Ayoola_vta2_4

'Oh, don't worry, ' Massimo said, with a disdainful curl of his lips.
'I haven't come here for sex. '


'Oh? Then why have you come here?'

Toyin tilted her chin in a defiant gesture and suddenly Massimo wondered how he could have been so dense. Of course she was someone.... A diamond in the rough ~ that had been his initial reaction on seeing her, and he had been right. 

And when he stopped to think about it her high-born status had been apparent in every gesture she made. It had been there in the way she moved and the way she walked. In her flawless skin and heart-shaped face and in the thick, lustrous bounce of her hair. 

She was a princess. A runaway virgin princess who had chosen him as her first lover.

' I'm still trying to get my head around what happened last night, ' he said.

VIRGIN PRINCESS AND THE BILLIONAIRE: friends with benefits

HE HAD EVERYTHING he wanted. Everything. So why

Massimo paced the floor of his Manhattan apartment,

where outside the glitter of skyscrapers meant you

couldn't really see the darkness of the night sky. A

bit like him. He was functioning as normal.

Closing deals and starting new ones. Working out and going

to parties. Life had to go on in every sense. He knew

that. He'd even taken a woman to the theatre last night.

He stopped his relentless pacing and gave a ragged

sigh. She must have thought he was crazy. Successful

and beautiful, she'd made it plain she'd like nothing

more than to have him share her bed.

And just the thought had left him cold. Worse than

cold. His skin had crawled at the thought of touching

His pacing resumed. Why the hell couldn't he stop

thinking about her, despite his conviction that this

was the best thing for both of them? Because if he

couldn't give her what she really wanted then neither

An image of her face swam into his mind. Her eyes

black as a Queensland sky. Her dark hair threaded

with sapphires or tumbling free over bare shoulders.

The cool smile she'd given him as he'd left Antiochda.

He'd thought the flatness in her eyes had been for the

benefit of her watching brother, who was clearly ir.

ritated by this latest turn of events.

alised it was all for him. There had been no reproach

in her gaze just a quiet dignity, which had preoccu-

pied him all the way home to America and continued

So what was he going to do about it?

He had a problem. Wasn't it about time he started

Bright sunlight flooded into the breakfast room of

the Antiochda palace and the King sat back and

I wondered if you might take a run out to Assimenios Beach today,' said Drake.

Toyin pushed away her half-eaten dish of grape-

fruit segments and forced a smile to her lips. The one

which seemed to split her face in half but which she

hoped Drake found convincing, He probably did. He

wasn't exactly the kind of man who spent his life an-

alysing the facial expressions of women, especialy

not those of his sister. Why should he care if she was

'Any particular reason?" she questioned.

'Could be. I'm thinking of building a house there,

said Drake. 'And I'd like your input.

Toyin opened her mouth to say she wasn't sure

her opinion was up to much at the moment. Then

Drake was being more inclusive some-

fhing she had told him she wanted? It wasn't his fault

that she wasn't firing on all cylinders, she thought as

she went to her room and crammed on a light straw

hat over her curly hair. It wasn't anybody's fault

She stared into the mirror, aware of the new defi-

nition of her cheekbones and the shadowed hollows

of her eyes. She had to stop thinking this way. She

Chapter Thirty two