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‘I’m proud to announce that my mother has been a ht be cured of her addiction to looking for love in all the wrong places’

‘And what about you?’ Alessandro murmured huskily ‘Are you a man-free zone at the moment?’

His thoughts veered wildly into uncharted territory He pictured her with a man He pictured her with him The face she chose to show the world was not the sum total of the person she was In fact, scratch the surface and the cool, , unpredictable currents

He had a driving, crazy urge to test those waters

He had his own reasons, he knew, for the choices he had made and continued tolove had left little room for a kid and no room at all for common sense Theirs had been a world with room only for each other, and their ridiculous choices had seen their joint fa thanks to rash decisions, stupid blunders, irrationalventures

Control? They had had none of that He did He controlled every aspect of his life, including his love life, but suddenly all those beautiful, vapid, utterly controllable women who had cluttered his life seemed like safe, dreary options

Insane He had never mixed business with pleasure Never This woman was off limits

But she had kick-started his libido and he felt the thrust of a powerful erection pressing against the zipper of his trousers, bulging and uncomfortable

Kate detected so through her and desperately tried to squelch it

How the heck had this happened? How had the conversation swerved froe and his misdeeds to questions about her private life? What on earth had possessed her to start sharing her life story like an idiot?

‘I’ve been very busy getting ,’ she said briskly ‘I haven’t had time to cultivate relationships’

‘All work and no play’ Alessandro murmured ‘Personally, I’ve always found that a little bit of play o a helluva lot faster’

‘That approach doesn’t work for me It never has’ She winced at the tenor of her voice—cold, priet the bill Iit’s later than I expected I don’t think it would be fair on George if we shoved our discussion of his plight into a few minutes tacked on to the end of a meal I realize you’ve written him off as a master criminal, but I feel he deserves better than that’

She automatically felt for the bun at the back of her head Still firmly in place Unlike the rest of her

Alessandro e and his unfortunate wrongdoings Tomorroas another day He would deal with that later They would deal with that later Right now

‘What approach doesn’t work for you?’

Kate pretended to misunderstand his question

‘Ah You’ve decided to retreat behind your professional mask Why?’

‘Because we didn’t coe’

‘But we didn’t,’ Alessandro pointed out with ree, as it happens’

‘And that was a h of relief as the bill was brought to theh of relief when the proprietor approached and began enthusiastically quizzing theht of theirbetween the two of them

So she hadn’t answered his question And he wasn’t sure why he wanted to find out anyway But he did What was it they said about wanting what you couldn’t get?

He watched as she rose, ter all personal conversation

‘I shall get a taxi home,’ she told him firmly

He ignored her ‘I wouldn’t dream of it’

He ushered her out into a —suitable weather finally for her starchy suit and jacket He made a call on his cell phone and his car, complete with driver, appeared froer door for her When she was inside, he leant down so that he was looking at her on eye level

‘You’ll be happy to know that you’ll be spared my company’

He grinned, and she had one of those intuitivethrough her head