Master of Her Virtue - By Miranda Lee Page 0,48

‘They’ve been plaguing me ever since that night. None of them matter any more. I have to be with you again, Violet, or I’m going to go stark, raving mad. I don’t give a damn about the age difference, or even the distance difference. Do you have a passport?’

‘No. But I can get one.’

‘How quickly?’

‘I don’t know.’

‘If Australia is anything like England, then it will take weeks. Not that it matters. I’m tied up for three whole months shooting this damned film. Nothing I can do about it now. I’m locked in.’

‘I suppose I could fly over there,’ Violet said, despite not being too keen to get on a plane again so soon. ‘Though Lord knows what I would tell Henry. I’m not due any more holidays till the end of the year. He wouldn’t mind if I took off a day or two but it takes nearly a day to fly to London.’

‘Tell me about it! Look, I can bear the frustration if I know I’m going to be with you eventually. How about Easter? I’ll be finished the film by then. Could you take off a couple of extra days around then? I’d really like to show you Paris. It’s lovely there in the spring. Still a little cold, but if it’s too cold we’ll just stay in bed. What do you think?’

All the air had been punched from Violet’s lungs at the thought of their not getting out of bed.

‘I think,’ she said carefully, ‘that I would love to see Paris in the spring.’

‘Great. I’ll organise everything from this end. You won’t have to pay for a thing. All you have to do is get a passport.’

‘I’ll get onto it straight away.’

‘Fantastic! You’ve no idea how better I feel now. It was driving me crazy, the way I was feeling. I haven’t felt like this since... Well, since I was horny teenager.’

Violet didn’t like it that it was just male hormones driving Leo. But that didn’t mean she was going to make any kind of fuss. No way would she risk spoiling the chance of being with him again. If she was honest with herself, she was as much in lust with him as she was in love. She could not wait to be in bed with him again, to feel his naked body pressing against her and into her. She longed to touch him all over, kiss him all over.

And vice versa. That was one of the things he’d done to her that night that she’d adored. She shivered at the thought of his mouth down there, and of where he would want her mouth. She swallowed convulsively as a wave of heat flooded her body.

Thank heavens Leo couldn’t see her. Violet knew that the worst thing she could do with Leo was betray the depth of her feelings.

‘I’ve embarrassed you,’ he said ruefully when she didn’t say anything.

‘No, no,’ she insisted. ‘I’m just...surprised. I mean, I would imagine you could have just about any woman in England.’

‘That’s very flattering of you to say so, but I don’t want any woman in England. I want you.’

‘But why?’ Violet asked, genuinely perplexed by his passion for her. ‘Why do you want me?’

‘Perhaps it’s because you would actually ask a question like that.’

‘That makes me sound stupid.’

‘In that case, I expressed myself badly. Because you’re as far removed from stupid as a girl could be. You’re very intelligent, Violet. I love talking to you. At the same time you have what I would call an untainted character, which I find irresistibly charming. I love it that you are unguarded in your opinions. I also love it that you haven’t slept around.’

‘You mean my being a virgin turned you on?’ Violet wasn’t sure if she liked that thought.

‘Again, I have expressed myself badly. I just meant I’ve grown tired of being with women who’ve been putting it out there for so long and with so many men that there’s nothing left for them to discover. No new pleasure. No new experience.

‘And, yes, before you accuse me of double standards, I’m guilty of the same. At forty years of age there isn’t much that I haven’t done, sexually speaking. I’ve become jaded with the whole scene. To be frank, in the past year sex was just something I did to relax. When I’m with you, however, it’s nothing like that. It’s incredible, Violet. You’re incredible.’

Violet flushed at his flattering words. At the same time, she refused to let his compliments