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‘I need to see you,’ he told her ‘Right now’

‘I’ve got a stack of work to do, Riccardo Can it wait until later?’ Having lunch with Ben had been a good idea Charlotte felt calned to her destiny She couldn’t resist Riccardo, and that being the case then she would have to stop acting as though the world had caved in No one wassorry for herself She had made her choice and she would live with it and accept its limitations

‘No Do you want me to meet you at your office?’

‘No,’ Charlotte said hurriedly, shuddering at the thought of everythem to in-depth scrutiny ‘Where are you now?’

‘Regent’s Park’

‘You’re in Regent’s Park?’

‘You can always come here, but it’s a dreary day to be outside’

‘Okay I’llsoone to bed Is…is everything okay?’

‘No But I’ll explain when I see you’

It was so unlike Riccardo to say so like that that Charlotte felt a flutter of fear She couldn’t pack her things up fast enough, and on the Tube back her head was filled with sickening scenarios Had he changed hisher? Maybe her behaviour had finally turned hi she didn’t like him had awakened in him the obvious desire to have more than just a body She had lain in his arms and still kept hi that, and now she wondered whether he had finally got fed up with her sour grapes He wasn’t to know that she’d just been trying to protect herself

Or ht sneaked its way into her subconscious, and once there refused to go away Why else would he have been at Regent’s Park, of all places? If there was so with hih?

Fro offshoots wreaked havoc with her nervous system, and she hite-faced by the time she made it to the house and let herself in

‘I’m in here’

Charlotte dropped her bag and briefcase and kicked off her shoes She found hi a cup of coffee He looked at her, then back at the coffee, as if hoping to find inspiration in the , like a reader of tea leaves

‘What’s wrong?’ she deent’s Park at this time of day?’

‘Sit down’ He watched as she scuttled across to the chair Yes, she could melt in his arms, had melted in his arood was that when she still shied away fro her? He thought with regret of how she had wanted hio and how he had thrown it all away because his bright, glittering future had had no place for her at that ti future, he could only think how ly into his ar hiuage stiff with tension

‘I ca to God he had had the sense to have poured hier than a cup of coffee

‘You did? When? I didn’t see you’

‘I was told that you had gone out for lunch’

‘Oh, right Yes’ Charlotte thought uncomfortably about Ben and reddened