Chapter Nine #2
In time, she would have met someone to settle down with.
Mr Right. He would have been reliable, kind and with a gentle sense of humour.
In keeping with the fact that she had never placed much importance on looks and bearing in mind that she was never going to be asked to sashay down any catwalk, he would have been pleasant enough looking. No gargoyle but no movie star.
So what was she doing falling in love with a billionaire who was out of her reach? A guy who wasn’t into commitment, who had thought nothing of throwing money at her to get what he wanted and who had not once mentioned having any feelings for her even though they were sleeping together?
Because fall in love with him she had. Hook, line and sinker, and now the thought of returning to life as she knew it held no appeal, even though she would be getting everything she had dreamed of that money could buy, including the freelance career she craved.
It was a nightmare. What on earth would he think if he could read her thoughts? If he could see into her heart? He was having a fling and she was busy experiencing the greatest love of her life.
‘You make me want to stare,’ Leo confided roughly.
‘Huh?’
‘Penny for them.’
‘Penny for what?’
‘Whatever it is that’s going through your head.’ He smiled lazily, the smile of the predator sure of its willing prey. ‘Is it me?’
Sammy blinked. Her heart was thumping so fast that her ribcage felt threatened. She tried to match his sexy smile with one of her own. It wobbled. ‘You’re so egotistical.’
‘Come and sit next to me.’ He patted the space next to him. ‘I can’t look without touching.’
‘Adele’s upstairs!’
‘And have you ever known a child to sleep as soundly as she does?’ Leo asked drily. ‘When I looked in on her half an hour ago she was snoring like a trooper.’
Besides, the way the house was designed, it was unlikely that they would be disturbed.
It was a clever configuration of all glass at the front, so that every bit of the spectacular view was captured, from the soaring surf of the ocean to the vast blueness of the sky, an uninterrupted panorama because the house was built into the side of a cliff.
On the lower floor, everything was open-plan.
When one of the immense glass panes was opened, the sea breeze reached every corner of the house.
On the veranda, which was railed in with steel, the view was breathtaking.
They were in the snug, which was the only enclosed room on the lower floor and was on a raised, floating mezzanine that afforded them a bird’s-eye view of the entire floor but, thanks to one-way glass, no one inside could be seen.
A useful office space, Sammy assumed, from which family life could be observed whilst absolute privacy within was maintained.
Not, as Leo had pointed out, there was the slightest chance of Adele surprising them. It was apparent that surprising anyone was something she had been trained never to do.
‘We were talking about Adele.’ But her voice was tellingly feeble.
‘I can’t talk with you sitting so far away.’
‘Don’t be silly.’
‘Shall I come and get you? Do you want a demonstration of my caveman capabilities?’
Sammy could think of nothing she wanted more but now her every move was invested with the pain of knowing that all too soon this would be gone.
She padded the few feet separating them and sat primly next to him and he pulled her so that she was sprawled against him, lying on top of him but on her back, her body cradled between his powerful thighs.
He slipped his big hands under her tee shirt and she released a sigh of pure pleasure as he massaged her breasts, rolling his fingers over the stiffened peaks of her nipples and rubbing until the wetness between her legs made her want to wriggle.
‘We were talking about Adele,’ Leo reminded her.
‘I... Yes...’ Sammy panted. His erection was pressed like a rod of steel against her back, tangible proof of how much he was turned on. ‘She... It’s a difficult situation for her but, in a strange way, it’s, um, actually... I can’t think when you’re doing that...’
‘Playing with your breasts? I’d quite like to take them into my mouth. Think you could flip over so that I can taste them?’
‘Leo!’
‘You know you want to.’
She did and so much more besides. She flipped over and arched up over him so that her breasts quivered tantalisingly above his mouth and she flung her head back and closed her eyes as he took his time suckling on her nipples, feasting on them, in no great rush.
Eyes shut, teeth clenched, she endured the exquisite agony of being teased until she couldn’t stand it any more, at which point she settled back down in her original position between his legs, breathing hard and fast.
She wriggled into a comfortable position and her legs dropped open.
‘Take off the shorts,’ Leo commanded softly into her ear.
Sammy wriggled out of them but when she made to remove the lacy briefs he stayed her hand.
Her body was on fire. This was what he did to her.
He took away her ability to think and to behave sensibly.
He’d done that from the start and he would carry on doing it until he walked away from her.
Until they walked away from one another.
Except he would continue having an effect on her long after she had disappeared from his life.
She couldn’t imagine how it would feel to see him the way she had before, in passing glimpses, with Adele.
He pressed his hand flat between her legs, over her knickers, and caressed her until she was moving against his hand, wanting those lazy movements to pick up tempo.
Then he slipped his hand under the lacy cotton. When he inserted his finger and began stroking, she felt like passing out because it felt so good. Her breathing quickened as she savoured the feel of him touching her, the even rhythm as his finger slid up and down, pushing against her core.
He moved and began licking her, revelling in her wetness on his mouth, sliding his tongue into her and feeling the gasp she uttered transmitted directly to his own body, stirring him up.
He wouldn’t let her come against his mouth like this.
But he would fire her almost to the point of no return and then take her.
Their bodies were slick with perspiration when, as she balanced precariously on the cusp of coming against his mouth, he levered her off, pausing only to don contraception while she watched him impatiently, cupping herself between her legs with her hand to alleviate the ache there.
Their eyes tangled and he smiled because he knew exactly what she was thinking and what she was feeling.
He nudged at her sensitive opening and then eased himself inside her, his girth filling her up, and when he began to thrust in deep, rhythmic strokes she could only close her eyes and let sensation carry her away.
Their bodies moved as one. Sammy couldn’t imagine that sex could ever feel as glorious as this with anyone else, but then how could it when she had given her heart away to him?
She came, her body stiffened and then arched up as it splintered into a thousand heavenly pieces and she felt his own orgasm matching her own.
She was as limp as a rag doll as he rolled off her so that they were lying side by side, shoulders and arms lightly touching, both of them staring up at the ceiling.
She idly wondered whether the size of the sofa in the room, wider than a single bed, had been fashioned with this sort of activity in mind.
Work and play in soundproof silence, invisible to outside eyes.
There was something a little naughty about the design of the room and its position inside the house.
She turned onto her side to say something of the sort to him, only to find him staring at her intently, expression speculative.
‘What?’
‘I expect you’re going to be a little shocked at what I’m about to say.’
‘What? What are you about to say?’ He was so long in answering that her heart had time to gather pace and her nerves had time to start jangling and her brain had time to work out a thousand possible scenarios.
‘Will you marry me?’
Sammy’s mouth dropped open and she stared at him. She wondered whether her ears had been playing tricks on her but the way he was staring at her, his dark eyes serious with intent, made her pause.
Piercing happiness shot through her. She hadn’t dared hope that he might have returned her love!
He had been so adamant in his opinions on commitment.
He had been so clear-cut when he had laid down the rules of this charade.
But if she had been wrong-footed by Cupid, then who was to say that he hadn’t been, as well?
‘Marry you?’
‘I can see that my proposal is shocking but—’ he slid off the sofa, flexing his muscles, and slung on his trousers, zipping them up but not bothering with the top button and not bothering with his shirt, then he returned and perched on the sofa next to her ‘—I don’t think I considered this whole thing when I embarked on my mission to rescue Adele from her grandmother. ’
‘What do you mean?’
‘My father was desperate to make sure that his granddaughter was brought to England. He’d read between the lines of Sean’s infrequent communications to fear the worst and I was inclined to agree with him.
The fact that Sean wanted the child to live in England was another argument for the defence, so to speak. ’
Sammy was barely following what he was saying. She was too busy wondering where the marriage proposal had been buried. The breathless excitement that had raced through her was giving way to confusion.
‘Yes...’
‘I expected,’ Leo confessed, ‘that the difficult part would be getting the grandmother to acquiesce. In other words, I had focused exclusively on winning the custody battle and, with that in the forefront of my mind, all other considerations had taken a back seat.’