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Unsettled by the strength of her reaction to him, Lilah had stiffened. ‘I don’t think so. I don’t think Dad will sell up either—not when he’s riding the crest of a wave.’
‘That’s the best time to sell.’
Bastien had dealt her a dark, lingering appraisal that had made her toes curl even as her gaze widened at the sight of the limousine that had rolled up to collect him. She’d been impressed but troubled by the obviously large difference in their financial status and had resolved to look him up on the internet as soon as she got the time.
‘I wish your father hadn’t invited us to his family dinner.’ Bastien had sighed. ‘I was looking forward to having you all to myself at my hotel.’
Unease had filtered through Lilah. He was coming on very strong, and while initially she’d been delighted by that, she was unnerved by the suspicion that he might be expecting her to spend the night with him. An impulsive move like that would have been way outside Lilah’s comfort zone.
But at the same time still being a virgin at the age of twenty-one had not been part of Lilah’s life plan either. She just hadn’t met anyone at university who had attracted her enough to take that plunge. Lilah didn’t give her trust easily to men, and by the end of first year, after standing by and watching friends commit too fast to casual relationships that had ended in tears and recriminations, she had decided that she would definitely hold off on sex until she met a man who cared enough about her to be prepared to wait until she was as ready for intimacy as he was.
‘Bastien’s really into you in a big way,’ Vickie had whispered in amusement after dinner at her father’s comfortable home that evening. ‘He watches your every move. And although I prefer men to be more grey round the edges, he is gorgeous.’
Before Lilah had been able to call a taxi, Bastien had offered to run her home. Within seconds of them getting into the limo Bastien had reached for her with a determined hand and kissed her with a hungry, sensual ferocity that had set her treacherous body on fire. She had pulled back, trying to cool the moment down, but Bastien had ignored her.
‘Spend the night with me,’ he’d pressed, his thumb stroking her wrist where her pulse was racing insanely fast.
‘I hardly know you,’ she had pointed out hastily.
‘You can get to know me in bed,’ Bastien had quipped.
‘That’s not how I operate, Bastien,’ Lilah had murmured, reddening with discomfiture. ‘I would need to know you really well before I slept with you.’
‘Diavelos... I’m only here for another forty-eight hours!’ Bastien had ground out incredulously, studying her as though she was as strange and incongruous a sight as a snowball in the desert.
‘I’m sorry. I can’t change the way I am,’ Lilah had told him quietly as the limousine drew up outside the terraced house where she lived.
‘You’re my polar opposite. I don’t get to know women really well. To be brutally honest, sex is the only intimacy I want or need,’ Bastien had breathed in a driven undertone.
‘We’re like oil and water,’ Lilah had mumbled, hurriedly vacating his car and heading indoors, to heave a sigh of relief as soon as the door was closed behind her.
In the aftermath of that uneasy parting tears had burned her eyes and she’d been immediately filled with self-loathing. She was guilty of having woven silly romantic dreams about Bastien. Hadn’t she just got what she deserved for being so naïve? He was only interested in a night of casual sex—nothing more. It wasn’t a compliment...it was a slap in the face—and a wake-up call to regain control of her wits.
Although Lilah had initially been attracted by Bastien’s stunning good looks, she had been infinitely more fascinated by his strong personality, and the seemingly offbeat way his brain worked. That same night she’d sat up late, looking Bastien up on the internet, and the sheer number of women she’d seen pictured with him had shaken her almost as much as his reputation for being a womaniser. Bastien Zikos slept around and he was faithless.
At first Lilah had been appalled by what she had discovered, but there had also been an oddly soothing element to those revelations. After all, what she had found out only emphasised that she could never have any kind of liaison with Bastien: he didn’t do relationships...and she didn’t do one-night stands.
