Falling For His Proper Mistress by Tessa Radley Page A

heart to take away with her when she left. Then she squared her shoulders.
    She wasn’t going to spend the night with Guy…and have the world know about it. She wasn’t going to become his lover—at least not until he began to trust her. Really trust her.
    Far better to sneak out like a thief in the night now than to face that humiliation in the morning when the staff came on duty.
    Swinging about, Avery headed into the darkened sitting room to find her shoes, her notebook and her tote, before she risked her self-respect.
    Â 
    Guy stirred, and reached out an arm…only to discover an expanse of smooth sheet. An empty expanse. His eyes shot open, and he rolled over.
    The bed was cool, no residue of body warmth lingered. The only signs that Avery had been there were the slight indent on the pillow beside him and the lingering scent of her perfume.
    Despite Avery saying that she would not move into his suite, Guy had comfortably expected to be able to change her mind last night—once he got her there. He hadn’t banked on her falling asleep, but he’d certainly expected her to still be in his bed when he wakened. Hell, he’d been arrogantly sure that he could persuade her to stay.
    Her absence was a significant shock.
    He’d planned to convince her that her scruples were insignificant, to pull her into his arms and make love again…and again in the shower…as they had for those two passionate weeks in New York.
    Not to awaken to this void of emptiness.
    Nothing was going the way he’d planned. In the past two months his life had been turned upside down. What with Avery’s betrayal, Jeff’s weakness in the face of temptation, his father’s death, the discovery that he had a half sister he’d never known…his world had gone crazy.
    For the first time in his life, he didn’t have the answers. He’d expected to hate Erica, to be able to forgive Jeff, to cope easily with his father’s loss—after all it had been years since they’d spent time together. Most of all he’d been certain of his ability to persuade Avery to resuscitate their smoldering affair, until he grew bored.
    But Avery had changed….
    And so had everything else around him.

Eight
    A very stood behind the presenter’s podium in the grand marquee waiting with some trepidation for Guy to join her. She took a sip of water and pretended to scan the notes she’d typed up on her laptop in the hours before dawn, when she should’ve been fast asleep.
    It was not the prospect of facing a crowd that was responsible for her trepidation, only the thought of seeing one man. Guy. She’d sneaked out like a thief in the night. And paid the price by her inability to doze.
    No doubt he’d slept like a baby.
    When she caught sight of him coming her way, her heart did a somersault.
    He was wearing dark trousers ironed to a knife-edge, and a white shirt that hung out giving him a rakish look. There was a faint line of stubble on his jaw that should have made him look untidy, but only made him more irresistible.
    His gaze caught hers, and for a moment they both stilled,then he gave her a faint smile. It widened, full of charm and promises. Empty promises…
    Avery glanced away as he wound toward her side, checking around to see if anyone else had noticed that moment of jolting awareness between them.
    No one sitting in the rows of seats appeared remotely interested.
    She relaxed a little.
    â€œYou ran out on me.”
    The whisper as he placed a laptop on the podium beside her notes caused Avery to shudder.
    â€œHush!” She slanted him a frown. Then ruined it by adding, “You looked like a baby, all innocence and eyelashes.”
    A flush stained his cheekbones. “I can assure you, I didn’t feel nearly as innocent as a baby when I woke up this morning….”
    The loaded words caused a rush of heat. For a moment she half wished she’d