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What that said to her was that he was not prepared to take things a step further, and she hated herself for knowing that that hat she had ended up wanting Ended up craving

Because she had fallen in love with him

She’d gone and torn up the rule book and done the one thing she had promised herself she wouldn’t do In fact she had done the one thing she had been so convinced she wouldn’t be in danger of doing because Alessandro Preda and her, as a couple, made no sense

So much for relationships that made sense Another myth to be chucked out of the

At least she hadn’t gone running back to hiht still be on offer Not that she hadn’t thought about that onhihtthat she wanted to carry on sleeping with him until the fire burnt out

He wasn’t to know that there was no danger of her fire burning out, was he?

But she had resisted

It was only nohen she heard his voice, that she realized just how et in touch with her

And he had

She didn’t dare contemplate what that meant, but she dared to hope

She wasn’t sure that she would even be able to play it cool Of course she wouldn’t leap into iht allow a heartbeat’s pause, so that he could understand that she was actually considering turning him away, but then she would crack She knew she would because the past eleven days had been the worst in her entire life

‘I was just about to leave,’ she said, in what she hoped was a cool, calm and collected voice—as opposed to one that sounded breathless, excited, which was how she was feeling ‘I guess you’re phoning to talk about the problems with the Wilson deal? Watson Russell toldto pull out at the last minute and that I was to do whatever was inI’o ahead’

‘The Wilson deal Yesof course’

‘I really do think that it’s a brilliant direction to go inelectronics and teleco huge profits, but it’s i companies alive And this sood chance ofa profit I told Ralph Wilson all of this, and he seemed very happy’

‘Drop the files up for me,’ Alessandro told her abruptly

‘Sure I’ll ’

‘Wrong response When I said drop the files up for ht now’

Did he want to see her? Hell, why not?

He phoned through to Rebecca, told her to wait for him in Receptionthat he had some last-minute business to tie upand was told, in reply, that there was no rush She orking on her laptop in the taxi because her working day never seemed to endblah, blah, blah

Alessandro barely heard the tail end of her sentence because there was a knock on his door and his whole body tensed in anticipation of seeing Kate

Which enraged him

His face revealed nothing, but in the space of a few seconds his cool dark eyes had clocked her from head to toe

And he didn’t like what he saw

Where the hell had the suit gone? Aside from that littlein time when she had let her hair down she had alorn suits Grey suits, black suits, navy suits, the daring cream one

No suit She earing a floaty dress in smoky blue colours over which a businesslike blazer did absolutely nothing to hide the sexy body underneath And she wasn’t wearing pu sandals Flat blue sandals with diamanté on the straps And she had painted her toenails—a pale transluscent pink that loss

‘So sorry,’ he drawled, turning his back on her and walking towards his desk ‘It appears I’ve stopped you on your way to a cocktail party’

Kate reddened and said nothing

She had hoped forwhat, exactly? Disappointh her and she could have kicked herself She had thoughtwhat? That he had called her to his office as an excuse to see her?

‘Here are the files’

She held thenal to his desk, where she dropped the round, ready to head for the door, loss and straighten her hair Which was tied back but no longer in its severe bun Instead it was loose, with only two blue clips on either side restraining the riot of tu waves

‘Wait a sec’ Alessandro drawled, ignoring the files ‘How are the tea into their new roles?’