British Bachelors & Conveniently Bedded Bundle

by Helen Brooks, Maggie Cox, Natalie Anderson, Anna Cleary

  She wasn’t just beautiful either…she was intelligent and sensitive too. Not to mention damaged by whatever had gone on in her past. The grin on his lips vanished as he soberly considered if he wouldn’t live to regret inviting her to work for him after all.

  ‘Hi. Am I taking too long? Just let me put my shoes on.’

  Fragrant and bare-footed, Maya greeted him at the door, her long dark hair flowing down over the black silk sleeveless top she wore with matching palazzo-style trousers, dazzling green eyes bright as newly polished crystal. Blaise took one look at her and knew he had never wanted anything in his life more…

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  ‘THERE’S no hurry. I just thought we’d go down to dinner together. Go put your shoes on…take your time. I’ll wait.’

  ‘Why don’t you come in, then?’ Her skin flushed a little as she said this, and Blaise saw with satisfaction that she was equally as affected by seeing him as he was her.

  Accepting her invitation, he entered the room and shut the door behind him. Hurrying across to the wardrobe to retrieve a pair of flat gold sandals, Maya sat back on the bed to put them on, inadvertently giving him a highly arousing glimpse of her scarlet-painted toenails. But then out of the corner of his eye he saw the portrait of her as a child propped up against a striped slipper chair, and a jolt of surprise shot through him.

  ‘You brought the picture.’ Drawn by its beauty, as he had been before, he found himself standing in front of it, all the better to study it more closely.

  ‘I always take it with me on longer trips.’ A rustle of silk, the scent of some sweetly floral perfume, and its owner suddenly stood there beside him.

  ‘Presumably you have it well insured?’

  As soon as the words were out of his mouth Blaise sensed the abrupt shift in Maya’s mood. Crossing her arms over her chest, she turned her head to glare at him.

  ‘I don’t care about its monetary value!’ she exclaimed passionately. ‘Do you think that means anything to me?’

  ‘Then what does it mean to you, Maya?’ he asked gently.

  Moving back towards the bed, she collected the cream pashmina she’d left lying there. ‘It’s a piece of my father. The piece he couldn’t give to me when he was alive.’

  Seeing her wrestle with whatever powerful emotion was flowing through her, Blaise judged it best not to speak right then. Instead he moved across the room to join her…waiting.

  ‘You see…he was always busy working, or—or partying with his celebrity friends, and he didn’t always have much time for me. That day—the day he started work on the portrait—he was more like the father I’d dreamed of him being. And although I was grumpy, because he rarely ever gave me much attention and I barely knew how to handle it when he did, I secretly loved him doing that portrait of me. That’s why I wouldn’t sell it…no matter how much it’s worth.’

  ‘And that’s all he left you after he died? His career was amazing. He must have had other assets, surely?’

  ‘What assets? Everything he had was either sold to help pay off his debts or given away to some—some sycophant whilst he was intoxicated! We even lost our house… But he’d died before that happened, and it couldn’t have mattered less to me that everything material had gone.’

  Suddenly understanding why she lived in a poky studio flat, with not much evidence of anything of material value, Blaise took the soft pashmina out of Maya’s hands, threw it back on the bed, then placed his hands either side of her waist. It was slender as a reed—no more than a man’s hand span—and he easily sensed the heat from her body through the silky material of her blouse.

  ‘What was he like as a man…your father? Will you tell me about him?’

  Clearly startled by the question, Maya momentarily withdrew her gaze, as if to regroup her thoughts, but to his satisfaction did not move out of the circle of intimacy he’d instigated.

  ‘Like many artistic people he was very complex…brilliant and driven, but easily led too. His weakness was anything addictive—anything that was ultimately bad for him. When he lost my mother he lost a little of his grip on reality, I think. He tried to take care of me in his own muddled fashion, but he really wasn’t the type of man who could cope with children. He just didn’t have a clue what I needed. Often he left me on my own for long periods. At one time we lived in a house a bit similar to this, and I can remember at nights huddling in a corner of my bedroom terrified of every sound, every creak of a floorboard or tree branch moving in the wind, convinced someone was going to break in and either kill me or…or take me away.’

  The long, tremulous sigh she released feathered over him, and Blaise realised that his heart was pounding like a sledgehammer in his chest at what she’d told him. Now a couple of the disparaging references she’d made to fame started to make sense. What had Devereaux been thinking of, leaving his young daughter to fend for herself? Surely the neglect of a child was one of the most despicable cruelties of all? The man had obviously been too wrapped up in chasing his desires and addictions to tend to his daughter’s welfare, and in Blaise’s book that was pretty damn unforgivable.

  ‘No wonder you were frightened.’ There was a slight break in his voice as his hand lifted to brush away some soft dark hair that had drifted across her cheekbone. ‘You had a right to be. You were just a child, Maya.’

  Her lip visibly trembled. Then her stunning eyes filled with tears. ‘Don’t do that!’

  ‘Do what?’

  ‘Be so understanding and…and say nice things to me. Kindness is the hardest thing to cope with of all. Better that you just tell me to forget about the past and concentrate on the present. Isn’t that what people say?’ Anguished, her beautiful emerald gaze latched a little desperately onto his. ‘Trouble is…sometimes I can’t forget about the past. I feel like I’m still waiting for him to come back, you know? Still waiting for him to walk through that door and say all the things I longed for him to say to me when I was a little girl…most of all to tell me that everything would be all right…even if it was a lie. But of course he won’t come back, will he? He even took his own life to get away from me!’

  ‘Is that what you believe? My God, Maya, that’s got to be a million miles from the truth!’

  ‘Is it? How do you know?’

  ‘Because people aren’t in their right minds when they take their own life. They’re so locked in their pain that they can’t see any other way of escaping it. That’s the only reason they would make such a dreadful decision. It’s nobody’s fault, and you definitely shouldn’t be blaming yourself for what happened. I also know that you absolutely deserve people to be kind to you…to treat you well. Your father was ill and needed help. Maybe right now what you need is a little help and kindness too?’

  ‘That’s where you’re wrong. People’s help or kindness usually comes with a price attached, I’ve found. Frankly I’d rather fend for myself.’ She tried to twist away from him, but Blaise held her fast, forcing her to look at him.

  ‘I don’t believe you.’

  In a heartbeat, his lips were on hers. No thinking, no planning, no intent to seduce… He merely acted on pure primal instinct and a genuine need to provide solace to the woman in his arms in whatever way he could. But once he’d laid his lips against hers, and her mouth had opened to him as easily and effortlessly as a flower opening its petals to the sun, a fire caught hold of him—a rampaging torrent of want, need and desire that was like a forceful, unstoppable river…

  His arms wound tightly about her, Blaise was kissing her as if he was drunk on the taste of her and it was utterly blissful. Just as Maya had always guessed it would be. She had no reservations about kissing him back either. In a state of heightened emotion already, she knew her blood was pounding with the kind of carnal heat that she’d read about in books and passionate poetry but had no personal experience of. Her hands moved urgently down over his hard, fit body, pushing at the black fine wool sweater he wore, touching the warm, taut flesh of his ribcage and stoma
ch underneath, aching to explore even more of him.

  He too was impatient with her clothing, and he lifted the silky top that clung to her body, moving the sensuous material urgently up over her lacy black bra, kneading her breasts through the flimsy cups, teasing her burgeoning nipples with rough, warm fingers and making her want to plead with him for more of the same exquisite treatment with no end in sight.

  When his hands travelled down to her hips, to impel her hard against him, she came into contact with the full dizzying strength of his desire. It strained hard against the fly of his jeans and left Maya in no doubt that he was as turned on as she was. With a hungry little groan she moulded his taut firm behind through the black denim he had on, a sudden wild need driving her to have him possess her…now. She didn’t want to wait. The desperate demand of her body to have him void the ache inside her in the most primeval way was too great for either conscience or patience to play any part in at all, yet somewhere in her mind she knew it was dangerously crazy as well.

  But gradually, bit by devastating bit, Blaise made the decision to call a halt to the madness and broke off their passionate kiss. He lifted his head to study her. His blue eyes reflected back a hot, restless sea of need and desire that easily matched her own as they ruefully met hers.

  ‘Lottie is expecting us down for dinner, and I can’t do anything to delay that right now, but I don’t want to leave you in a state of wanting either. Why don’t you lie on the bed for me?’

  Dazed by his mellifluous voice and that tantalising instruction, Maya tugged her top back down over her bra. ‘What—what for?’

  ‘Maya…do you really need to ask?’

  Eyeing him nervously, Maya found herself doing as he’d asked her—just as if her body made its own decisions without even consulting her mind. Turning her head, she watched him move across to the lamp beside her bed like a fluid ebony shadow—the only relief his dark gold hair—and switch it on. Then he flicked another switch and the main light went off. Her very ribs aching with the tension that was building inside her, she forced herself to try and relax even as the room was bathed in a soft, intimate glow.

  Returning, Blaise slipped off her shoes—and even the touch of his hands at her bare ankles sent hot darts of torrid pleasure bolting almost violently through her. Then, crouching down by the bed in front of her, he eased her long legs towards him. In another fluid, commanding motion he moved upwards to undo her zip, tugging her black silk trousers down over her hips and legs in a rustle of sensuous silk before discarding them onto the bed.

  Her breath catching in her throat, Maya leaned forward to see what he would do next. Never had her heart beat with such clamouring, urgent need—and it had to be said fear too. This was simply out of her remit. To be so vulnerable with a man again was like cracking open a fissure in her heart that had not yet healed. It would all end in tears…she knew that. But it was with devastating intent that Blaise met and held her enraptured gaze. In response, her skin prickled hotly, as though a thousand tropical winds were blowing over her and through her. She was hardly conscious of breathing as he hooked his thumbs beneath the black lace sides of her panties and then, with a firm downward tug, deftly removed them too.

  Biting her lip, she lay back on the bed, her body trembling so hard that she physically hurt. With the tight, coiled feeling inside her hitting an impossible ceiling, she knew she was on the brink of climaxing already because of Blaise’s sensual attentions.

  It wouldn’t take much to tip her over the edge, she realised.

  ‘Try to relax…trust me. I’m going to give you just what you need…I promise…’ His voice flowed over her like warm, luscious honey in the most seductively hypnotic tone she’d ever heard.

  Telling herself she was only fulfilling a very basic need—a need she’d long denied herself with a man— Maya shut her eyes. Almost instantly she opened them again. Shock and dizzying hot pleasure poured through her in a volcanic rush as his velvet tongue laved at the soft exquisitely sensitive folds at her centre, across the aching bud there, and then thrust commandingly inside her.

  Maya hardly knew how she stayed on the bed the pleasure was so intense. All she could do was gasp and moan out loud, her fingers clutching desperately for purchase into the luxurious silk counterpane, her body helplessly writhing as Blaise’s thrusts became more and more purposeful. And then she couldn’t hold back any longer. An ecstatic cry left her throat as she convulsed with the power of her climax, and still he tormented and thrilled her with that erotic tongue of his—holding her slender thighs firmly apart until she writhed and convulsed no more.

  All but exhausted by the ecstatic release he had helped her attain, Maya slowly returned to the world and dazedly sat up. Quite aware of how wild and wanton she must appear, with her long hair falling in a tousled silken mass round her shoulders and the lower half of her body bare and exposed, she self-consciously drew her knees together, feeling her sense of vulnerability magnify. It was the most vulnerable and exposed she had ever felt with a man, and her anxiety at what she’d dared let him do flowed over her, almost stealing every bit of the wild, unfettered pleasure she’d just enjoyed.

  If she knew herself to appear wanton, then Blaise looked downright lascivious as he got to his feet. Leaning over her, he tilted her face towards him and delivered a most knowing masculine grin.

  ‘That was just for starters,’ he teased, then gently moved the pads of his fingers downwards over her cheeks, where the damp trails of her tears still glistened. ‘I wanted to help you forget the past and come back to the present.’

  ‘You—you certainly did that.’ One corner of her mouth somehow quirked upwards in a smile that, given what she’d just allowed him to do, was ridiculously shy.

  ‘We’ll continue where we left off later. I want you in my bed tonight, Maya… In fact the truth is I want you anywhere I can have you.’

  Without hesitation she touched his smoothly shaven jaw, forcing her anxiety away and for once bravely meeting the burning gaze that surveyed her without withdrawing, ‘I want that too,’ she answered softly, and this time it was Blaise’s audible intake of breath that feathered over her…

  Neither of them was able to do full justice to the beautiful dinner Lottie had prepared. Not when a different sort of hunger was gnawing at them instead. With the candlelight glowing between them on the polished dining table, even conversation seemed extraneous. When Blaise asked her to pass him one of the condiments in its antique silver container Maya reacted just as if he’d just asked her to peel off her clothes and lie naked on the table. Her skin burned where his fingers inadvertently brushed against hers, and when she glanced up into his eyes he was studying her so fervently that her breath was suspended for a couple of moments.

  ‘What is it?’ she whispered.

  ‘I want to know how long it’s been since you’ve been with someone,’ he replied.

  ‘I haven’t been with anybody for at least two years.’ Troubled, she blushed hard at the idea that he might believe her to be promiscuous in any way. After all, she’d just allowed him the most intimate access to her body—more intimate than she’d ever let any other man come close to getting.

  ‘Was it a long relationship?’

  Thinking about Sean Rivers was not something Maya liked to do very often. Even now she shuddered at how bitterly their liaison had ended. ‘It lasted about six months, so…not very long at all.’

  ‘Why did it end?’

  ‘Because I trusted him a bit too much and he threw my trust right back in my face.’

  ‘Oh?’

  ‘Something happened.’ She took a small sip of wine, the alcohol bolstering her courage. ‘His name was Sean, and for a while I thought I was in love with him…thought that he loved me too. He was the first man I’d ever met who made me think our relationship could go somewhere. When we were together he—he was tender, kind, caring. We’d talk and talk for hours, on every subject under the sun…even about becoming engaged.’

 
Maya’s glance was far away for a moment as memories of that liaison came flooding back. ‘He was all the things I thought I’d ever wanted in a man. Then one day I received a text from him…an intimate, private message—the sort of thing that a man sends to the woman he loves. Only it wasn’t for me…he’d sent it to me accidentally. That was the day I discovered he was having an affair with somebody else.’

  Swallowing hard at the aching memory of yet again being betrayed by someone she’d trusted, Maya reached up to curl a few silken black strands of hair behind her ear. ‘My friends said I should have seen the signs. But people also say that love makes you blind, don’t they? Anyway, I didn’t see them—the signs, I mean. I stupidly believed everything he said and I paid for it. I rang him straight away and told him I never wanted to see him again. I didn’t. Clearly the other woman meant much more to him than I did.’

  ‘That’s tough. I’m sorry you had to find out the truth in such a crass way,’ Blaise commented thoughtfully, slowly twisting the stem of his crystal wine glass between long fingers as he regarded her. ‘But better that you found out his true character sooner rather than later.’

  ‘And what about you as far as relationships are concerned?’ Maya dared, watching how the candlelight cast some of his amazing sculpted features into shadow and the others into mesmerising relief—including the sexy little dimple that cleaved into his chin. Sensing that guard of his descend almost immediately, she half expected him not to tell her, and she couldn’t help but feel a little crushed that he would withhold such information after what she’d just revealed about her ex.