The Redemption of Darius Sterne by Carole Mortimer Read Free Book Online

reflection in the mirrored wall in front of her, her fingers now curled so tightly about the barre beside her that her knuckles showed white.
    â€˜I had to separate two of those little angels before class began; they were arguing over whose leotard was the prettiest,’ she answered dryly.
    â€˜Women in the making,’ he teased.
    â€˜No doubt,’ Andy answered dismissively before asking the question she really wanted an answer to. ‘What are you doing here, Mr Sterne?’
    At this precise moment, Darius was exerting all of his considerable will power to control the urge he felt to quickly cross the studio and kiss her delectable lips, before baring her body and kissing that too!
    Who knew that a woman could look so sexy in a leotard and tights?
    That
Miranda Jacobs,
specifically, would look so sexy in a white leotard and tights, with silky white ballet shoes on her slender feet?
    The long-sleeved leotard hugged every inch of her body, outlining her small but perfectly rounded breasts tipped with ripe—and aroused?—berries. His gaze took in her tiny waist, the slight flare of her hips, her bottom two perfectly rounded globes, her legs long and shapely in white tights. Her hair was brushed back and secured in a ponytail at her crown and her face, completely bare of make-up, tinged with a slight glow of warmth to her satiny smooth skin. No doubt the latter was from her recent exertions with the dozen or so small children that had just left with their doting mothers in tow.
    He had his own driver, but had chosen to drive himself to the dance studio. He’d arrived about fifteen minutes ago, the amount of other vehicles in the car park telling him that she must have a class on at the moment. Sure enough, shortly after he’d parked his car, the young students had all trooped out and disappeared off with their mothers in their various vehicles and directions.
    For some reason Darius hadn’t expected that Miranda would be dressed in the same leotard and tights as her small charges wore. Or that it would take just one look at her in those revealing clothes for his body to harden to a painful throb!
    It was a reaction that didn’t improve his temper in the slightest; he had already thought about this young woman far more over this past week than he was happy with—in the middle of business meetings, on a couple of long flights, in the shower,
in his otherwise empty bed
!—without becoming aroused almost the moment he set eyes on her again.
    â€˜Mr Sterne?’
    While he had been lost in the thought of exactly how and when he would like to have sex with her, Miranda had turned to face him, her head tilted curiously as those green and gold eyes looked across at him quizzically.
    Miranda Jacobs was all and everything that Darius deliberately avoided in a woman.
    And yet here he was, a week after their first meeting, hard and aroused after taking just one look at her.
    Darius had tried taking out and bedding other women the past seven days—and nights—several of them to be exact. But every time it came to the end of the evening an image of ash-blonde hair and a willowy, desirable body would flash inside his head, totally deflating any desire he might feel to have sex with the woman he was with.
    Every time he stepped into the shower, or climbed into bed at night, he could imagine that ash-blonde hair either slicked back and wet from taking a shower with him, or feathered out on his pillows, her green eyes sultry as she looked up at him invitingly, and making any idea of sleeping impossible. He also resented having to take care of his arousal himself.
    He certainly didn’t appreciate having had an image of Miranda popping into his head in the middle of a business meeting, as it had earlier this week in Beijing!
    Something had to be done. And the only solution Darius could come up with was to take her to bed, before then putting her firmly from his mind.
    If that meant he