The Billionaire's Virgin Temptation. Michelle Conder

Molly opened her door and poked her head inside. ‘Are you ill?’

      Yes, she was. She had just told a man she didn’t even like that she needed him the night before. While they’d been having sex. Outside. At a party. The very thing she had warned her younger sister not to do!

      Sex?

      Was that really all it had been? It felt more like a cataclysmic event that had changed everything for ever from this point on. Certainly it had been the most erotically charged event of her life. In fact, before last night she had never understood how anyone could get so carried away with a man that they didn’t stop when their common sense asserted itself. Unfortunately if her common sense had asserted itself she hadn’t heard it.

      It was the way he had looked at her and touched her that was the problem. He made her feel so special and so hot she literally lost her mind in his presence. Not that she was special. How could she be when he hadn’t even known her name?

      ‘Ruby?’

      Or that she’d been a virgin? Although there was a moment of hesitation where she’d wondered if he had guessed at her inexperience. It had been cowardly, but the fear that he would question her about that, coupled with his soft curse of regret afterwards, had been the reason she had run when he’d gone to get her water. Not her finest moment, for sure, but when faced with the alternative of unmasking herself and saying ‘Hi, it’s me, Ruby. Great sex, by the way, thanks for the initiation’ she’d chosen the easier, less confronting option. And didn’t regret it for a second!

      The fact that Sam Ventura would never know she had been the one he’d had hot vertical sex with was the one saving grace that made her confident she could face the day.

      ‘Ruby, you’re scaring me.’

      Ruby glanced up to find Molly’s worried brows knitted together. ‘What? Sorry.’ She forced her mind back to the present.

      ‘You don’t look well. What happened last night?’

      ‘Nothing. I’m fine.’ Ruby pinned a smile on her face, hoping that one day it would be true. ‘Give me five minutes and I’ll join you for yoga.’

      ‘You sure you’re up to it?’

      No. But it was better than lying around in bed thinking about how stunningly erotic sex with Sam had been and how she was unlikely ever to experience anything like that again.

      ‘I’m sure.’

      Her sister looked unconvinced. ‘I’ve made coffee, so hurry.’

      As soon as Molly closed the door Ruby dashed out of bed. She knew from texting her sister last night that she’d met with the director and after some convincing he’d agreed to give her a call to set up an audition. Thankfully, Molly hadn’t cared that Ruby had left the party without her, happy to continue on with the thespian crowd after successfully completing her quest.

      And yoga was the best thing that she could do. It helped re-centre her enough to keep her mind off her excruciatingly bad decision on Friday night and stopped her from conjuring up future disasters as a result of her uncharacteristic indiscretion. Future disasters like the fact that she’d had sex for the first time in her life with a man who didn’t even know her name. Like the fact that if Sam had still worked for the same firm as her, and ever found out it was her and told someone, the gossip would be all over chambers before she’d finished swiping her key card in the office lift.

      Fortunately he lived in LA, so he was as likely to find out it was her he’d had sex with as she was of flying to the moon.

      Small mercies, she conceded as she ducked out of the Monday morning summer rain and into the coffee shop she regularly haunted before work. She’d almost convinced herself that she’d pushed the whole Friday night affair from her mind when a tall, broad-shouldered man entered the coffee shop behind her, shaking the morning drizzle out of his dark hair.

      With her heart in her mouth Ruby waited for him to turn towards her and as he did she felt a sense of unreality come over her when she realised it wasn’t Sam.

      The man gave her a small smile as she continued to stare, and Ruby made an apologetic face and swung back to the barista fixing her coffee. She felt jumpy all of a sudden and that just wouldn’t do. She wasn’t going to run into Sam in the middle of George Street. If anything she’d call Miller later in the day, find out how long Sam was in town and then avoid him for the duration.

      If only the sex hadn’t been quite so good.

      Not good. More like amazing, mind-blowing, incredible. Other phrases that came to mind were: over, never to be repeated, and stop thinking about it!

      Determined to listen to her saner side, she nodded at the dark-haired man whose attention she still inadvertently had as she strode out of the coffee shop and crossed the road to her office. The sooner she started work and felt normal again, the better.

      ‘Hey, Ruby.’ Veronica, her upbeat secretary, called out as she held the lift door open. ‘How was the Herzog gig Friday night? Did you meet anyone nice?’

      Why was everyone so interested in her love life all of a sudden? ‘The Herzog party was fabulous.’ She knew if she didn’t show the right amount of enthusiasm that Veronica would prod her for more information. ‘How was your weekend?’

      ‘Took the kids to the zoo and saw the baby panda. So cute. So was there anyone interesting at the party? A celebrity or two?’

      ‘Not that I noticed. We were in masks, don’t forget, so that made it harder to recognise anyone.’ Thank God. ‘Why are you getting off at the third floor?’ Their office was on the fourth.

      ‘There’s a meeting in the big conference room. Didn’t you get the memo? Mr Kent Senior is making an announcement. We all received emails about it on Friday night.’

      Ruby had come straight from court on Friday night and even though she remembered seeing the internal memo in her inbox she had forgotten to read it as she was rushing to get ready for the party. ‘When is it?’

      ‘Now,’ Veronica said. ‘Aren’t you coming?’

      ‘Of course.’ Ruby stepped out of the lift, mentally reorganising her morning while juggling the file she’d been reading, her leather briefcase, hot coffee and her phone.

      ‘Want me to hold something for you?’

      Ruby shook her head. ‘I’m good. Any idea what the meeting’s about?’

      ‘Rumour has it that our firm is about to merge with a big-shot outfit from the States.’