“That doesn’t excuse me sounding off.”
“Of course it does.” He clasped his large warm hands over her slender fingers.
“So that’s what happened. Zacari died, and you gave up your own career to take his place.”
“Yes. I was torn. I still am, to be honest. If I’d stayed in medicine then maybe I could have gone into research to help find a cure for the cancer that killed him.”
Sara smiled. “I’m not so sure that would have been a good idea. You would still have been devoting your life to doing something that wasn’t part of your plan. The choice you made then was the right one for you at the time.”
Leo squeezed her hands, releasing them as their main course was brought to the table. “I had dreams of discovering things down a microscope, but I love the people part of medicine more,” he went on as they began their meal. “You’re right. I wasn’t cut out to be a back-room boy.”
“No, I can’t see you presiding over a board meeting when you could be playing the fool in a children’s ward,” Sara smiled, which widened into laughter when he responded.
“Are you suggesting I’m still a child at heart?”
“Not when it comes to women, you aren’t. At least, that isn’t how it felt when you were examining my leg.”
He grinned at her, his eyes alive with mischief again. His expression sent warm fronds of desire coiling deep within her body. She moved in her seat, and beneath the table her leg connected with his. Her natural impulse would have been to leap away as though scalded, if it had been anyone but Leo. He made her want to linger. When he didn’t move, she rolled her heel so the inside of her calf brushed against the fine cloth of his suit. He smiled, slow and sweet.
“That was different. You weren’t sick, you were injured. And within seconds of meeting you, Sara Astley, I decided you were more than capable of looking after yourself.”
“That’s what you thought?” She gave a derisive laugh, and let her instep come to rest against his ankle. “Then give me an Oscar. It was all an act.”
“That’s more common than you think,” Leo said, dissecting his chicken.
She went straight onto the defensive. “I suppose that means you do the same?”
“Not me, no. But I know someone who does,” he said in a voice low with disapproval. “I like to keep things light and clear. Then there can be no misunderstandings.”
“And then there’s your rule about not fooling around with your work colleagues.”
He finished his meal and put down his knife and fork. Then he planted his elbows on the table and watched her over his netted fingers. “That helps. And my existing team know the hazards of my life too well to want to get involved with me on a personal level.”
“Does that mean you’ve got a lot of dangerous hobbies, like tombstoning or motocross?” Sara asked, trying not to make it sound like a loaded question.
“Hobbies? No, I don’t have time for them. And I’ll bet you don’t, either. Your head is too full of work. There can’t be much room for anything else.”
“I hope that’s a backhanded compliment. Otherwise I’ll be asking what happened to your admiration for my business sense.”
“That’s taken as read. You’re a clever woman.”
“And you are a very plausible man,” she countered, and felt him move below the table so the contact between them increased.
“True, although I don’t exploit the fact. I’ve always selected my partners with care. I do the asking, always tell the truth, and make it clear when it’s over. When I choose a woman I aim to please, and hit the target. Every time.”
“Except when you misfire, and ask an innocent woman to forget her principles and treat babies as a business venture.”
Leo sat up, drew his feet back under his chair, and called for the dessert menu. It was difficult to hide his irritation. Asking Sara seemed like a good idea at the time. She had everything to recommend her as the perfect facilitator: fierce intelligence, together with drive, efficiency, and single-mindedness. She also had stubborn pride and a sharp tongue.
Once they selected their final course, he bent toward her and hissed his disapproval. “Leave it. I’ve admitted that asking you was an error of judgment. I’m never going there again. Believe me.”
“Good,” she said.
Leo was glad her reply was so forceful. It dampened down the simmering desire she provoked in him, but couldn’t stifle it altogether. Instead, she became all the more desirable now she’d announced she was out of his reach. Over dessert and coffee he tried to bring her back within range, but it was difficult.
“With me, what you see is what you get,” she said. “My life outside the office withered, until work became my whole existence. It’s taken this enforced break to make me see what a mistake I made. Everyone was right—yes, you included. From now on I’m going to get my life back in balance and take a look at the view as I travel along. And nobody is going to drive their way through my money faster than I can earn it,” she finished with an air of satisfaction. She drifted into reflective silence, but jumped back to life as the waiter arrived with their bill.
“Let me get this, Leo, since you paid for our dinner at the hotel.”
He flipped open his wallet and handed a card to the waiter.
“There’s your answer, Sara.”
As they headed out to the car, she felt like opening up. “Going home after this holiday to a house cluttered with cross-trainers but without anyone to talk to won’t seem quite so bad now.”
“Set the keep-fit stuff up in front of a TV. Then you can give your pedometer a workout, and let your mind freewheel at the same time.”
His laughter was infectious. “Are you prescribing me homework, nearly-a-doctor Gregoryan?”
“Yes, I suppose I am.”
“Then let’s get back to the hotel, and hit the remote.”
“Your place, or mine?” His voice was light and teasing, but Sara was struck by how far they had come in the space of a few hours. This was a man who had started their date by asking her to find a mother for his baby as if it was just another job. Now they were joking together. She didn’t want this to slip into reverse, but were they friends, or was Leo the seasoned seducer trying a new tactic on her? She wasn’t sure.
Trying to gain some thinking time, she gestured at the car keys in his hand. “Were you serious about letting me drive your car?”
“Be my guest.”
He made sure she was settled in the driver’s seat, before getting into the passenger side. That was a nice touch, but it made Sara nervous. His sports car was the most powerful vehicle she had ever driven. It was the last thing she would have chosen as her re-introduction to the road, but she was determined to conquer her fear. The car had never been driven so carefully before. The sheer drop below the coast road was a powerful incentive to keep her eyes on the road, and her wits about her. As they rounded the bay, a huge moon was rising out of the water.
“Look at that!” Sara gasped. “You could almost touch it!”
On impulse, she swung the car into the next viewpoint and parked nose-in to the panorama. She waited for Leo to hit imaginary brakes as his car prowled toward the cliff edge. He didn’t, but he couldn’t avoid snatching at the handbrake. In doing so he accidentally caught her dress too. Sara gave a little gasp, as she felt his hand linger. Was he waiting to see which way she would jump?
For long seconds, neither of them moved. Then she had to speak. “Why don’t we get out and take a walk? It’s such a beautiful night.”
“Of course.” His palm rested on the handbrake. The back of his hand was still touching the whisper-thin fabric that clung to her like a second skin. When she didn’t move, he lifted his arm in a sweeping gesture that happened to draw his fingers along the length of her thigh. The hesitation in her breathing must have been unmistakable, but he got out of the car and went around to open the door for her.
He offered to help her out. “I can manage,” she said.
/>
“Old habits die hard, I’m afraid. Anyway, your leg is still healing.”
“I’m not an invalid.”
“Oh, I can see that.”
Sara unfolded herself from the car and stood in the moonlight, enjoying the freedom. The crash of foaming breakers on one side and the chuckle of cicadas on the rocky hillside above them made London seem dull in comparison, and very far away. “I must have been mad to spend so much time in the office.” She sighed.
“Marriage to your work is an arid, loveless relationship.”
“I can see that now. Not that I’m after any other sort of relationship at the moment, though. I’ve done with all that for the time being. They aren’t my thing.”
“On the contrary, I think they’re very much your thing. That’s why you’ve been hurt in the past.”
Sara didn’t want to answer, but she needed to derail his train of thought. “Sometimes it’s good to drop the shallow kissy-kissy client thing, and enjoy some meaningful time with another human being.”
“It’s something men do a lot, in particular. I’ve been guilty of skimming, myself,” Leo said. “In my experience sex is a great answer to any problem. Let your body feel. If it’s having a good time, then your whole life looks up. Everything seems better. Sex is supposed to be uncomplicated fun. It’s when one person or the other gets busy with ties and jealousy and contracts, the trouble starts. But if your mind’s unwinding, why not give your body a holiday too? Relax. Take my advice and forget all your expectations of a happy ever after. Do something wild for once. Who’s to know? Let your body take the initiative, Sara. Take a chance. I can guarantee you won’t regret it.” His voice was quiet in the night.
She flinched.
“What’s the matter?”
“Nothing.”
A small dark shape flittered past.
“It’s only a bat.”
“Yes, that must have been it.”
As if sensing her uncertainty, Leo took the initiative and caught hold of her hand.
Chapter Eleven
“Sara...” He breathed, sliding his arms around her.
She responded by lifting her hands and digging her fingers through his hair.
“Leo...” she moaned before he silenced her with a kiss.
Her body was so lissom he wanted to wind every inch of it around himself.
“Take me here, Leo. Now. Fast and hard.”
The sudden change in her took him by surprise, and made him wary. “There’s an emperor-sized bed and champagne on ice waiting back in my suite.”
“But I want you now, Leo. Not in twenty minutes’ time!”
This wasn’t right. He wanted her to slow down. Covering her throat with kisses half muffled his voice. “Anticipation...the ultimate aphrodisiac...”
“Not for me, it isn’t.” She twisted out of his grasp. “I thought you wanted sex with no complications. So what are you waiting for? I don’t want it to mean anything more to me than it does to you.”
He stopped, shocked. “Sara? You can’t be serious.”
“I never joke about things like this.”
He held her at arm’s length. “No. You don’t want this to be over as soon as possible, any more than I do. I refuse to make it a surgical procedure, performed without anaesthetic.”
“It’s more a rite of passage. I need to do it, to prove I can. Like getting back on a horse after a fall.”
He was dumbfounded. “You mean you aren’t looking forward to this?”
“I’m looking forward to having you, of course I am,” she whispered, twining her arms around his neck. “But I know I won’t be anything more than another notch on your bedpost, Leo. As long as I keep my mind fixed on that fact, I’ll be fine.”
He took her hands from his neck and held them. “Sara! Do you think so little of yourself you’d treat this as some sort of bizarre endurance test?”
“If I have no illusions, I won’t be hurt or disappointed.”
With a noise of disgust, he released her. “That’s not how I look at it. And you know what? I’m not going to be a party to you wrecking your life. Let’s get back to the hotel.”
He stormed to his car and flung open the passenger door. As he did it, he knew the action had a violence the scene didn’t need.
It’ll serve me right if she burst into tears now, he thought.
Sara was silhouetted in the moonlight. He couldn’t tell whether her outline was shimmering with hysteria, or if it was a trick of the light caused by staring at her too hard.
A sleepless gull racketed away seaward. A motorbike roared past, tearing a strip through the silence. It left ragged gaps allowing laughter to seep up from a beach bar, half a mile away.
The only thing Leo didn’t hear was the sound of crying.
He had to break the impasse somehow. “Sara...you’ll get cold standing there.”
For half a dozen heartbeats, she never moved.
She must have heard me. She’s playing deaf.
Then in her own good time she stalked the twenty yards to his car—and stepped into the driver’s seat.
Icily indifferent to everything, she drove back to the Paradise Hotel. As she parked, Leo kept his hands well away from any contact with her thigh. He needn’t have bothered. She had the driver’s door open the moment the vehicle came to a standstill. She jumped out and disappeared into the foyer of the hotel, leaving his keys jangling in the ignition.
“So much for letting me hold the door open for you, my lady,” Leo said, slamming the car shut with enough force to rattle all the glass in the hotel’s lobby. The shock brought him to his senses. Rolling his head back on his shoulders, he wondered how he might have talked her round. That was when he saw a man looking at him from an upper window.
“Sorry about the disturbance,” Leo added a mime to his apology to make the meaning clear. He flicked his car keys at the valet, and headed into the building.
Sara blundered through the reception area with her head down. She didn’t stop until she was inside her suite with the door locked. Trembling from head to foot, she put a hand over her eyes. She had wrecked their evening. and all because it felt perfect. Given the chance to take pleasure to another level with a sultry night of passion, she’d pulled back. A switch flicked inside her brain. Leo’s charm gave him access to her heart and soul until it was impossible to dislodge him, but instead of making her happy her instincts veered to the other extreme. She was afraid gorgeous Leo would turn into a monster once they got between the sheets. She’d seen it happen to a man before. Trying to scare Leo off by coming on too strong was her way of shifting the blame in case things went wrong.
He was the perfect escort, and that was how she wanted him to stay. It meant finishing the evening before sex started. Giving Leo that ultimatum—then and there or never—wrecked the moment, as she’d known it would. Deep down, she was terrified giving in to her need for him would wreck their friendship. Would all the respect and attraction she felt for him, and he claimed to feel for her, evaporate the instant she let him get too close? She was frightened of the answer.
Sara hardly slept that night. In the chill light of early dawn she looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror and groaned. After the way I treated Leo last night, he’ll never want to see me again. Looking like this, he’d hardly recognize me, anyway.
Unable to face breakfast, she showered and went straight out to the spa. Leo preferred his own company so he rarely used the place. That meant Sara could hide away all day there and recover without worrying. Their paths wouldn’t need to cross until she felt strong enough to meet him.
She started with a swim. The pool’s water didn’t sting the wound on her leg as the sea had done. Floating in the crystal water made her feel more sleepy than during the whole of the previous night. That gave her an idea. An aromatherapy massage might help her wind down.
Half an hour later, Sara was lying facedown on one of the treatment beds. The therapist had mixed a soothing blend of ro
se, jasmine, and sweet almond oils. As she dozed, the woman worked over the tense muscles in her neck and shoulders. A soothing soundtrack of birds and a fountain was so much better than the clatter of keyboards.
Sara moved from dozing in the treatment room to dozing on a lounger in the shade of a spreading mulberry tree. The Paradise Spa was working its magic on her physically, but mentally she still couldn’t rest. Her body, oiled and unwound, craved sleep. Her mind, still tormented by the way she had sabotaged her evening with Leo, played her over the surface of it like a fish. The soles of her feet grew warm as the sun moved around, but she couldn’t be bothered to get up and move back into the shade as its power became stronger. It slid up to cover the backs of her legs, then her body. When it reached her shoulders a shadow fell across her, as though the sun had gone behind a storm cloud. She raised herself on her elbows and twisted around to see if the weather had changed.
The day was as bright as ever. That single shadow was cast by a familiar figure standing over her.
“You told me you weren’t a lizard. I’m here to make sure you don’t turn into one.” He reached for the bottle of suntan lotion stowed beneath her lounger.
“Leo!”
“Lie still. I’ll do your back first.”
He was issuing orders again. First she roused, then she relaxed. This was kind, considerate Leo, after all. “Thank you. That’s one thing I can’t manage to do properly by myself.”
“Everyone’s got problems like that. Mine is not having the sense to quit while I’m ahead.”
Sara hesitated. He didn’t move until she obeyed. Stretching out facedown, she pillowed her head on her arms and closed her eyes. That made it easy to replace in her mind Leo’s serious expression with the one she had seen so often on his face: the little lift at the corners of his mouth when he said something flirtatious.
The bottle sighed beneath the squeeze of his fingers. He lifted her hair away from her neck, and Sara found herself echoing the exhalation.
“This will be cold,” he said.
“Not on a day like this—aah!” She flinched as he draped a trail of lotion around her neck. She bit her lip, anticipating his touch. He made her wait. She became painfully aware of the pulse throbbing beneath her skin, and he replaced the screw cap on the bottle with agonizing slowness.
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