5

Donavon removed his riding gloves as he entered the house. He had just returned after a long ride. The house was in chaos as the staff prepared the house for the party. Their guests would be arriving soon, and Donavon still had to shower and change before they arrived. He had lost track of time on his ride and returned late.

He raced up the stairs to his room on the second floor. He moved swiftly down the hall and ran into Misty in the hallway. She was already in her green dinner dress, looking all made up. “Dear Lord Donavon, you are not even ready yet?”

“I know I’m running late. I’m getting ready now. Just keep the guests entertained, and I will be down as so as possible,” he told her as he walked past her and entered his room.

Shutting the door, he unbuttoned his shirt and tossed it in the clothes hamper in the corner. Then he kicked off his boots and stripped off his pants, tossing them in the hamper as well. He smelled like horses; he had to shower. Donavon was removing his shorts as he entered his private washroom to start the shower. He walked through the door as he lowered his shorts, and then he heard a woman gasp. Surprised, he yanked up his shorts and turned around to see Alissa over by the toilet. She had been cleaning it when he walked in half-naked.

Donavon quickly grabbed a towel to cover himself, and Alissa shielded her eyes and turned away from him. “Oh, God, Mr. Cromwell, I am sorry. I was cleaning the washroom. I wasn’t expecting you. I’m sorry, I will leave.”

He had to admit she had startled him, and his pulse was racing. Donavon laughed at himself. “We have to stop meeting like this,” he teased her. “Next time, I might be naked.”

She wouldn’t look at him. “Yes, Sir. Sorry, Sir. I will leave,” she said, rushing toward the door, but she paused awkwardly when the limited space of the washroom forced her to get close to him to get past him. “This won’t happen again, Sir.”

“Please stop calling me, Sir. It makes me feel old. Call me, Donavon.”

That is when her gaze lifted and met his. “That would be inappropriate, Sir.”

Donavon smiled and leaned in closer to her. “I won’t tell anyone,” he whispered. She was flustered, and he found that exciting.

“I must leave,” she said, trying to step around him. Donavon stepped to the side to block her escape.

“Why so fast?”

“Mrs. Cromwell has made it clear that I am not to talk to you.”

Donavon frowned. “Did she?”

“Please let me leave. If I get caught talking to you, she will have my whole family fired. My parents need their jobs,” she pleaded. He was not happy to hear his mother was making threats. Donavon stepped aside to allow her to pass. She left the washroom and then immediately came back. “You won’t tell her you found me in here, will you? She will dock my pay again.”

Donavon shook his head. “Your secret is safe with me,” he promised.

Alissa made to leave but then paused again and turned to face him. “I never got the chance to thank you for defending me last night at dinner. You didn’t have to do it. I want you to know I appreciate it.”

“You are very welcome. Nobody deserves to be treated that way.”

“You know, for a white man, you are a good a man,” she smiled.

He laughed. “Thank you.”

“I can’t say as much for the rest of the family.”

He shrugged. “Deep down, they are not bad people.”

“That must be very deep down.”

“Sometimes, it does feel that way,” he agreed with her. “But, I imagine the staff doesn’t talk about us with much love and understanding either.”

She looked away and bit her bottom lip. He didn’t know why, but the sight of her nibbling on her lower lip stirred his body. What was wrong with him? Why did this woman affect him? He knew it was wrong to want her. He didn’t understand the attraction he had to her. “Well, actually, Olivia doesn’t like your parents, but she speaks highly of you and your siblings,” then she frowned. “I get you, but I don’t understand the love for your brother and sister,” she said honestly.

“Well, she raised us from infancy. Olivia was more of a mother to us than our mother ever was. I suppose it is the unconditional love of a parent that blinds her to the other two,” he should have penalized her for speaking this way about his siblings, but he really couldn’t blame her. They were both terrible people.

“I’m sorry, I shouldn’t be talking this way. I should leave. I’m sure you want to take your shower. You have guests waiting.”

He liked talking to her, and frankly, he should be uncomfortable this undressed around her, but he was surprisingly ok with it. “Yeah, I suppose I should,” Alissa smiled and turned to leave the room. He could hear her walk across his room, and then he heard the door as she left his room. Donavon tossed the towel he was holding on the counter and started the shower.

He went about his night greeting all his parents’ guests and thanking everyone for the warm welcome back. He talked business with his father’s friends and did his best to avoid the women his mother was trying to introduce him to. Though she had promised no matchmaking, she was failing miserably at keeping that promise.

He was doing his best to be polite while one young woman talked about the latest fashions. He was finding it difficult to pay attention. He was bored out of his skull. Then someone punched him in the shoulder playfully. He turned to see his best friend Emmett Wielder looking back at him with a smug smile. “Oh, my Lord Emmett!” He laughed as he shook hands with his buddy. “I didn’t know you were back. I thought you were still in Connecticut.”

“I got back last week,” Emmett told him. Donavon and Emmett had been bunkmates back in boarding school. They had been inseparable for six years until Donavon went off to Europe and Emmett enrolled in Yale Law. Emmett was the only son of a Supreme Court Judge with political aspirations. Though his family was filthy rich, Emmett came from new money, which Donavon’s father disapproved of. He said the only good money was old money and considered new money to be one step above the unwashed masses.

Though Douglas did not like Emmett because of his family lineage, he did like being able to count a Supreme Court Judge and future Senator among his friends. It was always handy to have a Judge in his pocket. Although Donavon was certain Emmett saw through his father’s false pleasantries, he tolerated Douglas because he and Donavon had become so close.

“I heard you were home, and I had to come and save you from this dreadful party,” Emmett snickered.

“And not a moment too soon,” Donavon laughed. “I was ready to shoot myself if I had to listen to another minute of women’s fashions,” he said, patting Emmett on the back. “Let’s get a drink. God, how have you been?”

“Well, I’m an associate in a big law firm in Baton Rouge.”

Donavon laughed. “Cutting your teeth on real cases now, eh?”

“Well, to tell you the truth, I only got the job because the partners are friends of my father.”

“Ah, nepotism is alive and well,” Donavon teased.

“Correct me if I’m wrong, but you got your job for the same reasons.”

Donavon grinned wolfishly. “I didn’t say I was above it,” he said and then asked Otis to fix them a drink.

Accepting the drink, Donavon looked out over the crowd and cringed when he saw another familiar face coming his way. Cutting through the crowded room came Curtis Blackstone. He and Donavon had grown-up friends before Donavon was sent off to boarding school. They often played together because their parents were close friends. Donavon would still associate with Curtis when he came home on the holidays, but they grew apart as they grew older. They had very different opinions on many things, and now Donavon found he only hung out with Curtis out of some warped sense of obligation. Not to mention, Curtis and Emmett did not get along.

“Oh God, he had to be here,” Emmett grumbled as he spotted Curtis. “Remind me why you are friends with him; he is such an ass?” He said, sipping his drink.

“Play nice,” Donavon said quietly.

“I always play nice he is the intolerant one,” Curtis and Emmett had been bitter enemies ever since they were sixteen and Emmett stole a kiss from Curtis’ crush during a community picnic his father was hosting. Ever since they had found them in constant competition in everything from Donavon’s time to the attention of women, neither of them wanted.

When it came to women, Curtis and Emmett were in a constant deadlock. They were both about the same high and build, both reasonably attractive men, Emmett with his dark hair and eyes and Curtis with his golden locks and practiced smile. Women often had a difficult time choosing between them, though things usually swung in Curtis’ favour because of his name and insane wealth and holdings he stood to inherit one day. Curtis was an arrogant, selfish bigot, but money and title could buy a lot of forgiveness.

“Donavon,” Curtis grinned as he joined them, “so glad to see you are back and to stay.”

“Hello Curtis, so glad you could come.”

Emmett scoffed, and Curtis glared down his nose at him. “Emmett.”

“Curtis,” Emmett replied curtly. This was the two of them being civil. So far, it was going quite well.

“I hear you are a low-level associate in some law firm. The one handling all the little cases, the real lawyers are too important to waste their time on,” and now the civility was over.

Emmett smiled wide. “Well, not all of our daddies own half of Louisiana. Some of us have to earn our positions in life; we don’t have everything handed to us.”

“Yes, the plight of the working man,” Curtis scoffed. “How droll.”

“Come on, you two, let’s not start a fight.”

Emmett smiled smugly. “How’s your sister?”

The mention of Scarlett Blackstone made Curtis scowl. Last year Emmett had been caught in a compromising position with Curtis’ little sister and then had outright refused to salvage her reputation by marrying her. Scarlett had been forced to weather the social backlash, but since her father owned the largest cotton plantation in Louisiana, many people looked the other way, and she was eventually able to show her face in polite society again.

“She is fine,” Curtis snarled.

“Still looking for a husband, is she?” Emmett snickered. “Good luck with that one. You can’t turn a whore into a housewife.”

Curtis made to strike Emmett, and Donavon stepped in to defuse the situation. “He didn’t mean it. Emmett apologies.”

“Ok, I’m sorry your sister is such a slut,” Donavon glared at his friend; he was causing a scene at his parents’ party. Emmett sighed and rolled his eyes. “Alright. I’m sorry I called your sister names. She is a lovely young woman, and I’m sure she will make some unlucky man, a dreadful wife,” somehow, Donavon figured that was the closest thing to an apology Curtis was going to get.

“Close enough,” Donavon sighed. He then spent the rest of the night playing referee between Emmett and Curtis. He could use a break, but since he was the guest of honour, he couldn’t duck out. He would have to suffer the full duration of the party.