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‘Fortunately since then I’ve learnt to use rated He opened hisbut she would never know because just then the doorbell rang Literally saved by the bell

She darted towards the door, breathing unevenly, and opened it to find that her saviour was Jack

‘He’s here!’ she hissed under her breath, grabbing hi him closer to her

‘And he’s getting under your skin Interesting’

‘This is no time to joke, Jack Just…just put your ar my boyfriend, would you?’

With his ar a hole behind her and, by the time she had unwrapped herself from the embrace, she was more or less back in control

Angelo had finally taken the hint she had been giving hih her door earlier on and was ready to leave He nodded briefly at Jack and then looked coolly at Francesca, as presenting a united front with Jack pressed next to her

‘I’ll be in touch’

‘Of course’ She smiled but her jaw ached It was a relief when he closed the door quietly behind hi

‘You’re going to have to deal with hi that he would follow and that he would also sense her et her a cup of coffee while she sat at the table and tried to recover froh she had been mon by a steamroller

‘Do you want to jack the job in?’ He handed her a cup of coffee and sat at the opposite end of the table

Weird, she thought, that he would be the one caretaking her nohen it had always been the other way around Tione She felt as though hers were now about to begin and a wave of resentelo could step back into her life and e to turn it upside down

‘And sacrifice hed shortly ‘I don’t think so’ Then, on a sigh, ‘But he’s playing with me, Jack Let’s behave like adults and civilised adults can discuss the past without getting e me when I react He never used to be like that, like a cat toying with a mouse He said he doesn’t intend to use his influence to our disadvantage and I believe him, but he’s happy to watch my discomfort every time I’m around him’

‘And you’re uncomfortable because…? Why don’t you just tell him the truth?’

‘No’ Why not? Because she didn’t want to watch the scales drop fro out on hilory he would be conteain, but then who didn’t have an abundance of that particular vice? ‘No, the answer is for you to deal with him There’s no reason for him to call in a hurry, anyway He doesn’t have the excuse of wanting to go throughto interrupt his work schedule tome squirm in his presence’

‘Then you don’t have anything to worry about’ He dragged a chair over with one foot and settled into a more comfortable position ‘So you can sit there and listen about me You haven’t even asked why I turned up here when I should have been down at the pub…’

His convoluted story of an enraged husband—‘Never suspected a thing,’—a child in the background—‘I’ll never trust a blonde again,’—and a pleading woman—‘I told her froed to take heron it like a lethal virus with aback to his place after a couple of beers, she was thinking again about Angelo, replaying everything he had said to her

She couldn’t believe that after all this ties she hadback into the past with such a lack of self-control Back there, in the sitting roo in front of her deliberately baiting her with me Yes, he had been goading her on Yes, he had liked seeing her rigid with discoainst her will, against all rhyme and reason, and it had been written all over her face No wonder he had been so insolently dismissive of her so-called relationship with Jack