Royal's Untouched Love

Free Royal's Untouched Love by Sophia Lynn

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Authors: Sophia Lynn
bit of width to the skirt, designed to give her a feminine but professional silhouette. It was utterly appropriate even for Greece, which could sometimes be a little conservative about women in the workplace.
    However, there was no hiding that glorious fall of red hair. When Jaque glanced at it too long, he found himself remembering how it had looked trailed through his fingers, tangled over his sheets. When he saw the way some of the other men in the company looked at her, he could see that they were wondering just how it might feel in their hands, tumbled across their own beds.
    It gave him some comfort that Heidi was turning down each and every invitation to dinner or coffee. She was friendly, but there was a distance to her as well, something that fended off even the most ardent of pursuers.
    It gave him no credit at all that she seemed utterly professional around him. She called him Jaque, as nearly all of his staff did, but otherwise, she was perfectly deferential, perfectly polite. Her green eyes were cool when she saw him, her hands calm and settled.
    Sometimes, it tormented him. It looked as if she couldn't even remember what it had been like to cry out in his arms. It was as if she couldn't remember looking up at him, her eyes wide and gorgeous, lovely and reflecting all the wonder of the world.
    It was for the best. He told himself that it was certainly for the best.
    Sometimes, he even believed it.
    *
    Heidi told herself that she was over Jaque and what they had done with each other. After that hurtful morning at the empty barge, she had gone home to her own lovely apartment and simply sat in a warm bath for a while. Over the next few hours, she simply thought about what had happened and how she had felt about it. She considered what it had meant to her.
    She decided that she was not sorry it had happened. Regardless of how he behaved afterward, there was no questioning the fact that Jaque had been a perfect lover. When she allowed herself to think back to what they had done together, she still felt frissons of pleasure race through her.
    However, he had proved to be someone else after that, and that was something she could not abide.
    When she returned to work with the fresh new week, she had done it with resolve and a kind of amnesia. Whenever she found her thoughts drifting back to that night, she turned them away, instead pursuing her challenging new job with the determination and cleverness that had won her so many honors in grad school. Her co-workers were skeptical at first, but she had won them over with her boundless energy and enthusiasm.
    Heidi was so distracted at first that it took her almost a week to realize how much she loved her new position. Instead of merely providing figures and studies for people who might never read them, she was now working with the team that could put her research to good use. This was precisely the work that she was trained to do, and she was thrilled.
    At least, she should have been.
    Two weeks after she arrived, Marten, a German engineer who headed up one of the minor subcommittees, had asked her out for dinner. Assuming it was a company affair, she agreed easily, thinking nothing of it until she arrived at a small but tasteful bistro.
    The moment she sat down at the table, she felt a curious coldness come over her. She watched Marten, noting that he was a handsome man just a few years older than she was. He was earnest about their work, dryly funny in a way that she appreciated it, and from what she could tell, very kind.
    After dinner, they went for a walk in the park, and when he pulled her in for a kiss, she froze. He sensed that she had stiffened up, and he pulled back.
    "This isn't working for you at all, is it?" he said with a sigh.
    "No, I'm so sorry, Marten, I had an excellent time …"
    "So did I," he said with a regretful grin. "Everyone told me to forget about it, but I figured that I had to at least give it a try. You're beautiful, and no one knows their way

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