The Mistress Purchase (14 page)

Leon froze. Suddenly he was fourteen again, witnessing the argument between his father and Miranda. ‘Morally?' She had laughed mockingly. ‘Legally, you have nothing! Now legally
he
had nothing. There was no witness to her verbal agreement, no contract, no Myrrh and no Sadie.

Anger, despair and the sharpest pain he had ever known roiled inside him.

‘My God, Brad was right to warn me. You are another Miranda Stanton,' he burst out, white-faced.

His words barely registered in Sadie's consciousness. Suddenly she was sick to her stomach as a horrible thought hit her. Had Leon taken her to bed in a cold-blooded attempt to soften her up? Had he ultimately intended to persuade her to create a wholly synthetic perfume?

Torn apart by her pain, she told him emptily, ‘I will never, ever create a synthetic perfume, Leon. Never!'

Without waiting for his reply she turned and walked unsteadily out of the room.

Leon stared after Sadie's departing back and tried to fight down his own emotions. Suddenly he had the most intense longing to go after her and stop her—tell her…Tell her what? That he was afraid he might love her? Tell her about Miranda Stanton and that he dreaded that she might be just like her? That he was afraid she might somehow tempt him into putting his love for her before his responsibility towards the business? That he was terrified that if he touched her now he would tell her she could create her damned perfume out of the stars in the sky and he would drag them down out of it for her if only she would tell him she loved him back?

Oh, Kevin would love that!

He needed a straitjacket!

He needed…

Leon gave a groan as his memory provided him with a very detailed and illuminating image of just exactly what he
did
need. That was Sadie, soft, warm, naked, willing and loving in his arms—whispering to him, kissing him, holding him, telling him things that would send him plain crazy and then putting those words into actions, sweet, hot, sexy promises of intimate pleasure that…

Leon ground his teeth in savage frustration. Without Sadie and the Myrrh formula Francine was doomed to failure. And if it failed it would cost his group of companies millions of pounds and a public loss of face from which there could be no recovery.

His own position and his own fortune were unassailable, but Leon was all too aware of the vulnerability of those who had invested in his companies and in him. He had a moral obligation to his shareholders that he had to put ahead of his own feelings.

G
RIMLY
Leon put down his mobile. He had been trying to get in touch with Raoul for the last four days—ever since he had returned to Sydney, in fact—but there was just no answer either to his calls or his e-mails.

From the modern offices of Stapinopolous Inc. Leon could look down onto the harbour, but the fabulous view before him could not hold his attention today.

‘Could I have a word, Leon?'

Blanking his thoughts, Leon shot Kevin Linton an assessing look.

‘Not if you want to regurgitate everything we've already discussed, Kev,' he answered calmly.

‘Hell, Leon. You're talking to me as though we're on opposite sides of the fence! No one has the interest of this corporation at heart more than me; you know that!'

‘I also know, Kev, that so far you've tried to block just about every expansion programme we've adopted, and—'

‘Leon, we're an Aussie business and, yeah, I think we should stay that way. All this tomfoolery about buying into stuff in Europe. I just don't get it.'

‘We live in a shrinking world, Kev. From a TV programme beamed out across it, viewers can see and want a thousand products—that's a fact I don't need to prove. We're already well-established in the market, but if we are to expand…'

‘Leon, I know what you're saying—but to buy a run-down perfume business…' Kevin shook his head. ‘It
seems to me that you've made a real error or judgement—especially when we take into account the fact that the deal hasn't gone through yet, and all on account of this woman!'

‘The deal will go through,' Leon told him tersely. ‘And “this woman” as you call her is—' Leon stopped, his heart doing a slow, painful somersault. This woman was
his
woman. And she had got so far inside his head and his heart that he could barely function without her.

‘Well, it's your reputation that's lying on the line, Leon, not mine. But I have to tell you there's no way I will agree to being held to ransom and having to pay out good money for something we could damn well hire a chemist to make for us for peanuts.'

Somehow Leon managed to hold on to his temper. He had made it perfectly clear to Kevin why they were buying Francine and right now he was in no mood for Kevin's favourite kind of power-game-playing.

‘And this woman—the one who's causing us all this trouble. Honestly, Leon, she sounds like a real bitch from hell.'

‘Sadie is no such thing!'

Leon had spoken before he could stop himself, leaping immediately and instinctively to Sadie's defence in a way that shocked him just as much as it had obviously surprised his co-director.

Why was he so bent on defending a woman who had caused him so much trouble? Because he was a fool, that was why! Or because deep down inside himself he knew—just knew—that Sadie was not another Miranda? Not matter how much the facts might suggest that she was.

After Kevin had gone Leon wondered broodingly what he was doing, spending so much time thinking about
Sadie over there in Europe, when there was so much that was surely more important that needed his attention right here in Sydney.

The truth was, though, that he just could not get her out of his head. Instead of thinking about his upcoming meeting with Mario Testare, the designer he had headhunted to take charge of the ageing fashion house he had taken over five years ago, and the meeting he had planned with CEO of the luxury leather goods arm of the business, all he could think about was Sadie, he acknowledged angrily.

There hadn't been a single second in his life when Leon had envisaged himself in this kind of situation. Marriage, children—yes, he wanted both—one day. He was part Greek, after all. But falling in love, and the intensity of emotion Sadie aroused in him—these were just not part of his game plan at all.

Sadie! Hell, he was thinking about her again! Only because of his concern over the problems she had caused by refusing to sign the contract, Leon assured himself firmly.

But it wasn't just her signature on that contract he needed. What he also needed was her mouth on his, her body in his arms, her soft, sexy voice whispering those things in his ear that made him just ache to—

Stop that, he warned himself sternly. What he absolutely
had
to have was her agreement to creating a new perfume. A saleable, affordable perfume. And that perfume had to be made from synthetics. Didn't it? Though in the heat of their argument Sadie had implied that she was prepared to compromise, and to work on creating a blended scent.

Yes, and it would be a blended scent with so many
expensive ingredients that it would be far too expensive for any mass market, Leon told himself firmly.

But what if there were some way such a perfume could be created at an affordable cost? What if he could find a way to prove that to himself and to his board? Maybe then…

Why was he was wasting time he didn't have allowing his thoughts to dwell on the most aggravating and impossible woman God had ever created?

He picked up his mobile. He suspected that Raoul was not taking his calls because he was afraid Leon would call in the advance he had given him against the acquisition. Leon knew that he had to take on Francine now, thanks to Kevin, or face the possibility of a vote of no confidence from his own board. And to that end he needed to speak with Raoul. And with Sadie!

Frowning, he put down his mobile. If Raoul would not answer his calls then there was only one thing he could do!

Striding across his office, he sat down and buzzed for his secretary.

‘Book me a flight to Nice, will you, please?'

‘And a hotel?' his secretary asked. ‘Do you want to stay in Mougins again, or…?'

Leon hesitated. Mougins. That was where he and Sadie…

 

Sadie stared in disbelief at the e-mail she had just received. It was a request—no, not a request but a demand, and a very tersely worded one at that—from Leon, insisting that she present herself in Grasse ‘in order that a discussion can take place to resolve current difficulties.'

Just knowing that Leon had sent the e-mail was causing her heart to thud and her whole body to react. If a
mere e-mail from him could fill her with such a savage mixture of longing pain and anger then what was the reality of him likely to do?

Cravenly, she was tempted to simply ignore the message. But logically she knew that she couldn't.

Whilst she was still staring at the screen her telephone rang.

As she picked up the receiver she heard Raoul's voice exclaiming urgently, ‘Sadie! I need to talk to you!'

‘I've got Leon's e-mail, Raoul, and if you're phoning to try and persuade me to talk with him—' Sadie began.

But Raoul cut across her, announcing grimly, ‘Sadie, you've got to help me. If you don't Leon could take me to court and claim back the money he's advanced me against the acquisition of Francine—and if he does that I'm in real trouble.'

So, Raoul had lied to her and about her, Sadie told herself. But he was still her cousin, and oddly it was easier to forgive him than it was for her to forgive Leon. Because Leon had hurt her so much more? Or because she loved Leon so much more?

Just don't go there, she advised herself.

‘Raoul, nothing's changed,' she warned her cousin. ‘I will not allow Leon to have the Myrrh formula, and neither will I create a synthetic perfume for him.'

‘Sadie, all he wants to discuss is the acquisition of Francine,' Raoul reassured her. ‘Nothing more than that. And if you don't agree to sell to him, Sadie, I'm going to be in one hell of a mess.'

‘If you're lying to me again, Raoul—' Sadie began, but she knew that she was weakening and she suspected that Raoul knew it too.

By the time she had replaced the receiver she had agreed to go back to France.

 

‘What's wrong?' Mary asked Sadie sympathetically, whilst her teenage niece Caroline, who was visiting her, gleefully explored Sadie's workroom. ‘Still brooding about Leon? You haven't been able to put what happened with him behind you, have you? Despite what you said to me!'

Sadie had, of course, told Mary everything that had happened in France with Leon. Well, almost everything! She had been so upset on her return to Pembroke that she had not been able to stop herself from pouring her heart out to her. Then, she had claimed that she was going to make herself believe that she hadn't even met Leon, never mind fallen so deeply in love with him! But, as Mary had just pointed out, forgetting Leon had proved to be impossible!

‘It doesn't matter how I feel, Mary. I told you what he said to me, how all he wants is for me to create a synthetic scent for him. I shall never do that! Never!' she announced doggedly.

‘I've agreed to go to France to see him, but that's for Raoul's sake. If Leon thinks he can make me change my mind…'

Mary gave her a shrewd look.

‘Please don't take this the wrong way, Sadie. You're my friend, and the last thing I want to do is to hurt or offend you, but it seems to me from all that you have said about Leon that the two of you are perfectly matched and both as stubborn as one another!' she said gently.

Whilst Sadie glowered, unwilling to accept her friend's assessment, Mary went on ruefully. ‘Love on its own isn't enough, you know.' She insisted semi-severely. ‘There has to be a willingness to understand and accept
one's other half's point of view. Haven't either of you heard of the word “compromise”?'

Before Sadie could answer, Caroline came out of the workroom to join them.

‘Sadie, that perfume you're wearing is delicious,' she began longingly. ‘Isn't there any way you could create something similar but not quite as expensive?' she asked plaintively. ‘Something that a poor student like me could afford?'

After Mary and Caroline had gone Sadie went into her workroom. Caroline's comments about her perfume had struck home and made her feel a little bit guilty. Of course it was only natural that any woman would want to be able to wear a ‘good' scent, but Caroline's innocent question had forced Sadie to reassess her own stance and ask herself if there really was a way man-made scents could be blended to create a good perfume that would be within the means of all women.

It wasn't because she wanted to give in to Leon that she was thinking like this, trying to find a way to make an expensive traditional perfume more financially accessible, Sadie assured herself. It was just that the look of longing in Caroline's eyes had made her see things differently. It would certainly be a challenge for her!

But nowhere near as much of a challenge as winning Leon's love!

Angry with herself, Sadie paced her workroom floor. What kind of woman was she to want to win the love of a man who had so humiliatingly rejected her?

She tried to make herself focus on her work, but all she could think of was Leon and that final destructive scene between them.

Had he any idea just how much he had shocked and hurt her? Accusing her of…

Sadie frowned, suddenly remembering just what he had said to her.
‘You are another Miranda Stanton.'

Who was Miranda Stanton? And what did she have to do with Leon's rejection of her?

Sadie stared at her computer and then quickly began to type, her fingers trembling slightly.

 

By the time Sadie had finished re-reading the information her computer search had brought up for the third time she was having to swallow hard to suppress her tears of compassion.

The story of what had happened had been laid bare for her through newspaper archive accounts, but reading it had not shocked her as much as the one photograph she had seen of a fourteen-year-old Leon, so tall that he had been almost shoulder to shoulder with his father, his gaze fixed on his father's face.

What a dreadful time that must have been for the whole family; what a dreadful thing Miranda Stanton had done. And what an appalling insult Leon had hurled at her when he had drawn a parallel between this woman and herself! Torn between exasperation, anger and aching love, Sadie didn't know whether to run towards her upcoming meeting in France with Leon, or to run from it!