Page 17 of Irresistible
“Evening, Lucien,” Dougal said in greeting.
Lucien inclined his head, but he was staring at Jess. “Dougal, you must introduce me to your guest.” He leaned toward Dougal and muttered, “Whose invitation I wasn’t aware of.”
Occasionally, members requested to bring guests on Tuesday evenings. They were approved by Lucien.
Quashing his smile, Dougal kept a bland expression. “This is Miss Goodfellow. She is a guest of Evie’s.”
Watching Lucien’s eyes widen as he perused Jess from head to toe was incredibly satisfying. Dougal was now beyond certain that their scheme would work. Or at least, that there was very little chance someone would recognize his partner. But it was more than that. Her accent, which she’d maintained all evening, was impeccable, she’d learned to control her reactions, and she exuded confidence. She’d absolutely surpassed expectation.
So much so that Dougal suddenly wondered if she was a new recruit at all.
“I’ll be damned,” Lucien remarked with a grin. “Well done, Miss Goodfellow. You are a veritable goddess. I thought Dougal had been keeping his new love from me.”
Jess’s artificially auburn brows shot up. “New love?” She looked to Dougal. “Was there an old one?”
“No.” He’d not only been too busy to wed, he hadn’t spared time for entanglements of any kind. He satisfied himself with short liaisons or spontaneous trysts.
“Dougal is incredibly dedicated to his work,” Lucien said.
“As are you,” Dougal noted. “You are rarely away from this club.”
“And look at how successful it’s become!” Lucien laughed. Again, he looked to Jess. “Truly, you’ve completely transformed yourself. I had no idea of your identity. However, you may want to leave soon lest you draw too much attention. You’re too alluring to ignore as you are presently. Everyone will be asking me about the stunning woman on Dougal’s arm.”
“I hadn’t considered that. I’ll just go, then.”
“You do present a lovely couple,” Lucien added. “I would believe you are wed.”
Jess squeezed Dougal’s arm before letting him go. “Because we are so in love, aren’t we, dear?”
“More with each passing moment.” Dougal took her hand and brought her gloved knuckles to his lips.
Her eyes flared slightly—the barest reaction, but he caught it. He didn’t comment because it was a believable response between two lovers who anticipated being alone. She was more accomplished than he realized. A surprising—and very real—flash of heat raced through him.
What if she was more in control than he was? What if she was not the amateur he’d thought her to be? Except Kent had recruited her based on her cipher-solving skills, which would mean she’d completely duped him into believing she had no experience. Dougal found that impossible to comprehend. Furthermore, she would not even have been involved with the Foreign Office last spring when his missions had gone sour.
Releasing her hand, he mentally chastised himself for being overly suspicious due to what had happened on his missions. Those failures could have been flukes. Not everything went according to plan. He’d just never had two things go so spectacularly badly, particularly in close proximity.
He was simply fixed on those occurrences and trying to determine what had gone wrong. Dougal felt in his gut that the two failures were related. He just needed to discover how.
Unfortunately, he wasn’t going to do it on this bloody mission.
“I’ll bid you good evening,” Jess said before elevating her chin and striding from the library as if she owned the damned place.
“That is quite a metamorphosis,” Lucien murmured.
Dougal tore his gaze from Jess to look at Lucien, who was watching her departure. “You seem enchanted.”
“Anyone would be. She’s striking.”
“Wasn’t she before?” Dougal asked, feeling a trifle defensive on her behalf, which was perhaps silly.
Lucien pivoted toward him. “Not really, and I suggest she would agree. I think her intent has always been to fade into the background.”
To avoid marriage. That made perfect sense given what Dougal knew of her.
Or was there some other, more nefarious purpose for her wanting to go unnoticed?
Now hewasbeing silly. He was looking for answers at every turn instead of where it made sense. His brother’s death had set him out of kilter, and he wasn’t as focused as he needed to be. He couldn’t be distracted by his engaging partner or by his need to solve the mystery surrounding his failed missions.
