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‘I’ry’

‘That’s a very pedestrian way to greethow o out for dinner? I know a very nice little restaurant just around the corner…’

‘You et dressed, walk so the re out with coffee? That sounds a little long’ She grinned and nudged her leg along his His body felt slick, as hers did, fro love ‘I could rustle up soe’

‘I’elo drawled

‘Why not?’ Francesca was genuinely puzzled Once upon a tiether, or rather she had watched hi around in one of his shirts, in that little apartment in Venice Now that she herself had become a cook, and one in demand, it made no sense to her that they should hunt out cuisine in any restaurants

‘Because e have now,’ he told her dispassionately, ‘is all about sex It’s not about doo down that road with this particular woman He could look back now at the past and in retrospect ed to insinuate herself beneath his skin to the point where he had recklessly allowed hih road but a slippery one The sex had turned into so wars in his kitchen with the sound of soround while they played at being real partners had been the first step downhill

‘Oh, right Yes I understand’

‘I hope you do, Francesca, because if you don’t then we ht now’

He was deadly serious

‘It would be a shaive to one another, but it would be life…’

The rush of hurt that followed his words, his casual indifference to anything intimate between them aside from intimacy of a purely physical nature, was intense Why the hell should she be hurt? It wasn’t, she reh she could ever, ever allow her relationship with Angelo Falcone to go anywhere What he had offered was just what suited her, the only thing that could suit her, when it ca as trivial as sharing the cooking

‘Are you sure it’s okay for us to even be here?’ she asked ingenuously ‘In your townhouse? Considering it’s all about sex, wouldn’t it make more sense for us to meet in a hotel so conversation completely’

‘Now you’re being ludicrous’

‘If a No Cooking rule applies on the premises, then that’s fine with me’ She hated herself for the desperation that kept her rooted to the spot, but if he was using her then wasn’t she si hie those feelings for a while, then rong with that?

For the first time, she envied Jack his cavalier attitude towards members of the opposite sex, the blitherelationships and be perfectly happy It was a da hunkered down in a hole of her own

‘Just so long as you know that you’ll never saed’ She kept her voice light as she slipped out of the bed and headed towards the en suite bathroom

Angelo followed her He had had to be frank with her but, still, it was a relief that she hadn’t walked out Not that it would have been the end of the world, but it would have been a tad disappointing when his expectations had been raised

She wasn’t aware of hi the door open and for a few seconds he stood there and stared as she stepped under the shower, catching her hair in her hands and raising her face to the shower head She had the raceful body he had ever seen

He entered the shower cubicle before she was even aware that he was in the bathroom and relieved her of the shampoo