The Mistress Purchase

As she tried to fasten it up she realised that one of the buttons was missing and that one of the buttonholes was torn. Guiltily she remembered how that had happened! She had done it last night, in her eagerness to get to Leon’s body!

Padding downstairs, she went into the kitchen, where she could smell coffee brewing. But Leon wasn’t there. And then she saw him across the hallway in her sitting room. Holding her grandmother’s photograph.

Even though she could have sworn she had not made a sound, he turned and looked at her.

‘Your grandmother?’ he asked.

Silently Sadie nodded her head.

Putting the photograph back, Leon came towards her.

‘Where were you going yesterday?’ he asked.

Sadie looked at him

‘To find you,’ she admitted. And, turning away from him, she went to where she had left her bag the previous evening. Opening it, she removed the bubble-wrapped packet. ‘And to give you this,’ she added, handing the package to him.

‘What is it?’ Frowning, Leon unwrapped it and stared at the small glass phial in his hand.

‘I…’ Sadie took a deep breath. ‘You weren’t the only one looking for…for a compromise. It’s a new Myrrh perfume,’ she told him huskily. ‘I…I made it here in my workshop. It’s a…’ She stopped and discovered that her whole body was shaking. Lifting her head, she looked at him. ‘It’s a blend of raw material and…and synthetics.’ She bit her lip.

For a long time she thought he simply wasn’t going to speak. His whole attention was concentrated on the small bottle he was holding. But then suddenly he raised his head, and in the green eyes and on the black lashes Sadie could see quite openly the glitter of strong male tears.

‘You did this for me?’ Leon demanded.

‘For us,’ Sadie corrected him, her own gaze blurring.

‘Oh, Sadie.’ Leon groaned, kissing her softly and then saying against her lips, ‘Sadie, I love you. Will you marry me? You’d better,’ he advised when she looked at him.

‘For one thing I just couldn’t bear it if you don’t, and for another…’ He bent his head and whispered in her ear, ‘After last night, I feel in nine months’ time there could be a very good reason why you and I should be man and wife!’

‘A baby?’ Sadie blinked away her tears.

‘Mmm…we could try for twins if you like,’ Leon teased her.

It took several seconds for his meaning to sink through Sadie’s euphoric happiness. When it did she gave him an old-fashioned look.

‘Certainly not,’ she told him primly. ‘Well, at least not until I’ve had a cup of coffee…’

‘You can have a cup of coffee…when I’ve had you…’ Leon promised sexily.

EPILOGUE

‘AND SO what have you called the new baby?’ the excited reporter asked Sadie eagerly.

Bright-eyed, she looked at Leon, who was standing by her side.

‘Well, I think we’ve decided on Petit Bébé.’ Sadie answered her, straight-faced.

She and Leon had worked hard to come up with an original name for the range of baby products they were launching under the Francine name. The range had gone into production just about the same time as Sadie herself, and the results of both efforts were on display in the Grasse house now. The Petit Bébé range of babycare products in their attractive modern packaging, and the equally modern and attractively packaged identical twin daughters Sadie had given birth to six weeks before.

‘See, I told you it could be twins,’ Leon had murmured when Sadie had gone for the scan which had revealed the fact that she was carrying two babies.

And despite the fact that she was a recently married woman and a mother-to-be Sadie had blushed deeply at the look in his eyes, remembering just how and where those babies had been conceived.

‘I wonder which of them is the kitchen table baby,’ Leon whispered teasingly to her when the press conference was over.

‘Neither or both,’ Sadie responded firmly. ‘After all, they are identical twins.’

Still smiling at her, Leon bent his head to kiss her.