boring. You’re making a laughing stock of yourself.’
Her infatuation had died fast. Since then, watching off and on from the sidelines, she had come to see just how repulsive his approach to women was. He picked them up and then, when he’d got what he wanted and boredom began setting in, he dumped them without a backward glance and moved on.
Romantic at heart, with a core of firmly held family values, Sammy marvelled that she could ever have looked twice at someone like Leo. But, then again, she’d been young and he’d been crazily good-looking.
‘He’s been better. Are you going to invite me in or are we going to have this conversation here?’
‘I suppose you can come in.’
* * *
Great start, Leo thought wryly. A very auspicious beginning to what’s intended to be the relationship of a lifetime.
He hadn’t thought about how she was going to react to his proposition but he didn’t expect too much protesting. He was, after all, bringing a great deal of money to the table and, as everyone knew, money talked a lot louder than words.
Anne Wilson, Samantha’s mother, was a close friend of his father’s and had been since Leo’s mother had fallen ill and Anne, a nurse at the local hospital, had gone beyond the call of duty to help out. Their bond had strengthened over the years as she had proved to be a solid rock upon whom his father had often leaned, particularly after his acrimonious divorce from Georgia.
It was no surprise then that Anne had confided in Harold about her ill health and the money problems she was having with the bank because she had been forced to quit her job. Though Harold had offered to give her the money, and, when that hadn’t worked, to lend it to her, she had refused.
* * *
‘So...’ Sammy folded her arms and stared at him almost before he had shut the door behind him. ‘What have you come here for?’ He was so good-looking that she could barely look at him without blushing.
Leo’s fabulous looks had to do with far more than just the arrangement of his features. Yes, he was indecently perfect, from the long, dark, thick lashes that shielded equally dark eyes and the straight, arrogant nose to the sensuous curve of his mouth. Yes, he had the toned, lean, six-foot-two-inch frame of an athlete and the lazy grace of some kind of predatory jungle animal, but he also generated an impression of power that was frankly mesmerising.
‘Are you always so welcoming to visitors?’ Leo drawled, ignoring her bristling hostility to shrug off his coat, which he proceeded to dump on the coat hook by the front door.
The house had clearly been made into flats, each with a separate entrance and, from the looks of it, on the cheap. Too much door-slamming and the whole structure would collapse like a house of cards.
‘I happen to be very busy at the moment,’ Sammy said shortly. She led the way into the sitting room and gestured to the mound of exercise books which she had been about to look at.
He sat himself in a chair. He had come to visit for reasons she couldn’t begin to understand and she was furious with herself for the silly heat that was pouring through her.
* * *
She was as awkward as he recalled. He’d never spoken to her without getting the feeling that she would much rather have been somewhere else. He’d never really paid a huge amount of attention to her appearance in the past, simply absorbing the impression that she didn’t dress to impress, but now that she was going to be the love of his life he couldn’t help but notice that she really had mastered the art of not making an effort.
Accustomed to women who bent over backwards to show off flawless bodies, who devoted unreasonable amounts of time to their appearance, he was weirdly disconcerted by someone who didn’t seem to give a hoot. He stared at her narrowly, recognising that, despite the appalling dress sense and the mop of blond hair that had been piled on top of her head and secured with a fluorescent elastic band, there was a certain pretty appeal to her heart-shaped face. Plus she had amazing eyes. Huge, cornflower blue with long lashes.
‘I take it you’re not interested in pleasantries, so shall I skip past the bit where I ask you how you are and what you’ve been up to recently?’
‘Do you care how I am and what I’ve been up to recently?’
‘You should sit down, Sammy. The reason I’m here is because I have something of a complicated favour to ask. If you insist on hearing me out on your feet, then you’re going to have aching calves by the time I’m through.’
‘A favour? What are you talking about? I don’t see how I could possibly help you out with anything.’
‘Sit down. No, better still...why don’t you offer me a glass of wine? Or a cup of coffee?’
* * *
Sammy resisted scowling. By nature, she was a kind-hearted woman who would never have dreamed of being downright rude to anyone she knew, but something about Leo always got her back up. She’d long ago written him off as too rich, too good-looking and too arrogant, and the way he had settled into her flat and was proceeding to order her about was only hardening her attitude.
She would quite have liked to have asked him politely to clear off.
As though reading her mind, Leo raised his eyebrows and subjected her to a long, appraising look that made her go red.
‘Okay,’ he drawled, ‘I’ll cut to the chase, shall I?’ He shifted slightly, reached inside his trouser pocket and withdrew a small box which he dumped on the table in front of him. ‘I’m here to ask you to marry me.’
SAMMY BLINKED AND then folded her arms, body as rigid as a plank of wood. Anger was bubbling up inside her. After one glance at the navy blue box he had dumped on the table, she hadn’t deigned to give it a second look.
‘Is this some kind of joke?’ she asked coldly.
‘Do I look like the kind of man who would show up on a woman’s doorstep and propose marriage as a joke?’
‘I have no idea, Leo. I don’t know what kind of person you are.’ Aside, she thought furiously, from the obvious.
‘Open the box.’
Sammy eyed it with a guarded expression and did nothing of the sort. But her fingers were twitching and, uttering a soft, impatient curse under her breath, she reached down and flipped open the lid.
An engagement ring nestled on a deep blue velvet cushion. The exquisite solitaire diamond blinked at her and she blinked back at it, utterly dumbfounded. Her hand was shaking as she placed the box, still open, back on the table and moved to sit down on the chair facing him.
‘What the heck is going on here, Leo? You can’t possibly be serious. You show up here with an engagement ring, asking me to marry you. Something’s wrong. What is it? Is that ring even real?’
‘Oh, it’s a hundred per cent real. And guess what? You get to keep it when this is all over.’
Sammy’s head
