One Night with Morelli(55)

                ‘No, I told you—’ This time Draco heard them too. He closed his eyes then sat up with a sigh.

                ‘I think there’s more than one of them,’ she confided in a hushed whisper.

                He left the chesterfield in one lithe motion. Reaching for his trousers, he angled her a carnal look that made her insides flip and her eyes glow.

                ‘Hold that thought,’ he commanded thickly.

                ‘That wasn’t what I was thinking.’

                He dragged his shirt together; some lies were just too obvious to justify a response. ‘Stay here—it’ll be safer.’

                The comment sent her imagination into overdrive. ‘Safe from what? Do you know who it is? Should I call the police?’

                ‘It’s nice to know you care, but I can handle this.’

                Eve wanted to yell she didn’t care after him, but suddenly she had an awful feeling it would be a lie.





                                      CHAPTER TEN

                BEFORE 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?