Читать книгу Mistress On Demand - Maggie Cox, Maggie Cox - Страница 5

EATING humble pie had never been so painful. Later that evening, round the dining table, she deliberately avoided eye contact with Dominic.

After making her stammering apology, Sophie had lapsed into a painful and angry silence. The man hadn’t even had the grace to accept her apology like a gentleman. Instead, he’d arrogantly replied, ‘I will accept your apology, Sophie…for Diana’s sake,’ then continued to talk to Freddie—Diana’s husband—as though Sophie no longer existed.

Sophie had never felt more belittled or disgruntled in all her life. He had got the upper hand again, and it was clear he was going to make Sophie suffer as a consequence. Right then, as she studied his handsome, hard-jawed profile, she honestly despised the man. She was glad for Diana’s sake that he had relented and returned to the reception, but she almost would have preferred ex-communication from Diana’s friendship than endure the vehement discomfort that she was currently having to endure.

When the guests moved into the bar area, where a tuxedo-attired pianist was entertaining the hotel residents with some gentle jazz, Sophie wondered how long in all conscience she should stay, before telling Diana she was leaving? Standing alone as she sipped the glass of wine she had brought with her from the table, Sophie glanced up startled as she suddenly found herself face to face with Dominic.

For a long moment he just stared at her, saying nothing. Her spine prickling with resentment, Sophie remembered that she had promised Diana not to let her temper run away with her again. At least as far as this man was concerned. But, God, it was hard! Swallowing razorblades would surely be easier?

‘Having a nice time?’ she asked, then coloured as she realised he could easily interpret such a remark as facetious.

‘I can tell you are not happy that I came back, Sophie.’ One corner of his mouth curled back into his smooth cheek. She focused her gaze on the two black buttons on his jacket instead of being persuaded to look into his eyes, unreasonably annoyed that his eyes should be so disagreeably hypnotic and so unrelentingly green.

‘Whatever gave you that idea?’

Now she did sound facetious. Dammit! It was nigh on impossible to be agreeable to this man when he clearly thought himself so much better than everyone else. Stealing a look over Dominic’s broad shoulder, in its perfectly tailored jacket, Sophie caught a pointed glimpse of Diana’s definitely raised eyebrow. It was as if she were silently saying to Sophie, Remember your promise? Don’t go ruining anything else!

Sophie swallowed hard, and somehow managed to persuade her mostly uncooperative lips into a smile up at Dominic.

For a moment he registered surprise. Then he glanced round, saw that she’d been looking at Diana, and turned back with a slight disapproving tilt of his jaw. She had to be the most difficult and argumentative woman he had ever come across, Dominic thought. But she had pretty eyes, and a torturously sexy mouth, and even though her ill manners exasperated him she stirred a surprising heat inside him that he couldn’t deny. In fact, as he took another careful sip of his wine Dominic let that heat sizzle a little in sudden concentrated anticipation that he might turn his verbal conflagration with Sophie into a conflagration of a very different but much more pleasurable sort. If she wasn’t passive by nature, there was no way that the woman would be passive in bed.

Quite unexpectedly, the thought became urgent and goal-orientated, until Dominic found he could think of nothing he’d like more than getting Sophie between the sheets and indulging in the kind of sexual sparring that excited him most. Before the night was through, he vowed to have her purring rather than wanting to scratch his eyes out!

‘Your glass is almost empty, I see. How about some more champagne?’

Before Sophie could even register his intention, Dominic had deftly removed her glass from her hand and, glancing round him, signalled a nearby waiter to give him her glass and an order for more drinks. When he turned back to Sophie, levelling his disturbing gaze on her eyes and then her mouth, as if he would devour her down to her very bones, her senses were suddenly besieged by a wave of desire so ignitable that for a moment she couldn’t think, let alone form words.

Rocked to the very toes of her expensive cream sandals, she wondered what the hell was wrong with her? She disliked this smug, arrogant man intensely, never mind desired him! She must have had too much champagne and wine. That was the only logical conclusion she could come to right then. She had better slow things right down before she committed one more act of utter and complete folly, and so thoroughly made a fool of herself that she wouldn’t be able to live with herself again.

‘I really don’t think I ought to have any more alcohol,’ she confessed, aghast at the fact that her composure had been thrown so off kilter by his too-intimate cynosure. ‘I’m not really used to drinking.’

‘If not drinking, then surely you must have other vices, Sophie? I wonder what they might be?’

Her attention trapped indisputably by the suggestive honeyed tones of his mesmerising voice, Sophie couldn’t look away. She wanted to make some clever or cutting little quip, to put a dent in his too-confident leer, but her throat and her thoughts seemed to dry up at the same time, and nothing sprang helpfully to mind.

‘Sophie? Are you all right?’

He touched her; laid his hand on her bare arm and gave it a definite squeeze. There was no question in Sophie’s mind that he had somehow branded her. Now her senses were jumping around all over the place in utter and wild confusion, and the place where he had lain his fingers felt as if it were on fire. Why was it that when she looked into that intimidatingly handsome face of his she knew she hated him? Yet when he had touched her just now she had almost swayed with the sheer intoxicating pleasure of it? Today was turning out to be one of the most bizarre days in recent memory that was for sure!

‘I’m fine. I was just—I just felt a little cold…that’s all.’

‘Cold?’ A surprised eyebrow lifted towards Dominic’s crown of blond hair, accompanied by a very wry and disbelieving smile. The room was almost too hot. And he could plainly see that Sophie’s cheeks were burning. In that very moment Dominic knew without a doubt she was having trouble diverting her attraction towards him. Just as he was having trouble doing the same thing with her. In his mind there was only one solution to their mutual problem.

‘How were you planning on getting home this evening?’ he asked, his voice deceptively casual as his eyes met the startled blue of her anxious gaze.

‘Home?’ Good God! Now she had completely lost the ability to converse at all. She’d turned into a monosyllabic idiot! Determinedly Sophie made herself focus. Was he going to offer her a lift? she speculated.

‘Oh, I’ll probably cadge a lift off one of Diana’s friends, or get a taxi.’

‘I was wondering…as an alternative…’ Dominic moved closer, and his fingers found their way beneath Sophie’s chin and lifted it up a little. Her bones were so delicate and fine that she felt the strong imprint of his fingers acutely. Inside, her heart felt as if it was just about to go into cardiac arrest, and she waited for him to finish speaking all thoughts of Diana, Freddie, and their friends vanished as if they no longer existed. The only two people left in the room were herself and Dominic. ‘…whether you might like to stay the night in the hotel, with me?’

‘Sta—stay the night?’ she repeated, once more appalled at how this man could affect her so acutely with just one smooth, confident glance. Was he serious? The thought that he might be stringing her along, to pay her back for insulting him earlier, struck a very loud alarm bell in Sophie’s head. He had turned on the charm, reeled her in, and now he was going to dump her in an even bigger metaphorical puddle than the real one that had drenched her earlier!

She circled her fingers around his wrist and threw his hand away. ‘You must think me completely stupid if you think I’m going to fall for that kind of obvious little ruse! I’m on to you, Mr Van Straten! I know all you’re trying to do is pay me back because I spoke my mind earlier, and didn’t bow and scrape like you usually expect people to do in your exalted company!’

Dominic couldn’t help but laugh. It simply hadn’t occurred to him that she might think his invitation to bed was some kind of game he was playing to repay her for insulting him! She was a defensive little creature, that was for sure. He would have to convince her he meant no offence at all—quite the opposite in fact.

‘You have it all wrong Sophie. There was no affront intended. Nor do I expect you to ‘‘bow and scrape’’ in my company. I do, however, desire very much that you share my bed tonight. I am perfectly serious about this, and there is no trick up my sleeve with which I am trying to hoodwink you. Understand?’ He saw the confusion in her eyes, the slight flush that rushed into her cheeks, and the way her hands nervously went to her hair. Feeling his desire grow, Dominic slid his hand around the curve of her cheek and jaw, and gently stroked the skin that was as beguiling to the touch as the most opulent velvet.

‘Understand?’ he repeated more softly.

Dominic had taken off Sophie’s shoes. Sitting on the bed, with its rich claret-coloured satin counterpane, her hands intertwined in her lap, it was hard for her to stop trembling like a shivering kitten that had been left out in the rain as he knelt before her. She wanted him to kiss her. Wanted it so badly that her very bones ached with longing. Instead, she watched entranced as he divested himself of his jacket and tie, opened some buttons on his shirt and—with his gaze fixed firmly on hers—slid his palms up the outside of her stockinged thighs.

The blue silk of her dress rippled like a gentle flowing stream as he edged it further and further up her legs. She was wearing a cream-coloured suspender belt with little embossed daisies on it to hold up her matching cream hosiery, and Sophie wondered what Dominic would think of her undoubtedly sexy underwear? Would he imagine she’d worn it just in case she got lucky? Because this was so far from the truth, and she was unable to keep her pained thoughts to herself, she inadvertently released a groan. Dominic smiled at her with a slow, engagingly sexy smile of acknowledgement, and a spark of molten heat burned back at her from his darkened green eyes as he flipped open the fastenings that held her stockings up and slowly…very slowly…peeled them down her bare legs.

Excitement and all-consuming need thrummed commandingly through Dominic’s blood. Seducing a beautiful woman was one of life’s most exquisite pleasures, after all, and he knew the seductive arts as well as he knew how to make a million dollars without exerting himself. The skill had become innate. Knowing how to take things slowly—how to drive a woman’s passion to such a crescendo that she would beg him to take her, to ease her agony—he was perfectly acquainted with bestowing sensual delectation.

But, right now Dominic was the one who was in desperate need of this woman’s touch. He needed it—no, craved it, as if he would lose his mind if he didn’t have it soon. With her eyes blinking back at him like a startled owl’s, Dominic registered her tension—her excitement and, linking his fingers expertly around the sides of the scant silk panties she was wearing, he gave them a gentle tug downwards. Quickly removing them, he settled his body nearer hers on the bed, whilst still kneeling on the carpet, and this time slid his palms up the insides of her trembling legs.

Hearing her deeply in-drawn breath, Dominic caressed the fine dark curls at her apex, then worked his fingers inside her. At the sensation of hot moist heat, that drenched him, he could not prevent his own gasp of violent pleasure.

Oh, God, yes! More please more! Don’t stop. Sophie’s thoughts were desperate and wild as Dominic worked his magic, making her climax almost before she even knew that was her destination. Feeling heat saturate her, and her aroused nipples rub acutely sensitively against the flimsy material of her bra inside her dress, she expelled her breath in soft urgent gasps of deliciously lustful pleasure. Tipping back her head, she shut her eyes in ecstasy as erotic waves rippled powerfully through her, one after the other.

She’d never known release like it. Such mind-spinning pleasure had only been pure fantasy for Sophie up until now.

Opening her eyes again, she saw that Dominic had discarded his shirt and was doing the same to his trousers. Her gaze devoured him greedily. His body was amazing. Broad, beautifully muscled shoulders and chest, an iron-hard stomach tapering down to lean, tight hips, a sprinkling of fine blond hairs disappearing tantalisingly down into his black silk boxers. Sophie inadvertently dampened her lips with her tongue.

Dominic honed in on the unknowingly erotic gesture with such a possessive, hungry glance that she almost climaxed again, right there and then. Then, rising over her on the bed, he tipped up her chin and brought his lips down hard and hot upon hers. His tongue was a seductive instrument of velvet torture as he played with and teased Sophie’s mouth, nipping and stroking her tender flesh with ruthless prowess.

His expertise took kissing to a whole new dimension. The taste of him was the most destroyingly addictive nectar her lips had ever experienced, and she wasn’t ashamed to silently admit she wanted more. Reaching for the hem of her silk dress, he lifted it over Sophie’s head in one quick, fluid movement, then undid her lacy cream bra in the same expert fashion.

‘You are perfect,’ he breathed in wonder, as his hand cupped the soft swell of one full pink-tipped breast and then the other.

‘Not as perfect as you,’ Sophie couldn’t help replying, putting her hand out to touch his bare, flat stomach. Her fingers touched velvet steel, and she sucked in a deep breath in purely sensual satisfaction.

‘Yes,’ Dominic agreed, his voice a silken rasp, ‘touch me, Sophie. I want you to touch me.’

His command opened the floodgates of need inside her. Greedily she slid her hand down, past his perfect navel, past the springy clutch of fine blond hairs, and grasped his hard, hot erection. He felt like satin. As her fingers curled around him Dominic groaned, then bent his head and kissed Sophie again, drinking from her moist, plundered lips with increasing urgency and ardour. She offered no protest when he guided her firmly down onto the bed and positioned his strong, muscular thighs either side of her.

Just before she lost the power to think of anything else but the intense gratification to come, Sophie knew she ought to tell Dominic that she was on the Pill. She took it more to help regulate her periods than for more obvious reasons, but even as she opened her mouth to speak she saw him reach into the trousers he had discarded and withdraw a small blue packet.

As he slipped off his boxers and sheathed himself in the protection she saw for herself how generously endowed he was, and her mouth went dry as chalk. She forgot the fact that they were supposed to be enemies, that they didn’t have a single thing in common between them except this: this wild, inexplicable sexual attraction that had flared up between them hotly and unexpectedly and compelled them to go to bed together. And when Dominic brought his mouth down upon her breasts, attending to each one in turn with hot, demanding caresses, urging her towards the most intense delectation she had ever known, Sophie decided not to fight her conscience at all, but simply just to enjoy the experience instead.

Didn’t her friends do that all the time? Not the ones who were looking for Mr Right, but the others, who believed it was a woman’s right to take sexual pleasure wherever she could find it and suffer no guilt.

‘Are you ready for me, Sophie?’ Dominic whispered against her ear, as he slid his hard, fit body along hers. ‘Are you going to let me inside now?’

Was that husky little whimper really hers? Was that soft, needy voice really the same vehemently strident one that had levelled all those insults at him just a few short hours ago? As he urged her slender thighs apart, and pushed slowly but firmly inside her, Sophie ran her hands down Dominic’s back, pressing her fingernails into his toned muscled flesh with increasing need as he thrust deeply inside her.

‘That’s it, my little cat…Let me feel your pretty little claws.’

Dominic had always been blessed with a healthy libido, but even he had not experienced sexual need so intensely passionate as this. His lips became intimately acquainted with every inch of her flesh in a hungry search to sate himself with her body. Even her sweat tasted sweet to his beguiled mouth.

Holding back his own desperate compulsion to reach a climax, Dominic thrust into Sophie again and again, until she came undone in his arms. As she quivered and moaned, and slid her hands down the now slippery wetness of his back, he succumbed to a wave of ecstasy so powerful and glorious that he was left breathless and stunned in its aftermath. Before he rolled away from her, Dominic stared down into Sophie’s lovely blue eyes and smiled at her with the most deeply satisfied smile he had ever bestowed on a lover before.

‘You have nothing to say to me now my, little cat?’ he taunted gently, green eyes brimming with amusement and fierce, fierce pleasure.

Staring up into the hard, lean contours of his mesmerising face, her body already needing him again, and throbbing with unashamed anticipation, Sophie sighed softly up at him.

‘Sometimes words aren’t necessary…don’t you think?’ she whispered, her glance already sliding away from his, in case she exposed herself too deeply to his hot, examining gaze…

About to race out of the door because she was late, Sophie was delayed by the appearance of a courier with a large package that she had to sign for. Puzzled by what the contents could possibly be, she nonetheless signed the delivery note quickly, left the box on the table just inside the front door, and dashed down the road to catch the bus that would take her to the primary school where she taught.

The local garage did not hold out much hope for her beloved car, so she had no choice other than to use public transport to get to work. The young mechanic who had looked over it for her had shaken his head and cheerfully told Sophie that it didn’t have much value other than scrap. His blasé conclusion pained her deeply. Any repairs she might instruct them to undertake would apparently cost her almost twice that of the value of the car itself. Her heart sinking, she’d agreed to let them tow it away, and resigned herself to getting used to either Shanks’s pony or the unreliable delights of the local transportation system. She certainly wasn’t in the market for a new car—second-hand or otherwise.

Diana’s wedding and the whole difficult day on Friday—culminating in the most surprising event of all, when she and Dominic had ended up in bed together—he’d vowed not to think about too much.

How had she allowed herself to behave like such an unbelievable little hussy? Even now she couldn’t quite believe she had succumbed so easily to the ruthless charm of Diana’s handsome boss. Coming to her senses in the early hours of Saturday morning, she had been careful not to wake him in the bed beside her, and instead had paid a brief visit to the bathroom, dressed quickly, then left the hotel without so much as saying goodbye to him. What was the point? In the harsh, cold light of morning she knew they’d both only regret their passionate fling.

No…Sophie had definitely done the right thing where Dominic Van Straten was concerned. She’d saved them both the embarrassment of confronting each other again. No doubt he’d been nothing but relieved when he’d woken to find her gone.

Now, on Monday morning, Sophie found that she actually welcomed the chattering voices of her class of sixteen lively five-year-olds in preference to ever enduring such an uncomfortable occasion as Diana’s wedding ever again. Whenever her unguarded mind recalled Dominic’s intoxicating presence, her stomach reacted with an anxious, confused flip, and she was surprised yet again how one beguiling yet infuriating stranger could make her respond with such violent emotion.

She’d never had a one-night stand in her life before, and to have one with her best friend’s boss, and on her wedding day, too, was probably the most uncharacteristic and reckless thing she’d ever done.

It was a good job Diana and Freddie had left before they’d found out that Sophie had agreed to spend the night with Dominic, or else she’d never have gone through with it in the first place. But even as she tried to reassure herself she would not willingly have embarrassed her friend—she knew she could not have resisted Dominic’s invitation that night—not when his eyes had undressed her and openly made love to her even before they had reached the hotel room!

‘Finish the story, Miss!’

‘What?’ Snapping out of yet another recollection of the Dutch billionaire who seemed to be dominating her thoughts with alarming regularity that morning, Sophie flushed guiltily, adjusted the illustrated book in her lap, and smiled warmly down at the group of children gathered round her seat on the floor. ‘Where were we?’

‘The big bad wolf was just about to gobble up the grandmother!’ a little girl with blonde bobbed hair offered enthusiastically.

Sophie didn’t miss the irony that she should be reading the story of Little Red Riding Hood and the Big Bad Wolf when her mind was preoccupied with thinking about Dominic…

The first thing she saw when she came through the door that evening was the package. Carrying it into the living room, Sophie shucked off the navy-blue duffel coat she’d been wearing over her skirt and sweater and laid the box down on the coffee table to examine the contents. There was a label on the back that announced the name of a well-known and expensive store in Knightsbridge, and Sophie frowned as she looked at it, wondering who on earth would be sending her anything from such an exclusive shop.

She came from an honest, hard-working, working-class family, and certainly her mum or dad or even her brother Phillip wouldn’t dream of sending her expensive presents totally out of the blue.. and neither would Sophie want them to. As she opened the box and stared down at the contents she sucked in her breath in astonishment.

It was a coat…the same fawn colour as her own, but made from cashmere, with a luxurious cream silk lining. Lifting it out to examine it more closely, Sophie saw to her amazement that it was the perfect size and length for her shape and height. Laying it down carefully on her threadbare burgundy couch, she searched around in the elegant tissue paper for a note of some kind, even though by now she had a pretty good idea who had sent it.

By the time she’d located the small gold-embossed business card, with ‘Dominic’ scrawled across one side in an impressive flourish, her heart was just about ready to burst out of her chest. Sophie couldn’t remember telling him her address, but at some point in the evening she guessed she must have. After they’d made love they’d had more champagne brought to the room, and Sophie had been uncharacteristically giggly and talkative because of it.

She groaned out loud as she remembered. But why was Dominic sending her such an expensive coat when all they’d had was a one-night stand? Was it meant to be some kind of veiled insult or a reproach to make Sophie feel cheap? Was that it? He’d said he’d meant no affront when he’d asked her to go to bed with him, but what if he’d lied? Her heart plummeted like a stone. What if he was teaching her a lesson? A horrible and despicable one, but a lesson in his eyes all the same?

He might have been an expert lover, and he might have made her blood zing, but it was still a fact that Dominic Van Straten was completely out of Sophie’s sphere. What would demonstrate that fact more completely than sending the ‘poor little working class girl’ an expensive coat in payment for her ‘services’ at the hotel the other night? Just because he’d made love to her, it didn’t mean that he wasn’t still arrogant, and even possibly cruel.

Her first instinct was to fold the coat back into its expensive packaging and mail it right back to him, and even as the thought came into her mind Sophie found herself arranging the coat back into the box in a fever of indignation and rage. Reading the card again, she looked for an address and found it. Surprisingly, it wasn’t his office address, but his home one: Mayfair, London. Where else would a property developer billionaire live?

Seeing that there was a telephone number included beneath the address, Sophie went to the telephone in the hallway with thumping heart. If he thought she’d given him a piece of her mind on Friday, he’d better watch out! What did he think she was? Some kind of loose woman who’d gladly accept his no-doubt insulting gift of an expensive coat without a murmur? If he thought that, then he had a very big shock in store!

‘Mr Van Straten’s residence,’ announced a cultured male voice at the other end of the line.

‘I’d like to speak to Mr Van Straten,’ Sophie announced as a flood of adrenaline shot through her system and almost made her sway. He was probably conveniently out.. or if he was at home no doubt he would instruct his butler, or whoever it was that had answered the phone, to tell her he wasn’t available as soon as he knew it was Sophie.

‘Whom shall I say is calling?’ the voice at the other end came back.

Licking her suddenly dry lips, Sophie stared blankly at the picture on the wall, a well-known Degas print of ballerinas at the barre, going through their exercises. Shocked that he was actually at home, she told herself to keep her head and not give way to shrillness of any kind when she told him what he could do with his expensive gift. He’d already accused her of being a ‘shrew’ and a ‘fishwife,’ and if he insulted her with any such labels one more time, he’d rue the day!

‘Sophie Dalton.’

She’d been about to explain that she was a friend of his assistant, Diana, then had thought, How ridiculous! If Dominic didn’t condescend to remember her after what had occurred between them on Friday night then he was even more arrogant and despicable than she’d thought, and therefore even less deserving of any respect.

‘Sophie. What a pleasant surprise!’

His voice shocked her into silence. It was disconcertingly familiar, and much too compelling to ever be taken lightly. On the telephone, his tone was sexier and much more troubling to her peace of mind than it had a right to be. It made her remember him asking seductively, ‘Are you ready for me Sophie?’ Hot embarrassed colour surged into her face at the recollection.

‘I wish I could say I felt the same, Dominic, but I can’t. About the coat you sent me, I—’

‘I trust it’s the right size? I confess I had to guess your measurements, but then I do pride myself on being uncannily accurate when it comes to such things.’

He meant women…and their bodies. Was she just one of many female bodies he had undressed? Furious and hurt at the same time, she had to take a moment to compose herself. ‘Whether it’s the right size or not doesn’t concern me! You had no right to send it to me in the first place. Especially when I know you are only trying to insult me!’

‘Insult you?’ Dominic said something beneath his breath that she didn’t quite catch, and Sophie smoothed her hand down over her hip and reminded herself to keep her temper.

‘Yes, insult me! Why else would you send it? You were making some sleazy point, no doubt, to thank me for services rendered. Well, you know what you can do with your expensive cashmere, don’t you? I’ll be mailing the coat straight back to you tomorrow! Just as soon as I can get to the Post Office.’

‘My chauffeur accidentally splashed your coat with cold muddy water, Sophie…remember? I was merely trying to make amends by sending you a new one. Anything else is completely a figment of your oversensitive imagination.’

‘Why make amends now, when you seemed not to care one jot about my situation on Friday, at Diana’s wedding? Just because I was foolish enough to sleep with you, Dominic, it doesn’t mean I’m a complete fool! I don’t want your expensive gifts, do you hear? Whatever your reasons for sending me the coat, I have no intention of accepting it, or being beholden to you in any way.’

Dominic didn’t know many women who would be insulted by the gift of a very expensive coat from one of the country’s top exclusive stores. No—he had to rephrase that. He knew for a fact that there were no women of his acquaintance that would have reacted in such an unexpected way. The women in his life had always adored the fact that he had the wealth and taste to purchase such expensive gifts for them—even the ones who came from money themselves.

Again, in spite of his irritation with Sophie for thinking he was trying to insult her, Dominic sensed the blood heat in his veins as though it were being pursued by a fire. The memory of flashing blue eyes the colour of cornflowers started an ache inside him that suddenly made moving too quickly a hazard. He knew she was passionate and principled…if misguided…and she had been a totally responsive and highly provocative lover. He had not arranged for the coat to be sent as an insult in any way. He had certainly not sent it as payment for sexual services. He had most definitely sent it as a reason to speak to Sophie again.

When he’d woken up on Saturday morning and found her gone he’d barely been able to believe it. No woman had left him that way before…ever! Initially irked, he’d told himself she must have had some appointment to rush off to. Why else would she not have waited at least to say good morning? When he’d calmed down, and reflected on the sensational sex they’d enjoyed the night before, Dominic had also known that Sophie hadn’t left because they hadn’t hit it off together. Whatever her reasons for leaving, one thing he hadn’t doubted was that she would naturally want to see him again. Why wouldn’t she? When she rang him to thank him for the coat, as he’d fully expected her to do, Dominic had been planning on inviting her out for dinner. The sooner the better, as far as he was concerned, because he hadn’t been able to get the woman out of his mind. Which was why he had included a card with his home address and telephone number on.

‘How does accepting my gift make you beholden to me?’ If only it did, Dominic thought, in frustration. It had been a long while since a woman had commanded his attention in such an emphatic way. He probably just needed to go to bed with her a few more times, to get her out of his system, he acknowledged with typical male frankness. If she gave him the chance…

‘It just does.’

Suddenly tired of verbal sparring, and with her growling stomach letting her know that she hadn’t eaten a thing since lunchtime, Sophie had it in her mind to end their fruitless conversation there and then. Tomorrow she would send Dominic the coat back, and that would be that. Her time and her thoughts would surely be better served this evening in working out how she was going to afford another car to get to school in. She couldn’t rely on the vagaries of public transport. The head of the primary school in which she worked was a real stickler for punctuality, and Sophie knew it. It wouldn’t do to get on the wrong side of him and blot her so far unblemished record.

‘Anyway,’ she added, once more examining the print of the pretty ballerinas on the wall, ‘I’ll have to say goodnight. I’ve just got in from work, I’m tired and hungry, and I’ve got schoolwork to arrange for tomorrow.’

‘Schoolwork?’

‘I’m a teacher.’

‘Diana didn’t mention it.’

Not believing even for a second that a man so high up in the echelons of wealth and personal achievement would deign to discuss something as mundane as his assistant’s friends, with her, Sophie sighed. ‘Why should she? Goodbye, Dominic.’

‘Why did you rush off like that on Saturday morning?’

Sophie wished he would leave the subject of Saturday morning and specifically Friday night alone. She felt bad enough about succumbing to her baser instincts so recklessly, and with the most unsuitable man she could imagine!

‘You may find this hard to believe, Dominic, but I’m not the kind of woman who usually goes in for one-night stands. In fact, this was the first…and I hope the last one ever. It was an emotional day for me, and I—my judgement wasn’t at its best. You can rest assured I won’t be bothering you again in any way.’

Dominic doubted that. Just thinking about the way she had curled her slender legs around his back and driven her nails into his flesh, in the throes of passion made him almost too hot and bothered for words! And what did she mean her judgement hadn’t been at its best? Was she suggesting that making love with him had been a mistake? Now, that did hit at the heart of his pride.

‘If you won’t accept the coat, why don’t you bring it to my house instead of mailing it?’ Dominic suggested smoothly, his calm tone belying the myriad of feelings flooding through him.

Her senses hijacked by surprise and shock, Sophie bit down on her lip. ‘Bring it to your house?’ she repeated, not sure that she’d heard him correctly.

‘Tomorrow—after work. You have the address on my card?’

‘Why are you doing this, Dominic?’

‘I would like to talk to you about Diana,’ he replied.

‘Diana?’ Drawing her brows together in confusion, Sophie glanced down at the floor. Some of the maroon carpet tiles were curling at the edges and needed replacing. A sudden wave of irritation and uncharacteristic despondency briefly descended. She totally loved her job—teaching for Sophie was a vocation—but she wished not for the first time that it paid better and allowed her to maintain a slightly better standard of living.

‘I want to buy her a wedding present…something special. I thought perhaps you could advise me.’

Taken aback, Sophie really didn’t know what to say.

‘Well?’ Dominic prompted into the heavy silence that ensued.

‘Aren’t you supposed to buy a present in time for the actual event?’

‘I was away in Singapore on a business trip the week leading up to her wedding, so I did not get a chance to arrange a suitable gift for her.’

But he’d paid for her wedding breakfast just the same, Sophie reluctantly recalled. Diana had said he was generous. She immediately discarded the thought with irritation.

‘I’m sure you don’t need me to advise you what to buy Diana.’ She shrugged, wondering why he should suggest such a surprising thing when she had already professed herself insulted by his gift of the coat. She would have thought he’d be glad not to get himself further entangled with Diana’s ‘unsuitable’ friend.

‘You are her close friend. You know her tastes, her preferences. That information could help me a lot in choosing a gift she would really like.’ His voice was almost hypnotically persuasive, and Sophie couldn’t believe she was actually hesitating over her natural instinct to refuse.

She’d told herself that Friday night had probably meant nothing very much to a man like Dominic, other than sexual gratification with an available, attractive woman. She’d told herself she could handle it, despite feeling somehow ‘used’ when she received that beautiful coat as a gift. Now her feelings were all mixed up, and even more confused.

‘Isn’t there anyone else you could ask?’ Even as she uttered the question Sophie knew she was clutching at straws. Dammit! She was nervous about going to Dominic’s house. Who wouldn’t be? It wasn’t every day that an ordinary girl like her got invited to a billionaire’s home! Especially one she’d had a hot one-night stand with! She’d be nervous even if they hadn’t slept together.

‘Is it too much to ask that you might do this for your friend?’ Deftly and without remorse, Dominic slid home his advantage.

‘No. No, of course not. I’ll come, then. What time?’

‘I will send Louis to collect you at about eight o’clock. I will see you then, Sophie.’