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

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      Just the thought of cupping the soft weight of her breasts in his hands, of exploring them, running his fingertip around that place where the creamy paleness gave way to the deeper pinkness of her aureole before rising up to the nipple itself, was sending him crazy with longing.

      His erection throbbed and pulsed. Inside his head, his hand was already travelling down her body, stroking her thighs, easing them apart, exploring the soft warmth of the full swollen lips protecting her sex with gentle reassurance before sliding between them to probe the moist excitement of her, and then…

      Leon groaned out aloud and sliced a mental guillotine down across his thoughts. If he continued like this he wouldn’t be able to walk as far as the house, never mind do anything else, he told himself grittily.

      He didn’t just want Sadie, he admitted angrily. He damn well loved her as well!

      And loving her meant that he wanted to protect her. Not just from any other man who might dare to take advantage of her, but from himself!

      He was in this so deep he might as well give up right now, Leon admitted. But he couldn’t afford to. Not until he had got the takeover sorted.

      He was glad that Sadie had seen sense with regard to his plans for Francine. His board would not have been too pleased, to say the least, had he had to institute potentially expensive and—even worse—long drawn-out legal proceedings against Sadie to prove that the Myrrh perfume formula belonged legally to Francine. He needed that formula, Leon admitted, and he needed it badly—because he wanted to make good the vow he had made in his grandmother’s name and memory: that women the world over would be able to enjoy and afford the perfume she had so longed for as a young woman.

      When that had been done he could give himself time to court Sadie, and to love her. Not until then. And right now he had the night to get through!

      At least they weren’t going to starve whilst they waited for their replacement vehicle. Thanks to Sadie. Leon closed his eyes, reliving that moment when she had handed him the olive. An innocent Eve, indeed!

      His erection stiffened and once again he muttered an imprecation under his breath. He was thirty-four years old, for heaven’s sake, and well past the age when he ought to be getting a hard-on just thinking about sex.

      But he wasn’t just thinking about sex. He was thinking about Sadie! And he was thinking about love! Thinking about it. Aching for it—and for Sadie!

      CHAPTER SEVEN

      IT WAS gone eleven o’clock. In the kitchen of the mas, Sadie suppressed a small yawn and cast a wary look at Leon.

      They had eaten a meal together earlier in the evening, and Leon had once again refused any of the wine—although why he should have done so Sadie had no idea, since he was not going to be driving after all.

      She had had some, though! To give her the resilience to get through the evening? To help her to block out the savage and aching longing driving through her, urging her to take the kind of provocative sexual action she would normally not just have totally deplored but refused to even consider? Her? Seduce Leon? Her brain said no way, but her emotions and her body ached. If only…

      Luckily, all the beds in the mas possessed bedclothes, and Leon had managed to turn on the hot water, so at least she would be able to have a shower before she went to bed.

      A shelf of books in the TV room should have provided her with some means of passing the time and removing herself from Leon’s presence, but stubbornly, and with alcohol-underpinned courage, she had refused to do so, remaining instead in the kitchen even though it was now over two hours since they had finished eating.

      ‘You’re tired,’ Leon announced in a clipped voice. ‘Why don’t you go to bed?’

      Why didn’t she remove her unwanted company from his presence was more like it, Sadie reflected bitterly, but she kept her thoughts to herself as she smothered another yawn. She was tired, she admitted, but strangely she was reluctant to leave the kitchen.

      Strangely? Since when had it been remotely strange for a woman in love to want to leave the company of the man she loved? Sadie derided herself mentally.

      A woman in love? She was in love with Leon? Well, wasn’t she? Wasn’t she?

      All right, she admitted angrily. All right! But that didn’t mean…

      That didn’t mean what? she questioned herself mercilessly. That didn’t mean that right now she just ached to leave her chair and go over to him and wrap her arms around him? To kiss her way all along his jaw and tease her fingers through his hair? She wanted to taste the texture of his skin and explore the deliciously tempting outline of his mouth, whilst her free hand tugged his tee shirt out of his jeans and slid beneath it to feel the male strength of his chest, and then—

      Frantically Sadie fought to reign in her rioting thoughts! Her face was burning, she knew, and no wonder. Perhaps it might be wiser if she did go to bed!

      ‘You’re right,’ she told Leon huskily. ‘I am tired. I will go to bed.’

      Yes, she needed to get away from him before her body went totally out of control with longing and she ended up making a grab for him and putting her wanton thoughts into action!

      Defiantly, she poured herself another glass of wine and picked it up. She had lied about being tired. She was far too wound up emotionally for sleep, but perhaps the wine would help her to do so.

      Leon exhaled his pent-up breath in a savage sigh as he watched Sadie walk away from him. Morning couldn’t come fast enough for him. How the hell was he supposed to do anything so mundane as sleep when he knew that Sadie was lying there in the next room?

      No way was he tired yet. He decided he would walk round the gardens of the mas and try and get his feelings under control.

      Gathering up the underwear she had rinsed out, Sadie padded naked from the bathroom to the bedroom. The mas was certainly well equipped, and she was enjoying the luxury it provided. She envied Leon his stay here.

      She found she couldn’t get Leon out of her head as she restlessly prowled around the bedroom, the glass of wine forgotten. And besides, a mere glass of wine wasn’t capable of subduing her longing… her love…

      Leon stared back towards the mas. Sadie would be in bed by now. The savagery of the need that gripped him tensed his jaw. He could see the swimming pool, the water shimmering in the moonlight. His body needed cooling down and his thoughts needed exorcising!

      He reached the side of the pool in a few strides, stripping off his clothes by the edge, and launching himself into a neat dive that sliced the water almost silently.

      A fierce front crawl took him the length of the pool and back.

      Still wide awake, Sadie went to her bedroom window. It looked out onto the pool area of the garden, and her whole body stiffened as she saw Leon in the water.

      She watched him for several seconds before going into her bathroom and pulling on the bathrobe she had found there.

      Like a sleepwalker she opened her bedroom door and made her way quietly and purposefully through the mas.

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