The Mistress Purchase

by Penny Jordan

  The truth was, though, that he just could not get her out of his head. Instead of thinking about his upcoming meeting with Mario Testare, the designer he had headhunted to take charge of the ageing fashion house he had taken over five years ago, and the meeting he had planned with CEO of the luxury leather goods arm of the business, all he could think about was Sadie, he acknowledged angrily.

  There hadn’t been a single second in his life when Leon had envisaged himself in this kind of situation. Marriage, children—yes, he wanted both—one day. He was part Greek, after all. But falling in love, and the intensity of emotion Sadie aroused in him—these were just not part of his game plan at all.

  Sadie! Hell, he was thinking about her again! Only because of his concern over the problems she had caused by refusing to sign the contract, Leon assured himself firmly.

  But it wasn’t just her signature on that contract he needed. What he also needed was her mouth on his, her body in his arms, her soft, sexy voice whispering those things in his ear that made him just ache to—

  Stop that, he warned himself sternly. What he absolutely had to have was her agreement to creating a new perfume. A saleable, affordable perfume. And that perfume had to be made from synthetics. Didn’t it? Though in the heat of their argument Sadie had implied that she was prepared to compromise, and to work on creating a blended scent.

  Yes, and it would be a blended scent with so many expensive ingredients that it would be far too expensive for any mass market, Leon told himself firmly.

  But what if there were some way such a perfume could be created at an affordable cost? What if he could find a way to prove that to himself and to his board? Maybe then…

  Why was he was wasting time he didn’t have allowing his thoughts to dwell on the most aggravating and impossible woman God had ever created?

  He picked up his mobile. He suspected that Raoul was not taking his calls because he was afraid Leon would call in the advance he had given him against the acquisition. Leon knew that he had to take on Francine now, thanks to Kevin, or face the possibility of a vote of no confidence from his own board. And to that end he needed to speak with Raoul. And with Sadie!

  Frowning, he put down his mobile. If Raoul would not answer his calls then there was only one thing he could do!

  Striding across his office, he sat down and buzzed for his secretary.

  ‘Book me a flight to Nice, will you, please?’

  ‘And a hotel?’ his secretary asked. ‘Do you want to stay in Mougins again, or…?’

  Leon hesitated. Mougins. That was where he and Sadie…

  Sadie stared in disbelief at the e-mail she had just received. It was a request—no, not a request but a demand, and a very tersely worded one at that—from Leon, insisting that she present herself in Grasse ‘in order that a discussion can take place to resolve current difficulties.’

  Just knowing that Leon had sent the e-mail was causing her heart to thud and her whole body to react. If a mere e-mail from him could fill her with such a savage mixture of longing pain and anger then what was the reality of him likely to do?

  Cravenly, she was tempted to simply ignore the message. But logically she knew that she couldn’t.

  Whilst she was still staring at the screen her telephone rang.

  As she picked up the receiver she heard Raoul’s voice exclaiming urgently, ‘Sadie! I need to talk to you!’

  ‘I’ve got Leon’s e-mail, Raoul, and if you’re phoning to try and persuade me to talk with him—’ Sadie began.

  But Raoul cut across her, announcing grimly, ‘Sadie, you’ve got to help me. If you don’t Leon could take me to court and claim back the money he’s advanced me against the acquisition of Francine—and if he does that I’m in real trouble.’

  So, Raoul had lied to her and about her, Sadie told herself. But he was still her cousin, and oddly it was easier to forgive him than it was for her to forgive Leon. Because Leon had hurt her so much more? Or because she loved Leon so much more?

  Just don’t go there, she advised herself.

  ‘Raoul, nothing’s changed,’ she warned her cousin. ‘I will not allow Leon to have the Myrrh formula, and neither will I create a synthetic perfume for him.’

  ‘Sadie, all he wants to discuss is the acquisition of Francine,’ Raoul reassured her. ‘Nothing more than that. And if you don’t agree to sell to him, Sadie, I’m going to be in one hell of a mess.’

  ‘If you’re lying to me again, Raoul—’ Sadie began, but she knew that she was weakening and she suspected that Raoul knew it too.

  By the time she had replaced the receiver she had agreed to go back to France.

  ‘What’s wrong?’ Mary asked Sadie sympathetically, whilst her teenage niece Caroline, who was visiting her, gleefully explored Sadie’s workroom. ‘Still brooding about Leon? You haven’t been able to put what happened with him behind you, have you? Despite what you said to me!’

  Sadie had, of course, told Mary everything that had happened in France with Leon. Well, almost everything! She had been so upset on her return to Pembroke that she had not been able to stop herself from pouring her heart out to her. Then, she had claimed that she was going to make herself believe that she hadn’t even met Leon, never mind fallen so deeply in love with him! But, as Mary had just pointed out, forgetting Leon had proved to be impossible!

  ‘It doesn’t matter how I feel, Mary. I told you what he said to me, how all he wants is for me to create a synthetic scent for him. I shall never do that! Never!’ she announced doggedly.

  ‘I’ve agreed to go to France to see him, but that’s for Raoul’s sake. If Leon thinks he can make me change my mind…’

  Mary gave her a shrewd look.

  ‘Please don’t take this the wrong way, Sadie. You’re my friend, and the last thing I want to do is to hurt or offend you, but it seems to me from all that you have said about Leon that the two of you are perfectly matched and both as stubborn as one another!’ she said gently.

  Whilst Sadie glowered, unwilling to accept her friend’s assessment, Mary went on ruefully. ‘Love on its own isn’t enough, you know.’ She insisted semi-severely. ‘There has to be a willingness to understand and accept one’s other half’s point of view. Haven’t either of you heard of the word “compromise”?’

  Before Sadie could answer, Caroline came out of the workroom to join them.

  ‘Sadie, that perfume you’re wearing is delicious,’ she began longingly. ‘Isn’t there any way you could create something similar but not quite as expensive?’ she asked plaintively. ‘Something that a poor student like me could afford?’

  After Mary and Caroline had gone Sadie went into her workroom. Caroline’s comments about her perfume had struck home and made her feel a little bit guilty. Of course it was only natural that any woman would want to be able to wear a ‘good’ scent, but Caroline’s innocent question had forced Sadie to reassess her own stance and ask herself if there really was a way man-made scents could be blended to create a good perfume that would be within the means of all women.

  It wasn’t because she wanted to give in to Leon that she was thinking like this, trying to find a way to make an expensive traditional perfume more financially accessible, Sadie assured herself. It was just that the look of longing in Caroline’s eyes had made her see things differently. It would certainly be a challenge for her!

  But nowhere near as much of a challenge as winning Leon’s love!

  Angry with herself, Sadie paced her workroom floor. What kind of woman was she to want to win the love of a man who had so humiliatingly rejected her?

  She tried to make herself focus on her work, but all she could think of was Leon and that final destructive scene between them.

  Had he any idea just how much he had shocked and hurt her? Accusing her of…

  Sadie frowned, suddenly remembering just what he had said to her. ‘You are another Miranda Stanton.’

  Who was Miranda Stanton? And what did she have to do with Leon’s rejectio
n of her?

  Sadie stared at her computer and then quickly began to type, her fingers trembling slightly.

  By the time Sadie had finished re-reading the information her computer search had brought up for the third time she was having to swallow hard to suppress her tears of compassion.

  The story of what had happened had been laid bare for her through newspaper archive accounts, but reading it had not shocked her as much as the one photograph she had seen of a fourteen-year-old Leon, so tall that he had been almost shoulder to shoulder with his father, his gaze fixed on his father’s face.

  What a dreadful time that must have been for the whole family; what a dreadful thing Miranda Stanton had done. And what an appalling insult Leon had hurled at her when he had drawn a parallel between this woman and herself! Torn between exasperation, anger and aching love, Sadie didn’t know whether to run towards her upcoming meeting in France with Leon, or to run from it!

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  THE sun might be shining down warmly, but its heat wasn’t enough to melt the ice-cold despair and pain lodged in her heart, Sadie realised sadly as she stepped out of her taxi and looked up at the front of the Mougins hotel, which was where Leon had elected to hold their meeting.

  Sadie wished he had chosen anywhere but here—the place where she had begun to love him and where she had believed he had begun to love her in return.

  She was early for her meeting with Leon and Raoul, and she was tired—she hadn’t been sleeping properly at home, and last night, after her arrival at the small hotel in Cannes where she was staying, every time she had managed to fall asleep she had ended up dreaming about Leon! And what dreams they had been! Her face grew hot at the memory of them. But nowhere near as hot as her body had been last night!

  She had nearly half an hour to waste before her meeting, so Sadie thought she might as well wander through the hotel’s gardens. But she would not follow the path where Leon had kissed her for the first time!

  On the balcony of his suite Leon tensed as he looked out of the window and saw Sadie slowly walking through the garden. He tried to close his mind and his heart to the effect the sight of her was having on him, but it was impossible! His body had already made its feelings perfectly clear.

  As he watched he saw Sadie turn and start in the opposite direction.

  Unable to stop himself, he left his balcony, taking the flight of stone steps that led directly into the gardens two at a time, and calling out her name as he followed her down the path.

  The moment she heard Leon calling her name Sadie froze. Somehow she made herself turn round and confront him.

  He looked grimly forbidding, and for a moment her own resolve faltered. This was a business meeting—nothing more, she reminded herself. If she had hopes and dreams that were not going to be fulfilled, then she had only herself to blame.

  Silently she fell into step beside him, careful to keep a clear distance between their bodies and he escorted her back towards his suite.

  ‘Is Raoul here?’ she asked, and then frowned as her mobile rang.

  Excusing herself, she fished it out of her bag, her frown deepening when she realised that the caller was Raoul himself.

  ‘Sadie—I just thought I’d let you know that I have decided it’s best if you and Leon sort out your differences alone. Leon knows that I am not the one holding up completion of the acquisition. And you know how very important it is to me that this deal goes through. As your cousin, I beg you to remember this and to—’

  ‘Raoul, I am with Leon now,’ Sadie interrupted him sharply. ‘Where are you? Why aren’t you—?’

  She gave a small hiss of exasperation as Raoul immediately ended the call.

  ‘That was Raoul,’ she told Leon. ‘He—’

  ‘I gathered what he said,’ Leon informed her curtly.

  They had reached the stone staircase now, and Leon stood to one side to allow Sadie to precede him. Warily, she did so.

  ‘Raoul wants me to agree to sell my share of the business to you,’ she told Leon. ‘I understand that you have advanced certain monies to him and that legally you are entitled to demand their repayment in full.’

  ‘And so, to protect Raoul from such a fate, you are willing to—?’

  ‘I am willing to sell my share of Francine to you, Leon. That is all I offer. Nothing else.’

  She had just started to mount the steps but stopped, turning to look at him. He was still a couple of stairs lower, and Sadie suddenly became aware that they were on the same eye level.

  Disconcertingly, she realised that Leon’s gaze had dropped to her mouth. And that her mouth had suddenly become soft and eager with the memory of his kisses. Sadie could swear she felt her lips warming and parting, almost pouting as they gloried in Leon’s visual attention.

  And what was sauce for the goose…

  Whilst Leon’s attention was so engaged there was nothing to stop her from looking at him…at his face, his skin, his own mouth.

  She was losing it, and in a big, big way, Sadie recognised helplessly when she heard herself give a small betraying moan as she leaned hungrily towards him.

  ‘Sadie!’

  Was that a warning to stay away from him, or a warning that he could not…?

  ‘Sadie?’

  ‘Leon…’ Sadie was shocked to discover herself murmuring his name against his jaw, and to note that she was wrapped wonderfully and blissfully tightly in his arms. She was perfectly sure that if she turned her head, like this…

  A shock of savagely hot pleasure burned through her as she returned the fierce passion of Leon’s kiss, somehow managing to wriggle her arms free so that she could fling them around him to hold him as tightly as he was holding her.

  The unashamed hardness of his arousal against her body reminded her vividly of last night’s dreams. But this wasn’t a dream. This was wonderfully, gorgeously real!

  Behind her closed eyelids, Sadie could see a bed, a large, wonderful bed, in a shadowy private room. And on those bed she could see Leon naked, aroused, reaching for her…

  Leon, who had rejected her, who had compared her to a woman he hated…a woman who—

  ‘No!’

  Fiercely, Sadie pushed Leon away.

  ‘This isn’t why I’m here, Leon,’ she told him firmly, quickly turning her head so that he wouldn’t have the opportunity to look into her eyes and see just how very vulnerable to him she actually was. After all, she had her pride, didn’t she? She wasn’t going to give him the opportunity to reject her a second time, was she?

  ‘As I’ve already said, for Raoul’s sake I am prepared to sell my share of Francine to you. So, now you’ve got what you want, if you don’t mind I—’

  ‘Got what I want? And if I haven’t got everything I want?’ Leon asked softly.

  Sadie could feel her heart hammering against her ribcage This wasn’t a verbal prelude to a declaration of love or a plea for understanding and forgiveness, she told herself quickly. So there was no point in her stupid heart hoping that it was. Leon just wasn’t that kind of man. Leon didn’t want her. He wanted…

  ‘I haven’t changed my mind about the Myrrh formula, Leon—that formula was entrusted to me by my grandmother. Its history meant a great deal to her. If I were to sell it or change it in any way—’ Her mouth twisted with bitter sadness. ‘But of course I can hardly expect you to understand how I feel, can I? After all, in your eyes I’m another Miranda Stanton. I knew from your tone of voice that you were insulting me, Leon, but I didn’t realise just how much until I read up on just what she had done! I can understand how frightened and vulnerable you must have felt when she—’

  ‘I felt no such thing!’

  The harshness in his voice made Sadie turn her head to look at him. It was obvious that she had found a chink in his emotional armour, but that knowledge made her feel more sad than triumphant.

  ‘Have you any idea how I felt, knowing you had compared me to her Leon? A woman so morally deficient, a woman who delighted
in hurting others, in cheating them for her own selfish ends?’

  Every word Sadie said was making Leon feel increasingly uncomfortable and angry. He had spent the whole of the previous two days talking with one of the French perfume industry’s foremost chemists, trying to find out if there was a way that he and Sadie could reach a compromise over the creation of a new scent, so that he could tell her…But clearly all she wanted to do was touch an old but still raw wound he had no wish to have prodded and probed.

  ‘Sadie, I know you’re no Miranda. I…’ He pushed his hand into his hair and gave a small exasperated shrug.

  ‘Oh, you say that now, Leon, when you want me to agree to sell my share in Francine,’ Sadie told him coldly. ‘But there really isn’t any need for you to lie to me. I’ve already told you I—’

  ‘Lie to you! What the hell—! My God, Sadie I’m doing my damnedest to build bridges here, but as fast as I try you go pulling them down.’

  ‘I’ve had enough of this,’ Sadie told him. ‘I’m not a complete fool, Leon—no matter what you might think. I can do simple maths and add up two and two, you know. You think that every woman you come across in business is potentially another Miranda, and I can understand why you’re afraid of history repeating itself, but—’

  ‘Hell and damn it, Sadie, I am not afraid of anything or anyone,’ Leon growled savagely. ‘And right now you are seriously off topic.’

  ‘Yes, you are, Leon,’ Sadie countered simply. ‘You’re afraid now and you will continue to be afraid all your life—unless you learn to let go of the past and—’

  Sadie gave a small gasp of shock as suddenly she was in Leon’s arms and the words she had been about to speak were smothered by the hot pressure of his mouth grinding down fiercely on hers.

  She ought to stop him. She knew that. Or at least her head knew it. Her body might know it, but if it did it certainly didn’t seem to care, because it was reacting to him with love-crazed enthusiasm: her lips softening and parting, her tongue stroking hungrily against his, her arms lifting to hold him equally as tightly as he was holding her. Her body was pressing itself into him, her hips grinding achingly against the hard thrust of his erection.