Mediterranean Nights: The Mistress Purchase / The Demetrios Virgin / Marco's Convenient Wife

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.