Mediterranean Nights: The Mistress Purchase / The Demetrios Virgin / Marco's Convenient Wife. PENNY JORDAN

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СКАЧАТЬ he found just watching her doing that far more sexually stirring than watching a stick-thin modeltype toying irritably with a piece of designer greenery.

      And surely a woman with a healthy appetite for food would have an equally healthy appetite for life’s other sensual pleasures?

      Leon recognised that his thoughts were about to surge dangerously out of control.

      ‘I think the town is coming up now,’ Sadie warned him

      As he nodded his head in acknowledgement, Leon reflected ruefully that the town wasn’t on its own!

      ‘You’ve bought enough food to feed at least a dozen people.’ Sadie laughed, shaking her head in mock disapproval as she and Leon headed back to the car. Both of them were carrying the purchases Leon had insisted on making.

      He’d excitedly bought long sticks of French bread, freshly baked that morning, some local cheese and fruit, some olives, and some cold meats from the local charcuterie, some delicious delicacies from the patisserie, and even a bottle of red wine, as well as some water. It was a feast fit for any king

      But Leon wasn’t a king, he was a billionaire, Sadie reminded herself as they reached the car. No wonder he had looked at her in such surprise when she had suggested they buy food and virtually picnic at the mas.

      ‘What’s wrong?’ Leon demanded, making her jump as she realised that he was watching her.

      The genuine concern in his voice and the perceptiveness of the look he was giving her brought Sadie to a standstill in the middle of the empty street.

      ‘Sadie?’

      The intensity with which Leon spoke her name as he raised one hand to her face, gently tucking an errant strand of hair behind her ear, caused Sadie to tremble from head to foot, the paper bag she was clutching in her arms shaking with her.

      Very gently Leon’s hand stroked down the side of her head, before resting on her neck, his thumb massaging the delicate flesh just behind her ear in a way, to judge from the concerned look in his eyes, Sadie suspected he had intended to be comforting and reassuring, but in fact was anything but. Her whole body leapt into shocking, aroused life immediately, her tremors increasing.

      What on earth must Leon think of her? He must be used to sophisticated, experienced woman who did not react like inexperienced and over-excited teenagers the moment he touched them. Inexperienced…

      Sadie pulled her mind back from the word like a mother protectively pulling a child’s fingers back from an open flame.

      Leon’s hand was still cupping the side of her head, and somehow Sadie managed to make herself look directly into his eyes.

      The look in their deep, deep depths was making her feel dizzy, holding her in thrall.

      ‘Have I told you, yet, Sadie, just what a very exceptional person I think you are?’

      Exceptional? Her? Sadie tried to remind herself of who he was and why she was with him, but the slow, gentle movement of his hand against her scalp was overheating her thoughts as well as her body. Beneath her clothes she could feel it reacting to him, her breasts filling with liquid aching need, her nipples tightening, flaunting their desire as they pushed hungrily against the fine silk of her bra. Low down in her stomach her muscles tightened, whilst the female core of her swelled and moistened.

      Tiny beads of perspiration dampened her hairline and upper lip—and they were not caused by the heat of the sun, Sadie noted ruefully as she made a valiant attempt to behave as though she was perfectly accustomed to such a situation.

      Leon looked closely at her as the soft, incredibly long dark lashes concealed Sadie’s eyes from him. He could feel the tiny convulsive tremors of her body. They ran through his fingertips and up his arm, and from there right the whole way through him, to every last inch and single cell of him. He had never ever met a woman who made him feel like this, who aroused in him such a complex tangle of emotions and desires.

      Within the space of a single heartbeat she could send him from the most intense physical need he could ever remember feeling to the most protective and tender realisation of just how vulnerable she was. In one breath she could make him want to be both poacher and gamekeeper. Right now, here in this hot little street, he could quite easily lean her against the nearest wall and take her in the most primitive, hungry male way there was—yes, and make her ache with the need he felt for every single heartbeat. But at the same time he also wanted to wrap a cloak of protection around her that would prevent any male eyes from ever looking lustfully on her, any male desire from ever hurting her.

      Including his own?

      Leon had never met a woman who made him feel that so much in life that was simple and easily affordable was somehow also invaluably pleasurable. Apart, perhaps, from his grandmother, She had also relished the simple and inexpensive things in life.

      Suddenly Sadie pulled away from him.

      Looking down at her, Leon growled. ‘Do you have any idea how very, very tempted I am to kiss you?’

      Sadie granted herself ten wonderful seconds in which to absorb the blissful delight that hearing these words gave her, and then another ten just because it felt so good. Then, in case she dangerously gave away how shamelessly she wanted him to kiss her, she turned away from him and started to hurry to where they had parked the car.

      Leon watched her. He could still feel the warmth of her neat, delicately shaped head on his palm, the softness of her hair and her skin. As she walked away from him he watched the awesome femaleness in the movement of her body with male appreciation—and a very physical male response—only just managing to suppress a small growl of possessiveness as he contemplated the effect of her neatly rounded derrière on other vulnerable members of his sex who were witnessing it as she walked past them.

      It was his duty, surely, to protect them from such vulnerability—and the temptation which accompanied it! For the sake of his own sex, Sadie needed a man in her life and a ring on her finger! A ring? His ring?

      Now, where the hell had that thought come from?

      They had to call at the local garage before leaving the town, to put more petrol in the car, and Leon frowned as he saw the way the driver of a car on the other side of the pumps paused to give Sadie a lingeringly appreciative second look before getting back into his vehicle.

      ‘Seems like you’ve made a conquest,’ he commented dryly to Sadie as he put the key in the ignition.

      ‘It’s probably my hair,’ she answered matter-of-factly. She had already noticed how often local men looked at her blonde locks.

      ‘Yeah, and the rest,’ she thought she heard Leon mutter beneath his breath. But as she turned to look at him she realised that the car was as it had been this morning, when Leon had first attempted to start it—refusing to start!

      Sadie held her breath as he tried again, and then again, To her relief, on the fourth attempt the engine fired.

      CHAPTER SIX

      HALF an hour later Sadie looked out of the passenger window and caught her first glimpse of the sea, way, way down below them—foam-capped, blue-green, dipping to denser all-blue where it met the horizon.

      Automatically she gave a small СКАЧАТЬ