The Secrets of Seduction - Elizabeth Lennox Page 0,1

hatred of him hadn’t dimmed over the past decade-plus and…Ella Fleming was even more stunning close up.

Ella had known that Malcolm Reynolds, Marquis of Theeds, was in the restaurant from the moment she’d entered. There were few who wouldn’t notice the tall, shockingly handsome man. His dark hair and cobalt blue eyes were a startling contrast against his tanned skin, revealing a trace of an Irish ancestor in his family’s past. But there was something more about him. Something that she couldn’t quite put her finger on. Perhaps it was the irritating confidence that always seemed to surround him. Or maybe it was just his height and that hard jawline. The blue eyes that she thought she could see even from across the room?

Whatever it was, Ella had not only seen her family’s nemesis, but she’d tracked him as he made his way through the dining room towards her. It was almost as if she could hear his deep, smooth voice over the low hum of conversation from the other diners, even from a distance. He was a powerful person within the global financial world. One of the most powerful, she thought. Ella wasn’t sure how that had happened since his father’s ducal estate was a mess. How had Malcolm gone from the tall, athletic teenager she’d known so many years ago, to the powerfully handsome, confident man in front of her? She didn’t know and she had to remind herself that she didn’t care!

“Good afternoon, Ella,” he said, his smooth, sexy voice sliding over the table. Naya and Cassy smiled politely, doing their political thing. But Ella wasn’t married to a global political or financial leader. She didn’t have to be polite or diplomatic.

“Go away, Malcolm,” she replied without prefacing her comment with pleasantries. She hated him with an acidic rage that was unlike anything she’d experienced in her life. And that hatred was justified.

Her poor mother!

Okay, Malcolm hadn’t actually killed her mother. He hadn’t pulled the trigger or slipped poison into her mother’s afternoon tea. But Betty, Ella’s mother, had been the housekeeper for the Duke of Theed’s estate for twenty years. For twenty years, Ella’s beautiful mother had cooked and cleaned for the disgusting Duke of Theeds, Malcolm’s father. Her family had lived in the small village just outside of the estate and, at the first sign of sickness, that horrible, disgusting Duke of Theeds, Edward Reynolds, had fired Ella’s mother. Thankfully, health coverage in Great Britain wasn’t an issue. It was just the demeaning and horrible way that Ella’s mother had been kicked to the curb.

Ella had hated him ever since. That’s why Ella sat back, watching and observing. Planning. Plotting! She looked on objectively as Malcolm charmed both Naya and Cassy, laughing at their comments and debating various issues. He truly was a handsome man, no doubt about it.

What he didn’t know was that Ella knew about a dark mystery that involved Malcolm’s family. Something was going on inside his father’s estate, something deeply dangerous and evil. Ella knew it and she’d come home to prove it. Malcolm Reynolds, Marquis of Theeds and Edward Reynolds, Duke of Theeds, were going down! She wasn’t sure what they were doing, but Ella was fairly sure that it was illegal. She’d come home to prove it and bring their malicious deeds out into the light.

“Good afternoon, ladies,” he said with a charming smile, turning his head away from Ella, but he moved his tall, muscular body closer to her.

Naya and Cassy were too polite to ignore him. “Hello, my lord. It’s wonderful to see you again,” Naya replied. “How is your father these days?”

Ella gritted her teeth, wishing that Naya wasn’t so polite.

“He’s at home,” Malcolm replied, bowing slightly but Ella saw something in his eyes. Had he just closed down? Was there bad blood between father and son? Interesting, she thought.

“Ella, how are you?”

Ella wanted to ignore the man. Her rudeness should have warned him not to speak to her. But before she could reply, Ella remembered the old adage about “attracting more flies with honey than vinegar”. So instead of snarling at him, she pulled up the corners of her mouth into what she hoped was a polite smile, even if her eyes didn’t convey the same message. “I’m fine, my lord,” she replied, although her throat convulsed around the words.

“And how is your father?” he asked, continuing with the ridiculous charade.

Again, she nodded, pulling her smile brighter even as her eyes narrowed. Was that amusement