Elena tilted her head. “You do ask good questions. I’ve always liked that about you.” She smiled at the way Madeleine was trying and failing to hide her nervousness. “I am now divorced. There are no encumbrances that I can think of.” Her heart thudded painfully, as she watched Madeleine’s reaction. After all that time apart, Madeleine could have decided she didn’t want a considerably older woman in her life with so much media attention and baggage.

“That’s good to know.” Delight lit Madeleine’s eyes, and Elena felt a rush of relief. “You know, I’m feeling a bit jet-lagged. I’ve done the rounds now with this crowd. I think I should go.”

“What?” Elena eyed her, worried. Had she offended her in some manner? Her mind raced back over her words.

“And since your home is barricaded, I think we should go to mine,” Madeleine added.

We? Elena’s breath stilled. “Are you really tired, Madeleine?”

“That depends.” Madeleine’s expression was playful. “Come home with me and let’s assess me there. I might get a second wind.”

Elena effected her most disagreeable expression. “Well, I can’t have you collapsing here from exhaustion. As you’re my guest for the evening, it would reflect poorly on me.”

“Yes, yes, it would. We can’t have that at all.” Madeleine sounded earnest, but her eyes were dark.

Elena dragged her gaze away and pulled out her phone. “I’m ready to leave. Car. Now.”

“Wise move.” Madeleine placed her drink on a nearby table. “Looking after a former employee so well. I’m sure HR would approve.”

“Oh.” Heat rose in Elena’s cheeks, as she conjured visions of their evening ahead. “I’m quite sure they wouldn’t.”

* * *

“Your new apartment is lovely.” Elena’s gaze trailed around Maddie’s home.

Wondering if she could even remain standing, she was so nervous, Maddie swallowed. She glanced around the sleek lines, warm timber, and marble surfaces greeting her. It was a big step up from the last time Elena had visited her at a Manhattan rental.

“Yeah, well, thank Style for being generous with my first major pay cheque. Oh, and Vanity Fair, Time, New Yorker, Rolling Stone, and Condé Nast Traveller are no slouches either. I love the lock-up-and-leave aspect. It’s also only one bedroom, which put it in my price range, so…”

Madeleine trailed off. Elena didn’t need the real-estate spiel. She was just so damn nervous.

Elena took a step closer. And then another.

Her strapless green dress swirled as she moved, and Maddie was mesmerised by the daring bodice of taut, green silk held up by Elena’s creamy breasts and little else. She imagined slipping her hands inside, cupping her breasts, and freeing them from their confines. She licked her lips. Judging by the half-lidded eyes watching her, Elena had probably guessed exactly where her thoughts had gone.

“Madeleine? What are you thinking about?”

As if she didn’t know.

“Would you like a drink?” Maddie avoided answering by pivoting towards her fridge. “I have wine and water and not much else. Haven’t had a chance to go shopping yet.”

Elena trailed her fingers down her arm, short-circuiting the conversation.

Goosebumps broke out along Maddie’s skin.

“Not thirsty, no,” Elena said. “Hungry? Most definitely.”

“Oh.”

Elena slid her fingers to the back of her neck and pulled her in for a barely there kiss. She leaned back.

“Wow.” Maddie’s blood was roaring in her ears. Her lips tingled.

Elena’s lips shifted to her ear. “Why are you keeping me waiting, Madeleine? Haven’t I been patient? I believe you claimed this apartment came with a bedroom. I suggest you stop burying the lead and get to it.” Her lips curled into a smile against the shell of Maddie’s ear. Her tongue darted out.

Arousal shot through Maddie. She slid her fingers around Elena’s and led her to her bedroom.

She looked back at Elena. Her lips were parted slightly, her eyes dark with desire. “You’re so beautiful,” Maddie said. “I felt you watching me from your office in New York. It felt like a caress. Like fingers on my skin, but so soft. I told myself I was imagining it. That someone like you would never be interested in someone like me.”

“You were…a distracting temptation. You sorely tested my focus. But I was married.”

“And now? Aren’t I still a temptation? Or do you no longer lose focus?”

“Now, it’s far worse.” She smiled. “But I have come to appreciate the benefits of temptations, lack of focus be damned.”

Elena’s gaze slid to the queen-sized bed behind them. Her attention shifted to a solid-wood, white-painted dressing table with a mirror attached. Elena’s lips curved into a dangerous smile. “Madeleine,” she said, voice soft. “Come here.”

Maddie stepped forward and Elena gently turned her to face the mirror.

“Look at you.” Elena pressed in behind her and met her eyes in the mirror. “I see Perry has a sense of humour. Or a sense of the romantic. He knows how much I love Audrey Hepburn. The simplicity of her style was stunning. I recognise your dress. One of Perry’s up-and-coming designers is going through a tribute phase. This dress is modelled on the one Hepburn wore in Breakfast at Tiffany’s.”

Elena plucked the black material at Maddie’s shoulder and then trailed the backs of her fingers down Maddie’s bare skin, leaving tiny hairs erect in their wake. Her eyes never left Maddie’s as she touched her.

“Uh.” Maddie gasped at the promise behind those teasing fingers.

“Mm,” Elena murmured. “You are wearing an icon, and doing it superbly.”

There was a faint tik-tik-tik, as the zip on Maddie’s dress was lowered; Elena’s fingers followed the zip in a fiery trail. Elena slid the short sleeves over Maddie’s shoulders, then rolled the dress over her breasts before bunching it at her hips. Warm hands flattened across Maddie’s back and smoothed across her skin.

“I admire the softness of women’s skin greatly, and their backs in particular. Yours, in that stunning gown in Véronique’s dressing room, very nearly got me into a great deal of trouble. I found myself in the shocking position of fighting my instincts to bend you over that make-up table and have my way with you right there. I would have enjoyed watching your eyes in the mirror as I made you mine. All while you wore the most exquisite dress I have ever seen in my life.”

Maddie’s throat went dry. Heat flooded her at the thought of that fantasy. A tug brought the dress down past her hips and to the carpeted floor. She stepped out of it.

“Of course, I can still do that to you,” Elena said, voice soft and suggestive. “Can’t I?”

“Ohh.” Maddie whimpered. “Yes.”

Elena’s hands returned to her back, ghosting across her skin. “You can see it, can’t you?” She playfully plucked at and then undid Maddie’s bra. It fell to the floor. “My eyes on yours, the who’s who of world fashion just outside. And when I lifted the white hem on that stunning gown, pushing it up past your hips, what would I find? Hmm? What undergarments were you wearing that night? Or were you bare?”

“Oh, I…th-thong. Lace thong.”

“Mmm. Yes, I’d have enjoyed plucking that from you. Slipping it down your firm thighs. And doing much more.”

Maddie gasped.

“You like that idea.” Elena’s gaze burned. “I do too. I think of it, quite a lot.”

Elena’s lips pressed into Maddie’s shoulder, then the warm wetness of her tongue swept along it. She lifted her head, and her direct gaze examined Maddie’s aching, erect nipples and the spreading flush across her chest. Her fingers curled around Maddie’s rib cage and plucked at her nipples, rolling them between her thumb and forefinger. The sensation sent warmth between her legs.