Master of Her Virtue - By Miranda Lee Page 0,26

gave them excellent service.

‘Try the wine,’ Leo said once they were alone. ‘Tell me what you think of it.’ Despite still dying to know what had happened to Violet, he’d decided to back off for a short while, to give her time to relax.

Violet lifted the glass to her lips and took a small sip.

‘It’s...very nice,’ she said, then took another sip, her eyes meeting his across the table.

They were lovely eyes, dark, velvety and soft. The sort of eyes a man could drown in whilst making love to her.

After another sip, she lowered the glass back to the table, her eyes never leaving his. ‘I never said I was turned off the opposite sex.’

Her unexpected statement was both intriguing and perplexing. ‘Then what was the problem?’

She stared at him for a long moment then sighed. ‘I have to go back a long way. To just before I turned thirteen.’

‘Fine,’ Leo said, adding, ‘go on,’ when she hesitated again.

‘The thing is...when I went into puberty, I developed the most dreadful case of cystic acne.’

Leo could not contain his surprise. ‘But you have such beautiful skin now!’ he exclaimed. In truth, her complexion was one of her best features. Not only clear but porcelain-like.

‘Yes, well, that wasn’t always the case, believe me,’ Violet said ruefully. ‘All the years I was in high school, I looked truly appalling. You’ve no idea how much I hated going to school.’

Leo’s heart went out to Violet as she told him haltingly of the bullying she’d endured because of her bad skin and what she’d done to cope, explaining about her pink prison and the books which had sustained her soul, even when it had been close to disintegration.

Witnessing her distress just at recalling those times made Leo realise how lucky he’d been to go through his teenage years without any such problems. Not only had Violet had to tolerate years of very nasty pimples but she’d also been left with scars, not just to her face but to her self-esteem. Which was why she’d turned to food for comfort, adding the extra physical problem of being overweight.

Leo understood full well how being even a little overweight affected a female’s confidence. Being in the show-business world had made him more sensitive to the plight of the modern woman where her weight was concerned. He personally didn’t mind girls with a few added pounds, but society in the twenty-first century dictated that thin was in.

He could see that Violet would have felt terrible whenever she’d looked at herself in the mirror. No wonder she’d stayed at home in her room all the time. She would not have felt like going out to friends’ houses or parties, even if she’d been invited. Which she obviously hadn’t been. She hadn’t even gone to her own graduation ball, pretending that she was ill and couldn’t go.

Just as well she’d been able to escape into the fantasy world of those historical romances she loved to read or she might have done something really silly. And just as well that that counsellor had taken her to the right doctor and that great-aunt of hers had left her some money. As it was, she’d still lost the best years of her life. High school should have been fun, not torture.

‘But surely things got better once you went to uni?’ he said after she finished telling him about her school years.

‘Not much, I’m afraid. My skin was improving but I was still overweight. My self-esteem was zilch, as was my confidence in social situations. I didn’t have a clue how to dress or how to act. Being around the other students terrified me. The boys, especially. I still felt ugly, even when the mirror told me I wasn’t. It was safer to just keep to myself.’

Leo shook his head from side to side. ‘That’s so sad, Violet.’

Violet sighed. ‘Looking back, I can see it was mostly my own silly fault. It was easier to hide away in my shell than make an effort to change. Even when I lost weight and went to work for Henry, I clung to my introverted, anti-social attitude. Which answers your question about why I don’t have a boyfriend—why I’ve never had a boyfriend,’ she added, her eyes falling away from his.

Leo took a second or two to realise that Violet’s never having had a boyfriend meant she’d never had sex. Suddenly, his wayward flesh, which had calmed somewhat during her sorry tale, stirred again with a vengeance. How