handsome man she could think of—well, he would have to be a duplicate of Jeremy Malory then, since he was probably the most handsome man she’d ever seen, but he was already taken … or his uncle Anthony … or wait, there was his cousin Derek, too, oh, darn, never mind, they were all married. Besides, it didn’t really matter what he looked like, not in that sublime moment of discovery of something she’d waited this long for.

But he sure didn’t kiss like a man who was in love with someone else. He seemed as involved in this intimate act as she was. He’d slipped one arm about her shoulders and the other about her waist and had drawn her steadily closer to him until no space was left between them for anything resembling a chaste embrace, far from it. But he was simulating a married-couple kiss, so she ought to keep in mind that he probably wasn’t really getting carried away by the moment, that it meant nothing more to him other than a ruse to fool James Malory.

Yet she did nothing of the sort because it was very real to her, and so exciting. Who would have thought a kiss was so much more than just the touching of lips? It was the embrace, too, the exciting sensations of having his arms around her, of being pressed to such a hard male chest. The tickle of hair on his upper lip caused an interesting shudder. The rasp of his tongue that had tried and failed to get her lips to open because she didn’t know that might be part of the kiss. Delicious flutters in her belly, her legs getting steadily weaker, making her hold on even tighter to him.

“You’re being a very good sport about this. Another moment or two should do it.”

He said that against her lips before continuing the kiss, but being reminded that this first kiss of hers wasn’t actually a real one, just a demonstration for someone else, was quite a splash of cold reality. Enough of one that the pleasant haze she’d been floating in was already waning before he stepped back, ending their brief moment of intimacy.

“A bit tardy, I know,” he was saying in a jaunty tone, his lips quirked upward in a half grin, “but allow me to introduce myself. I am Jean Paul, and forever in your debt.”

The grin bemused her so much it actually stole her breath. She’d only just tasted those lips! She found his mouth entirely too fascinating now, couldn’t take her eyes off it.

“Is Malory still looking this way?”

She had to take a few deep breaths to concentrate on what Jean Paul was saying. “I shouldn’t look,” she said. “He isn’t dumb. He’ll know we’re talking about him.”

“True.”

“My name is Julia, by the way.”

She heard the shyness in her tone and was astounded by it. Shy? When was she
ever
shy? This man was having such an unusual effect on her. Just because they’d shared her first kiss?

“A very pretty name on both sides of the ocean,” he replied.

“Which places on the other side have you been to?”

“I’m just visiting England with friends.”

She realized he wasn’t actually answering her question, though that might not be intentional. “So you don’t live here?”

“No.”

“But you sound so English.”

He chuckled. “I try to,
chérie
.”

“Oh.” She was embarrassed for having forgotten so quickly the accent that kept weaving in and out of his words. But just for clarification, in case he was actually an Englishman who’d been raised in France, she added, “So you are French?”

“Nice of you to notice.”

Now that was an odd thing to say. It occurred to her that despite that he seemed to have a perfectly good grasp of the English language, at times he might still not find the right words to use, thus, a little confusion could arise.

Now that she’d helped him, for whatever it was worth, she knew she should leave him and return to Carol, but found herself reluctant to say good-bye. She realized, belatedly, that she probably hadn’t helped him as he’d hoped. She’d only been thinking of herself, not his circumstances, when she’d allowed him to kiss her. She needed to warn him. It was the decent thing to do.

“That kiss may not have fooled James at all, since he knows me.”

“Gad, I should have asked if you’re married.”

That was the only thing he gathered from her warning? She raised a brow at him and pointed out, “Marriage doesn’t appear to deter you.”

“I wish it wasn’t so,
chérie.
It is painful, loving someone you know you can’t have.”

His sigh confirmed it and had her feeling sorry for him again. She guessed he was even blushing under that half mask, though the lower half of his face, even his neck, was too sun-bronzed for her to be sure.

In case she was right, she admitted, “As it happens, I’m not married.”

“But you must have suitors.”

“No, actually—”

“You do now.”

She laughed, couldn’t help it. The man was actually flirting with her? She’d gained a little experience in flirting after her eighteenth year, though not flirting of this harmless sort, where she knew the man wasn’t serious. She’d actually encountered a few men of less than strong moral fiber who, knowing of her frustrating betrothal circumstances, had tried to lure her into clandestine affairs. Although she was ashamed to admit it, she’d actually been tempted! But that was before she’d discovered an end to her horrid situation. Besides, she hadn’t been
that
tempted.

But Jean Paul was actually rather charming, when he wasn’t sighing over his broken heart, so she played along, enough to say coyly, “Need I remind you that you’re in love with someone else?”

He ran the back of his finger over her cheek. “You might be able to get my mind off her. Would you like to try?”

Luring him away from another woman sounded a bit unsavory, but that other woman wasn’t his, she was already married. In that case, could it actually be considered a charitable thing to do? To help to mend his broken heart?

Julia pulled in the reins abruptly. What the deuce was she thinking? Just because he suddenly sounded serious she was considering it? It
was
tempting. She couldn’t deny it. But she didn’t really want to encourage an acquaintance with someone who, from the sound of it, wouldn’t be staying in England for long. That could put her in the same situation he was in, wanting someone she couldn’t have.

Before she could change her mind, she said, “I must return to my friends, and you should leave the ball or our effort to get you out from under James’s murderous gaze will have been for naught.”

“Sound advice,
chérie
. Adieu, until we—”

She didn’t stay to hear the rest of his good-bye and started weaving her way quickly through the crowd. Before she reached Carol, she did steal one more glance at James Malory and saw that his full attention was back on his wife. So perhaps the ruse had worked after all.