Page 6 of Virgin's Stolen Nights with the Boss

But the man was preaching to the wrong choir. Elias was sick of guaranteed winners, and his father’s preference for movies that played it safe.

‘We’ll be in touch,’ Elias said, in a voice that indicated the conversation was over.

He remained unmoved as the producer shuffled off.

‘You can be so brusque!’ Wanda hissed. ‘I wanted a chance to talk to him. You could at least have introduced me. Whatisyour problem tonight?’

Where do I start?Elias thought, as he saw that Seraphina and her husband Vincent now stood conversing with his parents.

He would like to be able to say, after all these years, that he wished her well.

But he did not.

It was then that he noticed the slight swell of her stomach beneath her gold dress, and recalled observing Vincent’s team toasting and congratulating him a couple of weeks back. While he and Vincent might now be on opposing polo teams, they were old friends...

Elias glanced towards his mother, who was smiling and immaculate, but he knew the strain she was under tonight. Elias hoped, if he was right, that Seraphina and Vincent wouldn’t share their happy news just yet. Elias would prefer to break the news to his mother in private. Not that she’d betray any emotion other than sheer delight. But even so, Elias knew the news would hurt her.

Although he looked impressively immaculate, tall and elegant in his tux, and was conversing politely with all and sundry, there was a restlessness to him that made him something of an enigma. He might look the part of red carpet idol, but he would rather be riding—either women or horses.

But he couldn’t be described as a playboy—because at thirty-five he was no boy, and he certainly didn’t play.

Well, he played polo, but he took that extremely seriously. His current team was relatively new, but they were already making waves...

‘Elias?’

He frowned as he saw Seraphina making her way towards him. It was only then that he realised Wanda had seized her chance and was now talking to the producer he’d so recently snubbed.

‘On your own tonight?’ Seraphina observed, while taking a glass of champagne from a waitress.

Perhaps she wasn’t pregnant after all...

Elias stared into her cold blue eyes and her pretty china doll face.

‘Go to hell,’ he told the woman he loathed.

‘I just miss you so much,’ she said urgently. ‘There isn’t a day when I—’

‘Do you want me to state it more loudly?’ he fired back, his voice low with enough threat that she heeded his warning and walked off.

‘Sorry, darling...’

Wanda was back, and she reached out a hand to rearrange his tie, but in a reflex gesture Elias arched his neck and turned his head away.

Heloathedunnecessary touch.

‘If we were a real couple,’ Wanda drawled, removing her hand and taking a drink from the proffered tray, ‘then the occasional display of affection would be expected.’

‘Wanda, if wewerea real couple,’ Elias responded tartly, ‘then you’d know by now that I abhor feigned affection and—’

Elias’s irritation was abruptly halted as he saw the ghost of a smile on the waitress’s full lips.

He wasn’t remotely embarrassed that a waitress might have overheard his conversation—hell, this was LA. Everyone gathered here tonight surely knew that he and Wanda were not a couple. She was his date for functions such as these, but no more than that.

Elias Henley was close to no one by choice.

He kept his relationships superficial at best, and with good reason—he didn’t trust anyone and nor did he want to.

His arrangement with Wanda benefited them both: he required a beautiful woman on his arm, and she made the most of his network of contacts to further her career in the movie business.

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