Enticement (22 page)

“Yeah—curious that you don’t have a favourite but you know who I’m talking about.”

“Drop it, Lilli. Are you coming in?”

“Nah, you’re coming out.”

Evie shook her head. She still needed to work on the dramatization of her sex life for Kit’s benefit. Despite fitting in numerous rehearsals at work, going over events in her head and trying to make them sound interesting, the only reaction she was likely to get at the moment was a humungous yawn. “I’m all set for an early night,” she told Lilli.

Truthfully, she did need one. There were muscles in her stomach and thighs she hadn’t known she had a week earlier.

“Honestly, you and your dressing gown!” Impatient as ever, Lillianna pushed past Evie into the hallway, her straight hair swinging like a stage curtain over her face. “Grab your coat. Let’s sort you out.”

Thirty seconds later, Evie found herself crossing the green in her slippers, clutching her coat and bag. “Where are we going?” she asked as she tried to shake off Lillianna’s steel-clawed grip on her wrist.

“Molly’s. You need sprucing up a bit, and I need an excuse to visit. It’s Wednesday,” she proclaimed as if that fact were highly pertinent. “And I had my nails fixed yesterday ’cause one of them broke, so you’ll have to have yours done.” She waved the evidence of her recent manicure two inches in front of Evie’s face. The nosebleed effect had gone, replaced by a stylized cobweb design in black and silver, presumable intended to go with her return to black hair. “Plus, you’re shagging Kit, so we kind of need to talk.”

The notion of sharing the details of her sex life brought a sickly green tinge to Evie’s already pale skin. “I don’t do details. I’ve told you that before.”

“I wasn’t asking for them, although if you do want to share… Anyway, I notice you’re no longer denying the fact that you’re doing the evil with him, which must mean Ross is in on it too.”

Evie stopped and planted her hand upon her hips, but Lillianna just marched ahead.

“At Molly’s.” She tapped her nose and gave Evie a wink. “Village green’s never a good place to dish.”

“I haven’t noticed it growing ears.”

“It doesn’t need to grow ’em.” Lillianna swirled around, but she kept on walking, albeit backwards. “I think it’s about time you learned what certain folks have against him.”

Okay, this she definitely wanted to hear. At the least, it might shed light on Tony’s weird remarks.

“Eyebrows and nails, Moll,” Lillianna announced when Molly opened the door of her corner cottage to them and peeped out into the now thickening gloom. “Sorry about the short notice, it’s desperate.” Lillianna guided Evie over the threshold and through to the conservatory, where she pushed her into the big leather chair that dominated the space. Molly followed them through, flicking off the TV with the remote on the way past. She stood in the doorway and eyed them questioningly.

“Kill the hairy caterpillars.” Lillianna nodded towards Evie’s brows.

Molly’s narrow, heart-shaped face filled with a sunny smile as she padded across the lime-washed tiles to Evie’s side. Ill at ease with the smiling torturer’s approach, Evie hunched down into the chair. “I happen to like them au natural.”

Molly gave a shrug and slipped the tweezers she’d picked up into her pocket, the action met with a disapproving sniff from Lillianna, who swirled away in a cloud of patchouli and gardenia with her severely plucked eyebrows arched halfway up her fore-head. “I bet Kit plucks his. He’s not found of unnecessary body hair.”

Evie folded her arms, remembering all too well the sensations associated with Kit’s denuded body, and how noticeable the stubble around his jaw was first thing.

“And Ross definitely plucks, else how do you explain his teenage monobrow compared with now?”

“Never mind the eyebrows, these are atrocious.” Molly’s fingers entwined around Evie’s hand and then stretched out each digit for inspection. Sorrow glowed in her mocha-brown eyes as she tutted over the destruction. “You’ll have to have acrylics, there’s barely any nail left.” She flicked her long blonde fringe out of her heavily made-up eyes and immediately set to work pulling out the requisite bits and pieces. “I never took you for a nibbler. Normally I can spot them.”

Evie glanced at her poor fingernails. A week of studiously attempting to ignore all the rumours circulating about her and the boys had reduced them to ragged stumps. Without thinking, she popped her thumbnail in her mouth and attempted to bite. The act earned her a withering glare.

“I catch you chewing these and you’re in for it,” Molly said as she lay out a set of fake nails on the side table attached to the chair. “Just chill for a while; this won’t take long. I just need to sort your cuticles out first.”

Molly set to work, soaking her nail beds. Evie allowed her attention to stray in Lillianna’s direction. Her friend, who was being unusually quiet, stood by the window, with a nail art leaflet held loosely within her grasp. However, her attention was clearly on whatever lay beyond the blinds, the cord of which she twitched the moment Molly’s head turned, to reveal a panoramic view into the neighbours lounge.

“You could’ve just called, Lilli, and stood in the dark, although the business is appreciated.” Molly gave Evie a broad smile, which she barely noticed. her thoughts already back on the subject of her past sexploits and how exactly to dress them up for Kit’s consumption. Maybe if she spun him something about an old temping job and seamed stockings, except he’d probably realize she was lying, and she wasn’t sure he’d get off on the whole naughty secretary thing.

“Ahem!” Lillianna’s sharp cough cut through Evie’s thoughts. She glanced up and realized that Molly’s neighbours were home. Jason and Saul were the lead singer and bass player from Kirkley’s hottest band. Admittedly, their only competition was dad rock quartet
Bill and the Teds
, but the pair were certainly lust worthy, especially when they poured themselves into tight outfits and got up on stage. Currently, they were stripping off creased business suits.

“Should we be watching this?” Embarrassed, Evie dipped her chin so that her hair fell down across one eye and partially masked the view of Jason slipping off his trousers. Molly, she noticed, paid the window no regard.

“Shell pink, okay?”

“Fine, just nothing garish.”

Lillianna stopped fanning the nail art leaflet and hunched against the curtain cord, her nose almost poking between the slats of the blinds as she sought the ideal viewing spot. She perched one cheek of her curvy bottom on the windowsill.

“Lilli, I’m not actually interested in watching them bumming one another.” Evie’s brow further creased as more gym-toned muscle was displayed along with two pairs of tight white boxer shorts. It wasn’t that she wasn’t curious, it was just she knew how mortified she’d be if she found out someone had been spying on her, especially given what she’d been up to recently with Kit and Ross.

“They don’t,” said Lillianna.

“They’re not gay,” added Molly. “Or if they are, they’re hiding it well, considering the collection of groupies they have.”

“Yeah, yuck, Evie. I don’t get off on that stuff, unlike you. What’s the attraction in knowing they can have fun without you?”

There were numerous attractions, none of which Evie felt like listing, including symmetry for one and satisfying some plain old curiosity for another. And that was before she considered the more taboo aspects, or exactly how big a turn on it was watching Kit and Ross make love and knowing they weren’t going to push her away if she wanted to join in.

“I always thought you liked staring at men’s butts.” Evie set to chewing the inside of her cheek in place of her nails. Having stripped off, neither of the men seemed in any hurry to pull anything else on.

“Huh! I like digging my nails into their butts, Evie.” Lillianna flexed her fingers in a clawing motion and gave a yowl. “Preferably while they’re astride and think they’re in control. I’m all about eyes, not arses.”

Which explained her interest in Kit, who was a little too slender to have the world’s finest arse, but had eyes like the souls of the world.

“Do we need to psychoanalyze your biggest fear while you’re sat in that chair?” Lillianna slinked across the floor, somehow moving in steel-tipped stiletto heels, a heavily beaded dress, and with six dozen bangles up her arms, without making more than a whisper of sound. She stretched over the lower half of Evie’s chair, so she could meet her face to face at close quarters. “Terrified they’re going to leave you out, are you? You wouldn’t be the first.”

Molly’s head jerked up from its hunched position over Evie’s nails. “It’s true that you’re having a threesome, then? It’s not just some gossipy rumour.”

“No—no!” Evie pushed Lillianna away and tried to get up, only to have Molly’s grip tightened upon her arm.

Flummoxed, she gazed into the hazel of Molly’s eyes trying to figure out the question. “Oh,” she said, realizing Molly had taken her
no
to Lillianna’s teasing as a denial of the relationship. “In truth…Well, sort of…ish.” She sat back down with her arms folded, blushing furiously, her lips clamped together for fear of any details escaping.

“It’s a full-on, stinking ménage a trois.” Lillianna clacked her heels. “It’s only the fact that one of them is Ross that’s stopped me pulling you limb from limb yet. Never did get what Kit saw in him, and I’m not the only one.” With an irate waggle, she returned to her position by the blinds. The two men from next door were now sitting side by side on the sofa in their boxers, evidently waiting for something.

Meanwhile, Molly’s gaze remained fastened upon Evie, her hazel eyes bronze flecked with worry. “Oh!” she pursed her lips, as if she wanted to say more, but wasn’t sure if she should, or how to go about it either. A surreptitious glance at Lillianna didn’t seem to help with the decision. “I hoped it was just a rumour…for your sake. He’s not just bad, Evie. He’s downright evil.”

So folks kept suggesting, not that any of them came out and said specifically why he’d earned such a reputation. “Really?” She tried to catch Lillianna’s eye, intending to press her for the answers she promised, but her friend studiously ignored her.

“Drink?”

Molly’s pleasant face set into a grimace as she spooned granules into two mugs and dumped a teabag into a third. “I can’t believe Ross has got you involved with him. I know they’re old friends and Ross has never acknowledged what happened but…”

“What happened? What are you talking about?”

Horror shot through Molly’s already drawn expression, causing a flight of anxious butterflies to tear about inside Evie’s stomach.

“You mean Ross hasn’t…or Lilli? Shit! They’ve not told you?”

In her alarm, Molly missed the cups and tipped milk over the work surface. Evie lurched to the rescue with a strip of kitchen towel. “You’re telling me you don’t know what he did?” Molly snatched up a packet of biscuits and munched her way through two without seeming to notice. “Goddamned Lillianna, that’s why she brought you here, isn’t it? Wouldn’t dare say anything bad about him herself, in case it got back to him. Coward,” she snapped loud enough for her voice to carry through to the conservatory. “And as for Ross… Jeezus, that’s so irresponsible. I thought he was better than that.”

She led Evie through to her miniscule lounge, which was rather overcrowded by a large aspidistra, and thrust a framed photograph at her. “This is Sammie, my sister.”

Evie took a good look at the old photo, sensing a sort of reverence on Molly’s part. The image was of two women in their late teens or early twenties, dressed for a night on the town in microscopic skirts and vest-type tops. Molly was instantly recognizable, despite her hair being a good five shades darker than her current bleached-blonde. Her sister had an easygoing smile, tainted by a hint of slyness around the eyes, although she was undeniably pretty.

Molly took the back the picture and replaced it on the book case. “You’ve never heard of her, have you?”

“I didn’t realize your family was from round here.”

“They moved.”

Sensing impending doom, Evie mentally braced herself for the details of a road accident or drunken misadventure. Drugs were out; Kit was far too clean living for that, although maybe this would explain his obsession with green tea and muesli. Maybe it was something simpler like he’d got the girl pregnant and bailed on her. She hoped not. She didn’t have much respect for people who wouldn’t accept responsibility for their actions, and she didn’t want a reason to dislike him.

“Just tell me, Molly.”

“He killed her.”

“What?”

“Oh, I can’t prove it. But I know he’s responsible. They found her clothes in a ditch. Wallet too.”

Evie gawped at Molly, completely dumbstruck. There weren’t really words to express the shock and disbelief that flattened her thoughts. Kit a murderer… Ridiculous. Sanity prevailed. She shook her head. “No. Oh, no.”

“It was fine between him and Sammie while she was going along with his pervy demands, but it was a different matter once she started saying no,” Molly explained.

“No.”

Molly didn’t seem to hear Evie’s denial; she just kept layering on the dirt, thicker and thicker. Painting an image of a man so alien to what Evie knew of Kit, the dichotomy finally snapped her out of her stunned daze.