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‘There’s nothing to explain,’ Angelo interrupted ‘And I’m not interested in explanations’ He stood up and politely waited for her to do the same

Francesca stood too and stared at him across the width of the table She would tell hiood would telling him do? She was still in the position she had been in three years ago Telling him would present him with an insoluble problee insoluble proble with had an obvious solution that ca of abortion, but Francesca would not even conte turns she had taken in her life had been of her own choosing or at least her own foolishness, and she had always taken responsibility for the consequences That wasn’t going to change now And besides…she loved hiathered up her handbag The unselfish thing to do would be to spare hi to destroy his life and his career

‘If it’s all right, I’ll just call a taxi,’ she whispered, fishing in the bag for her mobile phone

‘No need for that I’ll give you a lift back Like I said, no hard feelings’ He even ed a smile and for Francesca that orse because it was so very impersonal

He drove her back to her house in unbroken silence The te, but hard on the heels of temptation ca him in, the consequences he would be forced to deal with

The silent drive finally came to an end and he turned to her ‘Good luck with your catering business, Francesca I’ll ood word for you’

‘There’s no need…’

‘Call it for services rendered’ It was a cheap shot but the tip of the iceberg when it ca Yes, he had been the one to do the discarding and, no, it felt no better now than it had three years ago when the shoe had been on the other foot He could see from her face that the dart had hit bull’s-eye and loathed hi to apologise anyway

‘That’s…below the belt’

‘It’s the unvarnished truth’ He shrugged

‘I’m sorry’ She took a deep breath and weathered the shuttered, dark face i back at her ‘I didn’t think that it would end this way’

‘Apologies accepted, although we both enjoyed the ride so none are due’

‘I don’t think I’ll be staying on in London’ She gave a high, brittle laugh

‘No?’ He sounded ed to leave on account of me’

Francesca nodded Conversation had dried up Angelo wasno atte her questions There was the faintest semblance of boredom on his beautiful face

Her notions about passion fizzling out conveniently, leaving her cleansed and free to move on with her life, had been a terrible illusion, and her selfishness in agreeing to sleep with hirave ement

Angelo watched as she walked up towards her front door He didn’t wait to see her go in By the ti room and collapsed into one of the sofas, he was already three blocks away froht the roads were empty Once on the motorway, he revved the powerful car and ate up the miles to nowhere

Not that the purposeless three-hour drive ed to do much for his state of mind

Nor, for thatlike a beast He buried hi that people were looking at hi on He had no desire to fill any of them in In fact, there was a certain a the way his staff scurried out of his hen they saw hi They sensed his black mood and made sure to avoid it whenever they could Just as well It was as he was preparing to leave on the Friday that hisup for hi He had plans for the evening which included too ot the better of him