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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 her favourite dessert. And he should have been proud of himself for resisting the temptation to take advantage of the sexual frustration that she claimed she’d have to be suffering from to fancy him all of a sudden.

      Instead, he’d gone about showering and shaving in quite a foul mood, even nicking himself once with his razor, which he hadn’t done for years. He’d also forgotten to take his clothes in with him, forcing him to come out of the bathroom with nothing on but a towel wrapped around his hips. Now, Ryan knew he had a good body, but what had Laura done? Nothing; not a single stare in his direction. Instead, she’d nonchalantly gathered up her clothes and sashayed past him into the bathroom without giving his bare chest a second glance.

      Ryan’s considerable male ego had been severely dented, so much so that he almost decided then and there to abandon his resolve to keep his hands—and his mouth—well away from her. He spent ten gratifying minutes fantasising about what he was going to do when she emerged. First he would kiss her until she started moaning again. Then, when she had totally melted against him he would lift her up and carry her onto that incredibly sexy bed where he would show her that, even if she didn’t truly fancy him yet, she sure would soon.

      Unfortunately the passage of time had a way of ruining perfectly good fantasies, and at the same time of increasing one’s level of frustration. Which was why, after Laura had been in that infernal bathroom for forty minutes, an extremely irritated Ryan started banging on the bathroom door.

      ‘Cynthia said to be down in the front lounge at seven-thirty for pre-dinner drinks,’ he said through gritted teeth.

      ‘I’m having a bit of trouble with my hair,’ she replied airily. ‘Why don’t you go down and make my apologies? I’ll join you as soon as I can.’

      ‘Fine,’ Ryan bit out, thinking that maybe a drink or two would soothe his ill temper.

      Laura sighed with relief when she heard the bedroom door open, then close. She wasn’t really having trouble with her hair, or her make-up. She’d surprised herself by doing both very well indeed. The fact was she’d been ready for some minutes but just hadn’t been able to find the courage to leave the bathroom and face Ryan, looking the way she did in her new dress and shoes.

      Which was crazy. It was what she wanted, wasn’t it—to see his eyes darken with desire for her? To drive him mad with how sexy she looked?

      And she did. Oh yes, she very definitely did!

      Alison had given her strict instructions over the phone as to how to present herself if she wanted to get laid that night: hair down and curled lightly around her face. Lots of dark eye-liner and mascara. The reddest of red lipsticks. And she wasn’t even to consider putting some silly pin into the neckline of the dress to hide her cleavage.

      Laura had gone along with everything she had suggested and the result was wicked! She could hardly believe

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