Summer at the Star and Sixpence Read Online Free PDF

an answer. Will had intervened, told the man to stop hitting on his girlfriend, and
Sam had been vulnerable for a few minutes. That had been all Will Pargeter needed.
    ‘I don’t normally do that kind of thing,’ he’d said, once the other man had got the message. ‘Especially not when the damsel in distress looks like she’s more
than capable of handling herself. To be honest, I was more concerned for him than you.’
    Sam laughed. ‘Thank you. I’ll take that as a compliment.’
    She looked at him properly then. He was tall, around 6´ 4´´, in his early thirties with wavy brown hair and pale blue eyes. Good looking too, especially in that expensive suit
and crisp white shirt, and she had the oddest feeling she already knew him. He wasn’t a client; she was sure she’d remember but she couldn’t place where she’d seen him
before. Maybe television – he was very well spoken and had the air of someone who was used to being watched.
    ‘I can’t blame him for trying,’ he said. ‘You’re by far the most eye-catching woman in here.’ He held out a hand. ‘I’m Will Pargeter.’
    She considered the name: definitely no one she knew. ‘Sam Chapman. Pleased to meet you.’
    She took his hand and he instantly raised it to his lips. ‘Trust me, the pleasure is all mine.’
    From anyone else, it would have been cheesy. But whether it was the twinkle in his eye when he said it or the consummate confidence behind the delivery, it worked. Sam felt a shiver of
attraction when she met his gaze.
    ‘Can I buy you a drink?’ he asked.
    She shook her head. ‘I should buy you one, to thank you for saving me.’
    Will grinned. ‘Ah, but you didn’t actually need saving. So we’re all square.’
    ‘A vodka martini, then,’ Sam said and surreptitiously glanced down at his left hand. No wedding ring and no telltale signs that he normally wore one, either.
    Nodding, he turned to go.
    ‘Actually,’ Sam said impulsively, laying a hand on his arm. ‘Make it dirty.’
    Will’s eyes met hers. ‘Whatever you want,’ he said and in that second Sam knew they were going to have sex. How long it took them to get there depended on how well he played
the game.
    He came back with her drink and they began a courtship dance. Sam established early on that he was thirty-three and single, ran his own consultancy business in the City, although she
couldn’t quite get to the bottom of what his business actually was. He’d just sealed the biggest deal of his career, he said, and was in the mood to celebrate. The next time he went to
the bar he returned with a bottle of Bollinger and things got hazy after that. They’d gone back to his hotel, The Landmark in Marylebone – by that time she already knew money
wasn’t something Will Pargeter struggled with – and hadn’t wasted much time on sleep. Just before seven, Sam had scrawled her number on the hotel notepaper and left Will sprawled
across the king-size bed.
    He called later that day to thank her for a wonderful night and sent an extravagant bouquet of lilies and roses to the office. The next time she’d seen him had been on the BBC news the
following morning. He looked, if anything, even better than he had in person. Sam had sat up in her bed and turned the sound up.
    ‘Thank you for joining us, Lord Pargeter,’ the anchorwoman said, with a smile that seemed a little more coy than usual. ‘So tell me – what is a “Morality
Tsar” and why does the government need one?’
    Sam blinked hard.
Lord
Pargeter? Her gaze slid to the caption at the bottom of the screen:
Lord William Pargeter – New Morality Advisor to Prime Minister
.
    Will looked serious. ‘I wouldn’t call myself a tsar, exactly, but I have been brought in to ensure certain moral standards are observed in politics. Anyone who reads the papers will
know there have been too many lapses in judgement recently among members of both the House of Commons and the Lords. These men and women are meant