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She could feel his body language and it made her bloom somewhere deep inside with the slow burn of desire.
‘Can I ask you something?’ Celia stopped and looked up at him, suddenly anxious to find out why, having been so scrupulous in avoiding touching her ever since she’d shown up, he was now giving off signals that he wanted her after all.
Had he reconciled himself to taking what he thought might now be on offer? Even though he might have been happy to shrug her off before? Easy come, easy go?
She wanted him. She was in love with him. But was she so in love and did she want him so much that she would be happy to be considered as better than nothing? Would her self-esteem ever recover? But then she thought of them living separate lives, growing more and more distant from one another over time, holding herself in a state of frozen limbo because she didn’t want to have sex with someone who couldn’t give her the love she craved. How satisfying would that be?
There were few people around them, but she still shuffled him away from the main drag and towards the side.
‘Do I have a choice of answer?’ Leandro asked cautiously and Celia chewed her lower lip and shook her head, which was honest enough.
‘You haven’t...come near me ever since I told you about the pregnancy...’
‘Come again?’
‘I got the impression...that...er...’ His look of bewilderment made her stumble over her words but then his expression cleared and he looked at her seriously.
‘You made it clear that you weren’t interested in prolonging what we had,’ Leandro said bluntly. ‘I got the message loud and clear so when you showed up, I was hardly going to take that as a green light to start making a move on you, was I?’
He tilted her chin so that she was looking at him, her clear green eyes hesitant.
‘Do you know what my mission in life is?’ he asked, his voice teasing, which brought all sorts of tingly sensations racing through her, making her squirm in a very pleasurable way.
‘What?’ Her voice was breathless and she was mesmerised by the glint in his eyes.
‘To just get you to feel more confident about yourself.’
‘Of course I’m confident!’
Leandro looked at her wryly. ‘How could you think that I would want you one minute and then be so turned off you the next that I don’t want to come near you?’
Celia shrugged. ‘Men change their minds.’
‘I don’t. There’s such a thing as respecting someone’s choices.’ He was tempted to ask her whyshehad found it so easy to dismiss what they’d enjoyed but he already knew. She’d been looking for Love and happy to relegate the fun they’d had to the history books.
Except fate had had other things in mind.
But he still turned her on and maybe she was seeing things from his point of view now. A baby and a marriage and the bonus of great sex to keep the wheels oiled.
Love might not be part of the equation but that didn’t mean that everything then became a lost cause. Life was seldom a case of all or nothing.
She’d forgotten the value of fun somewhere along the line and he was surprised at how relieved and franklyoverjoyedhe felt at the thought that she had come round to his way of thinking.
‘So,’ he purred silkily, ‘shall we get down to the drudgery of shopping for an entire new wardrobe for you? Money no object?’ He wagged his finger sternly at her. ‘And don’t even think about quibbling about that one...’
Celia had always loathed the business of buying clothes. Of course, Leandro had a point. When you lacked confidence in your body, when you looked in the mirror and mostly saw room for improvement, then trying on clothes became a chore.
But now she was imbued with such a sense of heady sexiness that she threw herself into the task with gusto. She forgot about the fact that most of the stuff came with price tags that made her eyes water.
Anticipation at what she had given herself permission to do gave an edge to the remainder of the day. Every sideways glance was thrilling, every brush of his hand against her sent a rush of adrenaline through her system.
Celia could barely remember what exactly she had chosen for herself because her mind had been racing ahead to what lay in store.
A night with Leandro, wrapped in his arms, her body singing to the drumbeat of his love-making.
She knew she stocked up on three dresses, some shorts, some tee shirts that were as soft as silk and even some strappy shoes and sandals. She bought stuff she would never have chosen for herself in a million years, tops that showed off her generous breasts and dresses that skimmed her thighs and delicate shoes that reminded her that she had very pretty feet and slender ankles.
They held hands, had some lunch and, in true billionaire style, he had his chauffeur stop so that the shopping could be dumped in the boot of his car. No inconvenient traipsing through the store weighed down by bags.
