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She suppressed a shudder as she recalled Bavasso’s hands on her, reaching, grabbing ‘I believe you,’ she said ‘But I still don’t appreciate feeling like a prisoner’

‘For your own safety, as well as my own, I must take precautions I’m sure you understand’

He was so sly assured, that Laurel felt her protests falling away, unspoken Cristiano had locked the doors, yet here she was, the one who felt as though she was being unreasonable

‘And if I insist on leaving?’ she asked ‘What then?’

Cristiano shook his head slowly, his expression one of patentlya woer on my conscience Especially one I was once, however happenstance, related to’

‘We were never related’

He inclined his head in a regal nod ‘It is as you say, of course Stepsiblings hardly count as blood relations’

‘And surely you exaggerate?’ Laurel persisted She had to believe that ‘Rico Bavasso isn’t that dangerous’ When she’d first , just as Cristiano had said: silver-haired, hazel-eyed, all s about his assured manner had made Laurel uneasy, but her mother had seemed happy, and Laurel had just wanted her ht

Cristiano dropped his expression of fake regret as his gaze turned startlingly serious ‘Do you really want to take such a risk?’

Wordlessly Laurel shook her head Bavasso had been so angry She had no desire to run into hiain, especially not any time soon

‘Hoell do you know him?’ Cristiano asked His voice was mild, even friendly, but with a ripple of darkness underneath that nearly ain

‘I don’t know him,’ she said quickly ‘That is, not very well at all’ She didn’t really want to go into the how and why of her acquaintance with Rico Bavasso, yet it seemed Cristiano had already assumed the absolute worst