Living Together

‘I—I’ll go,’ Helen said huskily.

‘No!’ His hand shot out to grasp her ankle. ‘Join me,’ he invited throatily.

Helen gave him a shocked look, turning away again as she realised what she was doing. ‘I have to go,’ she insisted.

‘Of course you don’t. Take off that ridiculous trifle and join me. The bath is quite large enough for two,’ he added, seductively soft.

‘I’m sure it is,’ she said tightly, realising for the first time that the thin nightgown she wore was indeed a ‘ridiculous trifle’.

Leon’s mouth became a taut line. ‘You have a disgusting little mind,’ he accused angrily, his hand tightening about her ankle and rocking her off balance.

Water sprayed everywhere as she landed with a crash, the unexpectedness of his action completely surprising her. ‘What on earth did you do that for!’ she spluttered, glaring at him indignantly.

His look was grim. ‘Because of an accusation you didn’t dare to make,’ he snapped, holding her tightly against him. ‘Besides the fact that no woman has ever shared this apartment with me before, no other woman has ever been invited into this bath with me either. For a girl who’s supposed to be frightened of the mere mention of the word sex you have a very dirty little mind!’

‘I didn’t—’

‘Oh yes, you did. I’m sorry to disappoint you, Helen, but I knew by the dimensions of the bath that it would hold the two of us, not by previous experience.’ He stood up and got out of the bath, beginning to towel himself dry.

Helen followed him out, the nightgown she still wore clinging to her like a second skin, outlining every curve of her slender body and firm uptilted breasts. She dripped water everywhere, pulling at the clinging material only to feel it immediately fall back into place again.

‘Just look—’ She broke off her words of complaint as she found Leon was already looking at her, his gaze locked on her body. He was no longer towelling himself dry, the towel was discarded to the floor as he watched her with a fixed gaze, his breathing shallow, a curious stillness enveloping them both.

‘I think,’ he breathed the words slowly, ‘that you had better get back to your bedroom and lock the door—from that side.’

‘What—’

He closed his eyes as if in agony. ‘I can’t—You—Oh God!’ he groaned tortuously. ‘You’re beautiful, Helen, absolutely beautiful. Your body, it’s—’ he drew a ragged breath. ‘Are you going to your room?’ His eyes seemed to burn where they alighted.

She was mesmerised by him, held immovable by him. ‘I think I should.’

‘Well?’

‘I—I don’t seem to be able to move,’ she admitted.

‘You only have a few seconds left before you won’t have a choice,’ he told her through gritted teeth.

That snapped her out of her trance. ‘I’ll go!’

‘I thought you might,’ Leon drawled, pulling on a bathrobe.

Her mouth set mutinously as his derision. ‘Why should I go?’ she suddenly snapped. ‘You’ve had your bath, I still have to have mine. I think you should be the one to go.’

For long timeless seconds he continued to stare at her, then he began to smile. ‘You’re very brave all of a sudden, especially considering your vulnerability.’

Helen deliberately didn’t rise to his taunts. ‘I don’t consider myself in the least vulnerable. After all, you did say I would have to ask you for—for that.’

Leon’s smile deepened. ‘I could find plenty of pleasure in your body before I ever got to—that,’ he mocked her shyness.

Her cheeks flamed, but she still refused to move. ‘It’s almost six-fifteen,’ she said pointedly, ‘and you haven’t even had yo

ur breakfast yet.’

His gaze ran lingeringly over her from head to toe. ‘I was just contemplating it,’ he drawled.

‘You have a one-track mind,’ she told him crossly.

‘I know—you.’