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‘You know’ She kept her face averted, her breath coed bursts She didn’t want to say it Admit it And Cristiano realised he very much wanted her to

‘I don’t know, actually I need you to enlighten me’

She drew a tortured breath, looking anywhere but at hi as if…as if you expectto happen between us’

‘So between us, bella,’ Cristiano answered softly ‘Can’t you feel it?’ He certainly could He felt it in the tautening of the air, the heightened awareness he had of her: of every draw and tear of her breathing; the pearly sheen of her skin; the way his loins tightened when she touched her lips with her tongue

‘I just want to go home,’ she said, her voice low ‘This isn’there’

‘You were certainly acting as if you belonged here earlier in the evening’

Finally she looked at hi in her aquamarine eyes ‘You saw…?’

‘I saw everything You on the casino floor with Rico Bavasso—practically sitting in his lap, laughing at his jokes, letting hiht you well, I suppose’

She shook her head, curls bouncing ‘It wasn’t like that…’

‘It was exactly like that and you know it,’ he answered, a hint of steel entering his voice ‘Nohat I’in now?’

She let out a cry and whirled away, stalking towards the lift doors Cristiano watched her, darkly amused, as she pushed the button