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she said quietly, ‘Would you like another cup of coffee?’
    For a split second, Leo hesitated. He had done more than was acceptable to him. Unbelievably, he had been rejected in his advances, and worse than that had not turned and walked away. It was what he should have done and what he would have expected himself to do. It wasn’t as though there weren’t other women around. In fact, he had files of them. But this one…Something about her turned him on so massively that he gave a curt nod and followed her into the kitchen, watching as she fiddled with the ridiculous coffee-making gadget so that she could produce two cups of superior coffee in a matter of seconds. It tasted nothing like the dishwater he had produced for her.
    The fact that she had offered him the cup of coffee, which even now he was accepting with a slight inclination of his head, led him to believe that his words had struck a chord with her.
    As they ought to! he considered.
    ‘What did your wife do to leave you so bitter?’
    ‘Details are unimportant.’
    ‘Do you really think so?’ Heather said sadly. ‘Sometimes I think they’re the most important things.’
    ‘In that case, I’ll tell you. My dearest wife enjoyed the fruits of my labours, but not the work entailed in providing them. She needed more than just a limitless bank account. She needed constant, round-the-clock flattery, and when I wasn’t around to provide it she found others who could. She was beautiful. She was rich. She had a great deal of choice. Hence my scepticism about the wonders of love and marriage.’
    ‘I’m sorry. It must have been awful for you. But when Daniel was born didn’t you both try to…stitch things together? Give it a go?’
    But Leo was done with answering questions and dwelling on his miserable, short-lived marriage. Instead he turned his mind to the glorious, contrary woman sitting opposite him, her brow knitted in a compassionate frown.
    This sordid story, one which he had never told a soul, would have fractured her rosy picture of human relationships. It also would have made her see that what he had offered her—a satisfying relationship based on the one thing that made any sense—was not to be discarded. In fact, he was pretty sure that she had come to that conclusion herself even before his unprecedented confession.
    The option of having her step down from her high horse and come to him, only to taste the same rejection that she had dished out to him, wasn’t even considered.
    He wanted her and he wasn’t going to play any games. But the sound of her acquiescence would be truly sweet indeed.

CHAPTER FOUR
    L EO relaxed. When it came to relationships, things had a disturbing tendency to become mundane once that brief pursuit was over, but he had a feeling that Heather would be different. Maybe it was because she was unwittingly involved in a side of his life to which none of his other women had been introduced. He had always made sure to keep London and the country very far apart. He bedded and entertained his women in the city. The country was for the family side of him, which had been hugely sidelined over the years, but which would always be there, more so now that Daniel had arrived on the scene. It was the first time he had ever considered the possibility of dating someone who knew his family. Frankly, he had never been in the country long enough to meet anyone, but even if he had he would have run a mile. He had never seen that, all things considered, there were certain advantages to the situation, especially now that Daniel was around.
    High on the plus side would be the fact that dates wouldn’t have to be made with the precision timing of a military campaign. Investment bankers and barristers were all well and good, but trying to arrange dates was usually a hellish business. He was busy, so were they and there had been more than one occasion when, having met and invariably spent the evening discussing aspects of work, he’d just