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Jacy, watching his face, was struck by the hard cynicism in his dark eyes. But she couldn't deny the ring of truth to his words.
'Barely a year later I found out from the security guard at the apartment block, on one of my very rare visits, that not only was Lily entertaining a variety of men, she had also been caught with drugs in her possession. The papers were right, I did throw her out—but I also gave her enough money to lease another apartment. Lily, however, was a greedy lady, and with the compliance of a less than honest lawyer thought she would try to hit me for more money. Hence the palimony case. The one time I acted the gentleman and it cost me dearly—not in money, that didn't matter, but in aggravation. Your father's paper ran the story, and for a few months my life was disrupted ...'
Disrupted.
Jacy couldn't help smiling. Anyone else would have been traumatised, but not Leo...
'But happily the Court found in my favour and awarded the lady one dollar...'
'One dollar!' Jacy exclaimed. She had never read the newspaper reports; in fact, except for that one night in Corfu, she and her father had never mentioned the subject again: it had been too painful for the younger Jacy to even contemplate. But now she instinctively believed Leo.
'Yes. But the damage to me was much greater. My reputation was worse than mud, and it hurt my family. I don't allow anyone to harm my family.' His mouth tightened into a hard line, and he looked somewhere over her head, a remote expression in his dark eyes. Jacy shivered. No one would ever cross this man and live to tell the tale, she knew, and she had been a fool to try...
Leo dropped his gaze to Jacy and regarded her silently for several seconds, then his lips twisted into the beginnings of a smile. 'Then one summer day in Corfu I met you on the beach. A lovely innocent young girl. I didn't lie to you, Jacy. I never actually said I was a fisherman, but it was so refreshing to meet a girl who didn't know who I was or the sordid details of my immediate past. You were a welcome balm to my dented ego.'
Jacy's heart sank. So that was what she had meant to him. A young girl to ease his battered ego, nothing more. While she had imagined they were in love...
'The night your father arrived I saw red. He was the editor of the paper that had first run the story, and you were his daughter and a budding reporter. I was so furious, I stormed off.'
'I remember,' she murmured, a lingering sadness tingeing her tone. I never had any firm intention of being a reporter, and after your denouncement of the whole breed ... well...'
'Jacy, I couldn't care less about your work. When I met you again at Liz's party, I saw a beautiful woman and asked you out simply because I want you. It was only tonight when you lashed out at me that I realised how it was possible I might inadvertently have hurt you in the past. So, now that I have put the past in perspective, can we finally get on with the present—and hopefully to bed?'
Leo had been brutally honest with her, and she could understand why he'd behaved the way he had. It must have been very difficult for a man with Leo's supreme confidence to accept the fact that he'd been made a fool of. She could even understand why he'd lashed out at her all those years ago. But what she found harder to accept was his casual assumption that, having explained himself, probably as near an apology as Leo was capable of making, they could swan off to bed!
She pulled herself upright and, perched on the edge of the sofa, she turned her body slightly to look at him. He was lounging back against the sofa, his long legs stretched out in front of him in negligent ease, his hands resting lightly on his thighs, his dark face expressionless. Only a nerve beating beneath the bronzed skin of his cheek told her that he wasn't as relaxed as he was trying to appear.
'So, what's it to be, Jacy? It's up to you,' he prompted tautly.
Her golden eyes searched his dark features. He was a proud man and he had made a great concession in even explaining about his past. He wanted her, and in all honesty Jacy knew she ached for him. But could she be as mature as Leo and forget all her old resentment and bitterness? Take what was on offer—a few weeks of sexual satisfaction—and play the game by his rules? She looked into his eyes and was fascinated by the tinge of uncertainty that even the masculine need blazing fiercely in their depths could not quite disguise.
She could say no! She knew that Leo would accept it—he'd told her last week that violence wasn't his style, but subtle persuasion...
She should say no! Then his thumb traced the vein in her wrist. She saw the black flare of passion in his eyes, and she knew the same emotion was reflected in hers. The decision was made for her; the trembling inside her gave her the answer.
'I believe you're not quite the rat I thought you were,' she murmured teasingly, holding out her other hand, her body swaying towards him as she added, 'And who am I kidding? I'd rather have a tycoon than a fisherman any day.' She knew that it probably only confirmed his less than flattering view of her, but it was better than admitting that she'd loved him years ago, and could quite easily again. He was offering nothing but a brief affair; at the very most she might possibly win her bet, she thought with bitter irony.
Leo caught both her hands and cradled them in his own. Then, in a potently erotic gesture, he kissed the centre of each palm. I knew you were a sensible female.' His dark voice was a whisper of rough velvet against her skin as his mouth trailed kisses over her wrist while he gently urged her towards him. 'You won't regret it.'
Sensible was the last thing she was, Jacy admitted, but she could deny the urging of her body no longer. Her gaze fastened on his sensuous mouth and her tongue flicked out unconsciously over her suddenly dry lips.
Dropping her hands, Leo grasped a handful of her hair, his long fingers tangling in the silken gold locks. He urged her face to his. 'Jacy, what are you doing to me?' he groaned, before covering her mouth with his own.
She made a tiny moue of protest before sweetly opening her lips. Leo was inside at once, his tongue tasting, searching, provoking, until she was responding with the intense excitement only Leo could arouse. Jacy raised her arms, her hands sinking into the gleaming thickness of his hair, trailing to curve the nape of his strong neck as the kiss went on and on. She felt the sofa at her back and the pressure of Leo's hard body forcing her down, but she didn't care.
Then Leo raised his head and his dark eyes blazed with masculine triumph as he demanded, 'No turning back this time, Jacy.'
With a soft, throaty groan she linked her hands around his neck and pulled his head back down to hers, her lips giving him the answer he wanted.
The soft silk of her shirt was pushed aside, her front-fastening bra quickly unclasped and her firm, full breasts were freed to his searching hands. When his palm grazed lightly over one nipple, teasing it into a hard peak, Jacy moaned. Leo swallowed her small sound of passion and slid his hand to the other pouting breast. By the time his subtly teasing fingers were finished, Jacy's breasts were achingly sensitive.
Deftly Leo removed the blouse from her shoulders and swung her long legs from the floor across his lap, his hand lingering on the back of her knee. Slowly he stroked up to her thigh and she gasped as his fingers found the naked flesh where her stockings ended. His fingers closed over the tiny lace strap of her garter-belt, and snapped the elastic.
'A welcome addition since last time,' he drawled, but not quite steadily. Straightening, he quickly divested himself of his shirt. His dark head thrown back, he stared down at her. 'Garter-belts turn me on something wicked.' He smiled wolfishly as he studied her naked thighs; her skirt was rucked up around her hips. 'But everything about you turns me on.' His dark eyes deepened to black as he greedily scanned her naked breasts, the hard tips pleading for his caress.
Jacy
was enthralled by the sight of his bare torso, the matt of black hair, the glistening bronzed skin. She reached out for him with impatient hands. Her fingers traced through the hair on his chest, over small, flat male nipples until Leo, with a throaty growl, slipped his hand to her waist and eased down the zip of her skirt, his hand slipping downwards over her stomach.
