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advantage of her obvious desire for him. It was perverse of her, she knew, but she almost wished that he would. She could not believe how much she wanted him to make love to her for real. It was cruel, the intensity of her yearning for him.

      ‘I hope you don’t think I’m being rude asking you this,’ her gran said. ‘But have you been to bed with him yet?’

      Laura’s hands tightened over the ends of the armrests.

      For a moment, she wasn’t sure what to say. But then decided to go with the truth.

      ‘No, Gran,’ she said. ‘I haven’t.’

      ‘Wise girl,’ her grandmother said. ‘Playing hard to get is the way to land a man of the world like your Ryan. Though I doubt he’s as tough as he looks.’

      ‘What do you mean by that?’

      ‘I suspect that underneath his macho façade your Ryan is quite a sensitive fellow. Reading between the lines, I wouldn’t think his childhood was a bed of roses. It must have been hard on him, not having a father, then having his mother die when he was still just a child. Damaged children can sometimes find it hard to trust, and to expect happiness. In that regard you two have something in common.’

      ‘I’m not damaged, Gran,’ she said defensively.

      ‘Aren’t you, dear? I would have thought that any girl as attractive as you who reaches your age still single has to be somewhat damaged, for one reason or another.’

      ‘Gran, that’s old-fashioned thinking! Girls don’t have to get married today to be happy.’

      ‘That’s tommy rot. Every girl wants commitment. And children. You do want children, don’t you, Laura?’

      ‘Of course I do, in due time. Now, Gran, please don’t start dropping hints about marriage and children at dinner tonight. Men like Ryan like to run their own race. He’ll get round to proposing when he’s good and ready.’

      ‘He’s nearly forty, Laura. What’s he been waiting for all these years?’

      ‘For the right girl to come along, I suppose,’ Laura said, but not very convincingly.

      ‘He won’t get a better girl than you.’

      Laura’s heart turned over at the compliment. Her gran had always loved her, no matter how she’d acted. Laura knew she’d been a difficult teenager after the shock and grief of her parents’ tragic deaths. Not to mention having to live in a house where she wasn’t exactly wanted. Without her gran’s love she would have been even more wretched than she was. How on earth was she going to survive without her? Yet she would have to. And soon. There was a grey pallor to her grandmother’s skin which frightened Laura.

      A weary sigh escaped her grandmother’s lips. ‘I would dearly love to see you married before I go to meet my maker.’

      ‘You will, Gran,’ Laura said, blinking back tears. ‘You will.’

      ‘You’ll have to be quick, my darling girl. I don’t have much longer on this earth.’

      ‘Nonsense. You’ll live till you’re a hundred!’

      Her grandmother smiled a wry, knowing smile. ‘I’ll be content with eighty. Which gives you just over a month to get Mr Perfect to propose. Now, I think I should have a little nap before dinner, dear. I get very tired these days. You go make yourself beautiful for that man of yours—not that you don’t already look beautiful. Being in love agrees with you.’

      Laura tried not to look guilty. She longed to tell her gran that it wasn’t love making her cheeks flush and her eyes sparkle but good old lust. Not that there was anything good about it. Or old, for that matter. This was an entirely new experience for Laura, which perhaps was why she didn’t know how to handle it. If she’d been one of those girls who’d had loads of lovers she might not be so confused, or so lacking in confidence where sex was concerned. A more experienced woman would use sharing a bedroom tonight to seduce Ryan herself. She would not be letting him go all noble on her and sleep on the floor. She would vamp him into bed and enjoy his absolutely gorgeous male body all night long.

      Would she dare do that? Could she?

      Probably not. She wouldn’t even know where to start.

      Laura suppressed a sigh as she rose from the armchair and gave her grandmother a kiss on her papery-thin cheek. ‘See you at dinner, Gran.’

      ‘I hope you’ve got something pretty to wear,’ Jane said.

      It was then that Laura remembered the sexy red dress she’d bought. And the very sexy shoes.

      Her heartbeat quickened at the thought that maybe she wouldn’t have to do a single thing. Her outfit might do the seducing for her!

      She beamed down at her grandmother. ‘I have a smashing red dress,’ she told her. ‘Alison helped me pick it out this morning.’

      ‘Ah … Dear Alison. She’s been a wonderful friend to you over the years, hasn’t she?’

      ‘She certainly has.’

      ‘She’s a good girl. You’re a good girl, too.’

      Am I? Laura wondered as she closed the door. Would a good girl want what she wanted? What had happened to her longheld belief that she would need to be in love before she could enjoy sex with a man? Why did she suddenly want nothing more from Ryan than his body?

      Shaking her head, she began to make her way back along the hallway which would carry her to the front of the house, and the stairs.

      The sound of muffled male laughter met her ears as she passed the door of the billiard room. Clearly, Uncle Bill was back and Ryan had followed Cynthia’s suggestion that they have a game of billiards. They sounded like they were enjoying themselves. Laura could see that Ryan would get along well with Uncle Bill, who was a man’s man. No doubt Ryan would know exactly how to act in her uncle’s company. He was clever that way, she could see. He had more social skills than herself, no doubt a product of running his sports-management company. She often put her foot in her mouth, whereas Ryan seemed to know exactly what to say to please everyone.

      Except her, she thought with sudden mutiny. He hadn’t said what she wanted to hear down at the creek. Hadn’t done what she’d wanted him to do, either. How dared he kiss her like that and then reject her?

      Okay, so he probably thought he was being cruel to be kind, not sharing her bed tonight. Clearly, he thought she was way too vulnerable a female to cope with an affair with the likes of him. Added to that was his own wariness at sleeping with people he worked with. Both reasons did show Ryan as a man of surprising character but, damn it all, couldn’t he see that he’d already gone too far? Nothing was ever going to be the same again anyway. She could not possibly show up at his office every Friday, feeling like this. So she might as well do her best to seduce him tonight and be damned with the consequences!

       CHAPTER FIFTEEN

      ‘LAURA! For God’s sake!’ Ryan exclaimed as he rapped sharply on the bathroom door. ‘What’s taking you so long in there?’

      He’d returned to the bedroom around six-thirty to find Laura sitting cross-legged in the middle of the four-poster bed in the corner, talking to someone on the phone. Given she was giggling, he assumed it was her girlfriend, Alison something-or-other. Nothing annoyed Ryan more than the furtiveness of females when they talked to each other on the phone. If only women could be as straightforward as men, then the world would be an easier place to live in and life wouldn’t get so damned complicated.

      Laura did interrupt her conversation briefly to tell him to use the bathroom first to get ready for the dinner, so he had, all the while perversely peeved by her lack of attention to him. He should have been pleased that she’d stopped looking at him like he was

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