Mediterranean Nights: The Mistress Purchase / The Demetrios Virgin / Marco's Convenient Wife. PENNY JORDAN
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garage before leaving the town, to put more petrol in the car, and Leon frowned as he saw the way the driver of a car on the other side of the pumps paused to give Sadie a lingeringly appreciative second look before getting back into his vehicle.
‘Seems like you’ve made a conquest,’ he commented dryly to Sadie as he put the key in the ignition.
‘It’s probably my hair,’ she answered matter-of-factly. She had already noticed how often local men looked at her blonde locks.
‘Yeah, and the rest,’ she thought she heard Leon mutter beneath his breath. But as she turned to look at him she realised that the car was as it had been this morning, when Leon had first attempted to start it—refusing to start!
Sadie held her breath as he tried again, and then again, To her relief, on the fourth attempt the engine fired.
CHAPTER SIX
HALF an hour later Sadie looked out of the passenger window and caught her first glimpse of the sea, way, way down below them—foam-capped, blue-green, dipping to denser all-blue where it met the horizon.
Automatically she gave a small exclamation of pleasure.
‘Want a closer look?’ Leon offered, moving to pull over to the side of the road, where there was a convenient parking space.
Sadie was tempted, but she knew that it was taking them much longer to reach the mas than Leon had expected. If they were to stop she knew she would also be tempted to look for a path down the steep cliff, so that she could sink her toes into the untouched golden sand of the small, perfect half-moon-shaped beach which was just visible below them. And of course once on that beach she would definitely need to at least dip her feet into the sea itself!
The thought of the two of them sharing the privacy of that small beach, even perhaps picnicking there, with the food they had bought, made her long to accept Leon’s suggestion. Sternly she reminded herself of the reason they were here, and the fact that that she was an adult and not a child.
Leon was still waiting for her to reply. Regretfully, she shook her head.
Recognising the wistfulness in her expression, Leon twitched his mouth in amusement. But, like her, he was conscious of how long the journey was taking them. At this rate they would no sooner have reached the mas than it would be time to turn back! Nevertheless… The thought of being alone with Sadie on that small deserted beach was a very tempting one. A very, very tempting one indeed!
Deliberately suppressing it, he put his foot down a little harder on the accelerator. The small car struggled to respond, chugging valiantly up the steep incline.
‘Not much further now,’ Leon assured Sadie as they turned off the coast road and onto a narrower road which would take them to the mas.
About ten minutes after leaving that road, and driving down a private lane, they found it. A small cosy spread of red-roofed, warmth-washed buildings, perched halfway up the hillside and facing out to sea.
Leon brought the car to a halt outside it, and neither of them spoke as they both gazed at the mas.
Without a word Leon pressed the automatic buttons and opened their car windows—as though he had guessed what she was thinking, Sadie reflected as she breathed in the wonderfully pure air. Even up here, at this height, she would have sworn she could smell and taste the sea.
Lavender shrubs scented the air with their flowers, and the silvery-grey trunk of a wisteria leaned heavily against the golden walls of the mas, its branches covered in soft feathery leaves. A scattering of obviously self-seeded semi-wild flowers threw up their heads in warm bursts of colour that broke up the green of the grass, and beyond the mas Sadie could see a small olive grove. But what really caught her eye was the low wall, bordered with an informal hedge of orange trees, beyond which she could see the enticing sparkle of water. The mas had a swimming pool! And not just any swimming pool, but one of the stunning modern infinity pools that had recently become so fashionable. From where she was looking, it really did seem as though the water in the pool actually merged with the sea, so that the sparkling blue water seemed to stretch into infinity.
The whole place combined a perfect blend of traditional and modern design, Sadie recognised. If this place was hers she knew there was no way she could ever bear to let it to anyone else.
‘Oh, how beautiful!’ Her soft, delighted words broke the silence and had Leon turning his head to look at her.
‘This is the first time I’ve actually seen it.’ His voice sounded gruff and slightly hoarse, as though he was as affected by the wild, private beauty of the mas as she was herself, but trying in a manlike way to hide it. ‘In the flesh, I mean,’ he amended. ‘The agent sent me photographs and a video. I told him I wanted somewhere private, and this place is certainly that.’
‘It’s heavenly,’ Sadie told him, so caught up in the spell of the place that she had opened the car door and stepped out without even realising she had done so.
A soft breeze stroked over her skin and instinctively she held her face up to the sun, closing her eyes as she basked in its warmth.
Turning to Leon, and gesturing widely with her arms to encompass the mas, the land and the sea and sky beyond it, she told him huskily, ‘This is what perfume is all about—flowers, earth, air, sea, capturing the scents of nature. No laboratory-produced chemical can ever reproduce this!’ she finished passionately.
Sombrely Leon watched her. The breeze was moulding her clothes to her body, highlighting its curves. He was tempted to challenge her statement, to remind her that she herself had now agreed to work with man-made scents, but he was reluctant to introduce a note of conflict into their day. In her eyes he could see how intensely she felt, and irrevocably he knew that he wanted to share that passion and, dangerously, he wanted her.
‘Let’s take a look inside.’
The harshness of Leon’s voice made Sadie frown. Had he thought her foolish and over-emotional to feel the way she did about their surroundings? He was waiting for her, and so silently she fell into step beside him.
Inside, the mas was every bit as perfect as it was outside—at least in Sadie’s opinion. The large country-style kitchen opened out onto a shady secluded patio, complete with a family-sized table and chairs, the patio itself ornamented with tubs of geraniums and an old-fashioned water pump.
The long, sprawling building also housed a cosy TV room, as well as a formal dining room and a wonderfully large and elegant sitting room, which ran the full width of the house and had windows on either side.
Upstairs there were five good-sized bedroom, each with its own bathroom. Every room was furnished simply but with style. With each step she took Sadie found herself envying whoever it was who owned it—especially when Leon told her that the land attached to the mas extended right down to the sea and included its own private beach.
‘It’s absolutely wonderful,’ she told him.
‘You like it?’
‘How could anyone not?’ Sadie responded ruefully. ‘If it was mine, I don’t think I could bear to let it out to someone else.’
As soon as she had finished speaking Leon found that he was actually making mental plans to get in touch with the letting agent and find out if the owners would be prepared to sell! After all, it would make sense for him to have a permanent base in Europe—especially now that they were taking over Francine.
Come off it, he derided himself. That isn’t why you want it, and you damn well know it. No. It wasn’t himself, dressed in a business suit and working alone on his laptop, he was envisaging. It was he and Sadie, and what they were doing had nothing whatsoever to do with work or laptops!
‘Well, I don’t know about you, but I am ready for that food we bought,’ Leon told Sadie, hastily banishing his wayward thoughts. He looked at his watch and added ruefully, ‘Do you realise that it’s already half past