Page 3 of Enticement
“I just thought something more casual would, you know, fit in better with the jeans and jumpers crowd.”
Kit looked down at what he was wearing with his eyes narrowed.
My god, she realized. This was Kit’s version of casual. Heaven help her and the rest of the village’s female population if he ever dressed like he meant business.
“I’ve never been much into jeans.” He strolled over to the mirror that hung over the traditional fireplace, where he tweaked a few stray strands of dark hair into submission. “I’m sure they’ll forgive my little eccentricity. They never worried about my aunt, and she wore three-piece suits made from her neighbour’s old chintz curtains. They’ll just think I’m following in her footsteps.” He glanced down at himself again. “It’s hardly that outrageous.”
It wasn’t. It just wasn’t typical Yorkshire village haute couture either.
“So, where’s this place of yours?” she asked, wondering how quickly she could slip away and pull on something less dowdy. Not that she particularly needed to impress him, but she didn’t want him thinking her a total slob.
“Down the road.” He came over and perched on the sofa in the space her feet had recently occupied.
“What, in the village?” There wasn’t anywhere up for sale. She and Ross had had to wait five months for this place to become available just to rent. Kirkley wasn’t really even a village, more of a hamlet. Just a few old cottages huddled around a green with a pub, a duck pond and a sort of post office. No church, no school, no streetlights.
“Rose Cottage. Do you know it? It was my great aunt’s place. It’s been going through probate and whatnot, but it’s all sorted now.”
“It’s a fucking wreck!” she blurted before she thought better. There wasn’t even a roof on it. Evie clamped her hand across her mouth. Okay, there was half a roof, and maybe three intact panes of glass in the entire building.
Kit’s expression remained cheerful. “Yeah, I suppose it does need a fair bit doing to it.” He rubbed at his scalp, mussing up the hair he’d just straightened in the mirror so that if flopped forward over his eyes. “Still, I reckon I can be out of your way once I’ve a couple of rooms fixed up. I don’t need much. I can sleep in the kitchen once the Aga’s fixed.”
“Don’t worry about it,” Evie muttered.
His smile broadened to show off his slightly crooked canines. “Thanks, I appreciate it.”
What was she saying? She couldn’t live here with Mr. Enticement for months. What about space and chilling out? What about what he was doing to her heart rate? That smile of his was wicked, and his body to die for. She was going to have to poke her eyes out to stop herself gawping at him.
Ross, she bemoaned, what are you doing? I thought you loved me. Why are you throwing your handsome mates in the way?
Kit, she could sense just from his smile, was going to be trouble. They’d have to lay down some house rules.
Such as no bringing his dates home.
“Wow!” Ross stumbled through the front door forty minutes later carrying a briefcase and a cardboard animal carrier. “What’s the occasion?” He stared dumbfounded at Evie’s party dress and makeup before he dropped a kiss upon her upturned face and handed over the box. “Yet another addition to the family, I’m afraid. This one’s just for tonight. Iris is taking her after, but she has her dance class tonight and didn’t want to dump her in an empty house.”
Evie peeped inside the box at what appeared to be a tabby ball of fur. She felt Ross’s gaze upon her rear as she bent over.
“Are we due out somewhere?” he asked.
“Uh-uh. I just thought I’d make a bit of effort, seeing as we’re suddenly entertaining.” She reached into the container and scooped out the kitten. “Oh, she’s cute.” Maybe they could keep the kitten and send Kit to Iris’s. Ross’s secretary would probably appreciate a nice bit of man flesh to twirl her around the living room.
“She came in from one of the rescue centres, wound up in fishing twine. Some evil bastard had left her hanging from a tree in a plastic bag,” said Ross about the cat.
“That’s sick.” Evie snuggled the kitten against her breast, then set it down on the floor.
“Yup.” Ross picked up her discarded bag of Kettle Chips and helped himself to a handful. “So, where is he?”
“Who?”
“Kit, you dope. What have done with him? You’ve not banished him to the coal shed already, have you? He’s my oldest mate.”
“I think he’s gone to the pub. He said he had lots of people to see.”
“Yeah…suppose,” Ross replied, an unfamiliar hint of disappointment in his voice. He swivelled on the spot, then seeing her, his face brightened, and a wolfish smile tweaked his lips. “Actually, that’s a good thing,” He drew out the last few syllables so that they rumbled in his throat. “Because there’s a few things we need to address, right?”
“Right,” Evie hesitantly agreed. There didn’t seem any point in going over Kit’s impromptu tenancy. The guy had already moved in.
“Like,” Ross continued and he hooked a hand around her waist and pulled her into his arms, “what exactly I’m going to do with you in that dress.”
