Page 49 of Enticement
He guessed thinking time wasn’t on the agenda.
“And are you coming out or am I coming in?” She didn’t give him the chance to make a decision, a pair of snow-leopard skin boots swung over the wall, followed by two black satin clad legs and a frilly black smock. Lillianna beamed at him, swinging a jacket from her fingertip, an already lit rollup clamped between her teeth.
Kit accepted the jacket, which turned out to be far too narrow across the back, so he draped it around his shoulders like an old fashioned pelisse. He pulled a face at the noxious puffs of smoke.
“Sorry, forgot.” Lillianna stubbed the cigarette out against the rocks. “I saw you head up here, and figured you might appreciate a coat. Probably about time we had a little catch up too.”
I’m not having sex with you.He squinted uneasily at her. “Do we have anything to catch up upon?”
“Well, you know.” She edged a fraction closer. “We used to get on so well in the past. Where’ve you been off to all these years? Evie said something about Japan.”
He doubted Evie had said anything, but there were plenty of rumours about his exploits circulating the village. What seemed more miraculous was that Evie hadn’t cottoned on to any of them. Wary, he glanced at Lillianna from beneath his eyelashes, and then with a sigh, closed his eyes. She hadn’t changed. Still the same bitchy vampire bat of old, although her bust had filled out a bit, and her makeup was somewhat less garish.
Lillianna seized the opportunity offered by his apparent repose to straddle the rock behind him and casually start working out the knots in his shoulders, immediately dislodging the jacket she’d just provided. “It must be frustrating for you, coming home and finding Ross shacked up with Evie, especially seeing how determined she is to get settled and start replicating.”
He remembered Lillianna’s loathing of old of anything small and helpless. Babies were firmly in that category.
“Why would that be frustrating?”
She continued kneading, determinedly annihilating the tension just in time to cause him to stiffen up again.
“I could help relieve the tension.”
No point pretending that she was talking about pummelling his shoulders. It hadn’t taken her long to get to the point of this impromptu reunion.
“It’s not happening, Lillianna. So drop it.” He shrugged her off and stood. “I’ve nothing at all against Evie. Actually, I find her quite enthralling.” There, let her chew over that one. It’d kill her that she’d have to swallow her own catty gossip for once. “But hey, you must know that already, seeing as you’re the one spreading rumours of tawdry threesomes and naughty night time shenanigans.”
Her face grew hard and vicious. “I don’t suppose you’ve mentioned the last girl you got involved with in this village.”
“Why would I?” He eyed her through narrowed lids. “What does she need to know? That in the dim and distant past I had a girlfriend. Well, whoop-de-fucking-do! I hardly think that’s a big shocker. And there isn’t actually anything else to say about it, is there? It’s not as if I know anymore about what happened than you do.”
He turned his back on her and pulled himself up onto the top of the wall.
“Were you shagging Ross when you let her walk home alone?”
Crouched, he sneered back at her. Bingo! Her face lit up in triumph, she’d obviously confirmed a suspicion. “Did you think no one knew? Sammie knew. We all knew. God, it was sickening the way you two were always gawping at one another. Sammie told me all about how you used to have Ross watching you when you made out. That’s really fucking sick and twisted, Kit.”
“But nowhere near on the same scale as you and dear George.”
She awkwardly back stepped at the mention of the Satyr statue on the Melton estate, and rightly too. Oh, there were plenty of pictures out there of assorted ladies, young and old, wrapping their lips around the old goat’s staff, but what Lillianna had done with satyr George beggared belief.
Her bangles fell down her arms in a peal of discordant chimes. Thunderous, she sneered up at Kit, who sat framed against the sky. “She’d have done anything for you, and you only kept her around as piece of fluff entertainment. She told me how when you fucked, you used to be looking over her shoulder at Ross to see if he was wanking.” She shook her head, so the red mass of curls flapped around her face. “There she was, confident girl, full of life and you bollocks it for her. You broke her fucking heart.”
“Fuck off, Lilli.”
His ex had been many things, but she’d been no saint. Okay, so maybe he could have been more considerate about Ross. Actually, scratch that. Sammie had got off on it. She’d been a total exhibitionist, not satisfied unless at least two people were watching her at all times, and preferably more.
“Or else what—you’ll get me too?”
“Don’t be such a cow.”
“I’m simply looking out for my friend.”
“You’re stirring shit is what you’re doing.”
She breathed a huge sigh and planted her hands upon her hips. “For fuck's sake, Kit. You know what I want, do we still have to play this cat and mouse game? It’s not as if you haven’t been giving it out plenty while you’ve been abroad from what I’ve heard.”
He stretched, scrunching his hair into clumps. “I’m not for hire anymore.”
