Someone Irresistible (22 page)

For moments Mary did nothing, just stared at her through crystalline blue eyes that Mimi had always found exceptionally revealing. But she wouldn’t give in this time. She refused.

Finally, Mary looked away, toward the trellis to her side, picking a dead leaf off a vine. Inhaling deeply, she said, “Is he pleased with you, or with your work?”

Without pause, she maintained, “I am my work.”

Mary huffed and shot her a quick glance, suddenly annoyed. “Don’t give me that rubbish, Mimi. You know what I’m asking. He certainly makes quite a pretty prize.”

“How dare you say that to me,” she hissed in a lowered voice. “You know what I feel for him—”

“No I don’t know what you feel for him,” her sister cut in, an arm swinging wide. “I don’t know that you
feel
anything except attraction to a man who is wrong for you in every regard. He is a challenge because you can’t have him, a man who will break your heart if you get too close.

I only want to protect you, you know that.”

“I’m a twenty-three-year-old widow, Mary, who has lived and managed on her own for two years. You have my permission to stop protecting me now.”

That stung deeply, Mimi observed with a shadow of regret. Mary pulled back with eyes wide, her mouth opened on the brink of a biting retort. Then she clamped it down forcefully, bringing her palm to her forehead and rubbing her temple.

“Regardless of your passions, Mimi,” she said soberly, “nothing you’ve said can negate the fact that as a social companion, Professor Price is a poor choice. He doesn’t strike me at all as a charming man. He hasn’t a title or a fortune, or even simply a good name to which a genteel lady could attach herself.” She drew a deep breath and opened her eyes, glancing up. “Yes, I suppose he’s handsome, but so are a hundred other gentlemen of your station. I have never witnessed what it is you find so fascinating about him.”

If Mary expected a stern rebuttal, or a spot of anger, she didn’t get it.

Mary had always loved her protectively, especially since their mother died, and every concern she expressed now was honestly felt, not meant to hurt. Mimi did her best to remember that. Crossing her arms resolutely over her stomach, Mimi turned her back and walked to the other side of the fountain.

“Everything about him fascinates me,” she finally revealed, her voice quiet, her head down. “He likes me as a person, listens to me, and responds to what I say as if my thoughts and feelings as a woman actually matter. He doesn’t make judgments about my desire to sculpt dinosaurs, and in fact finds me talented and says so. He possesses a great intellectual mind, regardless of his arrogance, which, as it happens, I find quite charming for reasons completely unknown to me.

He provides… stimulating conversation, I suppose, a bit of humor and playful satisfaction I haven’t felt in a very long time.” She exhaled fully and glanced up at last, looking straight into Mary’s probing but compassionate eyes. “He makes me smile, makes me think, makes my heart melt when he’s near me. He gives me things I never had with—”

Mimi quit talking abruptly as her attention darted to a flash of color on her right. Suddenly her blood ran cold in her veins, her heart seemed to stop. Then she felt her cheeks flood with warmth.

A throat cleared loudly, behind the hedge. A deeply male voice.

Mimi couldn’t bring herself to move. Mary jerked around, following the sound, and took two steps forward to face the intruders.

At that moment both Justin and Nathan walked forward, stiffly, hands behind their backs, features unreadable.

God. How much had they heard? She wanted to crawl into a hole.

Justin’s mouth twisted into a vague grin as he eyed them both.

Nathan simply ignored Mary as he stared at her intently, try to steal her thoughts, she was sure, causing the heat in her face to saturate her entire body, which she ignored to the best of her ability.

Mimi instantly noticed the change in Mary’s demeanor. Her body grew rigid, hands at her sides in tight fists, lips thinned to a flat line, eyes glaring. But although her sister felt justifiably incensed that these men should be eavesdropping on a private conversation, she played the polite hostess during the extremely awkward moment that lingered, taking the initiative to speak first.

“Good day, gentlemen,” she said with an overly courteous air, moving her body closer to the hedge so that she partially blocked their view of Mimi. “How nice that you found your way to the garden unannounced.”

Justin coughed and had the good grace to look away. Nathan shifted his head so that he could continue to gaze at Mimi, his eyes dark, features expressionless.

“Actually, Miss Marsh,” Justin explained congenially a second or two later, and much too formally for someone who knew their family well,

“we were escorted to the studio by a parlor maid who then directed us to the garden. I hope we’re not intruding.”

That never should have happened, and Mimi at once regretted it.

Any respectable gentleman would know that he should be properly introduced and received, not allowed to wander into private grounds without first being announced. Ordinarily she wouldn’t care, but Mary would only read this as a violation of propriety, and although Nathan might be one to defy proper behavior, Justin should know better. It didn’t help her argument at all.

“Of course you’re not intruding,” Mimi declared after another silent disconcerting moment, standing gracefully erect, smiling subtly, as was expected of a proper lady. “It’s a lovely day for a visit by two very distinguished gentlemen.”

She felt Mary’s glare on the side of her face, but she ignored the warning.

“Yes, well,” her sister chimed in, returning to the point of her visit, “I merely came by to invite you to dinner this evening, Mimi. Papa is anxious for the three of us to have a good talk.”

“Yes, lovely,” she returned at once. “I’ll be there early.”

“Good.” Mary drew her shoulders back and stated brusquely, “It’s cold in the garden, and I can’t stay. Perhaps you gentlemen could wait in the parlor—”

“We can’t stay either,” Nathan interjected, still looking at Mimi through narrowed lids, arms held stiffly at his sides.

“Actually, we just came by to view the finished jawbone sculpture,”

Justin explained congenially, rubbing his chin with his palm. Smiling, he then shoved both hands in his coat pockets and added, “It’s a marvelous replication, from what I briefly saw. I would, however, like to examine the detail.”

“The detail is perfect, I assure you,” Mary said, a little too defensively.

His brows rose. “I’m certain it is, Mary. I would expect nothing less than excellence from a Marsh.”

The silence droned after that, the moment growing increasingly awkward. The wind picked up, rustling the trees and stirring the chill in

the air. Mimi wiped a palm over her cheek in an attempt to secure loose ends of hair. “Perhaps it would be best if we go inside.”

“Very good idea,” Justin agreed as Nathan remained unusually silent.

Justin turned toward the house first, then quickly stopped in mid-stride, forcing the rest of them to pause behind him.

“Before I forget,” he articulated slowly, head down, “I wanted to ask you to meet me tomorrow evening, Nathan, at Parker’s Terrace, a lovely hotel and dining establishment in Holland Park. I’ll be doing some late work with Owen in the afternoon, getting ready for the New Year’s dinner, so I thought you and I could discuss it later, over a late brandy.

Say… nine o’clock?”

Nathan grunted something neither she nor Mary could understand, and Justin laughed before he proceeded to walk again.

In that slice of a second Mimi realized that Justin had just informed them both, at the same time, of the scheduled rendezvous he’d arranged at her asking. The man was a devil, and of course she would be forced to pay him back for his unusual humor at her expense someday. She only hoped to God her face wasn’t so red right now that her sister would deduce fever.

« ^ »

N
athan climbed the white marble steps to the entrance of Parker’s Terrace, a large three-story brown brick hotel on the outskirts of Holland Park. At nearly nine it was fully dark outside and he was tired.

The day had been long, full of increased boredom, which probably explained his eagerness to meet with Justin, if only for a brandy and a round of good conversation, even at this hour.

A winter array of potted greenery and vines that hung off white trellises surrounded the large front door, defined only by two glowing gas lamps. He pushed the hard metal handle down and stepped inside to stand in a bright foyer with blood red walls and hard wooden floors

that gleamed from a recent polishing. The light cigar smoke in the air teased his nostrils, the warmth from the parlor fire warmed him, and the scents of roasting game drifted from the kitchen.

On his left, a wide spiral staircase curved up to the second story, and just in front of him, inside the great room decorated in yards of red and green velvet that covered both windows and furniture, he took note of several people mingling, men and women, dressed elegantly, as was he, for dinner and brandy and conversation.

He walked in a few steps and surveyed his surroundings, glancing at the patrons, expecting to see Justin among them. When he didn’t, after a moment’s curiosity, Nathan stood erect and strode casually to a tall man in tastefully fashioned black evening dress whom he assumed was the hotel’s concierge, working behind the long oak desk beneath the staircase.

“Good evening, sir,” the hotel employee said with a staid smile. “Are you by chance with the Hubert party?”

Nathan assumed the man meant those laughing and chatting in the parlor. “No, actually I’m here to meet a Mr. Justin Marley—”

“Ahh… yes, you must be Professor Price,” the concierge maintained with an arrogant air, his smile deepening. He reached over and grabbed a key to his left. “Everything is arranged. You’ll be in room three. Up the stairs and to your left. I believe your party is awaiting you.”

Admittedly, Nathan was a little puzzled. An hour or two of brandy and cigars didn’t typically necessitate a separate room, yet perhaps Justin simply wanted private discourse. That made sense, he supposed.

With a curt “thank you” to the concierge, Nathan took the key, turned, and walked to the staircase, climbing it without notice by anyone. At the end of the carpeted hallway, he stood in front of room three. Inserting the key into the lock, he opened the door and stepped inside.

The smell of flowers struck him soundly, slapping him with the knowledge that all was not as it seemed, or what he expected. The room appeared empty at first, small and square, with a moderately sized four-poster bed to the right of the door, framed with a sheer lace canopy and covered with a quilted red coverlet. The modest grate took up much of the opposite wall, now with only a low fire burning, next to which stood one tall brass lamp, softly lit, illuminating the room.

But it was movement behind a sheer red screen, only a foot or so in front of the lamp, that caught his eye. Secreted behind it, he spied the shape of a woman as she slowly lifted her body from a water-filled tub and reached for a towel.

The sudden realization of what was to transpire made him dizzy, and a little angry, if he was honest with his feelings. Justin had evidently hired him a woman for the evening, and although he supposed he should be thankful for the company and female attention, he really felt a little affronted. After the episode with Mimi only a week ago, where he brought her to orgasm with nothing more than fingertips and whispers, leaving her hot and unsettled and needy, and his lust at the bursting point, he was really not at all ready for a tryst with a stranger. And that was laughable. What the bloody hell was wrong with him? He should be jumping at this opportunity, but instead he felt only tired. And deeply confused.

But there was no turning around and making a hasty exit, as the woman had apparently heard him enter, and had to be expecting him. If he’d walked into the wrong room she would have screamed. He didn’t particularly want to leave either, after noticing the outline of her curvaceous figure as she stepped out of the tub, then wrapped herself in the towel.

He sighed, feeling only the slightest reaction in his nether regions, though it was more than he expected. At least his body worked properly when charged with erotic thoughts and veiled images of the female form. Still, a paid whore didn’t appeal to him. At least not now, when hard, crucial professional and personal decisions of his own were about to be made.

Nathan cleared his throat. Then, getting directly to the point, he said,

“I believe there’s been a misunderstanding.”

The sheer screen could not conceal the long hair that the woman brushed aside with her fingers as she covered her body with a wrap of some kind. But she said nothing.

He softly closed the door behind him, so that others in the hall wouldn’t hear or see them, but he stood beside it, ready to take his leave before his body took control of his senses. “I’m very flattered that my good friend thought to find me… entertainment for tonight, but—”

“You’re doing very well so far, Nathan,” came a throaty murmur as the lovely silhouette moved to the edge of the screen then appeared in the figure of a flesh-and-bone woman. “That’s exactly what I would like you to do under similar circumstances. Say ‘no’ to opportunity, that is.”

Nathan blinked several times at the stunning vision. His mouth dropped open in astonishment, his forehead beading in perspiration as the room began to spin before him.

“But if you leave me again now,” she continued huskily, slowly sauntering toward him, hands behind her back, “as you always seem to

do when the situation gets intimate between us, I swear by all that’s holy I will hunt you down and cut off every body part of yours you treasure.”

Nathan could do nothing but stare. Mimi stood a mere foot away from him, enclosed in this luscious, red room made for total intimacy, bathed in the scent of flowers, long blond hair flowing over her shoulders, wrapped only in white satin that, although tied loosely at the waist, dipped open between her breasts and spread wide again at the thighs, exposing every smooth inch of her legs.