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‘It’s a great environment, Leandro. I mean, it’s different from your office. It’s not nearly as big, and there’s a much higher concentration of young people of similar educational background...’
It wasn’t what Leandro wanted to hear. His scowl deepened. He couldn’t quite see when his ridiculously powerful attraction to her was going to end, and if he felt that way—if she could hold his attention for that length of time—then wasn’t it conceivable that other guys would be ogling her? It made perfect sense. And how long would it take her to realise that she could hitch up with someone there? Someone who would tempt her with the offer of a committed relationship...someone who would rival the now ex-fiancé when it came to safety?
Leandro, in a vague way, had always assumed that any love connection for him would come in the form of an Argentinian girl—someone who would understand what was expected of her, someone whose goal in life would be to have his children and run a smooth household...someone whose career would be him. And, of course, someone who wasn’t after him for his money.
His mother had been the perfect wife to his dad. She had had a handful of children and had been proud to take care of her husband’s needs. Was he old-fashioned in thinking that that would be the right sort of woman for him when the time came? As opposed to a career woman who imported nannies to look after her kids and fainted at the thought of staying at home? Or else an empty-headed beauty who would be willing to do whatever he wanted just so long as he kept pouring money into her hands? Someone who would jump ship should the money ever stop?
Emily Edison—secretary extraordinaire, sex bomb extraordinaire and now career woman in the ascendant—didn’t fit the bill. So he was a little perplexed as to why the thought of other men looking at her bothered him. He wasn’t a possessive man. Such feelings were entirely inappropriate when it came to mistresses.
‘Is that a fact?’ He straddled her and began lathering attention on her neck, her shoulders, her collarbone. ‘And have any of these fun guys of a similar age made a pass at you yet?’
Emily looked at him with muted surprise. ‘Are you jealous?’
‘I don’t do jealousy. I do curiosity.’
‘Ah. Right...’ She felt a twinge of disappointment but she understood completely. ‘I haven’t been there long enough to get into any kind of social life.’
‘And furthermore you don’t need a social life as you have me. You’re also recovering from a broken engagement...’
Curiosity...irresistible, dangerous, compelling.
Had she really broken off with her fiancé? If there had been any doubt then it should have been laid to rest by the amount of time they spent in each other’s company. Just like that she had kissed a sweet goodbye to the engagement that had propelled her into handing in her resignation.
But his curiosity had been challenging to shift. Was the guy just biding his time...waiting until what they had blew over?
Somehow the thought of that enraged Leandro, and he looked at her now, his mind playing between the equally unpleasant scenarios of several young men chasing her in her place of work or one young man waiting for her on the sidelines.
There was nothing he could do about an ardent following in her workplace, short of buying the company, sacking the entire lot and replacing them with elderly, happily married men.
A tempting thought, if only it were feasible.
But what of his ex-competition? Cheerfully dispatched or still hovering in the background, nurturing hopes of a grand reunion ? Red roses in his hand and engagement ring still in its box, ready to be whipped out once more at short notice?
He realised that he had wasted more time than he would ever have expected thinking about her ex.
He didn’t even know what the guy looked like!
What was to stop him doing just a little background check? Maybe establishing whether the man was still on the scene or not....? Putting his mind to rest that she was his and his alone for the duration of their relationship.
He had never had a chauvinistic bone in his body—was in full agreement that women were entitled to the same rights as their male counterparts in the workplace—but...
He felt primitive with her.
It made no sense. He wasn’t looking for anything beyond what she had cheerfully told him was on the table. She didn’t believe in relationships, in any of the things most women believed in, and so she came to him with no strings attached and no expectations lingering in the background.
And yet, perversely, he was far more intent on reassuring himself that he possessed her utterly than he had ever been with any other woman.
The thought of her trying him on for size because her ex-fiancé didn’t quite cut it on the physical front was abhorrent to him.
Worse was the notion that she might leave him and use everything she had experienced as a learning curve with which to re-energise her physical relationship with the ex.
Always presuming that the damned man was still on the scene!
It would take one call and he could put the whole thing into motion. Find out where the ex was...whether he was out of the picture completely...what the man looked like...what precisely he did for a living...
With one number dialled on his mobile he could be in possession of facts which he knew should not concern him and which were, essentially, none of his business.
‘Everyone needs a social life, Leandro.’
It took him a few seconds to return to what they had been talking about. ‘Come again?’
‘You’re not my social life.’
Emily decided to get that perfectly straight, because falling in love with him was one thing... It would be quite another for him to get any inkling that he was the centre of her universe. Pride would never allow her to give him that privilege.
‘You’re telling me that you have after-work fun with the young lawyers in the company? Drinks in those over-priced, over-stylised pubs that bear no resemblance to what a real pub should look like?’
‘I’m too busy finding my feet to have much time for that at the moment,’ Emily told him truthfully. ‘But I expect I shall in due course. It’s a very sociable crowd of young people who work there.’
‘And what’s happened to...? I forget his name... The ex-fiancé...’
‘Oliver.’
‘That’s it. Is he still on the scene?’
‘He’s a friend, first and foremost,’ Emily said vaguely. ‘We keep in touch.’
‘Cosy.’
‘You keep in touch with some of your ex-girlfriends...’
‘I don’t recall ever having been engaged to any of them.’
‘What difference does that make?’
‘None of my relationships ever went that far. If and when I ever get to the point where I’m ready to commit and become engaged to a woman, then I sure as hell wouldn’t be passing the time of day with her if it didn’t work out.’
He leapt out of the bed, grabbing his mobile on the way.
‘Where are you going?’
Sudden panic washed over Emily. Always on the alert for signs of boredom setting in, she wondered whether this random conversation about the great big world happening outside their little bubble had reminded him that he was still a single guy—still a guy looking for the right woman. Had talk of broken engagements and near-miss weddings turned him off the thrill of having a mistress? Had it sown the pernicious seed of wanting more than just passing sex?
He had vanished out of the bedroom and she remained frozen where she was. Part of her wanted to rush behind him and demand to know what was going through his head. The other part wanted no such thing—wanted just to stay where she was and hope for the best, hope that things weren’t beginning to fall apart between them.
She breathed a long sigh of relief when he returned to the bedroom five minutes later. ‘Where did you go?’ she asked casually.
‘Had to make a phone call.’ He chucked the phone onto the stack of discarded clothing on the ground and climbed back into bed with her.
Job done. A single phone call. His man would set everything in motion and have whatever answers he needed before the end of the day.
Leandro didn’t like spying, and he certainly would never tell her what he had done because there would be no point, but his good mood had been restored. He had never cared for unresolved issues.
‘Now, where were we...?’ He dealt her a slashing smile and returned to kissing her, taking up where he had left off and sliding into the soft response of her body as easily and seamlessly as if there had been no awkward conversation between them.
Emily lay back and curled her fingers into his dark, tousled hair. When he touched her she couldn’t think, and that was a pretty good place to be.
Her breasts were aching in anticipation of what he was going to do to them, the attention he was going to lavish there. She arched and then sighed as he took one pouting pink nipple into his mouth and began to suckle. He told her often and in great detail how much he loved her breasts, and why. Having spent a lifetime thinking that they were too small, she had learnt to offer them to him, knowing that they turned him on.
