Free The Skilled Seduction by Tracy Goodwin Page B

breeze.  
    Peals of laughter floated throughout the air in a whimsical refrain causing Tristan to squint, his eyes scanning the scene until he found his nephew sprinting towards the house chasing a bright red ball. To Tristan’s great surprise, Victoria sprinted after him dressed in breeches, a crisp white shirt, and her hair tied back with what appeared to be a thick red ribbon. She looked youthful, vibrant, and more alluring than he’d ever seen her.
    “You are a cheater, Nicholas Montgomery,” Victoria teased, as she scooped him up from behind and swung him into the air, tickling the little boy. “It was my turn.”
    “No,” he pealed with laughter. “Mine.”
    Tori fell to her knees, still tickling the squirming little boy on the lawn.
    Emma busied herself by plucking fistfuls of grass before sneaking up on Victoria from behind. The little girl then pulled the collar of her aunt’s shirt and shoved the blades under the fabric.
    Victoria squealed, shaking the fabric in an attempt to shed herself of the grass. Once satisfied, she turned her attention to Emma.
    “You little scamp!” Victoria reached for the child and pulled her onto the grass as Nicholas grabbed his own fistful, this time containing a thicket of green leaves from a nearby bush.
    “See what you’ve started?” Victoria teased her  
    niece. “Go on Nicholas, defend Auntie Tori’s honor.”
    Instead of doing as he was bid, Nicholas tossed the leaves upwards, sprinkling them in Victoria’s face and hair. Tristan could no longer tell where the children’s laughter ended and Victoria’s began, all now intermingled in perfect harmony.  
    He smiled. How could he not? Victoria was wonderful with the twins and there was no doubt in his mind that they loved her to no end. Of course, Gwen had to catch his small, insignificant reaction.
    “You want that, don’t you?” she asked.
    I want Victoria.  
    The thought struck him, louder than a thunderclap, causing his ears to ring and every nerve ending to stand on end. What in bloody hell was wrong with him? He’d been asking himself that question a great deal of late and always in regards to Victoria and her affect upon him.
    “You want a family,” Gwen persisted. It was a statement, not a question.
    Turning his attention from Victoria and the children, Tristan glanced at his sister for the first time in minutes. Tears were now pooling in her eyes as she offered her brother a look of understanding.
    “Never forget, Tristan, that I know you far better than you know yourself.” The truth of her statement made him return his attention to Victoria and the twins.
    The children, now laughing harder than ever, wriggled away from their aunt before racing inside, with Victoria following close on their heels. Nicholas was the first to scurry through the doors leading into the breakfast room.
    “Auntie Tori cheats,” he exclaimed, his bright smile contradicting his serious accusation.
    “I do not,” Victoria feigned indignation, leaning against the doorway and pausing just long enough to catch her breath. She then approached the little boy from behind, “I’ll have you know, young Nicholas, that no one said tickling was off limits.”
    Victoria then began doing just that. Even in her present disheveled state, wearing grass-stained breeches, a shirt with leaves and blades of grass clinging to it, and several stray leaves in her hair she looked captivating.
    Why had it taken Tristan so long to see how beguiling she was? To see how intelligent, witty, and independent she was?  
    Had Victoria possessed these qualities all along?  
    Nicholas’s peals of laughter reverberated throughout the small room, echoed by those of his sister who had just now caught up to him. He fidgeted before freeing himself from his aunt’s grasp. The little boy then grabbed his sister’s hand and ran out of the room. “Hide and seek,” he shouted over his shoulder as their footsteps thundered down the marble hallway.
    “We