Mistress on Demand Read online

  Was he furious with her for being late?Sophie fretted, glancing round at the other impeccably attired guests. There hadn’t been a lot she could do when she’d received the note at the end of class yesterday afternoon, advising her of the meeting. ‘All staff are expected to attend’, it had stated clearly, and Sophie hadn’t wanted to say she was going to an important function and then have to explain why. The gossip regarding her lift on Friday had died down a little, but not as much as Sophie would have liked.

  Now, as her gaze swung nervously back to Dominic’s, her heart nearly stalled when she saw the way his blazing emerald eyes were devouring her. Inside her lovely silk dress her body tightened and tingled in helpless response. The crowd in the room melted away, because only one person demanded all her focus and attention…Dominic. She’d been secretly longing to see him again, but the awesome reality of the man’s physical presence was almost too much to bear. His hard, fit body did things for that expensive tuxedo that would make the tailor who’d designed it weep for joy.

  ‘You are here now, and that is all that matters.’

  Still unsmiling, he put his hand beneath Sophie’s elbow and was just about to lead her back into the glittering anteroom when the master of ceremonies announced that dinner was about to be served—could all guests please make their way into the dining room?

  Half an hour later, seated at the top table with her handsome escort, dinner under way, Sophie glanced around at the sea of dignitaries and their partners, then back to Dominic. His profile, with its crown of bright hair, reminded her beguilingly of a beautiful Greek god—the kind paid homage to in sculptures. A little stab of pleasure jolted through her stomach.

  Everybody wanted to talk to him, it seemed. And, although Sophie secretly yearned to have him to herself, she knew that in this glittering arena of worthies and VIPs Dominic Van Straten was ‘king’ and she was a mere admirer—along with all the other eager admirers who waited their turn to be noticed by him.

  Reaching for her glass, Sophie took a too-hurried sip of wine and promptly spilled some down the front of her dress—the wildly expensive designer gown that Emily Cathcart had insisted that Dominic was only too delighted to pay for.

  As she tried in vain to brush the spreading stain away, Dominic glanced down at her side and touched his hand to her thigh. For a long moment the press of his hand against her flesh—albeit beneath the sensuous silk of her gown—felt as if it had scorched Sophie, and she caught the hot flare of desire in his gaze and barely knew how to breathe.

  ‘I’d better go and find a bathroom.’ Already pushing back her chair, and feeling overwhelmingly self-conscious as several interested pairs of eyes at their table turned her way, she was astonished to see Dominic rise to his feet, too.

  ‘Excuse us,’ he announced to no one in particular, ‘but I think my companion is in need of a little help.’

  ‘You don’t have to—’

  ‘I very muchdo have to,’ Dominic assured her in a vehement whisper as he deliberately guided her away from the tables and out of the palatial dining room.

  Without a word, Sophie quickened her pace to keep up with his commanding stride, following him down thickly carpeted silent corridors to a door marked ‘Powder Room’. As she turned to thank him for his help, Sophie’s blue eyes grew round with shock when he opened the door behind her, gave her a gentle shove inside, then promptly joined her. Inside the scented room, with its gleaming mirrors and padded chairs, the purely naked lust reflected in Dominic’s mesmerising gaze backed Sophie nervously up against a wall. Feeling her heart beat so fast she was certain that at any moment now she would fall to the ground in a faint, she saw his hand reach out to slide around her neck, and she moved inexorably towards him as though in a dream she had absolutely no control over.

  ‘You—you really shouldn’t be in here, you know. This is the—This is the—’ But her words were drowningly cut off by Dominic’s hard, hot mouth on hers, capturing her breath with a soul-shattering kiss and smashing every last bit of resistance Sophie might own to dust. Her body yielded like a rag doll’s as he hauled her desperately against his own implacable contours of finely honed muscle and bone. And she had no thought to stop him when his hand slid down and deliberately palmed her breast beneath her silk gown, his thumb and finger coaxing the already aroused tip into pure burning sensation.

  ‘Did I tell you how amazing you look in that dress?’ Dominic breathed against the side of her bare neck, his heat skimming across her flesh like naked blue flame.

  Before Sophie could even think to form an answer, he stole another voracious kiss, leaving her lips swollen and tingling and her head swimming, then stepped away and raked his fingers agitatedly through his precision-cut blond hair.

  Dominic was in no doubt she was temptation personified. In that sexy, yet undoubtedly classy black silk dress, so perfectly chosen by his friend, Sophie Dalton was asiren , a mythical creature of dreams and wild imagination come to life to taunt him. The more he saw her, themore Dominic wanted her. He might have spent most of the evening so far talking to all and sundry apart from Sophie, but the mere fact that she’d been sitting just a few inches away from him had made his blood sing and his thoughts race. So much so that he was certain any comments he’d been making had hardly made any sense at all.

  The idea that had formed and started to take shape back at the hotel in Suffolk was slowly but surely becoming more real—not to mention moreurgent . It was playing on his mind like a symphony, the sound of which refused to leave him morning, noon or night. And Dominic fully intended to make it into the reality he desired.

  ‘I want you to come back home with me this evening. I have something I want to discuss with you.’

  Furrowing her brow, Sophie stepped away from the wall and smoothed her hands down the front of her dress. The damp stain from the spilled wine was not to be seen. It wouldn’t have surprised her if the heat from their bodies—hers and Dominic’s—had all but scorched it dry.

  ‘What do you want to talk to me about?’ She tried to scan her mind for reasons, but her teeming brain wouldn’t readily yield anything very much. She was still feeling dazed from the passionate little scene she had been an unexpected player in just now.

  ‘Now is not the time or the place,’ he said in a clipped voice, his hand straightening his jacket sleeve as he assumed his previous cloak of formality.

  How did he do that?Sophie wondered in awe. How could he be full of fire and passion one minute, then in the next appear so cool and remote—as though he couldn’t possibly be acquainted with something so primeval as lust, at all? It made her want to go over to him, strip his jacket and shirt from his back and ruffle him up a little, with the provocation of her body.

  ‘It will be late when we leave here, won’t it? I want to get up early in the morning, to go for a swim, so I’ll probably just go straight home afterwards, if you don’t mind.’

  Dominic could hardly believe she was turning down yet another invitation of his. Good God! What was this woman trying to do to him? Never before in the whole of his romantic history with women had Dominic been made to wait foranything . Let alone a stubborn slip of a girl who resisted every single request he put her way! He was seriously beginning to wonder if his own hardly insignificant attractions were no longer to be relied upon. Yet he knew he hadn’t imagined her fierce response to his lovemaking, and so he calculated without conceit that any resistance in other departments must be purely to whet his appetite—to make his desire all the keener.He could have told her that she already had him driven so crazy with lust that she needn’t bother trying to whet his appetite with game-playing. But first he had to persuade her to come home with him.

  ‘I have a swimming pool in my house, as well as a selection of costumes available for my guests. You can swim there to your heart’s content and you will not be disturbed by other members of the public.’

  He turned towards the door, as though the matter were at an end, and Sophie took immediate um
brage at the way he so casually assumed she would do whathe wanted her to do. When she’d been with Stuart, Sophie had regularly and idiotically relinquished some of her own needs in deference to meeting the needs of her boyfriend.Look how he’d repaid her. She had no intention of behaving in such a submissive way again…withanyone .

  ‘I don’t want to swim at your house, Dominic! I want to go home and go to my own sports centre, like I usually do on a Saturday morning!’

  At her unexpected outburst he turned to regard her, with a frosty look in his green-eyed stare.

  ‘You are such a creature of habit that you can’t break an insignificant arrangement to be with me?’

  ‘It may appear ‘‘insignificant’’ to you, but it’s not to me! I am sure you would not break an appointment that meant a lot to you in preference to being with me, would you?’

  Her chest heaving in indignation, Sophie felt her annoyance quickly replaced by something far more disconcerting to her peace of mind when one corner of Dominic’s mouth quirked upwards into a provocative little half-smile.

  ‘Haven’t I already demonstrated how much I want to be with you, Sophie? Icould go home after this, and work. I’m flying to Geneva on Sunday for five days. The deal I’m hoping to close there will mean employment for several hundred nationals. I hope to win it over a rival who would greedily cost-cut efficiency and good labour in order to make more money. Negotiations will be complex and difficult. The more preparation I do the better. That is something ‘‘important’’ to me—yet I would rather spend the time with you. I really do not know how else I may convince you of my sincerity in this wish.’

  Put like that, howcould Sophie refuse? She felt slightly shame-faced. It wasn’t as though it wasreally any contest—swimming at the sports centre pool or going home with Dominic. It was just that the more time she spent with this man, the harder she knew it was going to be when they had to part. Dominic wasn’tserious about her. She’d be a fool to believe that for even a second. Sooner or later this…this hot sexual thing they had going on between them would fizzle out, and he would go on to the next obliging pretty female who would gladly try and fulfil his every whim.

  A soft, resigned sigh escaped her. ‘If it’s that important to you, I’ll come home with you, Dominic. But I don’t have any spare clothes with me for tomorrow. Could we drop off at my place on the way home to get some?’

  ‘No problem.’

  He had assumed the veneer of formality again, and Sophie experienced a sudden fervent wish that they could go home together right now, instead of returning to that ‘stiff’ formal gathering in the dining room. Anything to see the compelling light of attraction dancing in his eyes again when he looked at her.

  ‘Oh, and…Dominic?’

  ‘What is it?’

  ‘Thank you for the beautiful dress.’

  ‘It is my pleasure, Sophie…believe me.’

  Sophie hadn’t thought about the Press being at the banquet, but soon after Dominic had presented the award to a smiling recipient, and had his picture taken with the man, a gaggle of photographers descended on their table, snapping away at Dominic as though he were some kind of movie star.

  When he insisted on pulling her to his side, whispering provocatively against her ear, for her hearing alone, ‘Smile as though you are crazy about me,’ Sophie found the smile frozen on her face.

  She wished she were anywhere but where she was. She had always hated being the centre of attention. Which was another reason why weddings and the thought of being a bride filled her with horror. She didn’t stop hyperventilating until they were finally in the car alone, with Louis driving.

  After grabbing some clothes for tomorrow from her maisonette, and having been driven back to Dominic’s lovely house in Mayfair, Sophie suddenly felt as if she could drop with tiredness. It had been a hectic, demanding day, and it wasn’t over yet.

  Settling herself in one of the sumptuous white couches that dotted the room, Sophie picked up a stunning velvet cushion and hugged it defensively to her middle. Dominic had told her again on the way home that he had something important to discuss with her, and right now her heart was all but leaping out of her chest at the thought of what it could be.

  ‘Brandy?’ he asked over his shoulder as he crossed the room to the walnut display case.

  ‘Not for me, thanks. I’m so tired that if I drink any more alcohol you’re going to have to carry me up to bed.’

  Her lips froze as the words left her mouth. She couldn’t believe she’d said such an unguarded thing!

  Dominic turned to glance at her with a highly speculative and amused gleam in his unsettling gaze.

  ‘Whether you have a drink or not, Sophie, the idea holds undoubted appeal for me as I am sure you are only too aware!’

  Mutely, she pursed her lips. When he joined her just moments later on the couch, removing his exquisite jacket, throwing off his tie and loosening his shirt collar, the blood in Sophie’s veins started to thrum with helpless desire.Want curled deep into her vitals, almost making her whimper out loud, and the sensual foray of his inviting cologne mingling with the intoxicating heat from his body merely helped exacerbate that desire.

  ‘What was it you wanted to talk to me about?’ she forced herself to ask through suddenly dry lips.

  ‘I have had an idea.’

  ‘Oh?’

  Clutching the cushion to her middle even tighter, Sophie realised she was holding herself so stiffly that a pain had started between her shoulderblades. With a huge effort, she willed herself to try and relax.

  ‘What do you mean, exactly?’

  Dominic took a sip of his brandy before continuing, his expression serious. It drew Sophie’s powerless gaze to the hard, clean lines of his implacable jaw, and a little frisson of awareness ran down her spine.

  ‘A man in my position has many responsibilities, Sophie. Great wealth brings with it great responsibility. Contrary to what many people might think, I cannot just simply sit back and let the people who work for me take care of everything. I am actively involved in most of the decision-making that goes on around me. No doubt you think that makes me quite the control freak, but it is an action that is born out of great desire to do things well. I cannot stand mediocrity in any way. Whatever one does in life, one should do it to the very best of their ability. Don’t you agree?’

  Knowing the monumental desire she had herself, to be an inspiring and enthusiastic teacher and never to rest on her laurels as far as her pupils were concerned, Sophie gave a little nod.

  ‘Lately, I have come to the conclusion that my particular path in life should not always be travelled alone. I am fast coming round to the idea that it would be much assisted by having someone in my life to share it with me. That is whereyou come in, Sophie.’

  ‘Me?’ Her throat was as parched as gravel.Where was this leading? she speculated in fright.

  ‘Yes, you.’

  Putting down his brandy glass on the coffee-table in front of him, Dominic adjusted his body so that he was facing her. As his compelling green eyes briefly skimmed the low-cut front of Sophie’s dress, she barely knew where to look, she was so undone.

  ‘I am tired of the short, unsatisfactory associations that have lately been my experience. I’m asking you to come and live with me, Sophie, and be my mistress.’

  Momentarily struck dumb, Sophie stared.Were live-in lovers still called ‘mistresses’ these days? Her racing mind tried to assimilate her feelings on the matter. Never in a million years could she have contemplated someone like Dominic asking her such a thing! Did he really think that she would seriously consider such a position in his life?

  ‘You mean be like a…a kept woman?’

  Dominic threw her an impatient look. ‘Is it so impossible for you to visualise yourself being looked after by me?’

  ‘I don’t want to be looked after by any man! I have a career I love, a home of my own. Why would I give that up?’

  She is impossible!Dominic thought
furiously. She had pricked his ego a thousand times since they had met, and short of begging her to take the role he so longed for her to take—His thoughts broke off, because for a moment they slammed against a brick wall.

  ‘Have you not considered the fact that I am offering you the kind of opportunity a lot of young women your age would jump at? Think about it, Sophie. You would not want for anything. We could travel together. You would see parts of the world you have never seen before, and everywhere we go we would travel and stay in luxury and style. Does that sound like something abhorrent to you?’

  He really didn’t get her at all,Sophie realised disconsolately.He thought she could be bought with his money and his billion-dollar lifestyle. The so-called opportunity he was offering was a million miles away from what her secret heart truly longed for.

  Then she was stricken by another, even more disconsolate thought.

  ‘Is this some kind of a joke, Dominic?’ Hurt at the idea of being strung along by him for some kind of sick amusement, she felt heartfelt pain wend through her bloodstream. Ithad to be a joke. Billionaires didn’t proposition ordinary little primary-school teachers every day. The blood seemed to drain from his face.