Master of Her Virtue - By Miranda Lee Page 0,25

in the little black dress she was almost wearing. Not only was the hemline boldly short, the V neckline was provocatively low, giving him another eyeful of her amazingly lush breasts.

Her dark hair was done in a more sophisticated style than the other night’s bob, with a few sexy strands kissing her cheeks. She smelt gorgeous too, a tantalisingly musky perfume emanating from her skin as she sat down in the chair opposite.

‘Sorry I’m a little late,’ she said somewhat breathlessly. ‘The traffic was simply dreadful. How did you manage to get here so early?’

‘I heeded your warning and left extra early. But you’re hardly late. Only a minute or two. So, what would you like to drink?’ he asked, aware that the waiter was hovering.

‘Not champagne,’ she replied rather quickly. ‘Just a glass of wine, perhaps. White. Not too sweet.’

‘Bring us a bottle of your best Sauvignon Blanc,’ Leo ordered the waiter. ‘I’ll leave the choice up to you.’

Violet frowned when the waiter hurried away, looking rather pleased. ‘You do realise he’ll bring you the most expensive bottle in their cellar?’

Leo hid his amusement behind a poker face but, truly, she was unique. Didn’t she know how wealthy he was? Most women would have made it their business to know, or to find out. There again, she wasn’t anything like most women. Of course, she wasn’t really a woman. Just a girl, a young, naive girl whom he wanted to take to bed more than any girl he’d ever met.

‘I hope so,’ he said. ‘Because the most expensive wine is usually the best. You only get what you pay for, you know, Violet.’

‘I wouldn’t know,’ she refuted. ‘Joy and I only ever drink the house wine when we go out to dinner.’

Leo mulled over this statement. It sounded like the only outings she had was with her elderly landlady. If that were true, then it was a sad state of affairs. He wondered again about what had happened in Violet’s past to turn her off men and dating. Till now, that was. Since he was destined to spend the evening with her anyway, Leo decided it was the perfect time to find out.

‘You have no excuse this time, Violet,’ he began, using Henry’s technique of teasing rather than revealing.

Her long black eyelashes fluttered as she blinked in confusion. ‘No excuse for what?’

‘For not telling me what happened to you in the past to turn you off the opposite sex. After all, we have close to two hours before the show starts. More than enough time, no matter how long your story is.’

She frowned again, clearly not happy with his probing her past. But Leo was not going to let the matter go, his curiosity was even more piqued this time.

‘Come now, Violet,’ he said in his most persuasive voice, that same voice which he used to positive effect on the people he wanted to invest in his film projects. ‘You can’t honestly expect me to fly back to England tomorrow still ignorant about why you’ve gone this long without a boyfriend? Just look at you tonight. You’re absolutely gorgeous. It simply doesn’t make sense.’

She flushed, gnawing at her bottom lip as she looked away and down. When she finally glanced back up at him, her eyes were still unhappy.

Now he wasn’t curious so much as concerned. She’d denied being attacked. But something seriously bad must have happened to her at some stage, something which she hated talking about.

Suddenly, Leo felt guilty for having pushed the issue. ‘You don’t have to tell me if you really don’t want to. But sometimes it’s good to talk about things,’ he added gently. ‘Women tell me I’m a good listener.’

The waiter came with the wine just then. Leo was impatient as he went through the tasting routine before approving the wine which was, indeed, very good. From Western Australia, he noted.

‘Perhaps we should order our meals,’ he said to the waiter, again somewhat impatiently. ‘We’re going to a show which starts at eight and don’t want to hurry our food.’

The waiter handed them menus, after which he explained the chef’s specials for the night. Violet said that she didn’t want an entree, preferring to have a main and dessert. Leo didn’t care, so he said he’d do the same.

Violet was thankfully quick to decide on her meal—salt-and-pepper calamari. Leo ordered the same, along with a plate of herbed bread. The waiter took off at some speed, perhaps seeing a good tip if he