The Purest of Diamonds(27)

                She didn’t get chance to tell him how she felt before falling off the edge of the cliff with a wail of surprise, and as she bucked convulsively it took all his ingenuity to keep her beneath him so she could enjoy the experience to the full.

                ‘Incredible!’ she exclaimed, panting as she came down. ‘You’re amazing—’

                He laughed as he nuzzled her neck with his stubble. ‘And you’re a very hungry woman, Leila Skavanga.’

                ‘You noticed?’ she said, starting to smile as he dropped kisses on her mouth.

                His answer was to move again. As far as he was concerned, it was Leila who was amazing.

                ‘More,’ she insisted when they’d been in bed so long dawn was starting to streak the sky with silver.

                ‘I should get up.’ He said this reluctantly, conscious of the long flight ahead of him. ‘I have to pack before I leave. And I have to file a flight plan before the wedding.’

                ‘Show-off,’ she teased him groggily.

                He only had to look into Leila’s eyes to want to change his mind and postpone his flight. Dios! She made him want to postpone the rest of his life to be with her.

                ‘Stay,’ she said softly, sensing this hesitation in him. ‘Stay with me in Skavanga, Raffa. Why not?’

                ‘I’d love nothing more, but—’

                ‘But you can’t,’ she said with resignation.

                What could he say? He had a life to get back to, as did Leila. ‘When you come out to the island—’

                Reaching up, she silenced him with her fingertips on his lips. ‘Don’t say it, Raffa. I know. You have your life and I have mine. This was one very special night—but that’s all it is. When I come out to the island I’ll be visiting for business and for nothing else. You can rely on me to keep my side of the bargain, as I hope I can rely on you to respect the professional relationship between us. And at the wedding, I’d rather we just kept it light, if that’s all right with you. I don’t want my sisters getting upset—not today of all days. I must have Britt onside, as technically Britt employs me to run the museum for the Skavanga mining company, so it’s important she takes my visit to the island as seriously as I do.’

                ‘I understand.’ She’d made it easy for him, which perversely only made him feel worse.

                Leila was lying back on the pillows staring blankly ahead, being brave about this as she had been brave about so many other things in her life. How many times had he spent the night with a woman and felt nothing but relief when she left him in the morning? That was most decidedly not how he felt now. ‘Go— Go and have your shower,’ he prompted. ‘Don’t make yourself late for your sister’s wedding.’

                It was over, Leila reflected as she swung out of bed. Their incredible night was over.

                ‘You’re still coming to the island?’ Raffa confirmed as she reached the door.

                ‘Of course,’ she said steadily. ‘Nothing’s changed.’

                But it had and they both knew it.





                                      CHAPTER FIVE

                EVERYTHING IN HER life had changed since meeting Raffa. Take this flight to his island. Britt had bumped her up to business class for the first leg of the journey, which had always been one of Leila’s ambitions, but the space and pampering only gave her too much time to think about Raffa, and how much she’d missed him.