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‘What the hell are you going on about?’

‘You think all you have to do is turn on the char is sohan Mason! A woman doesn’t wear a bra and you assume that it’s for your benefit! My God, you really think the world revolves around you, don’t you? Did it never enter your head that had you not needed help getting dressed then I et ready?’

‘You’ve been flirting with han insisted, but Amelia shook her head

‘You kissed er moved to the spot, the very spot, where his lips had scorched her flesh ‘You were the one who ca ready You were the one who kissed me So don’t you dare try and turn this ontoyou’

She o, ready to run the last few steps back to her bedroom, painfully aware that another woman had had him today, had tasted him, adored him, determined not to relent But his hand closed around her wrist like a vice, capturing her, swinging her around to face hi her with a fact they both knew to be true

‘But you do’

His voice was thick with emotion, his hand looser now, and she could have left, could have walked away this very second But instead she stood ‘You do,’ he said for a second time, and she wished she had a solicitor present—so, to pull her out before she gave in, before she voiced a truth that could surely only sentence her ‘You’ve wanted me from the day you walked into my office You’ve wanted ot a past, but…’

‘Your past is a bit too recent for istered the tiny frown between his eyes ‘Who was she, Vaughan?’ She choked the words out, hating herself for asking, but needing to know ‘Who was the woman who left your room this afternoon?’

She felt his hand tighten on her wrist, watched as he sed hard, a nervous dart in his eyes before finally they met hers

‘You have to trust me there…’

‘Trust you!’ An incredulous shrill laugh escaped her lips ‘Trust you?’

‘Yes,her ‘Trust me when I say that I cannot tell you now, Amelia, and believe ’

‘I need to knoho she is, Vaughan,’ Aed ‘You can’t just ask me to trust you, to believe…’

‘Because of what Taylor did?’

‘Because I can’t do this again, Vaughan’ She was sobbing now, consu how close she was to relenting, to giving in, to backing hi odds ‘I’ve been hurt before—believed someone when they said they’d mended their ways, that I was the only one…’

‘But I have changed, Amelia,’ he rasped ‘These past few months I’ve realised that I want more’

‘And what about this sudden change? What brought about this great epiphany?’ Aer was directed at herself, that she could even allow this discussion to continue, terrified of being dragged in a touch deeper, that she ht believe his lies

‘A seven-year-old boy row up!’

And so in the pain behind the hesitant words told her this was real

‘That’s all I can tell you now, A a confidence I’ve sworn to keep’