Master of Her Virtue - By Miranda Lee Page 0,36

the natural lushness of her breasts and the peach-like curves of her bottom. But it wasn’t just her shape which entranced him. It was the girl herself. She had such character, and such amazing passion.

Despite having been a virgin, there’d been nothing virginal in the way Violet had responded to him. She’d been with him all the way, and then some. The way she’d moved. And moaned. It turned him on, just thinking about how it had felt being inside her. Her body had been so tight and wet and hot. As for when she’d come... The contractions of her climax had sucked him dry.

Or so he’d thought at the time.

Leo winced as he looked down at himself. Difficult to think straight with a hard-on like that. Time for a cold shower, he decided, and stood up abruptly. Time to bring some common sense—not to mention conscience—into this situation!

* * *

Violet woke to find her lower half covered by a sheet and a dressed Leo sitting at the desk in the corner, sipping what she presumed was coffee.

‘Sleeping beauty awakes at last,’ he said. ‘Can I get you some coffee?’

She sat up, clutching the sheet up over her breasts.

‘What time is it?’

‘Nine-thirty. If you hurry we could catch the second half of the show.’

‘You want to go to the show now?’ she asked, disbelief and dismay in her voice.

Leo sighed, then stood up. ‘No, of course I don’t want to go to the show. But I think it would be for the best. If we stay here, I’ll do things that I’ll regret. You will too.’

‘No I won’t,’ she insisted fiercely. ‘I won’t regret a second of anything I do with you!’

‘Trust me, Violet. Now, be a good girl and go get yourself dressed.’

Violet could not believe that he meant what he was saying. What was there for her to regret?

‘You’re afraid I’ll fall in love with you,’ she said with sudden inspiration.

The look in his eyes showed her that she was right.

‘It’s easy to mistake lust for love, Violet, especially when you’re young.’

‘I’m not that young,’ she argued. ‘I’m twenty-five!’

‘You’re still young when it comes to sexual experience.’

‘Only because I chose to be that way. Now I choose not to be. Tonight. Here. With you. As for my falling in love with you, why would that be so terrible?’

‘You know why, Violet. You’re not stupid. I’m a twice-married forty-year-old man who has no intention of ever getting married again. You are a twenty-five-year-old girl who no doubt sees marriage and children in her future. I do not wish to return to London tomorrow thinking that I’ve broken your heart.’

‘My heart’s a lot tougher than that, Leo. I’m a lot tougher than that. Please, Leo, I don’t want to get dressed and go to that show. I want to stay here with you. I want you to make love to me some more.’

‘See? You’re already using words like “make love”. I didn’t make love to you tonight, Violet, I had sex with you. There was no love involved, I can assure you.’

Violet only just managed to stop herself from gasping with shock at his bluntness. Instead, she took a couple of slow, steadying breaths. ‘I never for one moment imagined there was,’ she said at last with creditable calm. ‘Like you said, I’m not stupid. I know the score here, Leo. I know it was just sex. But it was still incredible, wasn’t it? I’d be a fool if I didn’t want more.’

Leo scowled. ‘You really are making things difficult for me.’

‘I don’t see why. I’m not asking for love and marriage, just one night of love-making. Whoops—sorry. Wrong terminology. One night of sex.’

Leo clanked the coffee mug on the desk and paced up and down at the foot of the bed before stopping to glare over at her with an exasperated expression on his handsome face. ‘We can’t stay here the whole night, Violet. Just a couple more hours.’

‘I could stay longer than that,’ she pointed out with a boldness which should have shocked her but didn’t. ‘Joy won’t have a clue what time I get home, as long as I’m there for breakfast. She takes a sleeping tablet every night.’

‘Well, Henry doesn’t take a sleeping tablet,’ Leo ground out. ‘The infernal man’s an insomniac at the best of times. What am I going to tell him when I rock up at his place in the early hours of the morning? He’ll have my guts for garters if he