Free The Mistress Purchase by Penny Jordan Page A

you will feel in my arms, Sadie, how you will taste, how passionately you will respond to me in my bed.’
    What the hell was he doing? Leon wondered savagely as he heard what he was saying almost as though he was standing outside himself and listening. From the moment he had taken over the family business on his twenty-first birthday, Leon had dedicated himself totally to its success. Nothing and no one had ever threatened to come between him and that dedication—until now!
    For the first time in his life Leon could feel himself being pulled in different directions emotionally. Had he gone completely mad? Totally lost the plot? Okay, soSadie was one delectably desirable woman. But that didn’t mean…
    The way she was looking at him made his body clench, and a surge of desire as fierce as the kick of a mule powered through his belly.
    This wasn’t something he had written down in his mental checklist of life goals. Not now and quite definitely not ever with this particular woman!
    So why wasn’t he doing something about it? Why wasn’t he getting a grip and forcing his unwanted desire for her to shrivel into nothing? Because he didn’t want to or because he couldn’t do so? Because he was already in way way over his head and not even thinking about trying to save himself?
    A small shudder ripped through Sadie, openly visible to him, and his own body reacted. Responded! Hell, but no woman had affected him like this in public since he had left his teenage days behind him. It was a damn good job that the table covered the visible evidence of his arousal.
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    He moved a little uncomfortably in his seat, cursing softly to himself.
    Sadie held her breath as she saw the way Leon’s eyes burned with sexual awareness as he monitored her reaction.
    She could hardly breathe normally, never mind think of eating! Frantically she tried to come up with something banal to say, to extinguish the almost palpable aura of sexual heat surrounding them. But her brain was simply refusing to co-operate. If she didn’t manage to break the sensual intensity of the gaze they were sharing Sadie didn’t know what might happen! Or, rather, she knew perfectly well what her body was hoping would happen!And that knowledge was making her feel both more excited than she had ever felt in her whole life and more apprehensive as well!
    Someone at a nearby table pushed back their chair, and the scraping noise caused Leon to look in that direction. Dizzily Sadie dragged great gulps of air into her lungs and picked up her fork.

CHAPTER FOUR
    S INCE Leon had already determined to put things between them back on a sensible, businesslike footing at the very first chance he got, why, when Sadie had taken the opportunity to do exactly that, was he reacting as though she was somehow challenging him? And why was he actively looking for ways to break through the social barriers she had thrown up and return things to a much more personal level? Leon asked himself derisively.
    He had never thought of himself as the kind of man so needy, and lacking in self-esteem as to have to verbally force a woman to be aware of him sexually, but right now…
    He looked at Sadie’s mouth. It was soft and full, and if she was wearing any lipstick it was so natural as to be virtually indiscernible. He hated kissing women who caked their mouths in red grease! Kissing Sadie’s mouth, in fact kissing any bit of Sadie, would be a pleasure he would give his eye teeth for right now!
    Desperate to bring her rioting emotions and desires under control, Sadie waited until their main course had been served before clearing her throat and asking politely, ‘What made you decide to buy Francine?’
    For a moment she thought that he wasn’t going to reply, but then he looked at her and her heart did a foolish somersault.
    â€˜It just seemed a natural progression. We are a luxury goods group, after all.’ Right now he didn’t