The fact that he was just shrugging on his jacket as she came down the stairs allowed Veronica to have an unwanted glimpse of the lethal maleness of the muscles in his torso and made her hesitate betrayingly just for a second before continuing walking down the stairs.
He had changed his clothes simply to have dinner with her… Why? Because Sasha knew very well the effect his appearance would have on any susceptible woman and because he intended to use that fact to distract her, to confuse her when she needed all her attention, all her concentration to ascertain the truth about what he did?
Or was she letting her imagination run away with her again? Was the woman he had dressed so elegantly her or was it…? Was he perhaps seeing the other woman after their meeting had finished?
“We&r
Wearily, Veronica looked at the luminous face of her watch. Half-past one in the morning. She had been awake for the last hour, stubbornly evading sleep, angrily refusing to allow her thoughts to take control, to force her to remember. She was too hyped up for sleep, too afraid to sleep just in case she... In case she did what? Dreamed of Sasha? Veronica looked across at the desk in front of the window. One of the small pleasures of living in the depths of the country was that one didn’t need to close the curtains at night. There was nothing she liked more than being able to see the night sky. When her mother had first married Henry’s father and they had gone to live in his ancestral home, Veronica had been overwhelmed at first by the darkness of the huge house.&
She had guessed that Wayne was his supplier but had naively assumed then that Wayne was no more than a generous-minded individual who had the contacts to supply his friends with drugs, and that it was they who pressured him into obtaining them for them rather than the other way around. Without directly saying so, Wayne had implied that they were two of a kind, individuals who stood out from the crowd. His street-wise sophistication had reminded Veronica in some odd way of Sasha. Perhaps because, like Sasha, Wayne was older than her and the friends she’d mixed with. Veronica had listened half enviously when he had told her of his plans to spend the summer with a group of eco-warriors, traveling the country, defending and protecting the nature.&nbs
Unable to keep either her shock or the pain his words had caused her from showing in her eyes, Veronica stared at him.‘It isn’t like that... I’m not interested in Wayne, not romantically, anyway. I don’t...’ She stopped abruptly and looked away from him. How could she tell Sasha of all men... people... that he was the only man she was interested in, the only man she would give herself to…? The only man she had real, strong feelings for when he was seeing was telling the exact opposite? Now Sasha was looking at her in that horribly cynical way, his mouth twisting in mocking contempt.‘Henry asked me to come,’ he told her as she remained silent. ‘He’s had to go away on business but he asked me to come and give yo
He felt so good, smelled so good… Shyly, she opened her eyes and then her mouth, licking exploratively at his skin. In her ear, Veronica could feel the rapid increase in Sasha’s heartbeat. His arms tightened around her and then, suddenly, Sasha was picking her up, carrying her over to the bed, laying her on it, touching her skin, stroking her body, kissing her in all the ways she had imagined and showing her at the same time just how far short of the astonishing reality her imagination had fallen. In his hands, her breasts swelled and ached, her nipples taut, begging to be touched, kissed, sucked. Unable to stop herself, Veronica started to moan softly as his mouth tugged gently on her breast, her body arching, twisting, filled, driven by such an intensity of need that she herself was lost in i
A noise in the garden outside her window brought Veronica back to reality. Startled, she let her unfocused gaze sweep the moonlit darkness and then sweep it again, her body stiffening as she saw Sasha turn away and disappear into the shadows. How long had he been standing there watching her? She knew from his clothes that he must’ve been working, probably checking for poachers who, she guessed, were as much a potential threat here as they had often been on her stepbrother’s estate. Shivering, she headed back to her bed. It was almost three o’clock in the morning and as she touched her face Veronica realized that it was wet with her tears.“Why the hell am I being so pathetic... Standing there with tears pouring down my face, reliving the pain of the past? And for what? I&rsquo
“Hi, sweetie!” Veronica smiled warmly as she recognized her boss’s voice.“J.J.,” she responded, “how are you?”“Fine, I guess. Listen, I’ve got to come over to England on some other business and I thought to come and see you and see how you’re getting on with Elsinore Hall.” She laughed since she was expecting his visit. J.J. was like a child with a new toy whenever he acquired a new property, saying every time that he wasn’t going to visit it again until all the renovation work had been complete and then being totally unable to resist checking on how things were going. Or not so much checking on how things were going, but sneaking another look, like a child sneaking a look at a hidden-away Chri
“We’ll have to call at the Rectory first,” Veronica warned J.J. as she drove north. “I don’t have the keys to Elsinore Hall with me.”“That’s fine by me,” J.J. assured her. “How are you and Sasha getting along, by the way?”“He’s a client of the Trust,” Veronica pointed out severely.“So, you haven’t fallen in love with him, then,” J.J. teased her. Somehow, Veronica managed to force a responsive smile. J.J. had no guilt in this, she tried to remind herself. He meant no harm. He took a paternal interest in her and often told her, only semi-jokingly, that it was time she fell in love. He had no idea about the real state of affairs between her and Sasha, the real state of her heart, her emotions.“I have to say, this is a really b
“You’ve been away a long time. What happened?” Guiltily, Veronica spun around, dropping her Armani carrier bag as she did so. She had arrived back at the Rectory five minutes ago and had decided to go straight to her room. She had just reached the top of the stairs when Sasha emerged from his room, his curt comment coupled with her own guilt startling her.“You’ve been shopping…” he said sharply in disbelief, answering his own question as he saw the bag she had just dropped and the contents spilled out from it onto the carpet.“What if I have?” Veronica retorted defensively, bending down to gather up her purchases but not fast enough to match Sasha. He bent and got there before her, scooping up the soft, expensive cloth and then, pausing, shocking her by removing it completely from the carrier