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Aiesha wondered if he kne close he would be to losing it all if she stayed in his life No one wanted bad blood Not in their family Not in their social circle Not in their business dealings What would happen to his squillion-dollar deal if her father or stepfather gave a tell-all interview to the press? She was surprised one or both hadn’t already done so There wasmoney The shaht in like dirty baggage She couldn’t escape her past It would always be there like a horrible spectre just waiting for the worst possibleto the powder room,’ she said ‘I’ll meet you back in the ballroom We can talk about this later’

His eyes took on a cynical hardness ‘You think I’ to run away as soon as I turn ht you were stronger than that Tougher See’

She stood straight and tall and deter this for you Can’t you see that? ‘Don’t you dare call me a coward’

‘Go on, then,’ he said through tightened lips ‘Go Run away froet before you realise you’ve run away fro that matters to you’

‘You don’t ned cold, hard indifference ‘Your money matters to me It’s all I ever wanted froirl sal now Do you have his number?’

His jaorked for a ust ‘Find it yourself’ And, with that, he turned on his heel and left

CHAPTER TWELVE

Teeks later

JAMES LOOKED AT his phone for the fiftieth ti stubborn in refusing to reach out to Aiesha But he wanted her to stop the ga He should never have fallen for that crack about his father Of course she wouldn’t contact his father—he was too busy sunning himself on the beach at an exclusive resort in Barbados with not one, but two girls half his age

Ja a better love life than hi with Richard in outback Australia, ca over the one that got away

The press had done their thing over his broken engage but he had done his best to ignore it He had s to worry about He wanted Aiesha to come to him To reach out to him He had offered her his heart and she had tossed it aside like a toy she had finished playing with

Had he got it wrong about her? Had she been playing hiht of the way they had ined that once-in-a-lifetime intihtmares and fears? She had opened herself to him in a way she had never done to anyone else He was sure of it He knew her He loved her

He pushed back fro to take? He was a patientway past ridiculous He missed her He ached to be with her, especially now as her career was about to take off He’d read about her recording contract in the press She had her first concert tonight in Berlin as a supporting act for a big-name band as on a co to what he’d gathered fro the band on the rest of their world tour

His phone flashed on the desk with an incoe He snatched it up but when he looked at the screen it wasn’t a text, but a news feed cout clenched when he read through the article that had been tweeted Aiesha’s stepfather had given a warts-and-all interview to the press It was nothing but a pack of lies It disgusted him to read such trash about someone he loved so much And of course the journalist had taken it one step further by including photos of his father and Aiesha’s role in his parents’ divorce There was even a photo of her biological father outside the court where he had been sentenced to prison The shaht Who would be there to protect her from the fallout? Who would be there to coot too much?

He clicked on his co