Just One Night With Him

"Roth, wh-what is it...what’s wrong?’ she stammered.‘What’s wrong? Oh, for God’s sake...’ she heard him mutter. ‘The fact that you even need to ask that kind of question shows,you even need to ask that kind of question shows just how... You’re a child still, Elena... Six months from now...’She bit down hard on her bottom lip when she saw the irritation in his eyes as he ran his hand through his thick dark copper hair.‘I’m sorry... I should never have done that...’ he told her tersely.Elena felt her eyes fill with vulnerable tears.‘You kissed me,’ she protested shakily. ‘You wanted me...’‘No, Elena,’ she heard Roth telling her grittily. ‘What I wanted...’ he told her bluntly, ‘was not you, but what you offered. I’m a man, and when a woman comes on to me, offering me sex...’ He stopped and shook his head. ‘You’re a child still, Elena.’‘I bet if we were in bed together you wouldn’t be saying that,’ Elena challenged him boldly, adding recklessly, ‘I’m not a child at all, Roth, and

‘But Elena, this place is a gem, a perfect example of English neoclassicism,’ she could hear Michael protesting as he studied her stubborn expression. ‘I promise you, you’ll love it. I’ve had Tara book you onto the day after tomorrow’s Concorde flight for London. I thought you’d be pleased. You were only complaining way back in the spring how much you wanted to spend more time with your stepbrother and his wife and their son...‘This house... Did I tell you, by the way, that the guy who inherited it just‘This house... Did I tell you, by the way, that the guy who inherited it just happens to know your stepbrother and that’s how he’d got to hear about us? It seems that he was telling your stepbrother about the problems he was experiencing, having unexpectedly inherited this place, and Alex suggested that he should get in touch with me... I wasn’t too sure at first. After all, we’ve already got that pretty little Georgian place down near Brighton, but, well, I kinda felt I owed it to Lu

That relief had turned to something very different, though, when he had received a fax from Michael advising him that his assistant, Ms Elena Bennett, would be flying over to Britain to act as his representative over the repair and renovation of the property. He could, of course, have simply chosen to turn his back, walk away, and leave someone else to liaise with Elena, but Roth wasn’t like that. If he had a job to do he preferred to see it through for himself, no matter how unwanted or potentially problematic that task might be.Potentially problematic! A bitter half-smile curled his mouth. There was nothing potential about the problems that Elena was likely to cause him... Nothing potential at all.He had heard scraps of news about her over the years, of course, mainly from lucas and Lia. Elena had completed her degree course and majored summacum laude... She was living in New York and looking for a job... She had got a job... Elena was working in Venice... In Rome... In Prague...

Set on a small incline, so that it could overlook its surrounding gardens and parklands, it was everything that the neoclassicist architects had decreed their houses should be and then some more, Elena acknowledged as she drove slowly towards the gravelled parking area in front of the massive columned portico to the house. Stopping the Discovery, she opened the door and started to get out.*Roth had seen her drive up from an upstairs window. She was just a few seconds short of five minutes early. Remembering a younger elena, and her apparent total inability to arrive anywhere on time, he grimaced ruefully to himself before making his way downstairs.They met on the paved portico. Roth opened the massive front door just as elena mounted the last step. She stopped the minute she saw him, freezing instinctively like a gazelle scenting the presence of a leopard.He hadn’t changed, but then why should he have? He still looked exactly the same. Tall, broad-shouldered, with the smooth warm

She was under no illusions about why he had kissed her like that... It was his way of reminding her not just of the past, but also of his superiority...of telling her that, whilst she might be the one who was in charge of the project they were going to be working on together, he still had the power to control her...to control her and to hurt her.Elena turned swiftly on her heel, not waiting for him to see the emotions she knew were clouding her eyes. knew were clouding her eyes.‘The lake needs dredging,’ she commented crisply as she shuttered her eyes and stared out towards the large ornamental lake several hundred yards away from the house.It was the wrong thing to say. She could hear the mocking amusement in Roth's voice as he drawled, ‘Well, yes, it does, but let’s hope this time you don’t end up head-first in the mud. We’ll have to hose you down out here if you do.There’s no way Mrs Lucia is going to let you into the Rectory smelling of stagnant lake water and covered in mud