The Problem with Seduction - By Emma Locke Page 0,49
significant. He gave her a slow smile. “I’m not used to having rich friends in interesting places.”
He was rewarded by her beaming smile. Then he got the hell out.
Con didn’t come again that week. She didn’t mind. There was so much to be done to care for Oliver, and then, she didn’t have any expectation that he would return so soon. She went about her days as if he hadn’t looked very much like a man torn when he’d left her dining room…precisely as she wanted him to look.
On Saturday she took her son to the park, for it was a fine morning, perfectly suited for a stroll, and she wished to stretch her legs. Other young mothers and nannies minded their little lordlings and barking spaniels as they chased each other across the rectangular patches of grass, making Elizabeth feel like part of a secret society. She didn’t require a man to walk through this section of the park filled with children. Most of the women were too occupied reprimanding precocious lads and lasses to notice her presence. Here she might be perfectly normal, any doting mother on a walk with her son.
Mrs. Dalton had stayed behind to spend an hour with her nose tucked into a book, leaving Elizabeth free to take in the air and think about Con—though only the barest amount, really. Their first night had gone far more marvelously than she’d ever dreamed. He hadn’t bedded her, but it was too early for that. All she’d needed to do was to plant the seed, then give him time to nurture it. She’d done that part well. Her initial error had been quickly corrected; so quickly, he hadn’t let her mistake ruin the night.
But she hadn’t dwelt on him long after that. The few hours she planned for the seduction of Lord Constantine were too many away from her son. Oliver wouldn’t be a roly-poly baby forever. She delighted in witnessing his new tricks, and resented any obligation that kept her away.
She nuzzled his head. His answering smile pierced her straight through. She glanced around the park, but of course no one else noticed his adorableness. She, on the other hand, couldn’t be prouder. His fits when he struggled to lift himself from the carpets made her sure he’d grow to be an athletic young man. He liked to be given objects to shake and suckle on, and brandished them toward her as if he were destined to have a generous heart. If she supported his dense little body, he could bounce on her knees.
He was becoming more aware of his surroundings, too. She’d chanced the park alone, without Mrs. Dalton or even so much as a footman. This was her special time with her son, and she didn’t want to interrupt it.
He looked about the park in little jerking motions and made nonsense sounds. She pulled his bonnet down lower over his brow and shifted him to her right arm. “Do you see the dog?” she asked, pointing to a mutt performing an impressive leap as he caught a red ball.
Oliver turned toward the sound of her voice. The angling of his small, round head as he sought to understand her made her heart feel so full, she felt a tear come into her eye.
She adored him. When he’d been inside her belly, she’d been terrified of the day he’d arrive and turn her world upside down. Now she could hardly remember her life before he was in it. Nor did she want to. The Elizabeth who’d never held her child at her breast was a different Elizabeth, a woman who’d thought only of herself.
Locked inside her own thoughts and distracted by her son as he reached his chubby arm toward the dog half a block distant, she didn’t notice a man drawing abreast on her right until his voice brought her crashing back to the present. “I’ve been thinking,” Nicholas said without preamble, “and much more.”
She tightened her grip on Oliver, tangling her fingers in his long gown lest Nicholas try to wrest him from her. Her steps quickened, but Nicholas’s long legs easily kept pace. “I don’t have time for your accusations,” she bit out. She elbowed past him. She searched for any person nearby who might help her if he threatened her.
She recognized no one who could come to her aid. What was he doing here?
“He looks uncomfortable. Let me have him.” Nicholas reached for Oliver.