Billionaire's Defiant Mistress (2 page)

On his mind was a little relaxation with a pleasantly inoffensive female. Not some work hard, play hard type who would invariably begin lectures on feminism the instant he opened a door for her. Nor someone who starts talking wedding bells the minute you take her away for a few days. No, the perfect distraction right now would be calm, unchallenging and very easy on the eye. Someone who could gently massage his soul, bolster his ego and take care of his needs. And this pert young thing in front of him looked ideal. She wouldn't want late night discussions on fatalism and free-will or make demands of breaks in Paris and Dublin. Doubtful she would want to offer advice on where to invest his money or where to buy his next property. All she would bring to him would be a firm bottom and soft, tempting breasts. Perfect.

“When will you be finished working?” he asked, as he handed over his credit card.

Sarah struggled to get the words out. “Six o'clock.” She immediately regretted answering so truthfully and hoped that would be the end of the conversation. Her stomach churned as she looked at him.

“And you already have plans for dinner?”

Sarah's mind flashed back to the last portion of spaghetti bolognese which she had been eating for the past three evenings. She pictured it in the fridge at the shared apartment, which was her current home. It was a basic living space she shared with an old friend from school who had moved to Manchester to be at the university. Her room was more of a large cupboard than a small bedroom but it was only for a short while, so she was grateful.

“Half-baked plans,” she said, smiling inwardly as she thought how appropriate that was. Fully baked but needing to be microwaved would not have sounded quite the same even if more accurate.

“Half-baked?” he queried.

“I've already arranged to have dinner with my room-mates.”

“So if I were to ask you out to dinner you could change your plans?”

“No.” She blurted it out, a little too fast she felt. Surely she should be polite and not so quick to dismiss his offer.

“Why ever not?”

She felt herself getting flustered and the churning of the stomach returned. She was so helpless she thought. Even turning him down for dinner made her feel so... so inadequate. “I don't even know you. I can't go for dinner with just anybody who walks into the store.”

“Then please allow me to introduce myself. That will be one less problem for us to face together.”

He put out his hand and instinctively Sarah's hand moved the short distance it needed to, for him to gently grasp it. She wasn't new to hand shaking. She had shaken the hands of guests as they left in her mother's B&B. She had shaken hands of opponents at the end of tennis matches and she had shaken hands as she had received awards for her tennis playing – but none of those handshakes had sent a ripple of tingling sensation along her arm.

His hand seemed so big at the side of hers, and his touch was so intimate. She wondered if he had brushed her palm with his finger? It was brief, or had she imagined it?

“My name is Carlos Rodriguez,” he spoke softly. “I was born in Madrid but consider myself to be European and now, I live here in Manchester. Is there anything else which you would like to know? I have a nice house in Cheshire and I have no one to eat dinner with this evening. I was planning to do some reading but then I met...” He leaned forward from his waist and peered at her name badge. “...Sarah Daykin and I have been distracted from my plans.”

Sarah felt distracted too. She hadn't been asked out for a while and she had never been asked out by a man as charming and gorgeous as Carlos. She knew that dinner would be much better than the burger place she visited when she had last been 'taken out' – taken for a ride more like.

But her instinct was to turn down the invitation. The first moment she had seen him her instinct had said danger. Now her instinct was back again and it was telling her no. A big no. He was not a man for her. Too rich, too handsome, he was just too everything. And how arrogant he was to assume that she would drop everything and rush out to be with him for dinner!

“It's most decent of you for asking and I am very flattered, but I cannot just let my flat-mates down.” She was making the best excuse she could think of in that instant, though it was partially true.

Carlos frowned at her as he attempted to take in the fact that he had just been turned down by a shop assistant. How could she say no? Impossible! “Your boyfriend will be waiting at home for you?”

“No,” she answered calmly as she felt herself getting the upper-hand in the conversation. “There is no boyfriend, but my friends will be expecting me back and I promised to visit the supermarket on the way home.”

He suspected she was leading him on. Playing hard to get so he would chase her whilst making herself seem more desirable. Or was she a woman who had sufficient self respect to say no? A woman who would not fall into his arms with a few kind words and an offer of dinner. Surely not!

He reached into his inside pocket and pulled out a card. “If you change your mind, please give me a call. We can have a very nice dinner together.” He offered the card and she reached her hand forward to accept. As her hand touched his she felt the shock of electricity flow up her arm again just as she had earlier. She felt emboldened.

“You could always come in another day, I may be free then.”

“You want me to come back and ask you out again?”

“Well, yes.”

“I don't think so,” he said with some disbelief. “
Adiós
, my dear.”

Sarah watched with some disappointment as he turned and left. She followed his dark coat to the exit as if she were expecting him to turn around and ask her out again. But he didn't. He disappeared from view and Sarah began wondering if she had imagined the whole scene. But then she noticed he had left his six box sets, all wrapped up at the side of the till, and it was too late for her to chase him.

As she sat on the bus, Sarah admonished herself for her stupidity. She had come to Manchester for some excitement and adventure and it wouldn't get more exciting than having a handsome stranger take you out for dinner. What was she thinking? It's not as if men are beating her door down with offers of dinner. How long would she have to wait before the chance of a date with a gorgeous man would happen again?

She played with the handle of the large carrier bag which contained the half dozen gift sets Carlos had bought. She should ring him and let him collect them she had decided. But what possessed her to bring them with her? She would ring him tomorrow, she thought; tonight would be with her friends as planned.

She may have turned down a great dating opportunity but she had shown what a good loyal friend she was – she wasn't one to let others down, she reflected. A view she comforted herself with until she got home to the apartment. There was a note on the table from her friend Gareth – they'd all gone down to the pub and would she care to join them? When she looked in the fridge the last of the bolognese had gone. She pictured Carlos's face, imagining him taunting her as she realised what she had lost for nothing. Should she go to the pub? Or maybe? No, she couldn't. Could she? He had given her his number and said to call. And she had the perfect excuse to call him seeing as she had all of his Christmas presents in her possession. Most of all she wanted to call him – did she really need a second rate excuse?

She reached for her mobile and quickly tapped in the numbers as she read from the card. Dial before I think about it and figure out what to say when he answers, she said to herself. The phone rang and kept on ringing. Her mind was telling her that he would be screening the calls and this was a number he wouldn't recognise; so he wouldn't answer. About to hang up, she heard the tone stop and a click before his voice answered.

“
Hola
. Carlos Rodriguez”

“Hi, Carlos.” She took a deep breath and wondered what she might say next. “It's me, Sarah.”

“
Que
?” It went silent. “Who?”

How humiliating. Just a few hours had passed and already he had forgotten who she was. He had given his card away on a whim and then instantly forgotten her. Sarah was about to hang up there and then but remembered the wrapped box sets lying in the bag in the hallway.

“Sarah Daykin. I work at Puxley's department store. We met earlier today and you bought some...”

“Yes, yes, Sarah, I remember. Please excuse me.” His voice tailed off. “Sarah Daykin with the most astonishing eyes. I don't think I could ever forget your eyes.”

Her nerves kicked in as she thought about him some more, having been reminded by his voice. Show him you have a real reason to ring him in case he has changed his mind.

“I'm ringing because you forgot your gift-sets.”

“Sorry?”

“You bought six very expensive Christmas presents today and left them behind.”

Carlos was reclining on his soft leather sofa, his legs stretched out in front of him pointing towards the giant log fire which dominated the room. “I did forget them, yes. And is that the only reason you have rung me?”

“Well I thought...” Sarah was getting herself in a muddle as she tried to work out a suitable response. Was it so desperate to say she had changed her mind? Perhaps saying she had been too hasty?

“Have you changed your mind about having dinner with me?” he suggested smoothly.

Say yes, Sarah, just say yes for goodness sake. “That would be most... delightful,” she responded, with a tone that she hoped didn't sound too enthusiastic.

Carlos laughed a little as if he was enjoying the conversation. Delightful. That was just what he had in mind too. Delightfully dark, delightfully erotic and delightfully horizontal. He knew that would be delightful and he expected that was what she thought too. There had been sparks between them earlier that day. He had met a woman he would seldom meet anywhere he normally frequented and now he was to have dinner with her. It would indeed be delightful, he thought.

And he thought about her and how he had preferred it when she had held her head up, proudly turning him away because she had other things to do. But now she was just like all the other women, calling him and wanting his time. She had joined the long line of women who wanted him and didn't mind letting him know just how much they wanted him. It was a journey from Goddess to doormat in one short phone call. It's more exciting when I have to do the chasing, he thought – but when do I need to chase? Yet another beautiful young woman was about to fall into his bed and all because he was snapping his fingers.

“So what time will you be ready?” he asked.

“Ready? What, you mean tonight?”

“Of course tonight. Why? Have you already had dinner?”

“No, but...but it's...” Sarah looked up at the clock on the wall. “It's nearly nine o'clock!”

“So what?”

“It's just that it's...” She paused in mid sentence as she heard herself repeating her mother's words, the words that used to drive her crazy when she heard her mother use them. She didn't believe her mother's theories about eating late herself, so why burden someone else with them? “A little late for eating.”

“Not at all. In Madrid we would be eating even later than this. It's normal.”

“I don't know anything about eating times in Spain.”

“Have you never been to Spain. To Madrid?”

“No. Never.”

“I will take you there one day, maybe,” he suggested with no intention of honouring the offer. “We can drink sweet red wine under the dark starry skies of summer. But right now, call yourself a cab and come over here and I will see what I have in the fridge. Whereabouts do you live?”

“Newton Heath.”

“And how long will it take you to get to Alderley Edge?”

“Alderley Edge!” That's miles away, she thought. “I'm miles away and even with a fast motorbike I would be hard pressed to be there before ten o'clock. That's too late, especially as I have to be in work again tomorrow.”

It wasn't too late for Carlos and for what he had in mind. They could skip dinner, he thought. But he wasn't going to offer such a blatant invitation to a woman who wasn't already in his arms, or in his presence, even. He would kiss her into submission some other time. He held his breath as he felt the need to sigh. This was turning into problems and he didn't want any problems, not least from a woman he had only known for five minutes. It was just not meant to be.

“Such a shame,” he
said, without feeling.

Sarah picked up on the dismissive tone instantly and knew the conversation was finished. She saw him slipping away and knew she would never get a chance of dinner with a man like Carlos ever again.

“I could come for dinner tomorrow night.” Her voice rising in volume as the sentence came out.

She sounded way too keen, he thought. It was all so perfect this morning, now she is getting more and more desperate as the day goes on. He should just say he is busy. It would be the truth because he was always busy; at least he was always busy if he wanted to be.

But his mood softened as he remembered her cute face and the shape of her body. And those eyes. Those eyes were the deepest blue he had ever seen and he was sure they sparkled in a way no other eyes could. As his mind wandered he began thinking about how she may look without that stupid store uniform, what she may like doing in bed. And his throat tingled as his lust dried his mouth.

“Then tomorrow we shall have dinner,” he said without room for negotiation. “I will send a car to the store to pick you up. What time do you finish?”

“Well...” Her mind was racing as she tried to work out how she might be ready straight after work. She could always take her clothes into work and get changed there. “OK. I finish at seven.”

“The car will be there at seven. See you tomorrow night.” He hung up.

Sarah heard the click of the phone and put the phone back on the charger. She thought about his strong muscular frame and that deep, dark look. The danger he had represented to her intuition and the way he had looked at her – stared at her even with those black eyes. She recalled how her body had trembled and her skin tingled as they had touched. Sensations of pleasure began to wash over her as she thought about herself diving into a deep dark lake. She was excited and nervous. She had no way of knowing what would happen now she had chosen to dive in, but she knew for sure she would be right out of her depth.