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The impact on the Challender name in the architectural sector had been catastrophic At the tiht or cared how her actions would i with his father, he’d lost current and potential clients, and it had only been in the last year or so that he had been able to redress the effects of the fallout of the scandal

No wonder he hated her

And no wonder he couldn’t understand what possible reason hisin contact with her, even sporadically,as she wanted

Aiesha wasn’t sure she understood it herself

‘Your es,’ she said ‘Unlike soones’

His glittering eyes, his knitted brow, his flared nostrils and his iron-hard jaw visibly quaked with conteain You haven’t changed an iota You’re still a s tramp on the make The fact that you want money to pose as my fiancée proves it’

Aiesha tossed her head in a devil-may-care manner ‘Take it or leave it, James It’s your reputation on the line, notto lose’

His hands balled into fists as if he didn’t trust himself not to reach for her and do her an injury A perverse part of her was excited to see hi self-control he so prided hi It made her want to push and push and push until he fell into sin It hy she goaded him so shamelessly She wanted to prove he was no different frohout her life He ht have been surrounded by silver spoons and salvers, and slept on silk and satin sheets, but behind that stiff, upper-lip, straitlaced de passion that was as primal and earthy as any other sexually mature man

His eyes nailed hers like blue darts, his htly set it looked physically as well as et the words out ‘How much?’

Aiesha pictured the cottage in the country she had drea in council flats alls as thin as diet wafers She had dreamed of a place surrounded by flowers and fields and forest, of peace and cal No pis No violence

Solitude Safety

She na towards his hairline ‘What?’ he choked

She folded her arms in an implacable manner ‘You heard’