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Sitting on the couch he’d gestured to, she grimaced as the hem of her dress rode up before instantly tugging it back down again. But not quick enough to prevent him from catching a glimpse of a pair of rounded, creamy thighs.
Sudden and unexpected heat caught at him and all at once he was again far more aware of her lush little body than he should have been. Of the indentation of her waist and the swell of her hips and thighs, outlined to perfection by that cheap red dress.
An ordinary young woman she might have been, but there was nothing ordinary about her figure.
Still, if he wasn’t as notorious as his reputation made him out to be, he wasn’t far from it, and if he wanted a woman he had her. However, he had rules. He always found his lovers from amongst his own social circle, experienced women who were out for some fun and nothing more.
Innocents were out of bounds and he’d never found that to be an issue.
It wouldn’t be one now.
He forced his gaze from her hips, pulled his phone from his pocket and sent a quick text to one of his staff members ordering that some refreshments be brought. Then he sat down on the couch opposite her.
‘So, Miss Albright,’ he said conversationally. ‘I hope you didn’t run into anyone else causing you trouble tonight?’
Her straight, dark brows drew down again. ‘No. Should I have?’
‘Some of my guests aren’t entirely polite. I wouldn’t want you to have been inconvenienced by any of them.’
She shook her head, another long russet curl coming loose from her bun, and he found himself watching it as it fell slowly over her shoulder. The reddish gleam in the strands contrasted beautifully with her creamy skin.
‘I wasn’t inconvenienced, but thank you for asking.’
He wouldn’t have thought a gatecrasher come to sell him her virginity would have such manners. Apparently he was wrong. Politeness wasn’t a common commodity in the circles he moved in and he found it refreshing.
Relaxing on the couch, he stretched his arms out over the back in a conscious effort to put her at her ease, noting how she followed the movement of his body.
Interesting. He knew what that surreptitious look was all about. He knew that very well. And he wasn’t surprised. He had a certain effect on women, and no doubt for this little sharp-faced checkout girl, he was dazzling.
Perhaps you can use that?
It was a thought he’d had before. Many times, in fact. He’d used his looks and the charm he’d forced himself to learn to pull himself up out of the Athens tenement he’d come from. After Ismena had disappeared and his mother had died.
He’d been called manipulative in his time and if manipulative meant his cause was more important than people’s feelings, then yes, he was manipulative. Especially when his cause was to save as many people as possible from the fate his sister had suffered.
But she has nothing to do with Ismena.
This was true. And besides, what could he use her for anyway? She was a nobody.
‘And you didn’t hear anything that frightened you?’ he asked absently, turning over various plans in his head, trying to figure out what his next move would be.
He couldn’t make any progress with taking down this particular trafficking ring if he couldn’t get information about their shipments. And he couldn’t get access to that information if he wasn’t part of the inner circle of people who ran it. So how to get access to that inner circle? They were, bizarrely, all family men with wives and children, and apparently didn’t trust playboys like him.
In which case perhaps he needed to find himself a wife. Any marriage would have to be legal, naturally enough, in case anyone got suspicious and investigated it, but it didn’t need to be for ever. Just long enough for him to get the information he needed to take this trafficking ring down.
Yes, maybe that was an option. Finding a woman who’d agree to marry him wouldn’t be an issue either, since he had women coming out of his ears. Then again, if he married, focus would fall on his wife, which could potentially put her in some danger and he didn’t like the sound of that. A beautiful wife in particular would draw the wrong kind of attention, so if he was going to take that route, he’d have to find someone who was plain enough that people wouldn’t bother. Someone who wasn’t famous either, someone whom no one else knew.
Someone...ordinary.
Someone like her.
Castor blinked.
Her. Glory Albright, checkout girl. Who’d been trying to sell him her virginity.
Interesting. Very interesting indeed.
She was looking at him from underneath lashes caked thickly in cheap mascara, wary still, but also curious if he wasn’t much mistaken.
