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glorious, John. Absolutely exquisite … but you can’tgive them to me. I mean, they’re real, obviously … so they must be worth a small fortune!’
    For a moment he looked puzzled, genuinely at a loss. Then he smiled. ‘Of course they’re real and of course I can give them to you. I like them. I can afford them. They’ll look fabulous on you. Where’s the problem?’
    Put like that, it was simple. And she longed to see the satisfaction in his eyes when she accepted his gift … but still.
    ‘OK … OK,’ he said. ‘Let’s try this. You wear them this evening to please me. And we discuss the issue of you keeping them at a later date. Does that sound reasonable?’
    So reasonable. You’re such a grown-up.
    Thinking that, Lizzie almost laughed. He
was
a grown-up. A mature, urbane, sophisticated man, over twenty years her senior. A man prepared to pay for what he wanted without a qualm. As he’d paid for her, that very first night.
    ‘Um … yes, OK.’ She gave him a smile, wondering if he understood. ‘And thank you, even if for just this evening. They are the most beautiful things I’ve ever seen.’
    Except you.
    ‘Finally! Now pop them in and we’ll go down. Do you need me to help?’ His smile at having won the point, at least for the time being, was dazzling. His blue eyes flashed, far more brilliant and precious than the gems.
    When she entered the restaurant beside John, Lizzie wasn’t sure what the women at other tables were looking at most. Her, her earrings, or John.
    Mostly John, I should think, with umpteen thousand pounds worth of diamond bling a close second.
    They were shown to a table by the window, the one they’d shared once before and which commanded the best view out over the formal gardens of the Waverley, and the long park beyond. Instinctively, Lizzie scrutinised the treeline, looking for the tell-tale gap, and the path that she and Johnhad trod. It was not much more than a month, but it seemed like a lifetime since their wild games in the little dell. First, her spanking with a willow switch; then afterwards, their tumultuous fuck amongst the grass and leaves, her riding John, her bottom still aflame from his fierce attentions.
    Happy days.
    A different heat flamed in her face now, and when she looked at John he was grinning.
    ‘Good times, eh?’ He reached out and placed his hand over hers. ‘I can still see you, glaring down at me like a gorgeous Amazon goddess subduing her unworthy subject. That was some afternoon.’
    ‘It was indeed … that switch thing you cut was murder!’
    John’s slow smirk made her tremble. It was his
I know what you’re feeling right now
smile. His X-ray smile. He knew she wanted him again, switch and all.
    ‘And how are you feeling now?’ He leaned in close, his voice barely more than a breath, just for her ears. ‘Is your delicious arse still tingling?’
    ‘John! For heaven’s sake.’ She glanced around, wondering if anyone had heard, despite his low tones. Her bottom actually wasn’t sore any more, but she certainly didn’t want anyone in their vicinity hearing it discussed.
    ‘OK … OK … I’ll behave,’ he said, still smirking, mercurial and boyish again. ‘Shall we have some wine?’ He nodded, over her shoulder, presumably to some waiter hovering across the room and hanging solely on the every whim of the most favoured guest.
    ‘I’d love some. And to answer your question, no it isn’t. No ill effects.’
    ‘Good,’ he said roundly, as the waiter scuttled over.
    The meal they ate was delicious, as everything at theWaverley was. The hotel might have a naughty reputation, but it excelled in all the good things a normal high-class hotel would, and the dish of poached sea bass in a fennel and butter sauce was breathtakingly yummy. Food, wine, accommodation, a beautiful setting, the Waverley had it all. No wonder John had wanted to buy it.
    Mellowed by a little alcohol, Lizzie was able to relax, even in John’s eternally