One Night With Morelli (13 page)

‘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 with 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

E
VE
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 of; 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.’

* * *

‘You will be back for my birthday?’ Josie asked over the phone.

In his hotel room Draco left the window and the view of Central Park. ‘Aren’t I always there for your birthday?’

‘Just checking. It should be a good party. Aunt Gabby is cooking all my favourite food.’

‘You’re being good for your aunt Gabby, I hope.’

‘I’m always good and she loves having me. Ask her if you like—she’s here.’

‘I’ll take your word for it. Josie, I was wondering if you’ve seen—’ He stopped suddenly.

‘Have I what…? Sorry, Dad, the line’s not so good.’

The line was working a hell of a lot better than his brain! He was so desperate for news of Eve, any scrap or small detail, that he’d been about to milk his teenage daughter for information on her.

What the hell was he doing?

He had lost count of the number of times he had picked up the phone, hungry to hear her voice, but he’d never dialled the number. And why? Because he’d been proving a point. They had not spoken since the night of that damned charity ball.

Pathetic!

All he’d actually proved was that he was gutless. What else did you call a man too afraid to admit he needed a woman, needed to hear her voice, see her smile, watch her fall asleep?

His chest lifted in a silent sigh; he was afraid to admit that he’d finally fallen in love. The admission came with a certain sense of relief; love had made a fool of him once and he’d sworn it would never happen again. But it had.

‘You still there, Dad?’

Draco stared at the phone in his hand blankly for a moment before lifting it to his ear.

‘I’m fine.’ He wasn’t but he would be, he thought.

‘I said do you mind if I ask Eve…to my birthday party…please?’

‘That would be fine.’

* * *

Eve had been nervous about meeting Mark Tyler, but it wasn’t nearly as awkward as she had imagined. By the time they were drinking their coffee they had discovered they had a lot in common and were talking as though they’d known each other all their lives.

If things had been different they might have. As the thought registered in her brain, she looked at the hand he had laid on hers and sighed.

Across the table Mark looked concerned. ‘Are you all right?’ He caught the direction of Eve’s gaze and, flushing slightly, went to move the protective hand he had instinctively placed over the smaller one that lay on the table, but as he lifted it her wrist turned and her fingers curled around his.

Their eyes met and clung, and her voice was thick with the same emotions that shone in her eyes as Eve shook her head.

‘I’m fine; it’s just…I…’

‘I know,’ he acknowledged.

Coffee finished, the bill paid, Mark suggested he walk her back to her flat rather than call a cab. As it was a beautiful clear evening and she wasn’t ready for it to end yet, Eve agreed.

Outside the pavement was wet but it had stopped raining and the night sky was bright and clear, or at least as bright and clear as it ever got in the City.

Eve walked straight into a puddle, splashing her new shoes and tights.

‘
Singin’ in the Rain
,’ they both said in unison and then laughed.

‘One of my favourite films,’ Eve said.

‘A classic,’ Mark agreed. ‘So you’re not sorry you came?’

Eve had admitted to him how nearly she hadn’t, how even at the last minute she had almost choked. She still hadn’t got over the shock of being contacted by a half-brother who hadn’t known she existed until he had been going through his dead father’s things and who now wanted to meet her.

‘I’m glad we met. I don’t know why I always assumed you knew about me…probably because I knew about you, even though I’m not meant to,’ she said.

‘I was scared stiff,’ her half-brother admitted with a laugh.

‘You were?’

‘Amy encouraged me; she said it was the right thing to do and then when I saw you at the charity thing the other week—well, Amy made me come over.’

Eve smiled. Mark had brought his wife into the conversation constantly; he clearly adored her, which was wonderful for him. The relationship she had always envied him with his…
their
father had been pretty awful, apparently. Lord Charlford had bullied his son and heir, taking every opportunity to belittle him. It was his wife who had given Mark his confidence back and given him the strength to escape his father’s toxic influence.

‘Tell me to mind my own business, Eve—Amy always says I’m too pushy!—but do you…have anyone in your life? The man I saw you with…Morelli, perhaps?’

They had reached her building and Eve paused and turned around to face her half-brother. ‘There is someone,’ she admitted. ‘But I’m not sure—’

‘If he’s
the
one?’

‘We’ve only been together a couple of months but…oh, yes, he’s the one for me. I’m just not sure…’ Eve’s voice terminated on a tearful wobble and she was horrified to feel her eyes fill as she gulped past an emotional constriction the size of a boulder in her aching throat ‘…if I’m the one for him. He’s…’ She stopped and shook her head, the lamp light picking out the tear that escaped and slid down her cheek.

Since he’d left for New York after that night almost three weeks ago now, she hadn’t heard a word from Draco other than a pretty terse text when he had landed. She had told herself she hadn’t expected more, but of course in reality she had.

She’d had a lot of time on her hands to think about her expectations regarding Draco and recognise how unrealistic they were. She had finally admitted to herself that she wanted all the things that she had once scorned. She wanted to love a man to distraction and she wanted to be loved the same way, and it very much looked as though she was not going to get either of those things, as Draco couldn’t give her what she needed.

Self-respect and simple common sense had told her that this was a crunch point in their relationship. When Draco returned she owed it to both of them to be honest with him and if he couldn’t give her what she needed it was time to move on. She understood now, if her mother really did love Charles Latimer as she loved Draco, why she had stayed with him. Eve could see herself slipping too easily into the same sort of arrangement, but dying a little more each day as her self-respect was eroded.

The thought filled her with utter horror but so did the prospect of never seeing Draco again and that was what it would involve. There were no half measures.

Mark lifted a hand and blotted the tear with his thumb, smiling down into her tearful face. ‘You’re unhappy. I’m sorry.’ His handsome face tightened with anger as he added softly, ‘Whoever he is, he’s a fool.’

‘Don’t be nice…’ she sniffed ‘…or I’ll cry. I don’t know what’s wrong with me just lately.’ Only yesterday she had had to leave a meeting because she’d started to cry when someone had shown her a picture of a litter of kittens her friend had rescued after someone had tied them in a sack and thrown them into a rubbish skip.

‘Don’t worry, I’m used to tears. Since she’s been pregnant Amy cries at anything and everything.’

Her mother, Hannah and now this Amy were all pregnant. Sometimes it felt as though she were the only person in the world who wasn’t!

She went still, and her legs began to tremble as a coldness crept over her body, invading every cell with a terrible dread as the feelings swirling through her coalesced into one question!

‘Oh, God!’

‘What is it?’ Mark watched in alarm as the last vestiges of colour left her face.

His concerned voice shook Eve out of her daze. She struggled to act normally, forcing a smile and shaking her head. ‘Just a thought, that’s all. Something I should have considered but I didn’t… Silly, really.’

Silly was perhaps not the most appropriate word to describe a potentially life-changing event, and the more she thought about it, the more… No, she thought, closing that door. She would not and could not think about it now. She needed to know for sure first and that couldn’t happen until tomorrow unless…?