Читать книгу Mediterranean Nights: The Mistress Purchase / The Demetrios Virgin / Marco's Convenient Wife - Пенни Джордан, PENNY JORDAN - Страница 9

SADIE picked up the telephone message Raoul had left, asking her to come back to Grasse so that they could talk, as she got into her car.

Still under the heady influence of listening to Pierre, she sent Raoul a text message informing him that she was on her way.

This time Raoul himself opened the door to her, hugging her warmly and apologising to her for their earlier quarrel before she could so much as say a single word.

‘You promised me that we would be able to talk about selling the business before we met with Leon,’ Sadie reminded him warily.

‘I know, I know…’ Raoul was all but wringing his hands as he ushered her solicitously into the salon.

It was such a shame that the house was so run-down and neglected, Sadie reflected for the second time that day. It had so much potential, and could in the right hands be turned into the most wonderful family home. Emotionally she looked out into the courtyard, trying to imagine her grandmother playing there as a little girl. But bemusingly, as the sunlight glittered on the droplets of water from the fountain, the child she suddenly visualised toddling across the ancient paved stones was not a miniature version of her grandmother but instead a sturdy, dark-haired green-eyed little boy, who looked shockingly like…

Her whole body heating in the sudden surge of recognition that burned through her, Sadie dragged her trapped gaze away from the courtyard. Why on earth had she imagined Leon’s baby boy there? And, even more disturbing, why had she felt that unmistakable sharp maternal tug on her own heartstrings as she did so?

She did not want Leon’s child. Why, the very thought was—

‘Sadie? Come back! You aren’t listening to me.’

There was a note of distinct peevishness in Raoul’s voice. Guiltily Sadie turned round to look at him.

‘I’m sorry. What were you saying?’

‘I was just trying to tell you that after you left I had a long talk with Leon and explained to him that if he was serious about wanting to buy Francine and having you on board as well, then he was going to have to compromise on a few things.’

Sadie blinked as she listened to him.

‘You did?’ she exclaimed, unable to hide her astonishment. She had been expecting to hear Raoul verbally persuading her, if not actually bullying her into changing her mind.

‘I did,’ Raoul confirmed. ‘I know you and I haven’t always seen eye to eye over Francine, Sadie, but I have to say that, listening to you today, I began to realise that you were making some very valid points. And I have said as much to Leon.’

Her cousin’s unexpected support was leaving Sadie momentarily lost for words.

‘I… see…’ she managed to say. ‘And how did Leon react to that?’

‘Well, at first, of course, he was reluctant to agree with me—and I’ll be honest with you, Sadie, it took me a hell of a long time to bring him round to seeing my side of the argument. In the end I had to remind him that unless he wanted to alienate you completely he was just going to have to compromise…’

‘I’m sure he loved that,’ Sadie could not help murmuring dryly.

‘Well, he is a businessman, after all, and he is now prepared to concede that if you agree to the sale, and provided you work for Francine, then he is prepared to allow you to base any new perfume you create on natural products.’

‘Base?’ Sadie queried cautiously, whilst her heart felt as though it was bouncing around inside her chest in excitement and relief.

Unbelievably, Raoul had taken her side, her part, and had managed to convince Leon that she was right!

‘Well, you will have to negotiate with him to see how much of any new perfume can be natural products and how much chemically manufactured. And, of course, he will want access to the Myrrh formula.’

‘Access, maybe—but I am not prepared to hand over ownership,’ Sadie shot back immediately.

Raoul made no response, his expression suddenly becoming almost theatrically anxious.

‘Sadie, I have not wanted to mention this. I do have my pride after all.’ He looked away from her and rubbed his hand over his eyes. ‘But I’m afraid that I haven’t been entirely… honest with you about… about certain things.’

Sadie waited.

‘The fact is that… well, I have got myself in a bit of a financial mess. And if I can’t sell Francine to Leon then…’

‘Then?’ Sadie prompted him, dry-mouthed. They might only have met one another relatively recently, but he was still her cousin, Sadie reminded herself loyally. She might not approve of the things he did, or the way he lived his life, but she couldn’t help but be emotionally affected by the way he had come to her support against Leon.

‘Francine is virtually bankrupt—and so am I. Worse than that, I have commitments….’

‘Commitments?’ Sadie repeated uneasily.

‘All right, if you will have it, debts,’ Raoul admitted, flinging out one arm in a gesture of open despair. ‘I have debts, Sadie. There! I have been forced to tell you what I had hoped not to have to do. I am in your hands now, Sadie, and if you don’t help me by agreeing not just to this sale but to giving your expertise to Francine then I shall be facing financial ruin.’

Somewhere in the back of Sadie’s mind a tiny warning bell rang. It was a small, sharp and instinctive feeling that Raoul was not being either totally honest or totally genuine. But loyally she refused to listen to it. Even so, a little hesitantly, she began, ‘I… I…’ and then stopped.

Raoul swung round and exclaimed joyously, ‘You’ll do it? Oh, Sadie, thank you. Thank you.’ He was holding her in his arms. Hugging her, kissing her on both cheeks and then again as his pleasure and relief overwhelmed him. ‘I cannot tell you what this means to me.’

There were actually tears in his eyes, as well as in his voice, Sadie recognised.

‘You don’t know what a weight off my shoulders it will be to get this contract signed… and to get away from here,’ he added, giving the dusty room a dismissive, disparaging look.

‘Get away?’ Sadie queried.

‘Yes. This place is obviously part of the deal, and quite frankly I am relieved that it is. I cannot wait to buy myself a decent modern apartment. But first I have to make a short trip… a family matter… an elderly relative on my mother’s side. She lives outside Paris in… in straitened circumstances. She is my godmother, and I want to do a little something to help her. Your agreement to the sale of Francine means that I shall be able to do so!’

He cleared his throat and his voice thickened. ‘I shall let Leon know what you have said. I can’t tell you how much your agreement means to me, Sadie. With the money I receive from Leon I shall be able to see that Tante Amelie receives the care she needs. It is the least I can do. And you, Sadie—I expect you will be wanting to return to your own home. There will be much for you to do there, I know, before you begin working for Francine and Leon!’

Sadie frowned. She supposed she should not have been surprised to discover that her grandmother’s childhood home was to be included in the sale of the business, but she owned that she was surprised by Raoul’s revelations about his ailing godmother! And she would have to return to Pembroke, of course. But she had not planned to do so as yet.

‘Won’t Leon want to… to discuss his plans with me?’ she questioned Raoul.

‘Yes, indeed, but not right now. I suspect he will want to wait until after the formalities of the contract being signed for that.’

Disconcerted, Sadie digested her disappointment at the thought of not seeing Leon again for some time. She hadn’t actually wanted to see him, had she? That wasn’t why she was changing her mind, was it? Because…

No, of course it wasn’t! How could it be? She barely knew the man!

Guessing from the way he kept looking at his watch that Raoul had other things to do, Sadie took her leave of him.

She might as well see out her stay in France, she decided, as she got into her car. And then if Leon did want to discuss anything with her over the next couple of days she would be on hand.

Her decision was based entirely on common sense, she assured herself as she pulled out into the traffic. Common sense. That was all… nothing else, she assured herself firmly.

Raoul waited until he was sure that Sadie had gone before telephoning Leon, his fingers drumming impatiently on the wall as he waited for Leon to answer his call. When he did, Raoul began immediately.

‘I’ve spoken to Sadie, and it is just as I said it would be, Leon,’ Raoul announced boastfully. ‘I soon made her see reason. All you need to do now is get the contracts organised. Oh, by the way, speaking of the contracts—I was wondering… is there any way you could let me have an advance on the buyout figure? Only I’ve got a couple of obligations I’d like to get cleared up.’

Leon frowned as he listened to Raoul. He knew all about Raoul’s debts, having had him thoroughly investigated prior to their negotiations. Illogically, he acknowledged that whilst he was relieved to hear that Raoul had managed to talk Sadie round, he also felt surprised, and almost a little bit disappointed that she had given in to her cousin so easily. Somehow he had expected her to put up more of a fight!

Suspiciously, he challenged Raoul.

‘You haven’t forgotten what I said to you about my not being agreeable to changing my decision on the ingredients of any new scent she creates, have you, Raoul?’

‘Of course not,’ Raoul responded promptly.

‘Did she say why she had changed her mind?’ Leon probed.

On the other end of the line Raoul frowned in irritation. Leon was asking for too many questions. Why on earth couldn’t he simply accept what he was saying to him?

‘She’s a woman, Leon,’ Raoul told him. ‘Who knows why they do the things they do? About that advance… I need to leave Grasse for a few days, and…’

‘I shall arrange for five hundred thousand euros to be transferred into your account today, Raoul.’

‘Five hundred thousand—that is all?’

He could hear the disappointment in the other man’s voice.

‘Five hundred thousand,’ Leon confirmed grimly. ‘Take it or leave it!’

After Raoul had rung off, Leon stared frowningly through the open glass door of his suite. His attention was not focused on the stunning view that lay beyond his private balcony, but instead on something or rather someone that the male core of his memory found even more stunning.

Sadie!

It still surprised him that she had changed her mind and given in, agreeing not just to the sale of Francine to him but also agreed to work for him as well. Somehow it seemed a little out of character. Almost as if she’d submitted to him…

Hastily he dragged his thoughts back from the brink they were careering towards and reminded himself that he had work to do!

Since leaving Grasse earlier he had spent far more time than he wanted to admit thinking about her! And not just because of the problems she was causing him with the takeover. Not just? Be honest, he derided himself Not at all! No, the reason she had gained so much control inside his head was quite simply because she, or rather his reaction to her, his awareness of her, his desire for her, had assumed far too much control of his senses!

To put it bluntly, he ached for her in a way that had not just caught him off guard, but was also actively making him…

Making him what? Making him want to rewind life right back to that second when he had first seen her in Cannes, so that he could do what every male instinct his body was packed with had urged him to do then? Pick her up in his arms, get her the hell out of there and take her somewhere where….

It was at times like this that his Greek blood was most at odds with his Australian upbringing, Leon acknowledged wryly. Right now, hormonally he was quite definitely all Greek male, but cerebrally—thank heaven—a part of him remained an Aussie businessman! And that was the part of him he needed most to focus on!

He had certainly enjoyed focusing on Sadie, he mused. He had never liked over-thin women, and Sadie was just right—her waist so tiny he could span it with his hands, her hips sexily curved, her legs long… long enough to wrap right around him when he… and her breasts. Ah, her breasts… Just the thought of touching them, holding them, brushing his lips against their tender quivering crests and then…

Leon gave a low groan and closed his eyes. Bad mistake, since immediately a vision of Sadie formed behind his shuttered eyelids. He must be going crazy—either that or he was well on his way to falling head over heels in love with her.

In love? In lust, more like! Anyway, falling in love right now was a complication he definitely did not need in his life. Unlike Sadie. He needed her all right. In his life. In his arms. In his bed…

Raoul had told him that she was going back to England and Leon told himself that he ought to be glad!

His grandmother would certainly have enjoyed seeing him in the state of turmoil he was in right now!

Thinking of his grandmother made Leon frown again. He had been just fourteen when she died. A sensitive age, which was no doubt why—

His mobile phone rang, breaking his train of thought.

Was she doing the right thing? Sadie asked herself soberly as she parked her car in the hotel car park and made her way to her room.

She wished passionately that her grandmother were here for her to talk to. Would she approve of what she was doing? The wave of euphoria which had carried her back to Grasse had receded now, leaving her feeling shaky and insecure. What if she couldn’t create a saleable perfume? And, even if she did, what made her think that her scent could succeed where so many others had failed? They lived in a different world now from the one in which the classic scents had been created. Consumers were more demanding, more fickle—but if she could succeed… if she could create a new scent that would take the world by storm and…

She was beginning to feel light-headed with excitement again. What if, between them, she and Leon…?

Between them? She and Leon? A fresh surge of excitement gripped her, but this one had nothing whatsoever to do with the creation of a new scent!

Why didn’t she give in and admit it to herself? She had been attracted to Leon the first moment she had seen him.

Attracted to him! To describe her feelings as mere attraction was like trying to compare cologne with full-strength perfume.

Her heart started to thud, her palms suddenly becoming damp. Why was it that the look in one particular man’s eyes could make a woman feel so…? Hot-cheeked, Sadie acknowledged that she did not want to explore just what it was that Leon made her feel right now! At least not in public.

‘I just hope that I’m doing the right thing.’

Sadie’s voice wobbled a little, and she held her mobile just that little bit tighter as she voiced her uncertainty to her friend.

On the other end of the line Mary responded bracingly.

‘Well, it certainly sounds to me as though you are. Sometimes you just have to follow your instincts and your heart, Sadie, no matter how risky it might seem.’

Her heart! That organ started to thump erratically at the thought that she had betrayed herself so easily to her friend. How could Mary have guessed from what she had told her about her emergent feelings for Leon? She had barely mentioned him!

‘Your kind of work isn’t merely a career choice, Sadie, it’s a vocation, and when a person has your kind of talent—well, then they need to be able to fulfil the need it gives them and follow the direction of their heart, rather than make cerebral decisions!’

Her work! Mary was talking about her work, not about Leon!

‘It is a once in a lifetime opportunity,’ Sadie agreed excitedly. ‘But—’

‘No more buts,’ Mary told her firmly. ‘You go for it, girl!’

She had spent longer talking to her friend on the telephone than she had realised, Sadie recognised ten minutes after she had ended the call, when the grumbling protest of her stomach made her look at her watch. It was almost eight o’clock and she hadn’t eaten since breakfast!

Showering quickly, Sadie redressed in an elegant taupe silk dress she had spotted in an expensive boutique’s sale in Paris, slipping her bare feet into a pair of kitten-heeled sandals and gathering up a cream cashmere wrap just in case the evening air proved chilly.

It was only a five-minute walk from the rooms to the main hotel, and as Sadie picked her way along the prettily illuminated path and down the several flights of stone steps she paused to look out across the valley, to where the lights of the town twinkled in the distance.

As she crossed the car park en route for the hotel foyer she noticed that it was busy with cars, but thought no more about it, smiling briefly at the receptionist as she made her way across the tiled floor and then walked down the stairs and through the lower level foyer into the cocktail bar.

It had bemused her a little the first time she had walked into this bar, to recognise that it was styled very much in the manner of a gracious English country house—even to the extent of having a log-burning fire—but this hotel was not occupied merely in the summer, she acknowledged, but all the year round by those who wished to use its spa facilities. The cocktail bar was certainly very comfortable and welcoming.

The lower foyer, through which she had just walked, had elegant French windows which opened out onto a large paved patio area where guests could sit at wrought-iron tables and look out across the valley. Tonight the patio was crowded with several large groups of diners, Sadie noticed as she headed for the entrance to the dining room and the maître d’.

‘A table for dinner? Madame, I am sorry but that is not possible. We are fully booked,’ he told her when she asked for a table.

Sadie stared at him.

‘But I am a hotel resident,’ she protested. Delicious food smells from the meal being served to a table of diners just inside the doorway were informing her just how very hungry she really was. Her stomach was actually growling.

The maître d’ looked sorrowful and spread his hands.

‘I am so sorry, but I think you will have seen in your room that hotel guests are requested to make prior reservations for dinner. We are a Michelin-starred restaurant, and many people drive out from Cannes to eat here.’

Sadie’s heart was sinking deeper with every word he said. It was true that there was a notice in her room warning guests about the limited availability of tables for dinner.

‘There are several very good restaurants in the old town of Mougins,’ the maître d’ informed her helpfully.

‘It is only a short walk from here, and a very pretty place. It gets many tourists.’

Sadie sighed. Whilst she didn’t mind eating alone in a hotel restaurant, she was loath to do so further afield. She had planned to visit the old town of Mougins, but during the daytime.

Ruefully she acknowledged that she ought to have pre-booked her dinner reservation, and realized that she was now going to have to return to her room and order a meal there, from Room Service. She had just thanked the maître d’ and was making her way through the now extremely busy bar, when she suddenly saw Leon on the other side of the room.

He was walking towards her and had obviously seen her. Immediately her face lit up, a giddy sensation, a heady mixture of thrilling excitement, shock, and pleasure, flooding her body with breathless delight.

‘Leon!’ she exclaimed as he came towards her. ‘What are you doing here?’

His calm, ‘Actually, I’m staying here,’ took her thrilled delight down a few notches, and she had to control her expression to stop herself from betraying her disappointment. He had not come looking for her, as she had originally deliriously believed.

‘And you?’ he queried. ‘Are you dining here?’

He looked and sounded so coolly remote that her heart banged uncomfortably against her chest wall whilst she battled against the feeling of disappointment that was filling her.

The reality of him was so different from the fantasies she had been building inside her head all afternoon. He looked so austere, so disapproving and remote, so very much the man she remembered from their first encounter—right down to the immaculate shirt and suit.

The happiness and expectation that had fuelled her day was leaking out of her, and she was miserably conscious of the way in which Leon was looking over her shoulder and beyond her, as though in search of someone! Another woman perhaps? Did he have a dinner date?

Lifting her chin she told him bravely, ‘Actually, no, I’m not dining here this evening, Coincidentally, I am also staying here.’ There was no way she wanted him thinking she had booked in because she knew he was staying at this hotel. After all, she hadn’t realized that he was. ‘But unfortunately—obviously unlike you—I neglected to make a reservation for dinner. The maître d’ has suggested that I walk into the old town and—’

‘What? On your own? You are doing no such thing.’ Leon stopped her authoritatively ‘I’m surprised that he suggested such a thing to a woman on her own. You are on your own, I take it?’

He wasn’t looking over her shoulder any more. In fact he was looking right at her, and his eyes, like his voice, had warmed—as though… as though…

‘Yes. Yes, I am…’ Sadie agreed weakly. ‘I… Whoops.’ She gave a small gasp as a new crowd of people pressed into the confined space of the bar, one of whom inadvertently bumping into her and causing her to stagger slightly.

Immediately Leon reached out for her, drawing her towards him. So close to him, in fact, that all it would have taken for their bodies to actually touch would be for her to take one good deep breath. And, even though she was in no real danger of being pushed or crushed by the crowd, his arm was still curled protectively around her.

‘Look, it’s getting like a beer garden in here,’ he told her. ‘Since I’ve got a table booked, why don’t you join me?’

‘Oh, no!’ Sadie protested immediately. ‘I didn’t tell you because—’

‘I did!’ Leon told her softly.

The cold ice she had previously seen in his eyes had melted and turned into… Dizzily, she acknowledged that she could not find the right words to describe the incredible heat and sensuality that was burning in the green gaze he’d turned on her. All she could think of was what it was doing to her…

‘Do you think that’s a good idea?’ Sadie couldn’t help protesting.

‘Why shouldn’t it be?’ Leon retaliated.

Sadie could think of a hundred reasons, all of which had to do with the fact that she was already dangerously aware of him and potentially responsive to him, without doing something that was bound to encourage her vulnerable emotions to start rioting totally out of control!

‘Well, in view of the professional situation between us…’ she began a little lamely, not wanting to admit to him the real reason why she felt that having dinner with him might not be a good idea.

But Leon wouldn’t allow her to continue, saying immediately, ‘Why don’t we draw a line under all of that and start again? Call a truce? I’ve spoken to Raoul…’

Even though she knew she was being idiotic, Sadie couldn’t quite suppress her small spurt of disappointment when she realised that Leon was talking to her as a business colleague, not as a woman he wanted to get to know personally.

‘Oh, have you?’ she answered him.

‘I have,’ he confirmed, ‘and I can’t tell you how pleased I am to hear about your decision, Sadie.’

‘It seemed the best thing to do.’ Sadie paused, wanting to tell him how pleased she was that he had backed down over the use of natural raw materials. But before she could continue Leon shook his head.

‘Part of the truce is no business talk tonight.’

‘You never said that before.’

‘Didn’t I?’ The corners of his eyes crinkled with amusement. He really was heart-stoppingly sexy, Sadie acknowledged giddily. ‘Ah, well, I’m saying it now!’

‘But if we don’t talk about business, then what—?’ Sadie stopped and blushed as she saw the way he was looking at her.

‘Oh, I think we’ll find that we have plenty of things to say to one another,’ Leon told her softly.

Sadie didn’t make any reply. She was far too conscious of the fact that she was dangerously close to wanting much more from him than a simple business relationship!

He was looking away from her and in the direction of the maître d’ who was hurrying over. Turning towards him, Leon said something quietly and the other man ushered them both to Leon’s table.

Sadie could see the subtle feminine interested looks Leon was attracting from the women diners at the other tables as they were led to their own. Predictably, he had been given a table in a prime position, and as the waiter pulled out a chair for her Sadie couldn’t help feeling glad that she had chosen to wear her silk dress. It might not be as dramatic as some of the outfits several of the other women were wearing, but thanks to her grandmother she knew how to choose clothes that suited her.

Sadie had barely opened her menu when another waiter arrived, carrying a bottle of champagne and two glasses.

Wide-eyed, she looked at Leon.

‘I hope you don’t mind,’ he told her softly. ‘Only it seemed appropriate. To celebrate.’

Sadie couldn’t drag her gaze away from his. Why on earth had she ever thought his eyes cold? They were anything but. And as for his smile… A funny aching sensation had begun to spread from the direction of her heart all the way down through her body right into her toes, making her curl them protectively inside her sandals!

‘Well, yes…’ she agreed, trying to sound nonchalant and sophisticated. ‘Only Raoul did say it could be a few days before the contracts were ready for us all to sign, and since he isn’t here…’

The smile curling Leon’s mouth deepened and his eyes started to crinkle at the corners.

‘It wasn’t the prospect of us signing the contracts I wanted to celebrate,’ he told her in a voice that sounded like dark melting chocolate.

‘It… it wasn’t…?’ Agitatedly, Sadie picked up her glass of champagne.

‘No, it wasn’t,’ Leon agreed, watching her with a gaze so sensual and exciting that Sadie just knew her whole body was about to start quivering with delight in response to it.

‘Aren’t you going to ask me what I am celebrating?’ he prompted huskily.

‘I… er…’ Sadie took a deep gulp of her champagne and then gasped as the bubbles hit the back of her throat and exploded. She coughed and put her glass down.

‘I’m sorry,’ she apologised, her face burning at her own lack of sophistication.

‘What’s wrong? Don’t you like champagne?’ Leon teased her.

‘Well, I do,’ Sadie told him. ‘Only I’m not much of a drinker, really. I suppose it comes of having been brought up by my grandmother… She was a bit old-fashioned about such things by modern standards.’

‘Why did your grandmother bring you up?’

He was frowning now, but not in a disapproving or condemnatory way, Sadie noticed. No, he was looking at her as though he was genuinely interested in discovering more about her! A sweetly sharp thrill of excitement spun through her.

‘My mother died shortly after I was born, and Dad—well, he had to work. So Grandmère brought me up, and then Dad remarried.’ She paused awkwardly, not wanting him to think she was trying to make him feel sympathetic towards her. ‘Well, Melanie—my stepmother—she was younger than Dad, and I don’t think she was too keen on the idea of taking on a soon-to-be teenage stepdaughter. Anyway, I was happy to stay with Grandmère.’

‘I see…’

He was looking at her in the most direct and yet somehow very tender way, Sadie recognised. A way that made her feel as though she could almost tell him just how hurt she had felt, knowing that her stepmother didn’t want her and that her father did not love her enough to insist that she was allowed to be a part of their lives.

‘I too had a very close relationship with my grandmother,’ Leon told her quietly.

For a moment they looked at one another in silence. They were, Sadie recognised, two people suddenly discovering that they had more in common than they had realised.

‘Your grandmother was Greek, wasn’t she?’ Sadie asked hesitantly, not wanting to pry and yet suddenly desperate to learn as much about him as she could, for him to be the one to tell her!

‘Yes. Like you, with your grandmother, I was very close to her. My parents both worked in the business my father was building, and my grandmother lived with us and looked after me. She died when I was fourteen.’ His frown deepened. ‘It was a very bad time for the family.’

‘You still miss her?’ Sadie guessed.

‘Yes,’ he agreed gruffly. ‘She didn’t have the easiest of lives—’ His mouth twisted a little bitterly. ‘And that is an understatement. She had an extremely hard life. Her parents emigrated to Australia to escape from poverty at home. Her mother died before they reached Sydney and her father was so grief stricken that he began to drink. My grandmother brought up her brothers and sisters virtually single-handed, and looked after her father as well, when she was little more than a child herself! She was just twelve when they arrived in Australia, and twenty-four when she married my grandfather. She was working as a ladies’ maid when he met her, and in those days anyone in service was not allowed to get married. She wouldn’t leave her job because she still had her father to support.’

‘She must have been a wonderful person,’ Sadie told him softly.

‘She was,’ he agreed.

There was a look in his eyes she couldn’t analyse, Sadie acknowledged. A look which held bitterness and anger. A look which for some reason right now he seemed to be directing right at her!

‘You’re wearing your perfume,’ he said abruptly changing the subject

Sadie nodded her head, trying not to betray the fact she was pleased he had noticed.

‘Is it very different from the original Myrrh?’

‘A little,’ she told him, the realisation that his interest had been of a business rather than a personal nature turning her pleasure to disappointment. Rather briskly, she added, ‘The original perfume, like most perfumes of its time, was much stronger than women want to wear today—and, of course, very expensive.’

‘Expensive and exclusive,’ Leon agreed curtly. ‘In fact, a luxury that most ordinary women could never hope to enjoy!’

To Sadie’s bewilderment his expression as well as his voice once again suddenly changed, becoming closed and forbidding.

‘Have you decided want you want to eat yet?’ he asked grimly.

Sadie looked at him, tempted to ask what it was she had said that had caused him to withdraw so sharply from her, but instead she simply told him very coolly and distantly that, yes, she was ready to order.

‘How old were you when you first knew that you had a “nose”?’

Their first course had just arrived, and Sadie looked across at Leon a little warily. But whatever it was that had caused that momentary harsh bleakness to harden his expression had gone, and he was once more smiling warmly at her.

‘I don’t know,’ she admitted. ‘I just sort of grew up knowing that I wanted to create perfume. My grandmother encouraged me, of course. She was born at the wrong time, I think, looking back now. She would have loved to have taken over the business, but as a girl with a brother that was just not an option.’

‘I have gathered that there was some discord between them,’ Leon acknowledged, and he looked encouragingly at her, obviously wanting to learn more.

‘My great-uncle was a gambler, and he ran down the business to finance his gambling habit. My grandmother hated what he did, and I think she ended up hating him too,’ Sadie admitted. ‘A rift developed between them which was exacerbated by the fact that my grandmother had married an Englishman and lived so far away from him. Still, she felt so passionately about the business…’

‘A passion which she obviously passed on to you,’ Leon interrupted her.

Sadie smiled.

‘My grandmother was a very passionate person.’

‘And so, I imagine, are you. Very passionate!’

Across the table their glances met and locked. Sadie discovered she was only able to breathe shallowly, her heart bouncing frantically around her chest, making her feel as though she wanted to press her hands to her body to keep it still.

The silence between them, the intimacy of their locked gazes, was the most exciting sensation she had ever experienced, she acknowledged dizzily. Her food was completely forgotten—Leon was her food, her need, her every sustenance both physical and emotional. If he were to reach out now, take hold of her hand and lead her from the table, she knew beyond any doubt that she would go with him.

‘You can’t possibly know that. I…’ Her voice was a papery dry whisper, a muted husk of sound, her eyes huge, her pupils dilated.

‘I do know it.’ Leon stopped her. His own voice was tense, low and raw with an open hunger that made Sadie shudder violently.

‘I know exactly how you will feel in my arms, Sadie, how you will taste, how passionately you will respond to me in my bed.’

What the hell was he doing? Leon wondered savagely as he heard what he was saying almost as though he was standing outside himself and listening. From the moment he had taken over the family business on his twenty-first birthday, Leon had dedicated himself totally to its success. Nothing and no one had ever threatened to come between him and that dedication—until now!

For the first time in his life Leon could feel himself being pulled in different directions emotionally. Had he gone completely mad? Totally lost the plot? Okay, so Sadie was one delectably desirable woman. But that didn’t mean…

The way she was looking at him made his body clench, and a surge of desire as fierce as the kick of a mule powered through his belly.

This wasn’t something he had written down in his mental checklist of life goals. Not now and quite definitely not ever with this particular woman!

So why wasn’t he doing something about it? Why wasn’t he getting a grip and forcing his unwanted desire for her to shrivel into nothing? Because he didn’t want to or because he couldn’t do so? Because he was already in way way over his head and not even thinking about trying to save himself?

A small shudder ripped through Sadie, openly visible to him, and his own body reacted. Responded! Hell, but no woman had affected him like this in public since he had left his teenage days behind him. It was a damn good job that the table covered the visible evidence of his arousal.

He moved a little uncomfortably in his seat, cursing softly to himself.

Sadie held her breath as she saw the way Leon’s eyes burned with sexual awareness as he monitored her reaction.

She could hardly breathe normally, never mind think of eating! Frantically she tried to come up with something banal to say, to extinguish the almost palpable aura of sexual heat surrounding them. But her brain was simply refusing to co-operate. If she didn’t manage to break the sensual intensity of the gaze they were sharing Sadie didn’t know what might happen! Or, rather, she knew perfectly well what her body was hoping would happen!

And that knowledge was making her feel both more excited than she had ever felt in her whole life and more apprehensive as well!

Someone at a nearby table pushed back their chair, and the scraping noise caused Leon to look in that direction. Dizzily Sadie dragged great gulps of air into her lungs and picked up her fork.