by Miranda Lee
‘You’re dead right there, girl,’ Joy said drily. ‘There’s nothing in your wardrobe which would do for dinner and a show.’
‘Exactly what I was thinking,’ Violet said.
‘You’d better get moving, then. I’d come with you if my arthritis wasn’t playing up this morning. But if you want a suggestion then get something black. With your pale skin and new black hair, a little black dress would look great. And, please, buy something in your size, not one or two sizes bigger. You have a gorgeous figure and it’s high time you showed it off!’
CHAPTER NINE
THE ITALIAN RESTAURANT Henry had booked had an al fresco area which overlooked the marina at Darling Harbour. It also had a splendid view of the Star, which was located on the opposite side of the small harbour and was as big, bright and glitzy as casinos tended to be.
Leo had left his car there with the parking valet then walked over to the restaurant via a small connecting bridge. He’d arrived several minutes earlier than six o’clock, which he’d told Violet in his text, giving him time to sit, sip some mineral water and compose himself before she arrived.
By then, Leo was in need of some serious composure. It had been foolish of him to agree to take Violet out tonight instead of his father. More than foolish; downright disturbing. All day he’d been besieged by the kind of sexual demons which he’d thought were well behind him. He was forty years old, for pity’s sake, not some horny, hormone-driven teenager!
No amount of logical lecturing, however, could overcome the thoughts which kept entering his head and torturing his body. Fortunately, his claim to Violet that he wasn’t a callous seducer—especially of young girls like her—was still true. Leo knew he would not act upon the wickedly exciting temptation to do just that. But that didn’t mean he wasn’t intrigued by the idea. Intrigued and aroused.
It was going to be a long and difficult night.
Leo sighed, then took another sip of the chilled water, his eyes drifting over the rim of the glass to the people wandering across the nearby bridge, most of them coming in his direction.
His gaze was drawn to a young, good-looking couple who were walking hand in hand, their frequent glances at each other so full of love that it was almost painful to watch them. It came to Leo then that he’d never been in love like that. In lust, yes, several times. But never truly in love. And now... Now he was probably too old to embrace that kind of love. Too old and way too cynical.
His eyes swung from the besotted couple to the girl walking behind them who was wearing a short black dress which showed off a shapely figure and simply smashing legs. It was the legs he saw first, of course. Leo had always been a leg man. He liked slender ankles, shapely calves and non-knobbly knees, all of which this girl possessed.
It wasn’t till his eyes lifted to her face that he realised it was Violet whose legs he’d been ogling, Violet whose legs he’d wondered about the other night, who clearly hadn’t been behind the door when Mother Nature had given out great legs.
Leo smothered a groan as that part of him which he’d been doing his best to subdue all day went back into overdrive. This wasn’t going to be a long and difficult night, he accepted ruefully—it was going to be sheer bloody murder!
As she approached the end of the walkway, her head turned to the left and their eyes met across the twenty metres or so which separated them. Leo smiled a polite smile and she smiled back. A sweet smile, he thought. A sweet, innocent smile. If only she knew what had been going on in his head, and what was even now going on underneath the serviette in his lap.
Perhaps she had some idea for, despite her earlier smile, she looked nervous as she was shown to his table. Nervous but absolutely gorgeous in the little black dress she was almost wearing. Not only was the hemline boldly short, the V neckline was provocatively low, giving him another eyeful of her amazingly lush breasts.
Her dark hair was done in a more sophisticated style than the other night’s bob, with a few sexy strands kissing her cheeks. She smelt gorgeous too, a tantalisingly musky perfume emanating from her skin as she sat down in the chair opposite.
‘Sorry I’m a little late,’ she said somewhat breathlessly. ‘The traffic was simply dreadful. How did you manage to get here so early?’
‘I heeded your warning and left extra early. But you’re hardly late. Only a minute or two. So, what would you like to drink?’ he asked, aware that the waiter was hovering.
‘Not champagne,’ she replied rather quickly. ‘Just a glass of wine, perhaps. White. Not too sweet.’
‘Bring us a bottle of your best Sauvignon Blanc,’ Leo ordered the waiter. ‘I’ll leave the choice up to you.’
Violet frowned when the waiter hurried away, looking rather pleased. ‘You do realise he’ll bring you the most expensive bottle in their cellar?’
Leo hid his amusement behind a poker face but, truly, she was unique. Didn’t she know how wealthy he was? Most women would have made it their business to know, or to find out. There again, she wasn’t anything like most women. Of course, she wasn’t really a woman. Just a girl, a young, naive girl whom he wanted to take to bed more than any girl he’d ever met.
‘I hope so,’ he said. ‘Because the most expensive wine is usually the best. You only get what you pay for, you know, Violet.’
‘I wouldn’t know,’ she refuted. ‘Joy and I only ever drink the house wine when we go out to dinner.’
Leo mulled over this statement. It sounded like the only outings she had was with her elderly landlady. If that were true, then it was a sad state of affairs. He wondered again about what had happened in Violet’s past to turn her off men and dating. Till now, that was. Since he was destined to spend the evening with her anyway, Leo decided it was the perfect time to find out.
‘You have no excuse this time, Violet,’ he began, using Henry’s technique of teasing rather than revealing.
Her long black eyelashes fluttered as she blinked in confusion. ‘No excuse for what?’
‘For not telling me what happened to you in the past to turn you off the opposite sex. After all, we have close to two hours before the show starts. More than enough time, no matter how long your story is.’
She frowned again, clearly not happy with his probing her past. But Leo was not going to let the matter go, his curiosity was even more piqued this time.
‘Come now, Violet,’ he said in his most persuasive voice, that same voice which he used to positive effect on the people he wanted to invest in his film projects. ‘You can’t honestly expect me to fly back to England tomorrow still ignorant about why you’ve gone this long without a boyfriend? Just look at you tonight. You’re absolutely gorgeous. It simply doesn’t make sense.’
She flushed, gnawing at her bottom lip as she looked away and down. When she finally glanced back up at him, her eyes were still unhappy.
Now he wasn’t curious so much as concerned. She’d denied being attacked. But something seriously bad must have happened to her at some stage, something which she hated talking about.
Suddenly, Leo felt guilty for having pushed the issue. ‘You don’t have to tell me if you really don’t want to. But sometimes it’s good to talk about things,’ he added gently. ‘Women tell me I’m a good listener.’
The waiter came with the wine just then. Leo was impatient as he went through the tasting routine before approving the wine which was, indeed, very good. From Western Australia, he noted.
‘Perhaps we should order our meals,’ he said to the waiter, again somewhat impatiently. ‘We’re going to a show which starts at eight and don’t want to hurry our food.’
The waiter handed them menus, after which he explained the chef’s specials for the night. Violet said that she didn’t want an entree, preferring to have a main and dessert. Leo didn’t care, so he said he’d do the same.
Violet was thankfully quick to decide on her meal—salt-and-pepper calamari. Leo ordered the same, along with a plate of herbed bread. The waiter took off at some speed, per
haps seeing a good tip if he gave them excellent service.
‘Try the wine,’ Leo said once they were alone. ‘Tell me what you think of it.’ Despite still dying to know what had happened to Violet, he’d decided to back off for a short while, to give her time to relax.
Violet lifted the glass to her lips and took a small sip.
‘It’s...very nice,’ she said, then took another sip, her eyes meeting his across the table.
They were lovely eyes, dark, velvety and soft. The sort of eyes a man could drown in whilst making love to her.
After another sip, she lowered the glass back to the table, her eyes never leaving his. ‘I never said I was turned off the opposite sex.’
Her unexpected statement was both intriguing and perplexing. ‘Then what was the problem?’
She stared at him for a long moment then sighed. ‘I have to go back a long way. To just before I turned thirteen.’
‘Fine,’ Leo said, adding, ‘go on,’ when she hesitated again.
‘The thing is...when I went into puberty, I developed the most dreadful case of cystic acne.’
Leo could not contain his surprise. ‘But you have such beautiful skin now!’ he exclaimed. In truth, her complexion was one of her best features. Not only clear but porcelain-like.
‘Yes, well, that wasn’t always the case, believe me,’ Violet said ruefully. ‘All the years I was in high school, I looked truly appalling. You’ve no idea how much I hated going to school.’
Leo’s heart went out to Violet as she told him haltingly of the bullying she’d endured because of her bad skin and what she’d done to cope, explaining about her pink prison and the books which had sustained her soul, even when it had been close to disintegration.
Witnessing her distress just at recalling those times made Leo realise how lucky he’d been to go through his teenage years without any such problems. Not only had Violet had to tolerate years of very nasty pimples but she’d also been left with scars, not just to her face but to her self-esteem. Which was why she’d turned to food for comfort, adding the extra physical problem of being overweight.
Leo understood full well how being even a little overweight affected a female’s confidence. Being in the show-business world had made him more sensitive to the plight of the modern woman where her weight was concerned. He personally didn’t mind girls with a few added pounds, but society in the twenty-first century dictated that thin was in.
He could see that Violet would have felt terrible whenever she’d looked at herself in the mirror. No wonder she’d stayed at home in her room all the time. She would not have felt like going out to friends’ houses or parties, even if she’d been invited. Which she obviously hadn’t been. She hadn’t even gone to her own graduation ball, pretending that she was ill and couldn’t go.
Just as well she’d been able to escape into the fantasy world of those historical romances she loved to read or she might have done something really silly. And just as well that that counsellor had taken her to the right doctor and that great-aunt of hers had left her some money. As it was, she’d still lost the best years of her life. High school should have been fun, not torture.
‘But surely things got better once you went to uni?’ he said after she finished telling him about her school years.
‘Not much, I’m afraid. My skin was improving but I was still overweight. My self-esteem was zilch, as was my confidence in social situations. I didn’t have a clue how to dress or how to act. Being around the other students terrified me. The boys, especially. I still felt ugly, even when the mirror told me I wasn’t. It was safer to just keep to myself.’
Leo shook his head from side to side. ‘That’s so sad, Violet.’
Violet sighed. ‘Looking back, I can see it was mostly my own silly fault. It was easier to hide away in my shell than make an effort to change. Even when I lost weight and went to work for Henry, I clung to my introverted, anti-social attitude. Which answers your question about why I don’t have a boyfriend—why I’ve never had a boyfriend,’ she added, her eyes falling away from his.
Leo took a second or two to realise that Violet’s never having had a boyfriend meant she’d never had sex. Suddenly, his wayward flesh, which had calmed somewhat during her sorry tale, stirred again with a vengeance. How perverse, Leo thought, that her being a virgin would excite him so much. It should have dampened his desires. Instead, it made them even darker. And stronger.
Thankfully, their mains arrived just at that moment, giving Leo some quiet time to get it together. Violet looked grateful as well. Clearly, she’d found telling her story extremely stressful, her face was still flushed with an embarrassed heat.
Despite feeling great sympathy for her, it wasn’t long before Leo wanted to hear more. There were still some intriguing questions that he wanted answered. After taking a few mouthfuls of the calamari—which was as excellent as the wine—he put down his fork and looked across the table at her.
‘So what happened to make you decide to change your attitude this year?’ he asked. ‘I mean...why now? After all, from what you’ve told me, your skin was fixed by the time you finished your degree. And you’re certainly no longer overweight. I wouldn’t mind betting you’ve been asked out plenty of times.’
Violet also put down her fork, her pink cheeks having finally cooled. ‘Actually, no, I haven’t. I’ve only been asked out twice in my life,’ she admitted in that charmingly ingenuous way which he found so refreshing. ‘And only by two extremely dull men. Of course, I don’t usually look like I look tonight. Or how I looked the other night, for that matter.’
That rang true. Henry had been most surprised by Violet’s appearance. ‘You still haven’t answered my question,’ Leo persisted. ‘Why now, Violet? What happened recently to make you decide to throw off the shackles of the past and embrace a brand new you?’
She smiled another of those soft, sweet smiles. ‘You do have a way with words, don’t you? You should have been a writer, not a producer.’
‘Stop trying to change the subject.’
‘Our food will get cold if I answer your question properly.’
Leo pulled a face. ‘You mean it’s a long story too?’
‘Sort of.’
He sighed. ‘Very well. We’ll eat first and talk later. But don’t think you can wriggle off the hook, madam. I aim to get the truth out of you—the whole truth and nothing but the truth!’
CHAPTER TEN
SO HELP ME GOD, Violet finished up in her mind.
She could not believe how much she’d already told Leo. She’d come here tonight, full of the adrenaline rush which came from knowing she’d never looked better or sexier. Joy had been right; black did suit her. Violet had been bubbling with excitement during the taxi ride here, eager to see that look in Leo’s eyes again, the one which said how attractive he found her. Attractive and desirable.
But he hadn’t looked at her like that. Okay, so he had complimented her on her appearance, but only in the way a friend would have said it. A friend or, even more depressingly, a father. Obviously, she wasn’t such a wicked temptation after all!
Was it her disappointment in his lack of sexual interest tonight which had prompted her to tell him about her background?
Possibly. That, and the fact that he was so darned easy to talk to. Clearly, Leo had been taken aback by the revelation that she’d suffered from acne, but very understanding and wonderfully kind with his words of sympathy. Which was perhaps why she’d revealed much more than the bare details of her teenage years. She’d even told him about her addiction to historical romances!
So why was she worried now about telling him the rest? What difference would it make if he knew about her life-changing experience on that plane? Or that he would realise, once she told him the full list of her New Year’s resolutions, that she was still a virgin? In truth, he must have already come to that conclusion. So, really, there was no reason to be nervous about telling him this last bit of her story.
Nevertheless, Violet reached for her wineglass several times as she went about finishing her meal. At last all the calamari was gone, along with a couple of slices of herb bread; Violet’s appetite always rose when she was under stress. It seemed silly to delay answering Leo’s question by then, so she began telling him about her recent Christmas visit to her family in Brisbane and the feelings which had besieged her at the time.
‘I got sick and tired of being asked who I was dating and having to say no one,’ she admitted. ‘But things dropped to a new low when Gavin—that’s my kid brother—asked me if I was gay.’
‘I see,’ Leo said.
‘I doubt it. I can’t see anyone ever presuming you were gay. But, to get on with my story, by the time I left to fly home I knew I wanted to make changes to my life, but I just didn’t know how. You’ve no idea how easy it is to get into the habit of being insular and introverted. Very easy not to bother about your wardrobe or your appearance as well. The truth is, I’d become a coward, for want of a better word. And lazy to boot.’
‘That’s being a bit harsh on yourself.’
‘No, no, don’t try to soft-soap me, Leo. I am well aware of what I’d become. But it really came home to me when I read Captain Strongbow’s Woman again during the flight home.’
‘What was that? Captain who’s woman?’
‘Captain Strongbow’s. It’s the title of my favourite historical romance from back when I was a teenager. I hadn’t read it for years and I was curious to see if it still captivated me as much.’
‘And did it?’
‘Absolutely. I loved every word. And I still loved the hero, despite his being politically incorrect in this day and age. I mean, you could never write a modern hero who kidnaps the heroine then says he’s going to have sex with her with or without her permission.’