The Seduction Project

‘Me?’ she echoed weakly.

‘Yes. You. I want to know what’s going on in your life these days. You could have knocked me over with a feather when that woman said you were twenty-five. It suddenly came to me that a girl as great as you should have been married by twenty-five. I began to wonder why you’re not. I wanted to ask you then and there but it was hardly appropriate. So I’m asking you now, Moll. Why haven’t you got a boyfriend?’

Molly was really stumped. What to say? What to tell him?

She busied herself putting the gold chain tidily into its case and slipping it into her purse, all the while trying to find the right lie to tell.

I just haven’t met the right man yet. . .

I’m waiting till Mum gets over Dad’s death...

I’d like to marry but the man I love doesn’t even know I’m alive in that sense...

The awkward silence grew till finally Liam shot her a shocked look. ‘Good God, Moll, you’re not, are you?’

‘Not what?’

‘Not...gay?’

CHAPTER FOUR

MOLLY’S eyes rounded. And then she laughed. That was one excuse she’d never thought of.

‘No, I’m not gay.’

‘So what’s the problem?’

‘The problem. . .’ She considered her answer at some length, then decided excuse three carried a perverse kind of truth. Yet Liam—dear, sweet, blind Liam—would never guess. ‘The problem is... that I am in love with a man. But he just doesn’t love me back. In fact, he doesn’t know I’m even alive in a sexual sense.’

‘Why not?’ Liam demanded to know, apparently affronted by this mystery man’s lack of passion for his best friend.

Molly almost felt soothed by Liam’s chagrin on her behalf. ‘I guess I’m not his type, physically speaking. I’m not pretty enough.’

‘What rubbish! You’re very pretty.’

‘No, I’m not, Liam. But it’s nice of you to say so.’

Molly was grateful that Liam dropped the subject of her beauty. He scowled all through Gosford, not opening his mouth till they were on the Entrance Road and approaching Erina.

‘So who is this idiot?’ he flung at her. ‘Is he a local?’

‘Yes, of course.’

‘Do I know him?’

‘I should hope so.’

‘Did he go to our school?’

‘Yes. But that’s as much as I’m going to say.’

‘Our school...’ He frowned as he scoured his memory. ‘I can’t think who it could be. Still, there were over eight hundred kids in our school.’ He shook his head in frustration. ‘I’ve no idea. Look, just tell me who he is. Don’t keep me in suspense!’

‘Sorry, but I’m not telling you, or anyone else for that matter. I would find it embarrassing. Besides, it’s quite pointless my telling you who he is. I’ve pretty well accepted he’s not interested. Shortly, I aim to get on with my life, so you don’t have to worry, Liam. I don’t intend to suffer indefinitely.’

Liam mumbled and muttered all through Erina, swinging the car around the large roundabout and heading for Terrigal before he launched into another verbal attack against her mystery man. Molly found it amusing that he was railing against himself.

‘So! Does this splendid advertisement for feminine taste have a girlfriend?’

‘Actually, he’s between women at the moment.’

‘Had a lot of them, has he?’

‘Oodles.’

‘And you love this inveterate ladies’ man?’

‘He takes my breath away.’

Liam pulled a face. ‘What is it about women that they always fall for the bad guys? He sounds positively awful!’

‘I don’t think he’s at all awful. And he’s been very successful, businesswise.’

Liam’s top lip curled into a sneer. ‘I suppose he’s good-looking.’

‘Drop-dead gorgeous,’ she agreed.

‘Handsome is as handsome does, you know,’ he growled, then muttered some more under his breath all the way to Terrigal.

Molly sat next to him in a self-satisfied silence. She hadn’t enjoyed herself so much in years. Perhaps she was playing with a double-edged sword, but if so it was worth the risk. She didn’t think the penny would drop for Liam. Meanwhile, she was experiencing a heady exhilaration in toying with the truth in this manner.

They came round the sweeping hillside corner which brought Terrigal beach into view and Molly sighed her pleasure at the sight. It was a pretty place during the day, but even more so at night, especially when it was cloudless, and the moon sent ribbons of silver rippling across the dark waters.

Tonight, the moonlight was strong, and the waves extra gentle as they lapped up onto the golden curve of sand. Some people were still swimming in the peaceful water. Many couples were sitting on the warm sand, arms around each other, or strolling along the beach, hand in hand. As Molly had thought earlier, it was a night for lovers.

Liam drove past the public car park at the bottom of the hill and along the narrow main street which flanked the beach, tall pines on the sea side, shops on the other. He eased into a space under a pine at the far end.

He snapped off his engine and swivelled in his seat to face Molly, a scowl on his handsome face. ‘It’s not Dennis Taylor, is it?’

Dennis Taylor was the only boy in Liam’s class who could rival him for looks and subsequent business acumen. As dark as Liam was fair, he had thick black wavy hair, heavy-lidded dark eyes and the body of a bouncer. He did not have Liam’s super intelligence or creative flair but he was a born salesman who’d gone into real estate after leaving school and done very well. He’d opened his own agency on the Central Coast a couple of years back and had recently expanded. Unmarried, he was a swinging bachelor type who played the field without mercy. He’d recently bought an acreage not far from Terrigal beach and built an orgy palace of a house, the rumoured activities therein supplying plenty of fuel for the local gossips.

Molly only knew Dennis as well as she did because his folks lived two doors up. He came to visit them quite often, and, Dennis being Dennis, he always waved at Molly if she was out the front watering or weeding the garden.

A couple of months back, he’d also knocked on the door and asked if she and her mother wanted to sell the house. Even after they’d said no, he’d left his business card then stayed talking to Molly for ages. He was one of those males who could not go past a female without proving he was God’s gift to women. His charm operated on automatic pilot.

Molly found him likeable enough, but shallow. It irked her that Liam should think she could be madly in love with him.

‘Well?’ he probed. ‘Is it?’

‘I’m sorry but I refuse to answer any such questions on the grounds they might incriminate me.’

Liam glowered at her. ‘You’re being damned difficult.’

‘I don’t think so. You might be my friend but there’s a limit to what I will tell you. And I think my love life is my own private business, don’t you? After all, when I asked you what had happened between you and Roxy, you wouldn’t tell me.’

‘Hmm. Fair enough. But if it is Dennis,’ he growled, ‘then I hope to hell you never get your heart’s desire. His reputation with women is appalling.’

Molly rolled her eyes. As if Dennis Taylor would take any serious notice of her anyway. That was as far-fetched as Liam doing so! Suddenly, she tired of this game. ‘If it will make you feel any better,’ she said wearily, ‘then it’s not Dennis. But please don’t come up with any more candidates. I’m not going to tell you and that’s that!’

‘You’ve really dug your heels in about this, haven’t you?’

‘You could say that,’ she pronounced, and crossed her arms with finality over her chest.

‘I had no idea you could be this stubborn.’

Her sideways glance carried a sardonic flavour. ‘There are quite a lot of things about me you don’t know, Liam.’

‘Mmm...I’m beginning to see that’s the case. And there I’ve been all these years, telling people what a sweet little thing you are. It seems Roxy might not have been altogether wrong.’

Molly bristled. ‘Oh? And what, pray tell, did dear Roxy say about me?’

‘She said you were a sly piece and she wouldn’t trust you as far as she could throw you.’

Molly’s blood pressure rose a few notches. ‘Humph! That’s the pot calling the kettle black!’

‘I take it you don’t like Roxy?’

‘You take it correctly.’

‘Why?’

Molly almost launched into a tirade about vanity and superficiality and naked ambition, but pulled herself up just in time. There was little point in being vicious, now that the girl was possibly on the way out. Besides, the truth might sound too much like jealousy.

She managed a light shrug. ‘You can’t like everyone in this world. Some people just rub you up the wrong way right from the start.’

‘True. Okay, I won’t be a pain and press for more. Neither will I ask you any more embarrassing questions about Mr X. I’m just relieved it’s not Dennis. Come on, let’s go for that walk.’ He was out of the car before she could say Jack Robinson, bounding around the front to her side where he wrenched open the passenger door.

‘Do...do you think we could have our coffee first?’ she asked a little shakily when Liam took her hand and drew her upright out of the rather low-slung vehicle. Whilst she told herself it was sheer hunger causing her stomach to cramp suddenly, she rather suspected there was another cause, and extracted her hand from Liam’s as soon as she could.

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