Chapter Four

5:09 AM

 Toyin sighed as she as she wriggled against the rumpled bedsheet.

She turned facing Massimo seeing he's awake

'Good Morning' , she said 

 'morning, why didn't you tell me, you were a virgin? '

" I don't know" she shrugged. ' is it important to? ', 

Her tongue slid out to moisten her lips. ' That was ------'

 " Don't tell me". His voice was hard and cynical drawl. ' Amazing? Wonderful? Women usually say it was the best sex they've ever had, although I suppose in your case that would be difficult to gauge since it's the only sex you've ever had.' 

"You sound disappointed, Massimo. Do you have a problem with the fact that I was a virgin?"

 " Only the same kind of problem I might have if I took a ride in a car with somebody who hadn't bothered to tell me they were a learner driver." 

 His cutting words shattered the last few bliss and Toyin stared straight ahead at the unfamiliar wall of the moonlit bedroom. 

 "Thanks for the comparison", she said flatly.

 " Why the hell have you never had sex before? " he demanded and shook his head in disbelief.

 " You're young, beautiful, you were clearly up for it. And this the twenty-first century. "

Toyin swallowed thinking: you might have been in the twenty-first century, but I certainly wasn't. Because I was born a royal and betrothed to one of the world's most eligible men awnd part of the deal was that I would marry him as a virgin.

" Maybe I was waiting for the right man", she said innocently

Watching as he sat up in bed, quickly covering the lower part of his body with the rumpled bedsheet.

But not before she'd noticed that he was aroused again and for some reason that gave her a fleeting feeling of triumph.

"Okay, Toyin, just a reminder this changes nothing. The fact that you were a virgin means nothing to me, sorry to be blunt, but it saves any kind of misunderstanding. "

'I'm not looking for a partner and even if I was it won't be you. We have different lives, ' he added, almost gently. "You're a cook on some kind of late-onset gap year and I'm a globetrotting CEO." 

He gave a shrugging kind of smile. ' it could never work. ' 

 Toyin resisted the urge to pick the nearest hard object and hurl it at him, but at least his attitude made her decision easier. 

 " I think you flatter your self ", she said coolly as she got out of the bed and picked up the discarded towel which was lying in a heap on the floor. 

 " I agree with every word you say. It was nothing, rest assured that I'm not looking for commitment either. I told you that in the pool."

" Maybe I should have let on that I was a virgin but I didn't want to destroy the mood. And since you are a globetrotting CEO who's flying out of here today, good bye in advance, Massimo.

 Toyin felt a different kind of satisfaction as she saw the expression of disbelief on Massimo Carter's face just before she turned and walked out of his bedroom.

A rush of heat flooded to his groin as he remembered the sex of the night before. 

------+++------

Massimo phone started ringing, it was William, one of his assistant calling from New York. He frowned. 

William know not to call him unless absolutely necessary.

He hit the button and waited.

' Massimo? '

'Of course it's me! Who else did you think it would be! ' 

Massimo answered, his eyes sighting Toyin's swimsuit lying on the floor of the en-suite bathroom. He started thinking about her again.

He sat up, his fingers tightening around the phone. 

' I thought I told you not to call unless absolutely necessary, ' he bit out. 

His assistant's voice grew serious. ' This is very important, Massimo. '

 Massimo stilled, even if he came from the world's most dysfunctional family, they were still family. Yet if somebody was ill, it won't be his assistant calling him, but Amber, or one of his half brothers. 

" What's the matter? He demanded, Is somebody sick?"

"No, nobody is sick."

' What then? ' he questioned impatiently.

There was a split-second pause. ' That girl you've got working at the station. '

'Toyin', said Massimo instantly and then could have cursed himself. 

Surely he should have taken a nanosecond to recall the name of one of his itinerant workers, even if she had just left, much less if she was still here. ' The cook. '

' She's not a cook. ', William said.

' She may have only the most basic of culinary skills, but I can assure you she most certainly is. ', countered Massimo.

' She's a Princess. '