The Mistress Purchase (12 page)

Eagerly Sadie opened her legs and wrapped them around him, gasping with pleasure as she felt the first thrust of him within her, urging him to move faster and deeper as she clung to him, offering the full pleasure of her body.

The water around them was pounding against the side of the pool in increasingly fast waves, but Sadie wasn't aware of the movement of the water, only the rhythm of their bodies as they rocked together in frantic, desperate need. She could feel the tight circling of her orgasm beginning, her stomach and her thighs tensing as she reached for it, crying out her pleas and praise to Leon.

She could see the rictus mask of his face above her as he drove harder and deeper into her eager flesh. Voluptuously it tightened around him, increasing the intensity of their pleasure.

‘Yes…Yes!' she moaned. ‘Yes. Just like that, Leon…just like that…Mmm…yes. Just—'

The broken sob of her voice was suspended as her whole body tensed and then exploded in a fierce succession of rhythmic contractions.

She could feel the hot surge of Leon's own release pulsing into the warm darkness of her body.

Release, bliss…peace…

She could feel how much she was shaking as she clung to Leon, knowing she was not actually capable of standing on her own two feet.

She felt his lips brush against the dampness of her face.

‘Tears?' he whispered. ‘I hope they are tears of pleasure?'

‘Do you need to ask?' Sadie challenged huskily.

He lifted her out of the water and put her on the side of the pool. Still trembling in the aftermath of her orgasm, she watched as he hauled himself out.

‘Stay there,' he ordered her gently.

Dreamily she watched as he went and picked up her discarded robe, returning with it and wrapping her in it.

‘Time for bed,' he told her softly, and then he swung her up into his arms and carried her inside.

‘B
UT
this is your bedroom,' Sadie whispered, after he had pushed open the door and carried her over to the bed.

‘So it is!' Leon agreed softly. ‘Where else did you think you were going to spend the night? Unless, of course, you'd prefer to sleep alone?'

Bravely Sadie met the look he was giving her head-on. No way was she going to pretend that what had just happened between them meant nothing to her, had simply been a mere sexual indulgence.

‘I want to sleep with you,' she told him huskily.

‘And I certainly want to sleep with you,' Leon told her back, only just managing to restrain himself from adding
for the rest of my life.

He hadn't been able to believe what was happening when she had come to him in the pool. Just thinking about it now made his body start to harden again.

‘I need a shower,' Sadie whispered. ‘The pool water…'

‘I need one too,' Leon replied, giving her a smokily sensual look as he leaned down towards her and grasped her hand, pulling her gently to her feet and informing her, ‘The bathroom's this way, and the shower is plenty big enough for two.'

Sadie knew that he had felt the small quiver of excitement that ran through her body because he turned to look at her, his gaze fastening on her mouth and then dropping very deliberately to her breasts, where her nipples were flaunting their arousal.

He was right about the shower, she noted as she
stepped into the bathroom. The owners of the
mas
had obviously spared no expense in equipping this room. It was larger than her own, with a separate wet area which housed a purpose-built shower.

The water in the pool had left her skin feeling slightly tight and dry, and it was bliss to step into the shower and feel the body-height jets pumping warm, clean water against her skin.

‘Want me to do your back for you?'

There was a look in Leon's eyes that made her whole body tingle with excitement. The shower was designed so that it was perfectly possible to wash one's own back, but Sadie had no intention of pointing this fact out to Leon…

She nodded her head and turned her back to him.

The silky-soft feel of the expensive body mousse Leon was massaging into her skin made her sigh in appreciative pleasure. The resultant foam slipped down her legs and floated on the tiles. His hands were moving lower now…beyond her waist. Sadie held her breath and closed her eyes. Her whole body was quivering with expectation and longing. Now that it knew the pleasure Leon would give it, it wanted him all the more.

His fingertips brushed the front of her thigh, and the soft quiver became an involuntary and uncontrollable convulsive shudder. She could feel Leon's lips nuzzling the back of her neck, just below her ear. His hands moved with aching slowness up over the front of her body towards her breasts.

With a small moan Sadie pressed back against him.

‘What is it?' he murmured against the ear. ‘Do you want me to stop?'

His hands were doing incredible things to her breasts, making her ache for the feel of his mouth against her
tight, eager nipples. But Leon did not seem to share her own surging urgency. Instead he continued to stroke and caress her, nibbling little kisses against her neck, sliding his hands over her soap-slicked body. His touch was arousing her to such a frantic pitch that she moaned sharply in frustration and opened her legs, mentally begging him to touch her intimately.

‘What is it?' he asked again softly, when her ecstatic writhings wouldn't be stilled. ‘What do you want?'

‘You know,' Sadie moaned, desperate to grab hold of his hand and place it against her body, but unable to do so because of the way he was still stroking her.

‘Tell me,' Leon urged huskily. ‘Tell me what you want me to do, Sadie. Show me how you want me to touch you…how you want me to love you…Is it this you want?' he asked warmly as his hand caressed the curve of her hip and slid down over her belly before cupping her sex.

Sadie gasped as she felt the impatient swell of her body, too wrought up to be able to tell Leon what was happening to her. But somehow he knew, she realised, because he turned her round and stared down into her wild open eyes as his fingers answered the urgent need of her body and the fierce, tight explosion of her orgasm brought her into trembling release.

 

Sadie was awake, but she did not want to open her eyes just in case it had all been only a dream and Leon wasn't actually in bed beside her after all. She knew it must be morning, even with her eyes closed. Somehow she could feel the brightness of the day through her eyelids. If Leon wasn't there…

Cautiously she moved her body, still heavy and soft with satisfaction and love.

Love! Her heart turned over inside her chest. She loved Leon so much…Just the thought of him was enough to—

She stiffened abruptly as the restless movements of her body brought her into contact with warm male flesh. It had happened! She hadn't just imagined it! Leon was here!

Bubbles of joy and excitement fizzed through her blood. With her eyes still closed Sadie nestled closer to him, fitting her body into the curve of his. She could smell the warm, musky scent of him—and it was more aphrodisiacal than any man-made perfume. The soft hair on his chest was tickling her nose. Tenderly she rubbed her lips against his skin, delighting in the secret stolen pleasure of being able to do so whilst he was still asleep. Smiling to herself, she stroked her fingertip lazily along his arm, so different from her own, all powerful muscles and sinews.

Against her body she could feel his stirring. A female shiver of pleasure slowly caressed her own body.

Snuggling further down his body, she teased her tongue-tip around his navel, her hand reaching out to touch and then hold him. It was an extraordinarily sensual and tender thing to feel him growing within her hold, at once both vulnerable and powerful.

Experimentally she started to caress him, enjoying his body's response to her and rewarding it with a soft kiss.

This was an intimacy she hadn't imagined she would ever want to experience, but suddenly she knew just how much she did. The brief touch of her lips became a more intimate and sensual exploration.

‘Enjoying yourself?'

The low, groaned words shocked through her. Lifting her head, she turned to look up at Leon. She had been
so lost in the enjoyment of what she was doing that she hadn't even realised he was awake.

‘I…'

‘I certainly was,' he told her thickly, his voice soft with pleasure, ‘so don't let me stop you…'

 

‘What time will they be bringing the replacement hire car?' Sadie asked Leon drowsily as she responded to the slow drift of his hands on her body.

They had made love, and then slept, and now Leon was caressing her again.

‘Soon,' he told her wryly, removing his hand with obvious reluctance. ‘I suppose we'd better make a move.'

There was a note in his voice that made Sadie look enquiringly at him.

‘I swore that there was no way I was going to let this happen,' he told her ruefully.

‘But you wanted it to?' Sadie questioned him.

‘Do you really need to ask?' Leon responded, his voice wry with self-mockery.

 

Leon's mobile rang as he walked into his hotel room several hours later. He'd just left Sadie at her own room.

‘Brad.' He smiled as he recognised the voice of his godfather, the company's and his own solicitor. ‘I was going to ring you later, to give you an update on what's happening with the Francine acquisition. Yes, I know things are taking longer than we originally expected,' Leon agreed, still smiling. ‘There's been a bit of a complication with the junior shareholder, made more difficult by the fact that she almost backed out of the deal.'

Briefly Leon explained to his godfather exactly what had happened. His smile turned to a frown as he heard Brad asking worriedly, ‘What do you mean? We aren't
talking about the woman we saw at the trade fair, are we, Leon? Because she looked to me…' He took a pause, and then went on even more worriedly, ‘Your father almost lost the business and the shirt off his back, thanks to a conniving, lying woman, Leon, and by the sounds of it you're in danger of having the same thing happen to you!'

‘Brad, Sadie isn't like that,' Leon stopped him curtly.

‘How can you know that, Leon? You've already said that she's causing problems.'

‘Brad, Sadie is not another Miranda.'

‘You can't be sure of that, Leon. You're carrying a mighty heavy responsibility on your shoulders—we both know that! Hell, you're a man, Leon, and only human. I understand that. But if you're wrong, you don't need me to tell you how much damage that could do to the business.'

‘You worry too much, Brad,' Leon told his godfather affectionately before ending the call, but his frown deepened as he walked over to the window. No matter what his personal feelings for Sadie were, he could not afford to do anything that might put the business at risk.

Sadie was not another Miranda Stanton. He was sure of it. But what if he was wrong? Whatever risks he was prepared to take with his own emotions, he was not prepared to take any with the financial security of the business.

Miranda Stanton!

He had been fourteen, and still mourning his grandmother, when to everyone's shock his father's business partner had died of a heart attack.

Andy and his father had been at school together, and even though the business had originally been Leon's father's idea, he had generously offered Andy a share in it.
They had started out with nothing, but by the time Leon was thirteen the business was beginning to do very well.

And then Andy had got married—to a much younger woman—who none of them had liked.

‘If a woman has gold-digger written all over her then that woman is Miranda!' Leon could remember his mother sighing.

Leon could also remember his father coming home one night and telling his mother that he had to go and see the bank. Andy was in a bit of a financial mess, due to Miranda's insistence on an expensive lifestyle, and had asked Leon's father to buy him out of their business.

Generously, because of Andy's desperation, Leon's father had given him the money before the legal documents confirming the buy-out had been signed. A week later, whilst on holiday with Miranda, Andy had had a heart attack and died. And a week after that Miranda had informed Leon's father that she wanted and intended to have the full cash value of Andy's half-share in the business.

It had been useless for Leon's father to protest that Andy had already had the money, and she had known about it. She had pointed out that Leon's father had no legal documentation to prove it.

Leon's father had not given up easily. The matter had even gone to court. But of course legally there had been no proof.

In order to buy her out and meet his legal costs Leon's father had had to mortgage the business up to the hilt, and sell the family home. The family had gone from living in comfort to living from hand to mouth. His parents' smiling faces had become pinched and strained.

Leon had hated Miranda for what she had done to his family. He had vowed then and there that what had hap
pened to his father would never happen to him! And now here was Brad, suggesting that Sadie was potentially another Miranda!

It wasn't true, of course, Leon assured himself. That stubbornness she displayed was defensive rather than manipulative. But a cautionary inner voice reminded him sharply that she had hinted to him about wanting the Grasse property. And there had been all that fuss she had made, both about the Myrrh formula and the creation of a new scent. He had believed her motives to be genuine, if somewhat idealistic and simplistic, but if he was wrong…

It was hardly unknown for an acquisitive woman to use sex to get what she wanted.

Sadie wasn't like that, though!

His intimacy with her was interfering with his analytical abilities as well as potentially threatening to screw up the deal and his life, Leon admitted grimly.

‘Face it,' he told himself brutally. ‘You've got yourself in way too deep.'

Way, way too deep, he realised.

The best thing he could do right now, he conceded reluctantly, in fact the only thing he could do right now, was to back off and put some space between himself and Sadie.

When the deal had gone through tomorrow, once he had Francine and the Myrrh formula and had fulfilled his duty to the business, then things would be different.

On their way back from the
mas
, he and Sadie had talked briefly about the takeover.

‘The legal side of things is pretty well sorted out,' Leon had explained. ‘You, Raoul and I sign the papers tomorrow, but first I've told my people to organise an immediate press conference to announce the takeover. It
will put an end to all the speculation and gossip that's been going on. I want you to be there, of course, as you're a big part of what will be happening. I'll be making an announcement to the effect that you're going to be working on a new scent under the Francine name, and that we are going to reintroduce a modern version of Mrryh. Unfortunately, virtually as soon as that the press conference is over, I'm going to have to fly back to Australia, via Italy. I've got to see the new designer we're taking on to head the fashion division.'