Dirty Aristocrat by Georgia le Carre Read Free Book Online Page B

air in the room changed. His hands hung languidly at his sides, but his entire body emitted the kind of tension of a prowling animal. From where I was I could make out the contours of his muscles under his shirt. Butterflies started fluttering in my belly. Suddenly the night ahead stretched as an uncomfortable, tense affair.
    ‘Hello, Ivan,’ I said nonchalantly from my seat. I had decided that I would be sophisticated and cool.
    ‘Hello, Tawny.’
    ‘Can I get you a drink?’ I asked civilly.
    He turned towards James. ‘I’ll join Mrs. Maxwell in whatever she’s having.’
    ‘Very good, Sir,’ James said, and with a polite bow backed out of the room.
    Ivan strolled towards the sofa next to mine, sat down, spread himself with his knees far apart, and fixed his silvery gaze on me.
    I took a sip of my drink. ‘Good day at the office?’ I asked.
    His eyebrows arched in surprise. He seemed to hesitate. ‘I didn’t go in today.’
    I suddenly thought of Chloe. About how ‘restless’ she had been last night. ‘Ah, the pleasures of being one’s own boss,’ I said. It had been my intention to sound light and sophisticated, but it sounded like sarcasm.
    The silence stretched and I glanced at my hands. I could feel his gaze on me and, as much as I did not want to admit it, I was starting to get really nervous. I felt as if he was studying me, looking right into me. Interminable seconds passed. Finally, I looked up, my eyes defiant.
    ‘What did you do today?’ he asked.
    I didn’t miss the commanding tone in his voice. This was a man used to giving an order and having it obeyed. I looked into my drink. ‘I’m afraid I didn’t do much today,’ I murmured.
    In fact, I had spent my morning in Robert’s room. It had brought me to tears because I walked in there expecting it to look like it always did and I found that the housekeeper had ordered the servants to strip the bed and remove the mattress. It had been taken away to be aired, but seeing the bed in that way shocked me and made his death real in a way that seeing him still and wasted inside the coffin had not.
    I looked up and found him gazing at me expressionlessly. ‘You must get so bored here.’
    I met his look levelly. ‘No.’
    He seemed genuinely surprised and I felt a thrill of joy that I had caught him off guard. ‘So you will carry on living here?’
    ‘For the foreseeable future.’
    He frowned. ‘You don’t plan on moving to London?’
    ‘No.’
    ‘Why not? You are a very rich woman now and London is very exciting when you are rich, beautiful and young.’
    I felt myself blush. He thought I was beautiful. ‘I will go to London when necessary, but I won’t be moving there.’
    ‘Do you go up to London often?’
    ‘Well, I haven’t used the London flat in nearly six months. I didn’t like leaving Robert here on his own so I used to make sure that I finished whatever business I had and returned in time for dinner.’
    James came in with a tray. Ivan thanked him and took his drink.
    He raised it slightly. ‘To you,’ he said softly.
    I looked at him warily.
    ‘Well, what will you do now that Robert’s gone?’
    ‘I’ll do what he wanted me to do.’
    He stared at me with blankly. ‘What was that?’
    ‘For the last three years Robert bought islands with the intention of turning them into turtle sanctuaries.’
    Ivan looked at me from narrowed, openly skeptical eyes. ‘Robert was setting up turtle sanctuaries?’
    I nodded. ‘You seem very surprised.’
    ‘I am,’ he admitted. He leaned forward and the light from the candles seemed to flicker and shimmer in his extraordinary eyes. His eyes became alive and … hauntingly beautiful. I blinked at the amazing transformation. With the shadows thrown under his cheeks he was … suddenly … wickedly hot! So hot that a strange urge from somewhere unknown dared me to reach forward and lick those curving, sensuous lips. I stared at him, my mind burning with the thought. He leaned back