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Having finished his phone conversation, Blaise glanced up and saw her. He was dressed in his trademark black again, the sombre colour somehow rendering him impossibly charismatic, adding a hint of seductive danger to good-looks that were already off-the-scale compelling. It also highlighted the dazzling glints of gold in his hair and the intense Mediterranean blue of his eyes. The quick, easy smile on his handsome face all but broke Maya’s heart.
‘I’m—I’m up to date with the typing and printing out,’ she told him, desperately trying to control the quaver in her voice. ‘I’d like to get a breath of fresh air now, if you don’t mind?’
Eyes narrowing, Blaise got up and walked round the desk to join her. ‘Is everything all right?’
‘Of course.’
‘Maya?’ he pressed, clearly not believing her.
Twisting her hands in front of her, she suddenly couldn’t contain the pain that was tearing her up inside and sensed it helplessly spill over.
‘I was just wondering if I’d outstayed my welcome…if it wasn’t time for some other “pretty and obliging” woman to replace me?’
The colour drained from his face. ‘I was talking to my agent…you were listening to that?’
‘Not intentionally.’ She lifted her chin. ‘I was about to come and tell you that I needed to get out for a while and inadvertently I heard you talking. It wasn’t easy to hear…what you said, I mean…but I’m glad I heard you say it all the same. It was the wake-up call I needed. I’d rather dangerously started to fool myself about us, you see.’
‘What about us?’
Did she imagine it, or was there suddenly a steely undertone to his voice? A firming of the fortress he had already built around his heart to keep out would-be threats to his emotions? Her spirits sank even lower.
‘We’re more than just two people working together—we’ve become lovers. I know I said I only wanted an affair, but naively I started to think that after enjoying intimacy together night after night it might make you want something a bit more. I thought that things had been progressing a little deeper between us than my just being your temporary assistant and bedmate.’
‘You do mean more to me than that, Maya…much more. You’re an exceptional and beautiful woman, and I find myself in awe of what you’ve had to overcome in life to even get this far. I couldn’t have accomplished what I’ve done so far on the play without you, and—’
‘Let me finish.’ She folded her arms across her chest, and her hurt glance was withering. ‘And my contribution has been invaluable? Was that what you were going to say next? For God’s sake, you make me sound like some naïve little schoolgirl who should be grateful for every crumb of praise and attention you deign to throw my way!’
‘As wonderful as it’s been, I thought you knew—thought you realised that even though we’re sleeping together this isn’t going to be a permanent situation.’
Blaise’s words fell on the air like daggers, slicing Maya in two. Lifting the heavy weight of her dark hair off the back of her neck, she pursed her lips, fielding the waves of pain that made her whole body tremble with distress.
‘Sometimes a situation can change from—from what you expected into something else…something even better…if you let it…’ she offered quietly.
When Blaise’s intense examination of her turned into the deepest frown, making her sense both his regret and frustration that she was instigating a situation he was clearly uncomfortable with and probably deplored, a shattering moment of shocking self-discovery assailed her. She was no different from her father…for she too had become an addict. Yes, she’d become addicted to a man who clearly only wanted her for the pleasure her body could give him—and even that for just a brief time. For, after she’d gone, Maya was certain it wouldn’t be long before Blaise found himself another ‘adoring and willing’ woman to warm his bed.
Because she had this terrible aching need to experience real love from a man she’d allowed herself to be seduced by him—even when in her heart she’d always known their liaison was doomed not to last. And when he had shown such depth of understanding and compassion towards her after hearing about her difficult and painful past, she’d fooled herself into believing that he must really care for her. That was why his announcement that he’d thought she knew their relationship was not destined to last had struck her like a hammer-blow. What a blind fool she’d been! How could she once more have made the same destroying mistake in a relationship? Would she ever be able to trust her instincts again? Swallowing hard, Maya knew all she could do right then was think about leaving and chalk up her experience as another painful dalliance with the universally recognised school of hard knocks.
