LITMIR.BIZ

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face burrowing into her shoulder. Olivia tried to pull away but Fiona held her tight for another few seconds before releasing her. Tears floated in her best friend’s eyes.

      ‘Oh, Livvie, I’m so glad you’re here.’

      Fiona held her hands hard and Olivia’s nervousness disappeared. She was so glad to see her friend, and from the look on Fiona’s face she was more needed than she’d realised.

      Squeezing Fiona’s hand, she smiled. ‘How are you, babe?’

      Fiona’s big brown eyes blinked and her smile faltered. ‘I... I’m... It’s...’

      Olivia knew that look. Something was wrong. Very wrong. A strange excitement gripped her chest. Had something happened between Fiona and Will? No. That would be bad, and Fiona didn’t deserve her to be thinking like that. She gripped her friend’s hand and turned to Edward. He might as well be of some use if he was just going to stand there like a giant wombat.

      ‘Can you bring my bags in, Eddie?’ she asked him, before putting her arm around Fiona’s shoulders and walking with her friend up the stone steps and through the stone archway that heralded their arrival into the castle.

      * * *

      Could he bring her bags in? What did she think he was? Her ladies’ maid? But the man his sister had hired to greet the cars had moved on and he was left out at the front alone.

      Edward looked up at the cold stone wall. He hadn’t lived here in over twenty years but it still made him shiver. That last day was burned into his brain. That day was all he thought about when he thought of home. He’d been relieved when he’d returned to boarding school a month after it had happened—glad to get away. But today he had to be here. His mother needed him. She was taking it hard.

      ‘Another one gone,’ she’d told him on the phone the other day. His temple throbbed again.

      With a heavy sigh he heaved the multitude of bags from his car. He grumbled under his breath as the first spots of rain started to fall. A particularly cold droplet hit the back of his neck and wormed its way down his back. He shivered and moved to shake the cold feeling off. The woman was only here for four days—why would she need so much luggage?

      It took a few minutes, and his body had started to heat up, but he finally managed to hoist all the bags across and over himself before heaving them into the foyer of his boyhood home. He’d dropped them with a thud when his brother barrelled towards him.

      ‘Ed, old son. We weren’t sure if you’d make it. So sorry to pull you away from London, but some things are more important than work, aren’t they?’

      Edward grunted and slashed a smile across his face. He wasn’t sure he agreed with his brother’s sentiments but he wanted things to go smoothly. For his little brother, for his mother and for everyone else. That was why he was here.

      His brother shook his hand vigorously before slinging his arm around the timid little creature he was marrying in two days.

      ‘We’re so glad you’re here, Edward.’

      Her little voice shook. Next to her was Olivia. Dressed in her eye-burning purple sparkles, showing an extreme amount of upper thigh and with eyes that flashed like flints of steel. Her fists were clenched and that glossy, pouty mouth was pursed. For some reason his body went tight and then hard. She had a particularly sexy way of crinkling her forehead when she was cross. And it irritated him that he’d noticed.

      ‘Your bags,’ he announced, dropping the multi-coloured luggage that remained wrapped around him to the floor.

      She didn’t look at them, just kept those blue eyes set on him.

      ‘I’d like a word with you.’ Her voice held a warning.

      He raised an eyebrow. He hadn’t been ordered around like that by anyone in years. Even the Prime Minister asked him politely if he’d mind ever so much if they had a quiet chat.

      He almost smiled at her audacity. She turned and walked through the door on the right that led into the drawing room and he watched her go, the ridiculous furry coat barely covering her thighs. Her calf muscles tensed as she clacked in her high heels across the two-hundred-year-old stone floors.

      He turned to Will, who just shrugged.

      ‘We’d better get back to the party, mate. Don’t be long. Bunny’s here with the Blenheim Blowhards. I can’t survive them on my own.’

      Edward grimaced. The Blenheim Blowhards were the gang of terrifyingly stupid friends his sister Bunny seemed to drag with her wherever she went. He wasn’t sure why. Bunny had brains—the fools she hung around with had nothing but mash between their ears. He avoided them whenever possible.

      A nervous look came over Fiona’s face before Will pulled her away and into the room on the other side of the hall where the party was being held.

      Edward contemplated which way to go. He didn’t like being ordered anywhere, and the brash woman in his father’s drawing room didn’t deserve his time. But she certainly sparked his interest. What did she want—and why would she want to talk to him privately?

      Intrigued, he followed the mini-skirted Mistress of Intrigue through the door.

      FOUR

      Olivia threw off her coat and tried to form a coherent sentence in her mind as she waited for Edward. She tried to stay calm, but calm was not something she did well. Particularly not when her best friend had just burst into tears.

      ‘To what do I owe the pleasure of your exclusive company?’

      Edward’s silky voice announced his arrival as he strode into the room. Olivia burned. Who the hell did these people think they were? Edward placed a hand on the floral sofa in front of him and challenged her with his eyes.

      ‘Believe me, it’s no pleasure. You need to tell your family to back the hell off.’

      ‘Excuse me?’

      Edward raised an eyebrow. Just one. Olivia’s stomach jumped. Angrily she ignored it.

      ‘Your family are being mean to Fiona and you need to make them stop.’

      An irritating smirk slashed across Edward’s square face. ‘They’re being “mean” to her? What is she—in nursery school? Fiona will need to learn to fight if she’s to survive in this family.’

      Olivia felt her neck go hot. Being mean to someone for no reason was her pet hate. Actually, her absolute hate. She’d been the victim of mean girls for many years and it had almost broken her. It wasn’t going to happen to her best friend. Not now. Not ever.

      ‘I don’t know who you lot think you are, but if you and your toffy pals continue to be mean to my friend I will pack our things and leave.’

      There. She’d said it. To his snobby face. Be mean to her friend and face the consequences.

      * * *

      Edward blinked. There was a fire blazing at the end of the room and fire in the eyes of the woman in front of him. He’d shed his coat and scarf but he felt uncomfortably warm.

      ‘I beg your pardon?’

      Olivia paced slowly towards him. Her long, tanned, muscular legs were moving slowly and seductively, and he had to push down the spray of moisture that had just landed in his mouth and cling to the chaise longue in front of him. Her eyes were intent on him and her chin was down. She swayed and sashayed deliberately, without smiling, until she was right in front of him—her head reaching just underneath his chin.

      ‘I said we will leave.’

      But Edward didn’t hear her. All he could concentrate on was her heavy eyelashes and those golden breasts that rose and fell so heavily. He hadn’t seen the full effect of that lurid purple dress before. Her tanned skin glowed against the bright colour in the soft light. She brought her hands up to her hips and he wanted to shift—to

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