Master of Her Virtue - By Miranda Lee Page 0,44

have told her just to email him. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. The truth was, he liked talking to her, almost as much as he liked sleeping with her.

Violet’s heart turned over. Never in her wildest dreams had she thought today would end up with her feeling so happy.

‘I think it’s better if you ring me,’ she said, carefully keeping her voice businesslike. ‘Sending emails back and forth can sometimes take longer than one simple call.’ Not that she intended to let him get away with one call. Between now and then she’d think of reasons why he should ring her again. And again.

‘Right. How about Sunday evening?’ Leo suggested. ‘Around nine your time? That’s mid-morning in London. Would you be free to talk around then?’

Violet would have been free if he’d said three in the morning.

‘Yes,’ she said. ‘That’ll be fine.’

‘Till next Sunday, then. Have to go, Violet. I promised to give Henry a call before I boarded and I’m running out of time. Bye.’

‘Bye,’ she replied. But he’d already hung up.

Violet sat there for a long moment, still somewhat stunned by this turn of events. By the time she’d left Joy’s to come shopping today, she’d resigned herself to the reality that her one-night fling with Leo was a thing of the past, with no possibility of seconds. She’d certainly never envisaged any further communication between them, other than a brief goodbye call from Leo. Even that she hadn’t been bargaining on.

But he’d not only rung, he’d chatted away to her at length, encouraging her to travel, to spread her wings, like Joy had said. Okay, so Violet wasn’t altogether thrilled that Leo was virtually encouraging her to sleep with other men. But she refused to worry about that. Her main goal was keeping the lines of communication open with him. Already she was planning how she was going to do that. Planning other things as well.

When was Wimbledon, exactly? She wasn’t positive but she thought during the European summer. A perfect time for a holiday in London, plus the opportunity to show Leo just how widely she could spread her wings!

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

THE FIRST THING that struck Leo when he let himself into his townhouse was how damned cold it was. And how empty. Staying with Henry over Christmas had spoiled him. So had Sydney’s glorious weather.

But it wasn’t the memories of Henry’s good company, or the warm, sun-filled days, which filled his mind as he switched on the ducted air-conditioning. All he could think about, all he’d thought about during the rather tedious flight home, was Violet.

Why, he wondered as he carried his luggage upstairs, did she fascinate him so? It wasn’t just because she was young and beautiful. Since his divorce from Helene, he’d met lots of young, beautiful women. None of them had ever captured his interest the way Violet had. Of course, Violet was nothing like those girls when it came to her character. She wasn’t brash, ruthlessly ambitious or tough as nails. She was sweet, soft and genuinely nice.

Leo had to admit that all those rather old-fashioned qualities appealed to his somewhat world-weary self. He could understand why he liked her so much. What bothered him was why he’d lusted after her to the degree he had. And still did.

Leo rejected the idea that it was Violet’s virginity which had turned him on so. He’d been turned on by her well before he’d known she was pure as the driven snow. On top of that, he’d never been enamoured with the fantasy of taking a young girl’s virginity. If anything, her being a virgin had worried the life out of him. He’d been scared, not just of hurting her emotionally but physically. Thankfully, he hadn’t on either score.

Leo heaved a hugely disgruntled sigh as he dumped his luggage at the foot of his bed then headed for his study. A wicked temptation, he’d called her. She was still that. Maybe even more so now. His lust for her hadn’t abated at all. Continuing contact with Violet—even verbal contact—was hardly designed to eradicate that lust, or to make temptation go away.

He shouldn’t have said he would send her that screenplay. He certainly shouldn’t have said he would ring her. But it was a done deal now. And in truth he did have some concerns about the darned thing. Leo knew from experience that it was easy to become blind to the minor flaws of a screenplay once you were sold on