One Night with Morelli

CHAPTER THREE

THOUGH THE LAWN had been rigged out with a positive village of canvas to house the reception, the ceremony itself was being held in the timbered great hall of Brent Manor, Charles’s country estate. The guests, entertained by a string quartet, were seated in semi-circular rows around a central aisle and the dramatic staircase was lit up to give everyone a good view of the bridal party as they made their big entrance.

The warm-up act was followed by a well-known soprano, who belted out a couple of numbers that reduced some people to tears. For Draco it felt like a visit to the cinema when the trailers went on for so long you forgot what you’d actually come to see.

Finally the wedding march started, but his sigh of relief earned him a poke in the ribs from his daughter, so he dutifully turned his head to watch the slow progression of the wedding party down the staircase. His interest was initially directed towards the tall bridesmaid who was the new wife of his friend Kamel.

Draco studied her as she walked past the row where he sat. Beautiful, he thought as his attention drifted for a moment to the second bridesmaid, who up to this point had been blocked from his view by the statuesque blonde.

He experienced a jolt of shock closely followed by an even stronger jolt of lust as he identified the slender creature as this morning’s green-eyed Eve! While he did not believe in fate or karma or even coincidence, Draco did believe in not wasting opportunities.

She made Draco think of the Degas he had purchased several years ago: the big-eyed delicate-featured dancer in it possessed the same ethereal quality. Not that there was anything balletic about this woman’s hunched shoulders and the expression in her wide-spaced eyes was less dreamy and more abject misery. As his glance lingered he realised that there was nothing joyous in any aspect of her body language, including the smile painted onto her face.

As she drew level with him he could almost feel the tension rolling off her in waves. In the hollow at the base of her white throat—she had quite beautiful collarbones, he mused—a pulse throbbed. It wasn’t just tension rolling off her, he realised; it was a level of misery you would have expected to see at a funeral, not a wedding!

At the precise moment she drew level with him Draco got a glimpse of something else you didn’t expect to see at a wedding! It happened so quickly that if he hadn’t been staring at her he’d have missed it, and she handled the dilemma rather well. Without skipping a beat or looking to left or right she grabbed the bodice of her dress before it slithered all the way down to her waist so it was a bit of a blur, but he got a glimpse of a white lacy strapless bra through which he saw the faint pink outline of nipples and a birthmark shaped like a moon high on the left side of her ribcage.

As the service went on he found himself staring, not at the bride and groom, but at Eve… Was that really her name or a marketing tool? He was curious about her misery but a lot more interested in seeing that birthmark again… The white lace was pretty but in his head she was wearing pink tartan silk. He had felt instant attractions to women before but never one as consuming as that he felt when he looked at this woman.

His eyes didn’t leave her all the way through the ceremony. Then, as the procession led by the jubilant happy couple returned down the aisle, she was briefly hidden from sight by the bride and groom. Draco, who had struggled to leave his cynicism behind, had time to think, I give them a couple of months, before he saw her come into view once more. Unlike the new Princess of Surana, who was smiling at every familiar face she saw, his bridesmaid was staring fixedly ahead. She radiated a sultry sexiness that he could almost taste.

She had actually walked right past him, when she suddenly turned her head. Their collision of eyes had such an impact that for a split second he stopped breathing and she stopped walking. The air whistled through his flared nostrils as he exhaled slowly, and watched the colour wash over her skin.

His wink brought a flash of anger to her dark-framed emerald eyes but did not lessen the tension in the muscles around his mouth and eyes… The hunger he was feeling was no laughing matter.

* * *

Once she’d accepted it was really happening, Eve just wanted it to be over. For the most part she managed to blank out the actual ceremony. There had been that wardrobe malfunction but she was pretty confident that no one had noticed. The eyes that hadn’t been on the bride had been on the beautiful Princess of Surana, but just to be on the safe side straight afterwards she had slipped away below stairs—no guests here, just the caterers who had not made use of the big old-fashioned pantry—to stuff a few more tissues in her bra. Going braless in this dress had not been an option so she had to grin and bear the discomfort it caused her shoulder. Well, it was better than baring her all, which she almost had done!

She stayed in the pantry as long as she could without risking her absence being noticed; the dress dilemma hadn’t been the only reason she had taken some time out. A memory of winking dark eyes came into her head and crossly she pushed it away, refusing to give him space in her head—refusing to give him the satisfaction. No man had ever looked at her with such earthy speculation and then to wink as though they shared some sort of secret…or was it that he thought she was a joke? She had maintained an air of cool disdain but inside Eve hadn’t felt at all cool!

She had no clue who he was—and she wasn’t interested enough to find out, she decided loftily. The guest list was as glittery as was to be expected when the groom was as wealthy and well connected as Charles Latimer, though in true lord-of-the-manor style he had invited all the estate workers and their families, among them a few girls she went to school with. She made no attempt to avoid them but neither did she speak to them.

A minor miracle—helped along by her resisting the temptation of the freely flowing champagne, as alcohol had a way of loosening her tongue—Eve managed to make it through the speeches while maintaining her assigned role of happy daughter of the bride.

By the time the bride and groom took to the floor for their first dance the knot of misery in her chest was a weight so heavy she felt as though it were crushing her, and her face muscles literally ached from the effort of looking pleased and proud while inside she was screaming no!

As the applause died away and the other guests began to drift onto the floor she pretended not to see Prince Kamel heading her way—the poor man nudged into doing his duty by Hannah, no doubt—and headed for one of the flower-filled temporary ladies’ rooms. The last thing she needed was a sympathy dance!

But what about a sympathy something else…? For some reason the face of one guest popped into her head along with the maverick shameful thought, which she couldn’t even blame on alcohol. She gave her bodice a defiant hitch and gritted her teeth, banishing the blatantly sexual features to some dark dusty corner of her mind.

The bathroom was empty—well, she was due a break! Filling a basin with water, she stood there staring at her reflection. What she saw did not improve her mood in the slightest. It had been drizzling when they had transferred from the house to the marquee complex that had been erected on the west lawn for the reception so her hair was no longer sleek. It had frizzed and the strands that had escaped around her hairline had turned into tight corkscrew curls.

She sighed. ‘Maybe I should invest in a wig?’ Great, now she was talking to herself. She propped her elbows on the counter top and leaned in close so that her breath fogged the mirror. Standing there with her eyes closed, she patted her hair down as best she could with water, and listened to the soft gurgle as she pulled out the plug and the water drained away.

If she’d had to make a list of the five worst days of her life this one would have been right up there. It was the keeping it in that made everything worse. She’d had to smile through the knowledge that her mother was throwing herself away on a man who was not worthy of her, a man Eve despised, while looking as if she were dressed in a curtain and to top it all that man was here watching it happen.

Now what were the chances of that? It was like some horrible cosmic conspiracy! She had turned her head because she had literally felt his eyes on her, which was crazy. But she hadn’t been hallucinating; he really was there.

It had been the burst of energising adrenaline resulting from that brief contact and that wink that had got her through the photo shoot, but any benefits had been cancelled out by the fact that every time she had glimpsed him since then he’d been staring at her.

He was rude, he was arrogant and she determinedly ignored him, which was not as easy as it sounded when even across the room and separated by dozens of other people she was painfully conscious of the primitive sexual aura he exuded that had struck her dumb earlier that day. It wasn’t just his height or undeniable physical presence that made him stand out among the other men present, it was that rawness, the hint of danger he possessed.

It seemed crazy to Eve that some women were actually attracted by danger, that the whole bad-boy thing turned them on, but not being one of them she went out of her way to avoid him instead.

She opened her eyes and gave her reflection a stern look. ‘Come on, Eve, this will all be a memory tomorrow.’ Consciously straightening her shoulders, but not so much that it made her bodice slip down—she’d got the hang of it now—she headed for the door.

She had pushed it open a crack when she heard a voice she knew all too well. She peered furtively through the crack, knowing it wasn’t one person, it was all three. They always had hunted in a pack and it seemed they still did.

The bullies from her school days no longer wielded the power over her that had made her life a misery but the thought of going out there and facing them right now… No, there were limits to how much ‘suck it up and smile’ she had left in her—a school reunion with the three witches was just too much to ask of anyone.

Lifting her skirt, she ran for one of the cubicles, closing it just before the three women who like herself had had parents who worked on the estate came in.

‘I just love that lippy, Louise.’

There was a clatter as make-up was emptied onto the counter top.

‘So Hannah bagged a prince, lucky cow…’

There were murmurs of agreement.

‘He’s gorgeous, but I think she’s put on weight.’

‘Oh, definitely.’

‘Look who’s talking.’

In the cubicle Eve covered her lower face with her hand, not just to protect herself from the cloud of perfume that was drifting her way, but to stifle a gurgle of laughter. She wasn’t surprised that her friend inspired jealousy but fat…! Hannah was perfect and everyone knew it.

‘She’s welcome to her prince—it’s the hot Italian one I fancy. Now he is fit…with those eyes and that mouth.’

You’re obsessed, Eve chided herself. Just because the man is dark, why assume they are talking about him? Italian? Actually, one of the things that had struck her about him had been his Mediterranean colouring… Her green eyes glazed over as she conjured his voice in her head, hearing the slight husk in his deep, sexy drawl, but no accent.

‘Is he Italian?’

‘Have you never heard of Draco Morelli? Where have you been living?’ came the pitying response. ‘Honestly, Paula, I sometimes wonder what planet you live on. He’s a multibillionaire or something, on all the richest lists.’

‘So he’s loaded? Better and better. Shame about the scar…but I suppose it isn’t that bad.’

‘Married?’

Someone giggled. Eve didn’t know who by this point as their voices had blended into one high-pitched whine that grated on her nerves. At least one thing was cleared up: there was no longer any question mark over who they were talking about. Once they mentioned the scar she knew that the man the trio were discussing was the one whose stares she had been trying to ignore all day.

‘Does it matter?’

The careless response made Eve’s lips purse in a silent moue of distaste.

Marriage might not be something she personally aspired to, but if you were going to take vows—and she knew at least two of the women outside her cubicle door were wearing wedding bands—you stayed faithful to those vows.

If not, then what was the point?

She wasn’t surprised, given he moved in the same circles as her new stepfather, that this—what had they called him? Morelli—had money, but, unlike the trio who were discussing him as though he were a piece of prime juicy steak they contemplated eating, Eve was not impressed.

You could recognise the quality of good tailoring without admiring the person who wore it! Her birth father had money and status and he was a total sleaze. Eve admired talent and intelligence, and there had certainly been intelligence in the dark-eyed stare that had followed her all day, but it had been the sexual challenge in them that had made her stomach muscles quiver.

‘A definite plus,’ someone admitted. Maybe Emma? Eve speculated. ‘But I wouldn’t throw him out of bed if he was broke. Imagine him stripped and ready for action…’

During the general laughter and crude comments that followed Eve found herself responding with a mixture of indignation and distaste… It wasn’t so much that someone had hijacked her secret fantasy, although that was bad enough, it was that she’d been forced to admit she’d had one, that she had pictured a total stranger naked and sprawled on a bed that bore more than a passing resemblance to her own!

So you wondered what he looked like naked, Eve, big deal, she told herself. Did you think you were the only woman whose creative juices were switched on by his sexual charge?

‘He’s been staring at me all day, can’t take his eyes off me. Have you noticed?’ Louise boasted.

Eve’s nostrils flared as she hung onto her temper. So he’d been eyeing up all the women—what a sleaze! It was just as well she hadn’t felt special…well, not much. She could genuinely say she hadn’t wanted his attention, but it was one thing not to want it and another to know he pulled the same tired trick with every woman in the room!

‘You mean he came on to you? When?’

‘I wrote my number on his hand.’

‘No…how much have you had to drink? What if your Rob had seen?’

‘What did he say?’

‘He just looked at me and I went shivery! He’s got the most incredible eyes… Then he said…’

‘What? What did he say, Louise?’

The dramatic pause had not just her friends, but Eve in her hiding place, on tenterhooks.

‘I could tell by the way he’s been looking at me that he wants me. You always can…’

‘Yes, but what did he say?’

‘He said he had an excellent memory and if he wanted to remember a number he would, and then…’

‘What? What did he do then?’

‘Then he wiped it off!’

Louise had clearly decided this was encouraging. Her cronies, a lot less under her thumb than in the old days, were less sure. The subsequent squabble continued until they found a subject that they all agreed on—they were united in their contempt of the wedding.

‘I think in this day and age when people are losing their jobs and everything this sort of lavish display is totally insensitive.’

So why did you come? mouthed Eve from her hiding place. Someone seemed to hear her silent question.

‘Yeah, but the champagne is good.’

‘She’s only the cook.’

‘But good-looking. I wouldn’t mind looking half as good as E-E-Eve’s mum when I’m her age.’

‘You’ve got to hand it to E-E-Eve’s mum—she got her man in the end. My mum says they’ve been at it for years.’

With a militant light in her eyes, Eve reached for the door handle. No one, but no one, was about to bad-mouth her mother when she was around and get away with it.

‘What about E-E-Evie? What does she think she looks like?’

Eve’s hand fell away as she listened to the cruel malicious laughter. It brought the memories flooding back and for a moment she was the misfit stigmatised as a swot and taunted for her stutter.

‘And that hair!’

‘And the eyebrows, and she’s still flat as a pancake, talk about molehills… Do you think she still stutters?’

‘I don’t know. The snooty cow walked straight past me and acted like I wasn’t there. Well, whatever money she is supposed to have made I think that it’s exaggerated as she hasn’t spent any on make-up. I was right all along—she’s definitely a lesbian.’

‘You only have to look at her.’

‘Definitely.’

‘To think we got detention for saying it at school! The girl has no sense of humour.’ There was the sound of rustling and another blast of hairspray before someone said, ‘That’s my mascara.’ The sound of the door opening and then, ‘She was always full of herself, looking down her nose at us, the little swot.’

Old insults and she’d heard them all before.

The door to the ladies’ room closed with a dull clunk and the room fell silent, but Eve stayed inside the cubicle giving them another few minutes just to be on the safe side and let the tears dry.

She lifted a hand to her damp face… How crazy was that? She had sworn that they would not make her cry again, that the bullies who had made her life a misery had long ago lost their power to hurt her.

So why are you hiding in the loo, Eve?

Because she had nothing to prove.

‘I’m not hiding.’ She was about to slide the latch when a soft reply made her jump.

‘I know but it’s all right—they’ve gone.’

The kind voice didn’t belong to any of the three faces from the past.

The only person in the otherwise empty ladies’ room was a young girl. Even in her flat ballet pumps she was several inches taller than Eve and slender. The encouraging smile she gave when Eve stepped out lit a face that had perfect features.

Eve could feel the girl’s warm brown eyes as she walked across to the washbasin. ‘Are you all right?’

Eve smiled at the girl’s mirror reflection and turned the tap, allowing the warm water to flow over her hands.

‘Fine, thanks,’ she lied, mortified to hear the wobble in her voice. This was crazy; she was a hard-headed businesswoman, so why was she fighting the sudden and utterly uncharacteristic urge to unburden herself?

The girl continued to look troubled. ‘Are you sure?’

What a nice girl. She reminded Eve a little of Hannah at the same age. Not in colouring, as the teenager had raven-black hair, golden-tinged skin and liquid brown eyes, but in the confidence and innate grace that would set her apart from her contemporaries. Eve nodded and the girl walked towards the door.

Her hand was on the handle when she stopped and turned back, her expression earnest. ‘My dad,’ she began hesitantly. ‘Well, he says you shouldn’t let them get to you, or at least not let them see they get to you. It’s the pack instinct—bullies react to the scent of fear, but underneath they’re insecure and cowards.’

‘Sounds like you have a good dad.’

‘I do.’ A grin flashed that made her look much younger all of a sudden. ‘But he’s not perfect.’ The grin appeared again. ‘Though he thinks he is.’

The girl’s grin was contagious.

‘Do you mind me asking…? Are you…?’

For the first time that day Eve felt the urge to laugh. She swallowed the tickle of hysteria in her throat, horrified to feel tears pricking her eyelids. ‘A lesbian?’ Eve finished for her.

‘It’s fine if you are,’ the girl said.

The kid was so sweet, so kind, the contrast with the women’s malice so profound that Eve felt the tears press hotly against her eyelids. She blinked hard and stretched a hand to lean heavily on the wall.

The mental exercise she’d employed to lock her emotions in a neat box required energy, and Eve’s reserves were severely depleted. If she could have played the scene again she wouldn’t have hidden but old habits once learnt were damned hard to break.

‘No, I’m not.’ The sob when it came emerged from somewhere deep inside her. Eve did not immediately associate it with herself, then another came and another…as all the emotions she had kept under tight control that day suddenly shook loose.

‘Stay there. I’ll get someone.’

‘I’m f-fine…’ Eve hiccoughed but the girl had vanished.

CHAPTER FOUR

EVE DIDN’T REALLY expect the girl to return at all but she did, and with the last person in the world she would have expected to see in a ladies’ room.

Draco Morelli was the wise father— Oh, my God!

Eve backed away waving a warding hand as she fought to swallow a gulping sob. ‘Go away!’

Draco made a swift assessment. ‘Keep an eye on the door, Josie, and don’t let anyone come in.’

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