She knew he was going to kiss her. For a few seconds, all rational thought went into free fall as he dipped her head back, and then his mouth was on hers, urgent, hungry, demanding, pressing her back against the wall.
As the walls of her resistance such as there had been came tumbling down, Leo felt a surge of lust and triumph. Against his, her body was as soft as he had imagined. Her breasts were squashed against his chest, and with a groan he pushed his hands under the tee shirt, sliding them effortlessly out of her stretchy bra and then losing himself in their abundance.
It was enough to galvanise Heather into horrified action. In the space of a few reckless minutes, she had succumbed to a need that was so powerful it overwhelmed all her ability to think rationally.
The touch of his hands on her breasts was like an urgent wake-up call and she pushed him back, scrambling in her desperation to regain her composure.
She was no match for him in the strength stakes, but she had the element of surprise on her side. The very last thing Leo had expected was to find himself repelled at the very height of his excitement.
‘Go. Now.’ She had awkwardly pulled the tee shirt back into some semblance of order, and her arms were folded protectively across her breasts. On any other occasion, his look of disbelief would have had her laughing.
‘Go? Now? If this is your version of playing hard to get, then it won’t work.’
‘I’m not playing hard to get. I’m asking you to leave. I shouldn’t have…’
‘Led me on?’
‘I did not lead you on!’
‘Don’t play the outraged virgin with me. I’ve seen the way you’ve stolen looks at me, the way you’ve reacted when I’ve been within touching distance of you!’
Heather, guilty and appalled, stared at him mutely. ‘I’m sorry,’ she mumbled, unable to deny the charge, but likewise refusing to admit to it. ‘If you thought that I was leading you on, then you’ve got hold of the wrong end of the stick. That’s the last thing I intended to do.’
‘What was your intention, in that case?’
‘I…’
‘Because I don’t hear you denying that what I felt here was a case of mutual attraction.’ Leo was half-stunned to hear himself demanding an explanation from her, demanding to know why she hadn’t immediately and without question fallen into bed with him. He hadn’t been mistaken about the way she felt about him, the attraction that sizzled below the surface of their amicable exchanges. He was never wrong about things like that. When it came to second guessing female vibes, he could have written a book on the subject.
What he was inexperienced at was having to deal with a woman who felt the attraction and then came up short on the follow-through.
‘Not all of us treat sex as a casual indulgence,’ Heather told him shakily, backing away to escape the stranglehold of his powerful personality.
‘You have no idea how I treat sex.’
‘I can risk a guess—no strings, no commitments, something that hits the spot and then, when it stops hitting the spot, becomes disposable—like a Chinese takeaway, in other words. You’re not domestic because you don’t have to be, and I’ll damn sure bet you’re never even remotely domestic in the presence of a woman just in case she gets nesting ideas. Am I right?’
‘And maybe there’s a damn good reason for that,’ Leo heard himself say grittily. ‘Maybe I’ve learnt a couple of things about the joys of commitment. Maybe I’ve learnt that it’s just not what it’s cracked up to be, and I’m the kind of guy who learns lessons very fast. Some might say at the speed of light.’
He stared down at her and was as surprised at this admission as she appeared to be, judging from the wide-eyed look on her face. It was one of the rare moments when mention of his wife had been uttered on his lips, the last time being when she had died in the car crash in Australia, thereby catapulting his life into another lane. Even then, when the past had resurged into his present, he had conducted affairs with a businesslike approach, spurning all invitations from his mother to open up. On that swift and relentless rise to the top, Leo had discarded all possible weaknesses, and that included any maudlin tendencies to confide. Not that he had ever really had any. The sensitive role had been his brother’s domain.
Maybe it was the silence that greeted his unexpected admission that encouraged him to continue. Or maybe it was the fact that she was reaching to play the moral trump-card again and he refused to allow himself to be boxed in.
He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he said with cutting cynicism, ‘My ex-wife taught me some very valuable lessons, one of which was that life can get messy, complicated and downright ugly the minute a person makes the mistake of thinking that sex is better, more worthwhile, when a little love or infatuation is thrown into the mix.’
‘What are you trying to say?’
‘I’m trying to say that there’s no virtue in self-denial because the happy-ever-after scenario isn’t waiting just around the corner.’
Heather couldn’t disagree with that. She couldn’t, however, see the only alternative as throwing herself into whatever passing attraction she might happen to feel for any man.
‘Well?’ Leo prompted harshly, angry with himself for sinking so low as to explain his motivations, and angry with her because he had expected her to launch into a diatribe about love, romance and all that other rubbish which seemed to propel couples up the aisle only to find themselves racing for the divorce courts three years later.
‘Well, what?’ They stared at each other. Heather could hardly breathe, and she was holding her body so still that she could very well have grown roots. Eventually, she said quietly, ‘Would you like another cup of coffee?’
For a split second, Leo hesitated. He had done more than was acceptable to him. Unbelievably, he had been rejected in his advances, and worse than that had not turned and walked away. It was what he should have done and what he would have expected himself to do. It wasn’t as though there weren’t other women around. In fact, he had files of them. But this one…Something about her turned him on so massively that he gave a curt nod and followed her into the kitchen, watching as she fiddled with the ridiculous coffee-making gadget so that she could produce two cups of superior coffee in a matter of seconds. It tasted nothing like the dishwater he had produced for her.
The fact that she had offered him the cup of coffee, which even now he was accepting with a slight inclination of his head, led him to believe that his words had struck a chord with her.
As they ought to! he considered.
‘What did your wife do to leave you so bitter?’
‘Details are unimportant.’
‘Do you really think so?’ Heather said sadly. ‘Sometimes I think they’re the most important things.’
‘In that case, I’ll tell you. My dearest wife enjoyed the fruits of my labours, but not the work entailed in providing them. She needed more than just a limitless bank account. She needed constant, round-the-clock flattery, and when I wasn’t around to provide it she found others who could. She was beautiful. She was rich. She had a great deal of choice. Hence my scepticism about the wonders of love and marriage.’
‘I’m sorry. It must have been awful for you. But when Daniel was born didn’t you both try to…stitch things together? Give it a go?’
But Leo was done with answering questions and dwelling on his miserable, short-lived marriage. Instead he turned his mind to the glorious, contrary woman sitting opposite him, her brow knitted in a compassionate frown.
This sordid story, one which he had never told a soul, would have fractured her rosy picture of human relationships. It also would have made her see that what he had offered her—a satisfying relationship based on the one thing that made any sense—was not to be discarded. In fact, he was pretty sure that she had come to that conclusion herself even before his unprecedented confession.
The option of having her step down from her high horse and come to him, only to taste the same rejection that she had dished out to him, wasn’t even considered.
He wanted her and he wasn’t going to play any games. But the sound of her acquiescence would be truly sweet indeed.
CHAPTER FOUR
LEO relaxed. When it came to relationships, things had a disturbing tendency to become mundane once that brief pursuit was over, but he had a feeling that Heather would be different. Maybe it was because she was unwittingly involved in a side of his life to which none of his other women had been introduced. He had always made sure to keep London and the country very far apart. He bedded and entertained his women in the city. The country was for the family side of him, which had been hugely sidelined over the years, but which would always be there, more so now that Daniel had arrived on the scene. It was the first time he had ever considered the possibility of dating someone who knew his family. Frankly, he had never been in the country long enough to meet anyone, but even if he had he would have run a mile. He had never seen that, all things considered, there were certain advantages to the situation, especially now that Daniel was around.
High on the plus side would be the fact that dates wouldn’t have to be made with the precision timing of a military campaign. Investment bankers and barristers were all well and good, but trying to arrange dates was usually a hellish business. He was busy, so were they and there had been more than one occasion when, having met and invariably spent the evening discussing aspects of work, he’d just been so damned tired that he could hardly be bothered to enjoy what should have been the highlight of the evening.