To Catch A Suitor (Dalton Family 2)

He opened the door and walked into his room. The light was low and it cast a golden glow across the—

“Boo!”

Oliver started and whipped around, heart racing, breath short. Elizabeth emerged from behind his door and, judging by her doubled over laughter, she was enjoying his reaction.

“You wretched girl!” he said, chuckling and putting his hand on his chest to still his heart. He should have known better than to trust her absence at his arrival. “How long have you been—” but his words fell flat when his eyes finally focused on Elizabeth’s face for the first time.

She was still laughing but had emerged from the shadows and stepped fully into the golden light he had been admiring only a moment ago. His breath left him. Along with all of his words. He blinked, unsure that he was even looking at the same girl.

He wasn’t. Blast. Elizabeth was not a girl anymore.

“What is it?” Elizabeth asked, her amusement starting to die away as she registered the shock on his face. “What’s wrong? Is there something on my face?” She started brushing at her cheek.

What happened to the girl he had left behind last summer? Elizabeth was much taller and slimmer—and yet somehow had more of a figure. She had filled out in places that had most definitely not been filled out when he last left her. The way she looked now made him breathless and evoked feelings in him that the girl from last summer had never stirred.

It was not good.

“Oliver, you’re scaring me! Do I have a spider crawling on me somewhere?” But he couldn’t tell her what was running through his mind. Thankfully, she had already provided him an excuse.

He smiled and stepped toward her. Blast, blast, blast. She even smelled incredible. “You…have a bit of an ink smudge. Here, I’ll get it.” Oliver wasn’t sure if telling that lie made his predicament better or worse. Because now, he was running his thumb along her soft cheek and noticing how her lashes were so dark against her light blue eyes. And her lips were full and entirely too kissable. Which was ridiculous because they were not actually kissable. Meaning, absolutely under no circumstances, could he kiss Elizabeth’s lips. Running his thumb across them was also unacceptable.

Oliver suddenly realized his hand was still resting against her face and she was looking up at him as if he had lost his mind. Maybe he had…

Air and space. Those were two very important things he needed at that moment. Oliver took one large step away from Elizabeth and cleared his throat. How old was she? He’d never really cared to know before because she had always just been little Lizzie to him. Now it felt like a very important question. He quickly added up the years in his mind and realized she was now seventeen years old. It made being alone with her in his bedchamber highly inappropriate.

“Are you feeling all right?” asked Elizabeth, taking a step toward him. That single step did things to his heart.

“Never better.” He looked in her twinkling blue eyes and wished he hadn’t. She was stunning and she smelled fantastic. Had she usually smelled like oranges? He was mesmerized by her. Bewitched. “Actually, no,” he rushed to say when his thoughts turned again to kissing her. “I think I may be coming down with something. Feels like influenza. You should leave straight away so you don’t catch anything.” He began to push her from the room. Another monumental mistake. He didn’t have his gloves on and she felt so warm beneath his touch. No, no, no. What was happening to him?

Elizabeth spun around to face him once across the threshold of his door. “Shall I have Mama call for the doctor?” Her big blue eyes blinked up at him. His legs felt unaccountably weak.

“No. Definitely not.” The doctor wouldn’t find a fever—but he may diagnose an infatuated fool. “A good night’s sleep will set me to rights.”

She stepped a little closer, setting her sweet orange scent on the air again. Everything about Elizabeth intoxicated him. And when she smiled, he was a goner. “I’m glad you’re back, Oliver. I’ve missed you.”

He would never forget the way Elizabeth looked while saying those words to him. He could feel all of it—every little detail—etch itself into his soul.

“I missed you too, Lizzie.”

Feeling rather good about his plan to picture Elizabeth in bows and braids, Oliver ran his hand over his own hair, making sure everything was in place, and straightened the lapels of his most well-fitting coat. He wore it because everyone else seemed to enjoy the sight of him in it, certainly not at all because he hoped Elizabeth would find him irresistible in the deep green tailored jacket.

Oliver knocked on the door and smiled cheekily when the disapproving butler answered.

“Jeffers,” said Oliver, stepping inside Kensworth House. “Always a pleasure.” It was never a pleasure.

Oliver could have sworn he heard Jeffers grunt, but he wasn’t entirely sure. “Just so, sir. I have been instructed to ask you to remain waiting for the family in the foyer. They will be down momentarily.” Jeffers eyed Oliver closely, as if expecting him to dart from the room and run up the stairs again. Jeffers’s reprimanding look rather tempted Oliver to do just that. Were all butlers so supercilious?

“No need to fix me with that glare, Jeffers. I am here as Lady Elizabeth’s escort tonight, so I shall be on my best behavior.” Another grunt. Oliver supposed he deserved it. It had been his unofficial mission in life to get under the butler’s skin. It was just a little too much fun to watch him scowl.

“Lady Elizabeth will be down momentarily.” Somehow those words, coupled with the menacing look the butler was giving him, only intensified Oliver’s buzzing nerves.

He fumbled with the folds of his cravat as an excuse for something to do while he waited. Bows and braids. He just needed to fix that mental image in his mind an

d this whole Season would go by in a flash, friendship not just intact but unscathed.

Movement caught his eye at the top of the staircase and, when he looked up, his heart stopped. All thoughts of bows and braids fled his mind at the image of ethereal beauty gliding down the stairs. Elizabeth wore a silk gown in an indescribable color, some mix of green and blue. All he knew was that whatever color it was, it made her eyes stand out like a beacon in the night. They called to him as if he had been lost at sea and was finally seeing the promise of land.

Oliver’s heart beat an unnaturally fast rhythm as Elizabeth drew closer. This felt far too much like that day several years ago when Elizabeth had changed in his mind forever. Just like that day, he had a feeling this would be a memory he would never forget. He formed a smile he hoped didn’t look as if he were harboring an undying love for this woman.