Enticing Eve: Scandalous Secrets, Book 2 (9 page)

Eve is jealous.

Molten blood pounded through his veins; his heart pumping harder at his discovery. For the first time, Colin believed Victoria to be correct. Eve certainly wouldn’t be jealous if she didn’t still care for him. It was true – it had to be. Why else would Eve react in such a manner?

Colin slowed to a stop when he reached the top step. Until now, he remained determined to sacrifice his own happiness for the sake of his brother and Eve’s; however, his conversation with Victoria and this latest turn of events changed everything. Seeds of selfishness had taken root, burrowing through to his very soul.
 

He didn’t travel to hell and back to watch the woman he loved marry someone else.

From the first moment he first saw her, bathed in moonlight crying quietly on a terrace, Eve had stolen a piece of his soul. From that day forward, he lived for her.
 

Even surrounded by bloodlust and brutality, the memory of her helped him survive every sweltering day and every cold night. He remembered Eve bathed in the warmth of bright sunshine, her blonde hair glowing like a halo, her full lips and high cheekbones the soft pink hue of a painting he once saw at the Royal Academy of Arts. Her mesmerizing smile and dazzling eyes the color of a dewy spring garden made him feel like he’d been graced by an angel.

Just as he would rise from the ashes of his past, Colin would discover Eve’s true feelings for him.
 

Little did anyone suspect that Colin MacAlistair had returned home a new man. He would take great pains to ensure no one would ever suspect the lengths to which he would go to reclaim the woman he loved.
 

God help him. Colin couldn’t live without knowing the truth and he wouldn’t rest until he had uncovered it.

Chapter 3

Eve couldn’t believe her eyes, certain that she must be imagining things. What if though, for the sake of argument, Colin were to court Victoria or any eligible female for that matter? Why should the mere possibility affect Eve so?
 

Her nagging conscience whispered,
You care about him
.
 

She refused to listen. Moreover, Eve resented Colin for stirring such contemplation within her.
 

“There you are,” Gwen looped her arm through her brother’s giving him a gentle squeeze. Eve realized that she was staring and quickly turned her attention to the opulent place settings in front of her.
 

“Fiona,” Gwen reached the table, “allow me to introduce my brother Colin.”
 

Her grandmother’s introduction to Colin provided Eve the opportunity to study the scene before her without appearing too obvious.

“Oh, my dear, welcome home!” Fiona beamed as peacock feathers from her gown drifted upon the soft breeze.

Showing no air of disapproval at the woman’s ostentatious choice in garments, Colin bowed and kissed the back of the Dowager Viscountess’s hand.
 

Based upon Fiona’s animated expression and rosy cheeks, Colin had already passed the Viscountess’s test without saying one word.

He’s getting off too easy.

The force and speed at which her anger reared its ugly head surprised Eve. After all, what difference could it possibly make if her grandmother likes Colin?
 

Eve knew the answer all too well – because she always imagined that Colin and Fiona would get along. It was her dearest wish that they would be a family.
 

Again, Eve was reminded of just how much she had lost.

“Your sister is thrilled to have you home at last and I can see why. I dare say, you are charming. And what beautiful blue eyes you have, darling,” the Viscountess said as Colin escorted Fiona to her seat. “Neither your sister nor brother has blue eyes, do they?”
 

What an odd question.

“No, we’re not as fortunate,” Gwen replied as she ushered her brother towards Eve.

“Allow me to introduce Fiona’s granddaughter, Eve,” Gwen proclaimed.
 

Eve offered Colin her hand under silent protest. To do anything different would alert the others to the fact that she already knew him, and that was the last thing she wanted.
 

Colin kissed the back of her hand, his azure gaze scrutinizing her response to his touch. It disarmed her, causing Eve to pull away from him in a deliberate effort to create as much distance as possible between them.

No one seemed to have noticed as Sebastian announced, “Please be seated, everyone.”

Eve’s grandmother continued, “Your father had brown eyes, yes?” Fiona asked Colin, who looked rather uncomfortable as he took his seat next to his sister.
 

Gwen answered for him again. “Yes, our father had brown eyes. Colin inherited our mother’s beautiful blue eyes.”

“Isn’t that extraordinary,” Fiona smiled, her voice light. It was obvious that the Viscountess remained oblivious to Colin’s dislike of the subject. “All this time I believed that one inherits his or her father’s eye color, not his or her mother’s.”

“If that is true then even at birth, my brother defied convention,” Gwen teased.

Fiona laughed, her curls bobbing about her cherubic face. “How
delightful!
”

Gwen leaned towards her brother before whispering something inaudible. Despite craning her neck in an attempt to hear their conversation, Eve was unable to discern one word since a servant with extremely poor timing chose that very moment to place her plate in front of her with a soft
clank
.
 

With great ease, Sebastian turned the conversation to Victoria and her art. His sister appeared quick to discuss her work, having painted all day apparently. Victoria then mentioned the fan Fiona had made for her, and the Dowager Viscountess joined their lively dialogue.

Eve watched the scene with great interest, noting that Colin and Gwen were still in the midst of their private dialogue. Gwen squeezed Colin’s hand before picking up her fork. He smiled in response though his once vibrant eyes remained flat.
 

Eve continued to study him throughout their meal, noting that he smiled when appropriate and laughed at all of her grandmother’s jokes; yet, beyond his cordial façade, his eyes remained unanimated, the spark that she’d witnessed years earlier now all but extinguished.
 

It was as if Colin hid behind a well-crafted mask of manners and polite conversation. When prodded, he was a dutiful brother happy to be home and the embodiment of a polite dinner companion. All the while, his eyes betrayed his unease.
 

Colin was not the same man Eve once knew – that fact was clear whenever Eve dared to look deep enough.
 

What had happened to him to precipitate such a drastic change? If she hadn’t seen him earlier this afternoon with his niece, if Eve hadn’t shared their private moment before Victoria’s arrival, she wouldn’t have recognised even the slightest similarity between this man and the one she was well acquainted with years earlier.

When Colin gazed into Eve’s eyes in the garden, when he caressed her cheek … he was the old Colin then. More intense perhaps, but the Colin she once loved nonetheless.
 

By the time the final course was served, Eve had no answers, just more questions swirling about her brain.
 

Why did this man always bring forth more questions than answers?

“Darling,” her grandmother bent down and kissed her on the cheek. Eve realized she was again staring at Colin and tore her eyes away from his profile.

“Shall we stay a little while longer?” Fiona suggested, her cheeks rosy and eyes alight with joy. “I’d love to spend more time with the twins. Perhaps read them a bedtime story.”

The duke and duchess defied convention, especially when it came to their children. Unlike most nobles, they took a real parenting approach to raising Emma and Nicholas. Between the duke, duchess, and Victoria, the family spent more time with the twins than their nanny did. Colin playing with Emma today was further proof.

Eve grinned, well aware that the Dowager Viscountess’s legendary bedtime stories were always animated and rarely accomplished the desired effect. More often than not they kept the children awake and clamoring for a second tale instead of lulling them to sleep.

“The twins will love a bedtime story from you, Grandmamma – or two,” Eve noted that the meal had been lengthy for the sun was already setting.
 

“Would you like to visit Emma and Nicholas with me?” the elder woman asked, her silver ringlets glinting in the remaining daylight.

Welcoming the distraction, Eve readily agreed. As she raced up the grand staircase, Eve realized just what a coward she was. True, she always welcomed the chance to play with the twins but tonight, that wasn’t her main motivation. Tonight she was fleeing from Colin.

Why was she so afraid of being in close proximity to him? Was Eve fearful of what Colin might say or what she might do if she were alone with him again? Her guilty conscience gnawed at her, forcing her to concede that it was the latter, and the magnitude of her situation chilled Eve.
 

If Colin tried to kiss her as she suspected he might have done in the garden, Eve feared that she would have readily lost herself in his embrace.

Was she still that naïve girl who wasted years pining for Colin MacAlistair? After all this time, was that silly creature still in her heart waiting for a chance to make a fool of herself yet again over the very man who had forsaken her?

Eve feared the answer more than she could have ever imagined.

* * *

“I thought I might find you here,” Gwen’s cheerful voice sliced through the thick silence Colin had been enjoying as he watched the summer sun set above the gardens.
 

Gwen nudged his arm with her elbow as she sat beside him on the cool marble steps leading from the terrace to the gardens. “I see you survived your first family dinner in ages relatively unscathed.”

“You call that inquisition a dinner?” Colin snorted. “I must commend you, though, on your seamless lie about our mother’s eye color. You know damned well her eyes were brown.”

“I’m sorry about Fiona’s questions, Colin. She is a kind woman. Had she any idea—”
 

“I know,” he muttered, glancing over his shoulder before admitting “Her observation about my eyes made me realize that I inherited my illegitimate father’s eye color. It hadn’t occurred to me until this evening.”
 

Gwen didn’t respond with words. Instead, she clasped Colin’s hand and held it reassuringly in her own. It had been years since anyone had reached out to him, yet today, on this very day, two sisters had done so.
 

In response, Colin wanted to flee as far and as fast as he possibly could. Instead, he suppressed the overwhelming instinct by grasping his sister’s hand, tightening his grip in the hopes of grounding himself.
 

Hadn’t he returned home for the sole purpose of facing his past? His past … the reason he left England and his subsequent acts.
 

Swallowing hard against the lump of disgust that formed in his throat at the mere memories, Colin stared at the sky, streaked with pastel hues intermingled with deep orange and violet. God, how terrified he had been when he learned that Lachlan intended to ruin Eve.

Though detestable, his initial panic had been the single cowardice he allowed himself before writing Eve then departing with one goal in mind – to prove himself worthy of her.
 

He did just that, amassing a fortune. However, his success came at a steep price.
 

His soul.
     

The fact that his metamorphosis occurred with such little effort came as no surprise to Colin since his very existence had transformed in an instant due to the machinations and deceptions of those closest to him. Unusual as it might be, it made perfect sense that he could develop the very traits that he so staunchly detested.
 

What made him different from those who had deceived him was that Colin possessed a conscience. And it was his conscience that kept him awake each night – the ghosts of his actions reminding him that his sins had become far more abhorrent than those of his parents.
 

“Do you remember how Tristan and I shadowed you relentlessly when we were children?” Gwen spoke in a hushed tone, gently stirring him from his inner daemons. “We went everywhere you did, gave you not one moment’s peace.”

He nodded. It was better for him to remain silent on this particular subject. As twins, Gwen and Tristan shared an unbreakable bond. Colin experienced no such closeness, and it remained one of his many regrets.

“We admired you so much,” Gwen added.

Colin sniggered. Tristan and Gwen admired their elder brother until they matured enough to know better.

He continued to survey the bright horizon, the comforting hues now replaced by streaks the deep crimson of a field of poppies.
 

Crimson …