Hired for the Boss's Bedroom

With Heather, it would be different. She was anchored in the country. He had a rosy image of her waiting there for him, waiting for her man. The idea of a roast in the oven was taking things a little too far, but it would really make a pleasant change to down-pedal a bit. He didn’t know how much experience she had of city life but he would bet that the closest she had ever come to it would have been on television. The simplicity of what she had to offer would be a breath of fresh air. Heck, he might even bring her up to London now and again, take her to a play or some such thing, open her eyes to the big, bad world out there.

The more Leo thought about it, the more he figured that he needed a restful relationship, at least for the time being. What could be more restful than an artist, someone in tune with Nature? And yet wrapped up in such a sexy package that just thinking of her sent his mind further south.

Add to that the fact that time spent with his mother and Daniel was infinitely easier when she was in the mix, and Leo was satisfied that he had done the right thing in accepting the cup of coffee that was even now going slightly tepid. He took a sip and made some inconsequential remark about her being right, that the complicated coffee-making machine really did live up to its spec.

At the same time, his eyes lingered over her flushed face tinged with pink, the full breasts…God, when he thought about touching them again—not just a schoolboy grope under a tee shirt, but stripping her of her clothes and lavishing them with his full, undivided attention—spending time, taking those rosebud nipples into his mouth and hearing her moan as he suckled on them…

‘I’m surprised we didn’t meet sooner.’ He tore himself away from his erotic, meandering thoughts.

‘Are you? Why?’

‘You live just round the corner, so to speak. I would have expected Katherine to have invited you up to the house for a meal.’

‘You mean on a weekend? When you happened to be down?’

Leo didn’t much care for the way she said that—when you happened to be down—but he let it go. He was in an extremely good mood now and he wasn’t going to jeopardise it over a dodgy tone of voice.

‘You weren’t down very often, though, were you? I mean, how often did you visit your mother before Daniel arrived?’

‘I have a lot of work commitments, as I think I’ve mentioned to you before,’ Leo said, standing up to pour himself another mug of coffee and then returning to the chair, angling it to one side so that he could stretch out his legs. He could think of better things to do than talking, now that their differences were settled, but since talking seemed to be on the agenda he might just as well make himself as comfortable as he could. ‘It’s always very difficult finding time. I’m abroad a lot. I’ve never been a nine to five kind of guy. Sure, some are content with that, but there’s no gain without pain.’ He shrugged. ‘That’s just the way it is.’

Heather knew that all too well. That kiss, that mistake that she had allowed to happen, had caught her off-balance, but she was back in control now. She had to be. She also had to explain to him why she had pushed him away, and not so much because she was a fair-minded creature who felt some deep need to justify her actions. Heck, she doubted Leo West had ever justified his actions to anybody on the face of the earth! If there was one man to whom she need never justify herself, it was him. No, she had to explain because she had to hear herself verbalise all the reasons why she would never, ever have anything to do with a man like him. She had started seeing little sides to him, and every small glimpse had lowered her defences, and that just wasn’t going to do.

It surprised her that he had taken rejection so well. In fact, she was astounded that he had actually agreed to come into the kitchen, have a cup of coffee and hear her out. She could only think that he must have the attitude of ‘win a few, lose a few’. Or maybe he was so unaccustomed to any form of rejection from a woman that he felt compelled to hear her explain her behaviour.

Heather had no real idea why he had made a pass at her in the first place. She wasn’t his type. She could only conclude that it was because he was a highly sexed male and he had tuned in to her unconscious fascination with him and interpreted that as availability. Available women were the curse of the wealthy man. He probably hadn’t even stopped to think that he might not be able to just reach out and take whatever he saw and happened to want at that particular point in time, like a kid in a sweet shop with too much pocket money to spend.

‘Why did you decide to send Daniel to school here?’ she asked, changing the subject, wanting him to confirm with every sentence why she had been crazy to allow him to creep between the chink in her armour. ‘I mean, why didn’t you keep him with you, in London? There must have been hundreds of schools you could have sent him to.’

Leo frowned. ‘Where are we going with all this?’

‘We’re having a conversation. Is there something wrong with that? I’m just expressing curiosity about the choices you made.’

‘I couldn’t have Daniel in London with me,’ Leo told her abruptly. ‘You have to understand that my life there is not tailored for the inclusion of a child.’

Heather was nodding. She could believe that one, all right.

‘Even if there had been a permanent au pair on tap, there would still have remained the question of my working hours. I’m out of the country fifty percent of the time. Empires don’t run themselves; they need a captain at the helm. I’m that captain, and I’m steering a vast ship. I have offices in New York, Madrid and China, to name but a few. There would have been no consistency and that wouldn’t have been fair to Daniel. I felt it far better that he settle in the country where he could have the benefit of my mother being permanently there for him.’

‘That sounds incredibly convenient for you.’

‘It made sense at the time.’ Leo fought down his impatience, which he knew would get him nowhere fast.

‘Did it make sense to Daniel?’

Leo’s eyes narrowed. ‘Maybe we could leave the question-and-answer session for another day?’

‘Is that because you just don’t fancy answering my questions because they make you feel uncomfortable?’

‘You’ve already shared your thoughts with me on my relationship with Daniel. Frankly, I don’t see the point of going over old ground.’ He sought to hang on to his good humour, to think of what lay ahead. ‘Today was a good day. The best day I’ve had with him since he came to England, in fact. Why analyse and dissect the past when it’s so much more worth-while to build on the present?’

‘Okay.’

Leo relaxed. This was more like it. Bit of a shame that they were separated by the width of the kitchen table. If they hadn’t been, he would have translated his relaxation into something a little more tangible, would have drawn her into him, seduced her with his mouth and his hands and smothered all her nagging concerns with his lips. Of course, she would have her nagging concerns. She had made those perfectly obvious the first time they had met, and they wouldn’t have evaporated just because it had been a successful day out. He strove to understand and make allowances for someone whose personality was so wildly different from his own.

She was an innocent, someone whose lack of life experiences had given her a childishly disingenuous outlook on life. It was both charming and disconcerting at the same time. Add to that the sort of bluntness that would send most men running a mile, and the combination was incendiary. Since he wasn’t most men, though, he felt well equipped to deal with her. In fact, it was all part and parcel of the package that was so irresistibly attractive. Those first signs of irritability vanished before the pleasing prospect of harnessing all that fire and making it his; a change from cool, intellectual, sophisticated power women was long overdue.

‘Good,’ he said with satisfaction. ‘So…where do we go from here? I suggest somewhere a bit more comfortable than the kitchen.’

Heather looked at him, at the lazy smile curving his lips, at the unspoken suggestion behind his fabulous eyes, and the vague questions she had asked herself were suddenly answered in an instant of comprehension.

Leo hadn’t politely taken rejection because he was indifferent, and he hadn’t accepted a cup of coffee because he was eaten up with curiosity to hear why she had pushed him away.

How could she have been foolish enough to think that? He just wasn’t built that way. He had accepted a cup of coffee because he had assumed it heralded her acquiescence, and he wouldn’t have been in the least surprised at that because he was so used to getting what he wanted.

‘Where do you have in mind?’ she asked with a shuttered expression.

‘Well…we could start in the sitting room and progress to the bedroom. Although, if you’re really stuck on staying here…’ He shot her a wolfish smile that made her stomach do a back flip and reminded her powerfully of why, exactly, he was so dangerous for her.

‘If we stay in here?’ she prompted. ‘What? A quick romp against the kitchen units?’

The smile dropped from Leo’s face. ‘Poor use of words.’