Scandalous Sins: Unwrapping His Convenient Fiancée / The Sheikh's Pregnant Prisoner / Snowbound with His Innocent Temptation

Violet coughed out a self-effacing laugh. ‘Don’t you start. I get enough of that from my family, not to mention my friends and flatmates.’

Cam gave her a wry smile. ‘I don’t know what’s wrong with the young men of London. You should’ve been snapped up long ago.’

A pin drop silence fell between them.

Violet looked at her coffee glass as if it were the most fascinating thing she had ever seen. The way her cheeks were going, the café’s chef would be coming out to cook the toast on her face to save on electricity. How had she got into this conversation? Awkward. Awkward. Awkward. How long was the canyon of silence going to last? Should she say something?

But what?

Her mind was blank.

She was hopeless at small talk. It was another reason she was terrible at parties. The idle conversation gene had skipped her. Her sisters and brother were the ones who could talk their way out of or into any situation. She was the wallflower of the family. All those years of being overshadowed by verbose older siblings and super articulate parents had made her conversationally challenged. She was used to standing back and letting others do the talking. Even her tendency to gabble like a fool around Cam had suddenly deserted her.

‘When’s your office party?’

Violet blinked and refocused her gaze on Cam’s. ‘Erm...tomorrow.’

‘Would you like me to come with you?’

Violet had trouble keeping her jaw off the table and her heart from skipping right out of her chest and landing in his lap. Best not think about his lap. ‘But why would you want to do that?’

He gave a casual shrug of one broad shoulder. ‘I’m free tomorrow night. Thought it might help you mingle if you had a wingman, so to speak.’

Violet gave him a measured look. ‘Is this a pity date?’

‘It’s not a date, period.’ Something about his adamant tone rankled. ‘Just a friend helping out a friend.’

Violet had enough friends. It was a date she wanted. A proper date. Not with a man on a mercy mission. Did he think she was completely useless? A romance tragic who couldn’t find a prince to take her to the ball? She didn’t even want to go to the ball, thank you very much. The ball wasn’t that special. All those people drinking and eating too much and dancing till the wee hours to music so loud you couldn’t hear yourself shout, let alone think. ‘Thanks for the offer but I’ll be fine.’

Violet pushed her coffee glass to one side and picked up her book. But, before she could leave the table, Cam’s hand came down on her forearm. ‘I didn’t mean to upset you.’

‘I’m not upset.’ Violet knew her crisp tone belied her statement. Of course she was upset. Who wouldn’t be? He was rescuing her. What could be more insulting than a man asking you out because he felt sorry for you? Had Fraser said something to him? Had one of her sisters? Her parents? Her grandfather? Why couldn’t everyone mind their own business? All she got these days was pressure. Why aren’t you dating anyone? You’re too fussy. You’re almost thirty. It never ended.

The warmth of Cam’s broad hand seeped through the layers of her winter clothing, awakening her flesh like a heat pack on a frostbitten limb. ‘Hey.’

Violet hadn’t pouted since she was about five but she pouted now. She could find a date. Sure she could. She could sign up to one of any number of dating websites or apps and have a hundred dates. If she put her mind to it she could be engaged by Christmas. Well, maybe that was pushing it a bit. ‘I’m perfectly able to find my own date, okay?’

He gave her arm the tiniest squeeze before releasing it. ‘Of course.’ He sat back in his chair, his forehead creased in a slight frown. ‘I’m sorry. It was a bad idea. Seriously bad.’

Why was it? And why seriously bad? Violet cradled her book close to her chest where her heart was beating a little too fast. Not fast enough to call for a defibrillator but not far off. His touch had done something to her, like he had turned a setting on in her body she hadn’t known she’d had. Her senses were sitting up and alert instead of slumped and listless. Had he ever touched her before? She tried to think... Sometimes in the past he would kiss her on the cheek, a chaste brotherly sort of kiss. But lately...since Easter, in fact...there had been no physical contact from him. None at all. It was as if he had deliberately kept his distance. That last holiday weekend at home, she remembered him coming into one of the sitting rooms at Drummond Brae and going straight back out again with a muttered apology when he’d found her curled up on one of the sofas with her embroidery. Why had he done that? What was wrong with her that he couldn’t bear to be left alone with her?

Violet picked up her scarf and wound it around her neck. ‘I have to get back to work. I hope your father’s wedding goes well.’

‘It should do, he’s had enough practice.’ He drained his coffee and stood, snatching his jacket from the back of the chair and slinging it over his shoulder. ‘I’ll walk you back to your office. I’m heading that way.’

Violet knew the tussle over who paid for the coffee was inevitable so when he offered she let him take care of it for once. ‘Thanks,’ she said once he’d settled the bill.

‘No problem.’

He put a gentle hand in the small of her back to guide her out of the way of a young mother coming in with a pram and a squirming, red-faced toddler. The sizzling heat of his touch moved along the entire length of Violet’s spine, making her aware of her femininity as if he had stroked her intimately.

Get a grip already.

This was the problem with being desperate and dateless. The slightest brush of a male hand turned her into a wanton fool. Stirring up needs that she hadn’t even registered as needs until now.

But it wasn’t just any male hand.

It was Cam’s hand...connected to a body that made her think of smoking-hot sex. Not that she knew what smoking-hot sex actually felt like. The only sex she’d had was a surrealist blur with an occasional flashback of two or three male faces looming over her, talking about her, not to her. Definitely not the sort of romantic scene she had envisaged when she’d hit puberty. It was another thing she’d miserably failed at doing. Each of her siblings had successfully navigated their way through the dating minefield, all of them now partnered with their soul mate. Was she too fussy? Had that night at that party permanently damaged her self-esteem and sexual confidence? Why should it when she could barely remember it in any detail?

She had been surrounded by love and acceptance all her life. There should be no reason for her to feel inadequate or not quite up to the mark. But somehow love—even a vague liking for someone of the opposite sex—had so far escaped her.

Violet walked out to the footpath with Cam, where the rain had started to fall in icy droplets. She popped open her umbrella but Cam had to bend almost double to gain any benefit from it. He took the handle from her and held the umbrella over both of their heads. Her fingers tingled where his brushed hers, the sensation travelling all through her body as if running along an electric network.

Trying to keep dry, as well as out of the way of the bustling Christmas shopping crowd, put Violet so close to the tall frame of his body she could smell the clean sharp fragrance of his aftershave, the woodsy base notes reminding her of a cool, shaded pine forest. To anyone looking in from the outside they would look like a romantically involved couple, huddled under the same umbrella, Cam’s stride considerately slowing to match hers.

They came to the large Victorian building where the accounting firm Violet worked as an accounts clerk was situated. But just as she was about to turn and say her goodbyes to Cam, one of the women who worked with her came click-clacking down the steps. Lorna ran her gaze over Cam’s tall figure standing next to Violet. ‘Well, well, well. Things finally looking up for you, are they, Violet?’

Violet ground her teeth so hard she could have moonlighted as a nutcracker. Lorna wasn’t her favourite workmate, far from it. She had a tendency to gossip to stir up trouble. Violet knew for a fact their boss only kept Lorna on because she was brilliant at her job—and because she was having a full-on affair with him. ‘Off to lunch?’ she asked, refusing to respond to Lorna’s taunt.

Lorna gave an orthodontist’s website smile and aimed her lash-fluttering gaze at Cam. ‘Will we be seeing you at the office Christmas party?’

Cam’s arm snaked around Violet’s waist, a protective band of steel that made every nerve in her body jump up and down and squeal with delight. ‘We’ll be there.’

We will? Violet waited until Lorna had gone before looking up at Cam’s unreadable expression. ‘Why on earth did you say that? I told you I didn’t want a—’

He stepped out from under the umbrella and placed the handle back in her hand. Violet had to extend her arm upwards to its fullest range to keep the umbrella high enough to maintain eye contact. ‘I’ll strike a deal with you,’ he said. ‘I’ll come to your Christmas party if you’ll come to a dinner with my client tonight.’

Violet screwed up her face. ‘The one with the persistent wife?’

‘I’ve been thinking about what you said back at the café. What better way to send her the message I’m not interested than to show her I’m seeing someone?’

‘But we’re not...’ she disguised a little gulp ‘...seeing each other.’

‘No, but no one else needs to know that.’

You don’t have to be so darned emphatic about it. Violet chewed at one side of her mouth. ‘How are we going to keep this...quiet?’

‘You mean from your family?’

‘You know what my mother’s like.’ Violet gave a little eye roll. ‘One whiff of us going on a date together, and she’ll be posting wedding invitations quicker than you can say I do.’

There was another yawning silence.

I do?

Are you nuts? You said the words ‘I do’ to the man who views weddings like people view the plague!

Something shifted in Cam’s expression—a blink of his eyes, a flicker of a muscle in his lean cheek, a stretching of his mouth into a smile that didn’t involve his eyes. ‘We’ll cross that bridge if we come to it.’

If we come to it? There was no if about it. That bridge was going to blow up in their faces like a Stage Five firecracker on Guy Fawkes Night. Violet knew her family too well. They were constantly on the lookout for any signs of her dating. MI5 could learn a thing or two from her mother and sisters. How was she going to explain a night out with Cam McKinnon? ‘Are you sure we should be doing this?’

There was a slight easing of the tension around his mouth. ‘We’re not robbing a bank, Violet.’

‘I know, but—’

‘If you’d rather not, then I can always find someone—’

‘No,’ Violet said, not even wanting to think about the ‘someone’ he would take. ‘I’ll go. It’ll be fun—I haven’t been out to dinner for ages.’

He smiled a lopsided smile that made the back of Violet’s knees feel like someone was tickling them with a feather. ‘There’s one other thing...’

You want it to be a real date? You want us to see each other as in ‘see each other’? You’ve secretly been in love with me for years and years and years? Violet kept her face blank while the thoughts pushed against the door of her reasoning like people trying to get into a closing down sale.

‘We’ll have to act like a normal dating couple,’ he said. ‘Hold hands and...stuff.’

And stuff?

What other stuff?

Violet nodded like her head was supported by an elastic band instead of neck muscles. ‘Fine. Of course. Good idea. Fab. Brilliant idea. We have to look authentic. Wouldn’t want anyone to get the wrong idea... I mean, well, you know what I mean.’

Cam leaned down and brushed her cheek with his lips, the slight graze of his rougher skin making something in her stomach turn over. ‘I’ll pick you up at seven.’

Violet took a step backwards to enter the building but stumbled over the first step and would have fallen if it wasn’t for Cam’s hand shooting out to steady her. ‘You okay?’ he asked with a concerned frown.

Violet looked at his stubble-surrounded mouth that just moments ago had been against the smooth skin of her cheek. Had he felt that same sensation ricochet through his body? Had he wondered in that infinitesimal moment what it would feel like to press his lips to hers? Not in a brotherly kiss, but a proper man-wants-woman kiss? She sent the point of her tongue over the surface of her lips, her breath hitching when he tracked every millimetre of the movement. Keep it light. ‘For a moment there I thought you were going to kiss me,’ Violet said with a little laugh.

The navy-blue of his gaze turned three shades darker before glancing at her mouth and back again. But then his hand dropped from her arm as if her skin had scorched him. ‘Let’s not go there.’

But I want to go there. I want to. I want to. I want to. Violet kept her smile in place even though it felt like it was stitched to her mouth. ‘Yes, that would be taking things too far. I mean, not that I don’t find you attractive or anything, but us kissing? Not such a great idea.’

There was the sound of heels click-clacking behind her and Violet turned to see Lorna coming back. ‘Silly me. I forgot my phone,’ Lorna said and with a sly smile at Cam added, ‘Aren’t you going to kiss her and let her get back to work?’

Violet sneaked a glance at Cam but instead of looking annoyed at Lorna’s comment he smiled an easy smile and reached for Violet’s hand and drew her against his side. ‘I was just getting to that,’ he said.

Violet assumed he would wait till Lorna had gone back into the building before releasing her but Lorna didn’t go back into the building. She stood three steps up from them with that annoying smirk on her mouth as if daring Cam to follow through. Cam turned his back to Lorna and slipped a hand under Violet’s hair, cupping the nape of her neck, making every nerve beneath her skin pirouette.

‘You don’t have to do this...’ Violet whispered.

Cam brought his mouth down to within a whisker of hers. ‘Yes, I do.’

And then he did.

CHAPTER TWO

CAM PRESSED HIS lips to Violet’s mouth and a bomb went off in his head, scattering his common sense like flying shrapnel. What are you doing? But he didn’t want to listen to his conscience. He had wanted to kiss her from the moment he’d walked into that café earlier and now her annoying workmate had given him the perfect excuse to do so. Violet’s mouth tasted like a combination of milk and honey, her lips soft and pliable beneath his. He drew her ballerina-like body even closer, his body responding with a fierce rush of blood to his groin. Her small breasts were pressed against his chest, her slim hips against his, her hands gripping the front of his jacket as if she couldn’t stand upright without his support. Hell, he was having trouble keeping upright himself, apart from one part of his anatomy.

It’s time to stop. You should stop. You need to stop. The chanting of his brain was attempting to drown out the frantic panting of his body. Yes. Yes. Yes. Clearly it had been too long between drinks. His self-control was usually spot on. But he didn’t want the kiss to end. He felt as though he might die if it did. Lust pounded through his body, rampaging, roaring lust that made every cell in his system shudder with need. Intense need. Need that made him think of sweating, straining bodies and tangled sheets and blissful, euphoric release.

She gave a little mewling sound when he shifted position, her mouth flowering open to the hungry glide of his tongue. He explored her sweet interior, his pulse rate going off the scale when her tongue came into play with his. Her tongue was hesitant at first, but then she made another whimpering sound and grew more and more confident, flirting with his tongue, darting away and coming back for the sensual heat of his strokes. He put his hands on her hips, holding her to the throbbing ache of his body.

She felt so damn good, like she was made for his exact proportions. Had he ever felt so aroused so quickly? It was like he was a hormone-driven teenager all over again. He seriously had to get his work/life balance sorted out. How long had it been since he’d slept with a woman? Too long if his trigger was being tripped by just a kiss.

A car tooting on its way past was the only thing that got through to him. Cam put Violet from him, holding her by the hands so as to help her keep her balanced. He did a quick glance over his shoulder but Violet’s workmate had disappeared. Not surprising given he’d lost track of time during that kiss.

Violet blinked as if trying to reorient herself. Her small pink tongue did a quick circuit of her lips and his groin groaned and growled with need. He could almost imagine how it would feel to have that shy little tongue move over his body. He couldn’t remember a kiss being so...consuming. He had forgotten where they were. He had darned near forgotten who he was. He might be seriously hot for Violet but he wasn’t going to act on it. She was his best mate’s kid sister, the baby of the family he adored.

It was a boundary he was determined not to cross. Or at least not to cross any further than he just had.

Cam released her hands and gave a relaxed smile he hoped disguised the bedlam of base needs in his body baying for more. ‘That was quite a kiss.’

Violet gave him a distracted little smile that seemed to set off a rippling tide of worry in her toffee-brown eyes. ‘Y-you caught me by surprise...’

Right back at you, sweetheart. ‘Yes, well, I figured your workmate wasn’t going to go away until we got it over with. Is she usually that persistent?’

‘You caught her on a good day.’

Cam wondered how much bullying went on in that office. Violet was a gentle soul who would find it hard to stand up for herself in a dog-eat-dog environment. Even within the loving and loud bosom of her family, she had the tendency to shrink away to a quiet corner rather than engage in the lively banter. Before he could stop himself, he brushed a fingertip down the pinked slope of her cheek. ‘You’re completely safe with me, Violet. You do know that, don’t you? Kissing is all we’ll do if the need should arise.’ I hope fate isn’t listening, otherwise you are toast.

Her small white teeth sank into the pillow of her lower lip and she lowered her gaze to a point at the base of his neck. ‘Of course.’ Her voice was not much more than a scratchy whisper.

He stepped back from her. ‘I’d better let you get back to work.’

She turned without another word and climbed the steps, not even glancing back before disappearing into the building when she got to the top.

Cam let out a long breath and walked on. It was all well and good to kiss her but that was as far as it could go. He wasn’t what Violet was looking for. He wasn’t the settling down type. Maybe one day he would think about setting up a home with someone, but right now he had too much going on in his career. That was his focus, his priority. Not relationships.

Marriage might work for some people, but it didn’t work for others—his parents and their collection of exes being a case in point. Too many people got hurt when relationships broke down. It was like a boulder dropped into a pond; the ripples of hurt went on for years. He was still sidestepping the pain his parents’ divorce had caused. It wasn’t that he’d wanted them to stay together. Far from it. They hadn’t been happy from the get-go because his mother had been in love and his father hadn’t and then his father had dumped his mother for someone younger and more attractive and had been outrageously difficult about the divorce. His mother had responded by being equally difficult and, inevitably, Cam had got caught up in the middle until eventually he’d been dumped at boarding school and left to fend for himself. In the years since, his parents had changed partners so often Cam had trouble keeping track of names and addresses and birthdays. He’d had to set up a database on his phone to keep on top of them all.

But he needed to get Sophia Nicolaides off his case and taking Violet was the way to do it. Sophia was too crafty to spot a fake. He couldn’t bring someone he’d only just met to the dinner. It had to be someone he already felt comfortable with and her with him. Violet was shy around him, but then, she was shy around most people. It was part of her charm, the fact that she didn’t flaunt her assets or draw attention to herself. He’d been upfront about the fact it wasn’t a date and he was sure she too wouldn’t want to compromise the friendship that had built up over the years.

At least they’d got the first kiss out of the way.

And what a kiss. Who knew that sweet little mouth could wreak such havoc on his self-control? He would have to watch himself. Violet wasn’t street smart like the women he normally dated. She wasn’t the sleep-around type. He wondered if she was still a virgin. Not likely since she was close to thirty, but who knew for sure? It wasn’t exactly a question he’d feel comfortable asking her. It was none of his business.

Cam ran his tongue over his lips and tasted her. Even if he never kissed her again, it was going to take a long time to forget that kiss.

If he ever did.

* * *

Violet tried on seven different outfits until she finally settled on a navy-blue velvet dress that fell just above the knee. It reminded her of the colour of Cam’s unusual eyes. Maybe that was why you bought it? No. Of course not. She’d bought it because she liked it. It suited her. She loved the feel of the fabric against her skin. She slipped her feet into heels and turned to view her reflection in the cheval mirror.

Her flatmate, Amy, popped her head around the door. ‘Gosh, you look scrumptious. I love that colour on you. Are you going out?’

Violet smoothed the front of her dress over her stomach and thighs, turning this way and that to check if she had visible panty line. No. All good. ‘You don’t think it’s too...plain?’

‘It’s simple but elegant,’ Amy said, perching on the end of Violet’s bed. ‘So who’s the guy? Have I met him? No, of course I haven’t because you’ve never brought anyone here, that I know of.’

Violet slipped on some pearl drop earrings her parents had given her for her twenty-first birthday. ‘He’s a friend of my brother’s. I’ve known him for ages.’ And he kisses like a sex god and my body is still humming with desire hours later.

Amy’s eyes danced. ‘Ooh! A friends-to-lovers thing. How exciting.’

Violet sent her a quelling look. ‘Don’t get your hopes up. I’m not his type.’ Cam couldn’t have been more succinct. ‘Kissing is all we’ll do.’ She hadn’t turned him on... Well, she had, but clearly not enough that he wanted to take things further.

The doorbell sounded and Amy jumped off the bed. ‘I’ll get it. I want to check out your date to see if he passes muster. Flat twenty-three B has certain standards, you know.’

Violet came out a few seconds later to see Amy giving an impression of a star-struck teen in front of a Hollywood idol. Violet had to admit Cam looked heart-stoppingly fabulous in a suit. He wasn’t the designer-wear type, but the sharp tailoring of his charcoal-grey suit fitted his tall frame to perfection and the white dress shirt and blue and grey striped tie highlighted the tanned and healthy tone of his skin and the intense blue of his eyes.

Cam’s gaze met Violet’s and a tiny invisible fist punched her in the stomach.

‘You look stunning.’ The deep huskiness of his voice was like a caressing stroke down the entire length of her spine. The way his eyes dipped to her lipgloss-coated mouth made her relive every pulse-racing second of that kiss. Was he remembering it too? How it had felt to have their tongues intimately entwined? How it had felt to taste each other, to feel each other’s response? How it had felt to end it without the satiation both their bodies craved?

Violet brushed an imaginary strand of hair off her face. ‘This is one of my flatmates, Amy Kennedy. Amy, this is Cameron McKinnon, a friend from way back.’