Beautiful Distraction by Jess Michaels Read Free Book Online Page B

her how apparently comfortable it truly was.
    But instead he slipped her hand into the crook of his elbow and said, “Since your things have not yet arrived, may I show you the grounds?”
    She blinked. The tension between them crackled and yet he was offering her something beyond passion.
    “Very well,” she said, casting a quick glance at the bed.
    He smiled. “Oh, don’t worry, Olivia. You and I will share that bed soon enough.”
    And with that sinful promise hanging in the air between them, he led her down the hallway.
     
     
    Although their walk around the grounds had been nothing but pleasant, Mal still felt the tension coursing through Olivia. It had never occurred to him that she wasn’t utterly comfortable in her place in this world. But now he could see that she was troubled by the fact she didn’t entirely “fit” in the world of earls and dukes and country estates.
    And though he had been born into a gentleman’s home, he didn’t exactly feel he fit either. Yet another fact that bound him to her.
    “What do you think of the earl?” he asked.
    She jolted at the question and her discomfort was clear on her face. “I only met him for a moment—it would be difficult to make a judgment only from that.”
    “But you’ve heard stories about him,” Mal said, looking at her from the corner of his eye. “Everyone has.”
    Olivia bent her head. “Yes.”
    Mal tensed. People always thought they knew Liam because they knew about the scandalous war that had been long fought between his family and the house of the Duke of Rothcastle. They talked about the carriage accident that had maimed Liam and killed Rothcastle’s sister. They whispered about the marriage that had ultimately formed between Rothcastle and Liam’s sister.
    It all boiled Mal’s blood, because sometimes people took pleasure in the vicious gossip about a series of events that had been nothing but hell for his friend.
    “The vultures,” she continued quietly, “label your friend as a fallen angel, broken by the death of his lover, hardened by a war, hiding like a beast. But I would wager there is more to it than that.”
    Mal tilted his head. “You sum it up perfectly.”
    “Sometimes one has a better view of the truth when looking from the outside in,” Olivia said with a shrug.
    They were almost back to the house now, so Mal steered them into the rose garden near the back of the estate. He motioned to a narrow bench that sat under the shade of a juniper tree and they sat close together, her knees brushing his. It was an innocent enough touch, but it still made his body hot.
    “I imagine you are right,” Mal said. “People are always clearer from a safe distance.”
    “And in my profession, I must study the true character of those I meet, in order to guess if…” She trailed off. “I’m sorry, that is inappropriate. I’m certain you don’t want to hear about the details of my profession.”
    He hesitated. “Perhaps not the sexual conquests of your past, but I imagine you were going to say you have to be a quick study of those around you to determine threats, as well as good matches.”
    Her eyes went wide. “Yes. That’s exactly right.”
    He smiled at her shock. “It isn’t only courtesans who employ those methods. I am Liam’s friend, but I am also his estate manager. I must also make quick judgments about those around us, to decide if their motives about the earl and his money are true or not.”
    She shifted slightly. “And have you made a determination about Violet.”
    Mal pinched his lips together. Normally he might have, but he had been so totally consumed by thoughts of Olivia since they met. Not that he would tell her that.
    “Your friend is difficult to read,” he admitted. “But I know Liam wants her.”
    She leaned closer. “And what about me?” she whispered. “What do you see when you look at me?”
    What she asked for could very well reveal more than he wished for her to see. And yet he still