Read Online Hired for the Boss's Bedroom by Cathy Williams - Free Book Online

deny the charge, but likewise refusing to admit to it. ‘If you thought that I was leading you on, then you’ve got hold of the wrong end of the stick. That’s the last thing I intended to do.’
    ‘What was your intention, in that case?’
    ‘I…’
    ‘Because I don’t hear you denying that what I felt here was a case of mutual attraction.’ Leo was half-stunned to hear himself demanding an explanation from her, demanding to know why she hadn’t immediately and without question fallen into bed with him. He hadn’t been mistaken about the way she felt about him, the attraction that sizzled below the surface of their amicable exchanges. He was never wrong about things like that. When it came to second guessing female vibes, he could have written a book on the subject.
    What he was inexperienced at was having to deal with a woman who felt the attraction and then came up short on the follow-through.
    ‘Not all of us treat sex as a casual indulgence,’ Heather told him shakily, backing away to escape the stranglehold of his powerful personality.
    ‘You have no idea how I treat sex.’
    ‘I can risk a guess—no strings, no commitments, something that hits the spot and then, when it stops hitting the spot, becomes disposable—like a Chinese takeaway, in other words. You’re not domestic because you don’t have to be, and I’ll damn sure bet you’re never even remotely domestic in the presence of a woman just in case she gets nesting ideas. Am I right?’
    ‘And maybe there’s a damn good reason for that,’ Leo heard himself say grittily. ‘Maybe I’ve learnt a couple of things about the joys of commitment. Maybe I’ve learnt that it’s just not what it’s cracked up to be, and I’m the kind of guy who learns lessons very fast. Some might say at the speed of light.’
    He stared down at her and was as surprised at this admission as she appeared to be, judging from the wide-eyed look on her face. It was one of the rare moments when mention of his wife had been uttered on his lips, the last time being when she had died in the car crash in Australia, thereby catapulting his life into another lane. Even then, when the past had resurged into his present, he had conducted affairs with a businesslike approach, spurning all invitations from his mother to open up. On that swift and relentless rise to the top, Leo had discarded all possible weaknesses, and that included any maudlin tendencies to confide. Not that he had ever really had any. The sensitive role had been his brother’s domain.
    Maybe it was the silence that greeted his unexpected admission that encouraged him to continue. Or maybe it was the fact that she was reaching to play the moral trump-card again and he refused to allow himself to be boxed in.
    He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he said with cutting cynicism, ‘My ex-wife taught me some very valuable lessons, one of which was that life can get messy, complicated and downright ugly the minute a person makes the mistake of thinking that sex is better, more worthwhile, when a little love or infatuation is thrown into the mix.’
    ‘What are you trying to say?’
    ‘I’m trying to say that there’s no virtue in self-denial because the happy-ever-after scenario isn’t waiting just around the corner.’
    Heather couldn’t disagree with that. She couldn’t, however, see the only alternative as throwing herself into whatever passing attraction she might happen to feel for any man.
    ‘Well?’ Leo prompted harshly, angry with himself for sinking so low as to explain his motivations, and angry with her because he had expected her to launch into a diatribe about love, romance and all that other rubbish which seemed to propel couples up the aisle only to find themselves racing for the divorce courts three years later.
    ‘Well, what?’ They stared at each other. Heather could hardly breathe, and she was holding her body so still that she could very well have grown roots. Eventually,