Bought: For His Convenience or Pleasure? by Maggie Cox

Author:Maggie Cox
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2009-01-15T00:00:00+00:00

‘Ellie?’ Nikolai knocked on the door for a second time. Miriam had assured him that Dr Lyons had not come down from her room since she had shown her there, and that had been over an hour ago. Leaving a hungry and happy Arina eating fruitcake in the kitchen with the older woman, Nikolai had come upstairs to see for himself what was keeping Ellie.

He had not set eyes on her for over two weeks now, and he could not deny that a quiet but fierce excitement was building inside him to redress that. When he received no response from her yet again, he turned the doorknob and stepped inside. A shaft of buttery golden sunlight streamed through the old-fashioned window, casting a dappled effect on the carpet that showed the shadow of trembling leaves from the oak tree in the garden. But it wasn’t that captivating sight that drew Nikolai’s attention.

Ellie was lying on the bed, fast asleep. The quietly hypnotic rhythm of her breathing was the only sound in the room. He moved nearer to the bed, all his muscles helplessly contracting at the vision of her lovely face, golden hair, and her sweetly curvaceous body clothed in black jeans and a lilac coloured sweater. He found himself smiling at the sight of her small slender feet with their rose-pink-painted toenails curled into the silk counterpane, and suddenly he was in no great hurry to return to the kitchen.

If Nikolai didn’t confess at least to himself that he had feared Ellie might find some way of not keeping the bargain they had made he would be a liar. And now that he had the very real and captivating evidence of her presence before him something inside him knew a great longing to keep her to himself for as long as possible before resuming the rest of his day.

Stirring a little in her sleep, Ellie had a sudden furrow between her smooth arched brows. ‘Sasha—no!’

The heartfelt whimper left her lips and Nikolai’s muscles clenched again, this time in shock and dismay and…yes…slow-burning rage too. There he stood, admiring her beauty like the most gullible fool on the planet, relieved that she had not reneged on their agreement and grasping at the slimmest hope that things might turn out for the best after all—and Ellie betrayed him yet again…Betrayed him with a dream of his brother Sasha!

Disturbed by the images that flitted across the inner landscape of her mind, Ellie opened her stunning emerald eyes and stared at Nikolai in shock, instantly alert. ‘What’s wrong? What are you doing here?’ She pushed herself up into a sitting position, her not quite steady hand smoothing back the lock of bright hair that had flopped onto her forehead.

‘Nothing is wrong. I merely came up to see where you were. Miriam said she brought you up here over an hour ago.’

‘I fell asleep.’

‘Obviously…’

Crossing his arms over his chest, Nikolai speared her with an accusing and blaming glance. ‘You were dreaming about Sasha.’

‘Was I?’

‘You called out his name.

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