One Night On The Virgin's Terms - Melanie Milburne Page 0,47

she have thought it would ever be enough?

CHAPTER EIGHT

LOUIS MET WITH a couple of clients in his Paris office, as well as catching up with two of the junior architects he was mentoring, but the whole time his thoughts kept drifting to Ivy. Just knowing she would be waiting at home for him made his body tingle in anticipation. He wished now he hadn’t promised to take her out to dinner. He would much prefer to have had a simple meal at home and make love to her for hours. He wanted this week to be special for her, a time she could look back on with pleasure instead of regret.

If anyone had told him a few days ago he would ask her to be with him for five days in Paris, he would have laughed out loud. But, ever since the Saturday morning when he’d woken to find her gone from his Cotswold house, he had been obsessed with spending more time with her. His work was taking a back seat when usually it was front and centre. His mind was full of images of her beautiful body, his desire for her a constant background ache that tortured him relentlessly.

But it wasn’t only the physical attraction that drew him to her. She was open emotionally, he was closed, and yet somehow he felt drawn to revealing more of himself to her. Telling her—telling anyone—about his childhood would have been unthinkable, even days ago. But revealing his pain over his mother’s breakdown had released a tight knot inside him. A knot that had formed when he’d been ten years old and never once eased its tension.

He had never been a fan of talk therapy—what words could ever undo things that had been done? Things he had witnessed and never wanted to see again? But somehow Ivy’s gentle empathy had soothed a raw ache in his heart, like a cooling salve does to a scalding burn. His body was hungry for her touch in a way it had never been for anyone else’s.

There was a corner of his mind that raised a red flag. One day someone else’s touch would have to satisfy him because he wasn’t prepared to risk falling in love with her. His parents had once been in love, madly in love, yet they had done nothing more than make each other miserable since.

He couldn’t bear the thought of Ivy one day looking at him or speaking to him the way his mother did to his father. So few long-term relationships lasted the distance with both parties happy and contented. Why would he think he and Ivy had a chance? He had never been good at romantic relationships. He got bored so quickly. Desire flared and then just as quickly faded.

But so far it hadn’t faded with Ivy. In fact, it was flaring and flashing and firing all the time. He only had to stand next to her for his blood to pound. He only had to touch her and his senses went wild. He only had to kiss her for a tsunami of lust to blast through him.

Louis walked back to his apartment and stopped on the way to buy flowers and some chocolates from a specialty chocolatier. But then he walked past a jewellery store and found himself turning back to have a look in the window. Sparkling diamonds, midnight-blue sapphires, blood-red rubies, forest-green emeralds and milky-white pearls were displayed in a glorious array.

And then his eye caught sight of a rare pink Argyle diamond from the Kimberley region of Australia. The pink hue reminded him of Ivy’s cheeks when she blushed.

You’re thinking of buying her jewellery? A diamond? Seriously?

Louis ignored the voice in his head and listened to the one in his heart. It was her thirtieth birthday soon and he wanted to buy something special for her. It was an early birthday gift. Nothing else.

When Ivy got back to Louis’ apartment, she expected to find her luggage in one of the spare bedrooms but instead found it in the master suite. Did that mean he intended to spend the whole night with her? Or maybe it was because he didn’t trust her to disappear again without saying goodbye.

She opened her bag and began unpacking her things, feeling a little awkward about hanging her clothes next to his in the walk-in wardrobe. But she didn’t want to drape her clothes over the back of a chair or dressing table and, as they would be in