‘I had to see you,’ he bit out harshly.
‘Couldn’t you have just telephoned? It would have been much easier, and much less tiring.’
‘I didn’t want to talk to you on the telephone, I wanted to see you.’
’And miss being with Crystal Graves?’ she taunted.
Leon was pacing the room, very warm and vital in brown fitted shirt and trousers, the shirt partly unbuttoned down his chest. ‘My being seen with Crystal was pure publicity for the film,’ he told her tersely, impatiently.
Helen turned away. ‘I don’t believe you.’ Even if he was just confirming Jenny’s suspicions.
Leon came to stand in front of her, his body heat and the tangy smell of his aftershave very potent to the senses. He wrenched her chin round. ‘Crystal was just publicity.’ He paused. ‘But there have been a couple of other women who haven’t been. I’ll admit that I wanted to forget you, that I didn’t want to be involved with you, and in an effort to do that I’ve dated a couple of women in the States this past week. And do you know what they did for me? Absolutely nothing,’ he said disgustedly, shaking his head as he himself couldn’t believe it. ‘Oh, I took them to bed,’ he admitted harshly. ‘I wanted to lose myself in them, wanted their bodies to be the ones that I wanted. But they weren’t. They weren’t!’
Helen put her hands over her ears. ‘I don’t want to hear any more!’
‘Well, you’re damn well going to!’ he told her fiercely, pulling her hands down to her sides. ‘Because whether you want me or not you’ve got me. I’m tied to you by the most basic feelings possible, I want you until I shake with the emotion. So whatever your problem is we’ve got to work it out, for my sanity as well as yours.’
Helen swallowed hard, frightened by the anger he displayed. ‘You know I can’t. You know I—’
‘I know it all, don’t I, Helen?’ he rasped. ‘But I have to possess you—I have to! You’re like a fire in my blood. Those other women were a purely, physical response, mechanical if you like, but it was you I wanted all the time I was with them.’
She shook her head, her eyes wide with fright. ‘But I can’t! I can’t even let you touch me.’
His mouth was grim. ‘I know that, damn you! The only thing that’s keeping me sane is knowing that I’m no exception, you hate all men.’
‘Oh, I don’t hate you,’ she instantly denied, colouring as she realised the enormity of her declaration. ‘I don’t hate you,’ she repeated dully.
‘Thank God for that!’ It was a heartfelt sigh of relief. ‘The fact that you don’t dislike me makes it all the easier for me to say what I want to say. Helen, when I get back from the States I want you to come and live with me.’
‘You want me to what?’ she gasped.
His tawny eyes met her violet ones unflinchingly. ‘I want you to come and live with me,’ he stated calmly.
CHAPTER FIVE
‘YOU’RE mad! You have to be to even suggest such a thing.’
Leon ran an agitated hand through the thick swathe of fair hair that persisted in falling across his forehead. ‘I’m not mad, Helen, just frustrated. And I do mean it about you coming to live with me.’
‘But why?’ She blushed at the stupidity of such a question. ‘I’m sorry, I didn’t mean why, I meant—’
Leon gave a harsh laugh. ‘No, it must be obvious why.’
‘Yes,’ she admitted huskily. ‘I mean, why, when there can be no point to it?’
‘But there is a point to it, Helen. You have an aversion to me, an aversion I quite understand,’ he added gently. ‘And I really mean that. What West did to you was cruel and unfeeling. I want to try and help you get over it.’
‘By asking me to live with you?’ she squeaked.
‘It isn’t as stupid as it sounds. You’ve said you don’t want to be seen with me because it could rake up the past with the press. If you were living with me no one would know we were seeing each other.’
‘Rather drastic, I would have thought.’
‘But effective.’
‘And what would Max think of that?’ she asked dryly, her brain racing. Leon had to be insane to even suggest this! And he admitted he was insane, insane with wanting her. He had even flown back from America for a day just to see her. Somehow she found this knowledge exhilarating.
‘Damn Max!’ he dismissed impatiently. ‘Living with me, seeing me all the time in normal day-to-day living, you just might get used to having me around, to seeing a man in your life, to just get over your fear of me.’