Against Her Rules (10 page)

  A
quick visit to a jewellery store and he knew right away that a bracelet or
earrings were just cliché. He left as quickly as he’d entered. He popped into
several other stores, but nothing there seemed appropriate. He honestly had no
idea what he wanted to get her, but believed he’d recognize the right thing
when he saw it.

  He
found it at a candy store. He filled a chocolate treasure chest with a ring
pop, a candy necklace, and scotch mints. He dashed back to the shop where
they’d bought their knit goods and found a scarf that matched her mittens, and
wrapped it around the chest.

  There
was something both exciting and nerve-wracking about picking out a gift that
you hoped would say things you weren’t sure you could say yourself. Cam hoped
Elsie would see that he wasn’t ordinary or typical, that he was willing to go
out of his way to do something unique for her, and that he had a whimsical
sense of humour. Of course, she might also think he was cheap and tacky. Better
to find out now.

  He
waited for her at the bar of the restaurant, playing the day over and over in
his mind. He wasn’t sure what had changed her mind about him, and he didn’t
plan on asking. He was happy. Happy to the point where if he thought back, he
had a hard time remembering a time when he had felt so relaxed and content. He
was filled with an enthusiasm to discover what came next.

  “Were
you waiting long?”

  How
had he not noticed her arrival? She was without a doubt the most stunning woman
in the room. A deep yellow, long-sleeved dress clung to her every curve. Form
fitting, and yet totally elegant. He couldn’t begin to imagine what piece of
lingerie she could have managed to conceal underneath.

  “There’s
no such thing,” he said, taking her arm in his. The material was a thick silk,
so supple that he had to fight the urge to run his hands down her body.

  If
her intention was to wear something that would compel him to touch her, she had
succeeded. Perhaps too well.

  “You
look delicious,” he whispered as he helped her into her chair. “Do we need to
order or can I just devour you?”

  A
hint of redness crept into her cheeks. “The food here is very good. But perhaps
later.”

  “I’ll
hold you to that,” he said, sitting next to her and resting a hand on her leg.
“That I can guarantee.”

––––––––

  D
inner
was amazing, Elsie reflected as she washed her hands in the ladies room. Cam
was a fantastic storyteller, and she loved the easy way they could talk. It
didn’t hurt that he made her laugh. The most difficult part of the evening was
trying to resist the urge to walk out from dinner, drag him to the car and tear
his clothes off. The man couldn’t keep his hands off her, and each time he caressed
her, whether it was her hand, her arm, her leg, or her face, her body
threatened to give in. She got butterflies in her stomach just thinking of what
the rest of the night had in store. It was tempting to find a room in the city
for the night, but she did have to go home. The long drive back to Heart’s Ease
was going to be difficult, but she planned on making up for it all night long.
She checked her hair, smoothed down the front of her dress (which she had paid
way too much for), and ran her lips together to blot out her freshly applied
lipstick.

  She
was caught off guard when, as she stepped out of the room, Cam was waiting for
her.

  “I
just have to taste you,” he said, pushing her against the wall and crushing her
mouth with his.

  Dear
God, she wanted him. Normally the idea of making out in a public restroom would
quash any sense of desire she had. But this was an upscale restaurant, with
luxurious private washrooms.

  She
slipped away from him and opened the door she’d just come out of. Reaching out,
she grabbed him by the waistband of his pants and pulled him inside. “Kiss me
again,” she demanded, amazed yet empowered by her boldness. “And don’t you dare
stop until I come.”

  It
took Cam all of one second to process the invitation before he had her pressed
against the wall again. There was nothing gentle about the way he kissed her,
and she returned in kind. He slid his hands down the front of her dress, one
hand stopping to caress her breasts through the silk dress. The other moved
down to gather the hem of her dress and push it up to her waist. With deftness
he slid his hand between her legs. Elsie knew she was slick and ready for him.
It had been building all evening.

  She
didn’t want to come from his hand. She needed to feel him inside of her,
squeeze herself against his long, hard shaft. Although it was difficult, in no
small part because the intensity of their kiss was taking a lot of her energy
and focus, she managed to get his belt undone and pants unzipped. Wrapping her
hand around his penis she discovered there was nothing she had to do to get him
ready to penetrate her.

  He
slowly removed his hand from her crotch, purposely stroking her clitoris as he
did, and lifted her up, pinning her to the wall.

  “Hold
on tight,” he commanded, before resuming their kiss.

  She
wrapped her legs around his waist and linked her hands behind his neck. With a
hard thrust, he filled her. Pulled himself nearly out, and rammed himself
inside again. There wasn’t much she could do in return other than grind herself
against him, keeping him as close as possible. She felt herself stretching with
each thrust, clenching her pelvic muscles to increase the sensation.

  Elsie
couldn’t breathe. She pulled her mouth away from Cam’s, her breath coming in
shallow gasps. A hot tingling at her very core crested out in waves through her
body. She bit in to his shoulder to muffle the exquisite sounds of pleasure
that she longed to shout. With a shudder she fell limp in his arms. Cam pulled
away from her, and grabbed a hand towel. How he was able to maintain control
long enough to prevent staining her dress was a feat she couldn’t comprehend.

  “That
was far better than dessert,” she said with a languorous smile.

  “That
was far better than just about anything I’ve had in my life, with the exception
of a few other memorable moments today.”

  For
the second time in the last ten minutes she once more smoothed her dress, and
checked her hair. She didn’t bother with her lipstick this time, although there
was a nice bit of it smeared on Cam’s shirt.

  As
they walked out of the restroom together, an elderly man was coming out of the
restroom next door. He grinned profusely at them as they walked away.

  P
ulling
into the driveway leading to the inn, Elsie was shocked to see a half dozen extra
cars in the lot. She hadn’t been expecting any new guests. As they got closer
she saw that they were all occupied with one person per car. Her gut instinct
told her this was not a welcome sight.

  Her
mother, father, Ida and Asher met them just inside the door.

  “It’s
not as bad as you’re going to think it is,” Asher said before the door had a
chance to close.

  “Shut
up,” her father said. “This is all your fault.”

  Elsie
felt an impending sense of dread creep up her back and into her head.

  “Those
cars outside,” she said. “Paparazzi, right?”

  “No
dear, they’re photographers for the tabloids. And they’re very rude,” Ida said.
“I caught one trying to sneak in the side door, but I gave him a good whack
with my cane.”

  “Well,
it was bound to happen at some point,” Elsie said, trying to stay positive.
“You can’t have celebrities here and never have them followed. And given your
recent exploits, I’m guessing you’re big news.”

  The
room went silent.

  “What?”
she asked, looking around.

  “Why
don’t I get you a cup of tea,” her father said, at the same moment her mother
told her to sit down.

  “Tell
her,” Ida said, glaring at Asher.

  “First
off, let me say that this is not,” he glanced at her father, “not my fault.”

  Cam
was looking out the window. “For Christ’s sake, what is going on?”

  Asher
took a hold of her hand. “They don’t know I’m here, Elsie. At least I don’t
think they do.”

  “Then
what...” Realization dawned on her. She blanched. “Are they here looking for
me?” She stood, pushing Asher away. “Why would they be looking for me, Ash?”

  He
ran his fingers through his hair. “Well, there’s been a lot of speculation
around London about who I’ve been seeing. You know what these rags are like.
Nothing better to do. But Anna got spooked. She was afraid someone would leak
her name. So she...” He took a step backward. “She left an anonymous tip that,
well, that it was you, basically.”

  Elsie
was not violent by nature. Even when Lynette Andrews challenged Elsie to a
fight behind the school over some boy Elsie had dared speak to at a high school
dance, Elsie refused. She just let Lynette smack her until the other kids
intervened. But now, for the first time in her life, a murderous rage settled
on her.

  She
lunged for Asher. “I’m going to kill you!” she roared.

  “Elsie,”
her mother shouted, as Asher dashed behind the reception desk.

  “No.
I’m going to worse than kill you. I’m going to maim you. And then I’m going
to... I’m going...” Rage clouded her vision and left her incapable of speech.

  Cam
wrapped his arms around her to keep her from getting her hands on Asher.

  “Shhh,”
he whispered. “We’ll figure this out. We’ll find a way to make this go away.
Just breathe.”

  Elsie
wasn’t aware that she was on the verge of hyperventilating, but that explained
the spinning room.

  “Elsie,”
Asher pleaded. “I’m sorry. I know this isn’t right. I’m going to fix it, I
promise you.”

  “You
are going to do nothing,” Cam growled. “If you set foot outside this house, if
any of them dare see you, then that confirms the story in their eyes. No,
you’re going to stay away from windows, doors, and anything else that can prove
your existence.”

  It
was a good thing someone was thinking clearly. Elsie had been contemplating tossing
Asher out the front door.

  “Are
you alright?” Cam said, stroking her back.

  “The
room isn’t spinning any more,” she said.

  “That’s
a start. What do you want to do next?” he asked.

  “Besides
wring the neck of this Anna chick?”

  “Let
me rephrase. What would you like to do next that won’t land you in the news,
and in jail?”

  “We
need to figure out how to get those vultures away from here, without a story,
so they don’t ruin my business. People come here to get away from the craziness
that follows them. They won’t want to come here if I’m notorious for being the
mistress of one of my guests.”

  She
groaned. Her worst fear was coming true. She was going to be branded a tramp,
the inn owner who sleeps with her famous guests. Her rage at Asher and the
Countess of Southcott was being replaced by a seething anger at herself for
ever having broken her rule and sleeping with Ash in the first place. And now
here she was, doing it again. Was she single-handedly trying to sabotage her
own business?

  “Can
someone please make a pot of coffee? And then make sure the drapes are closed
in the living room? Let me go change, and we’ll meet back here in ten minutes
to figure out how we can fix this.” She took a deep breath. “I’m sorry for my
outburst. It’s just not what I was expecting to come home and face tonight.”

  She
squeezed Cam’s hand before sliding her fingers from his. She wasn’t even sure
of when she’d taken hold of it, but it was going to be the last time she
touched him. It was too risky. She should have stuck to her intentions. But it
was too late for what-ifs. And the time she’d spent with him was too perfect to
regret. It would just have to end. She’d tell him later, after they all talked.
By then she’d know how to explain it to him. Or at least she hoped she would.

––––––––

  W
hen
she returned downstairs a few minutes later her father and Cam were in the
living room having a rum and coke. It hurt her to see them chatting away. Cam
would have fit in wonderfully with her life. She stood just outside the door,
taking in the scene.

  “Did
you have a nice day?” her mother asked, stopping with a tray of coffee and
cups.

  Elsie
nodded, because to say how wonderful it was, while contemplating never
experiencing another like it was too much to bear at this moment.

  “We’ll
figure this all out,” her Mom said. “Don’t you worry. You are not dealing with
this alone, my love. Put on a big smile now and go in. Those two men in there
are very worried about you.”

  For
the next hour they brainstormed and argued about the best course of action. Her
father was all for calling the police and having them escorted off the property,
but Cam pointed out that they needed a solution that didn’t make it appear that
they were trying to protect Elsie, or hide her away. The best way to act as if
it was nothing more than a rumour was to not let it affect life.

  Elsie
wanted to beat the Countess at her own game, and send out an anonymous tip
directing them to her door. But her mother was the voice of reason in that
scenario, pointing out that as much as Elsie might hate to admit, she was
covering up the truth. Like it or not, she was in a situation similar to
Anna’s. She wanted her relationship with Asher to remain a secret. What made
them different is that Elsie would never have dreamed of protecting herself at
the expense of another woman’s privacy.

  When
her mother put it that way, how could she argue?

  Asher’s
suggestion was the most creative to date, and she took a small bit of
satisfaction at the lengths he was willing to go to protect her.

  “I’ll
create a bigger scandal about myself,” he said. “I’ll come out of the closet.”

  “Ah
ha. I always knew that about you,” Ida joyfully exclaimed.

  “He’s
not gay,” Elsie said.

  “How
do you know,” Asher demanded. “I might be. I have a lot of gay fans.”

  “You’re
not gay,” Cam said. “I’ve known you since school remember? Remember the night
of William Simpson’s eighteenth birthday bash?”

  The
two shared a look that left the rest of the room curious. Elsie tucked it away
to ask about later.

  “What
are we going to do then?” If Elsie didn’t already know how much her mother
cared for her, the despair in her mother’s voice would have told her.

  “We’re
going to create a different story.” Cam said. “There are a couple of things
that we can’t really hide for long. First of all, Elsie is here. They’re going
to see her, and love her. She’s beautiful. Pictures of her will sell,
regardless of the story. And we can’t really hide Asher away forever. He’s
bound to arse things up at some point and they’ll get a glimpse of him and then
it’s all over.” He clapped Asher on the back. “No offence, Ted, but you know
I’m right.”

  Cam
stood and peeked out the window. “But we can change the reason why Asher is
here in a heartbeat. And create a different spin on the whole thing. It’s so
simple, I don’t know why I didn’t think of it sooner.”

  He
sat next to Elsie. “It just depends on you.”

  “What
do I have to do?” she asked.

  “Marry
me.”

  “Oh
blessed Mary,” Ida exclaimed. “Of course she will.”

  “Ida,”
Elsie’s mother hissed.

  “Or
least be my fiancée,” he said.

––––––––

  T
he
plan made sense, Elsie kept telling herself over and over as she put her new
dress back on. It still smelled of Cam’s cologne. There was an irrefutable
history of his friendship with Ted Corbin. Who was to say that they hadn’t
spoken in almost twenty years? It stood to reason that he’d ask Ted to be his
best man. As for Cam’s own public reputation as a ladies’ man, at least with
the London crowd, well, Elsie was a saint, sticking by him all these years.
Some of his less than pride-worthy antics that had been documented in the
society pages would just happen to coincide with those times when Elsie had
called off their relationship, which in turn prompted Cam to descend into
debauchery. She’d snorted at that part. And also made a note to google Campbell
Scott in the not too distant future. Perhaps as early as tonight. Of course,
now, thanks to the unexpected presence of the paparazzi, they would have no
other choice but to postpone the wedding. It was hard to have a private,
intimate wedding with just close family and friends when it was ruined by the
press.

  At
first Elsie would have nothing to do with it. She would still be known as the
woman who had a relationship with one of her guests. It took her mother to make
her see reason. Other than her staff, no one knew that she and Cam had only met
a week ago. They were a long-suffering couple, her mother said, finally about
to get their happy ending.

  So
it was that Elsie was getting dressed again so that she and Cam could be caught
kissing. It was the first of several planned actions for tonight and tomorrow
that should send the press away. Cam was no international celebrity. There
wasn’t a lot of money to be made staying on that story.

  She
was trying to work out how she felt about the charade. It gave her a reason to
continue spending time with Cam, which was much better than having to end it.
But she wasn’t a very good actress. There was the danger that she might start
believing the story herself. She’d just have to work hard to remind herself
that the chemistry might be real, but the relationship was for show. If she
could manage that, then she just might manage to protect her heart from shattering
when it was all over.

––––––––

  “T
his
had best be an emergency,” Daphne Scott grumbled into the phone.

  “Sorry
for waking you, darling sister, but I have some news.” Cam couldn’t wait to
hear his sister’s reaction.

  “Unless
you’re about to tell me I’ve won the lottery, I’m not interested.”

  “How
about I tell you I want you to get dressed, go to the airport, and fly across
the ocean to be at my wedding.”

  Silence.
Still more silence. And then the reaction he was waiting for came.

  “Are
you shitting me?” she screamed.

  “Partially,”
he said.

  “What
does that mean?”

  “It
means that right now, for all intents and purposes, I am getting married. But
whether it actually happens might depend on a few long shots, one of which is
your intervention, in case I need it.”

  That
was the part of the plan to which only Cam was privy. A curious thing had
happened to him this evening when they returned to the inn. Seeing Elsie’s
terror caused a protective surge of anger to course through him. If her first
instinct was to kill Ted, Cam’s was to smash the face of anyone who dared hurt
the woman he was falling in love with. That was the real shock of the moment.

  He
didn’t believe in love at first sight, or destiny, or soul mates or any of that
crap. That stuff was for people who wanted to justify why they settled for the
person they married when they took a good hard look at their relationship a
year or two later. It was that kind of thinking that prevented him from enjoying
his twenties. He wasted those years on Maureen instead. But what else could it
be but love at first sight when it came to Elsie?

  Sure,
it was pure attraction at first, but there was much more under the surface than
passion. He just had to see if she felt the same way. He wasn’t that sure of
himself, to lay it all on the table and hope for the best. He’d done that once
before. Once bitten, twice shy and all that. But he was determined to let it
play out and see where it led.

  After
explaining the situation, including his feelings, Daphne was on board. They
argued about whether the rest of his family should be made privy to the scheme
but Cam won. It wasn’t likely they’d read about it. They lived a quiet life in
a small village in the Highlands and didn’t pay much attention to anything that
came out of England. His other siblings might get wind of it, but by now they’d
both learned that Cam wasn’t exactly the kind of guy to share things with his
family, with the exception of Daphne. And they didn’t even know he was close
with her. No, it was best to keep them in the dark unless it seemed as if a
real wedding might actually take place. In that case, he’d share the news.