One Tempting Proposal by Christy Carlyle

Kitty Adderly than attached to that woman again.”
    â€œAnd there you go changing your tune again. I do wish you’d make up your mind.” Were his choices limited to those two? One woman who loathed him and another who hadn’t bothered to chance letting him tread on her feet. Clever woman. Beautiful woman. Distracting woman. She’d invaded his thoughts far too often since the Clayborne ball. Whatever his initial disgust at her actions, he’d also witnessed her attempt to redeem them. That peek at her vulnerability when he’d caught her in the sitting room vied with his opinion of the haughty beauty she became the moment others might see. Whatever the lady’s contradictions, she was an undeniably bright spot of luminous skin and cream satin lighting up the corners of his mind.
    â€œNone of us ever liked her.” Pippa jumped at the sound of Ollie’s voice as he joined them.
    â€œDo come in, Oliver.”
    Ollie ignored the sarcasm in Seb’s tone and positioned himself in front of the fireplace, arms crossed. “Pippa told me about the letter. No idea what you ever saw in Miss Lloyd, but I know you’ve better sense than to let the woman into your life again.”
    He’d kept the worst of it from his family. None of them knew she’d lied about being with child and stoked jealousy in Seb until he’d been prepared to rip the child’s purported sire to pieces. He prayed they’d never know how depraved he’d become, how easily she’d twisted him.
    â€œI’ve no intention of communicating with Lady Naughton or reading her letters.”
    Seb considered saying more, offering further reassurance. It wouldn’t require exaggeration. There was nothing he desired less than an entanglement with Alecia. But Pippa settled back in her chair with a satisfied sigh, and Ollie nodded sharply as if a promise had been made, and it was sufficient to put him at ease.
    Then in the next moment, he looked anything but tranquil as he thrust a hand into the wave of overlong hair dipping perilously close to his eyebrows. After massaging the back of his neck, he stuffed both hands in his pockets and bowed his head as if utterly forlorn.
    â€œEnough fidgeting, Ollie. Tell us what’s the matter.” Pippa had never appreciated Ollie’s flair for melodrama.
    â€œI have a fresh dilemma.” Ollie drew out the suspense, waiting for a long theatrical pause before satisfying their curiosity.
    Seb restrained the impulse to indulge in a Pippa-­style roll of his eyes.
    â€œClayborne has refused my request to call on him. Twice. How can I ask for Harriet’s hand in marriage if the man won’t speak to me?”
    Seb opened his hand and lifted it toward Pippa. She stared a moment at the crumpled letter before laying it in his palm.
    He didn’t indulge in destroying this one slowly, cursing his stupidity under his breath as he had with the first and second. This one he simply crushed in his fist before tossing the walnut-­sized mass onto the fire. A tiny spark responded to the fragment of kindling and a flame licked out to consume it.
    With one matter behind him, he could tackle the other.
    â€œThe Marquess of Clayborne has requested I meet with him tomorrow morning.”
    â€œHe did?”
    â€œWhy didn’t you say so?”
    Seb lifted his hands. “We can discuss it at dinner, but rest assured I will do all I can.” He hadn’t yet divulged details of his plan for a settlement with Ollie, but he’d make his intentions clear to Clayborne.
    He stood and Ollie reached out to shake his hand. “Thank you, Bash.”
    A swell of contentment warmed Seb’s chest. It would be a heady kind of relief to see Ollie settled. His friend’s life had been directionless and unfixed for too long.
    Ollie linked arms with Pippa to lead her into the dining room, but she stopped him and turned back to Seb. “I’m still not