High Society by Penny Jordan Read Free Book Online

her own body tensed as well.
    ‘I mean that aside from wanting to protect Gramps, there has to be something else in this for you.’
    ‘Such as?’
    ‘This woman you no longer want, for instance? The one you were happy to take to bed but don’t want to get seriously involved with?’
    ‘Like Blayne with you, you mean?’
    He had relaxed again now, but he was still firing those poisoned darts, with deadly accuracy. Well, she could fire a few of her own.
    Giving a small shrug, she told him, ‘If you want to put yourself in the same category as Nick, then go ahead.’
    She had known, of course, that he wouldn’t like her comment, but she hadn’t correctly calculated just how much.
    When he took a step towards her she found that she was automatically stepping back, and, even more betrayingly, wrapping her arms around herself, her hands on her bruised flesh as though to protect it from further assault.
    There was a look now in his eyes that she could not interpret—at least not with her brain. Her emotions were reacting to it with a sudden rush of hot miserable tears that burned the backs of her eyes.
    ‘I can’t understand what on earth you’re even doing here in Majorca,’ she burst out, exhausted. ‘I suppose it must be something to do with the Foundation?’
    There was the smallest of pauses before Silas agreed quietly, ‘Yes.’
    ‘Another acquisition, I suppose?’ She was just too tired to argue now.
    ‘In a manner of speaking. Although this one is very special...unique, in fact.’
    ‘And worth the trouble this fake relationship with me is going to cause?’ Julia asked him wryly.
    ‘Well worth it,’ Silas confirmed softly, before continuing, ‘Now, which side of the bed?’
    ‘The left. No, the right... I really don’t mind. Which side do you prefer?’ Julia asked him, and then went bright red. ‘No, I didn’t mean that. What I meant was, which bathroom would you prefer...?’
    When he continued to look at her, she bit her lip, and then told him huskily, ‘I can imagine what you’re thinking, but I don’t want to have sex with you, Silas.’
    Just the lazy way in which he raised one eyebrow was enough to up her heart-rate.
    ‘I wasn’t aware that I had invited you to. But, if I had, why would you want to refuse me?’
    ‘Why?’ Julia took a deep breath and gave him an outraged look. ‘Isn’t it obvious? We don’t mean anything to one another—we don’t even like one another, never mind lust after each other. And even if we did... Well, it would just be too... Sex carries implications and...and responsibilities. And it’s...’ She was beginning to flounder and she knew it.
    Before she could sink any further, Silas told her, ‘You know, Jules, you are beginning to sound more and more like an anguished outdated virgin than the sexually experienced modern young woman I know you to be.’
    ‘Well, I’m not,’ she told him flatly. ‘Not a virgin, I mean.’
    ‘So why all the fuss and panic?’
    Why indeed? She could hardly answer that question for herself without having to face certain previously unrecognised realities, never mind admit them to Silas.
    Instead it was far easier and safer to take refuge in insouciance and say, as light-heartedly as she could manage, ‘Maybe I was worried that my experience wouldn’t match up to your own well-documented expertise. After all, that supermarket chain heiress you dated made it quite plain that she thought you were a real stud...and put that video of the two of you having sex on her website to prove it.’
    ‘You watched it?’
    ‘No! But I read about it in the papers.’
    ‘That was three years ago, and since you never actually saw a face the man in the video could have been anyone. Still, I’m surprised by your attitude. I should have thought you’d have welcomed the opportunity to enjoy my so-called expertise and learn from it.’
    Now what was she supposed to say?
    Yes, please?
    ‘Actually, we do have a client who runs, amongst