page9 (1/2)

He didn‘t care about anything except finding Kate Edwards

She had gone into the Hotel a Paris when she‘d run out of here Standing in thefro the square, dodging in front of a car in her haste to get away

He nodded curtly at the doorman, who leapt forward to open the door for him as Suki‘s words came back to hi…

She was right about the first bit at least—Kate Edwards was different entirely fro about her that tugged like a fish hook in his brain and left hiht

And that the experience had been worth re

Worth repeating—especially if it helped him to remember

The receptionist glanced up fro who he was, started visibly

Can you tell me which room Kate Edwards is in?‘

Her pink-painted uised awe, so it was a second before she answeredPardon, Signor Maresca…b-but really I shouldn‘t…‘

I hope Miss Edwards would disagree with that‘ He dropped his voice and, looking her straight in the eye, smiledPlease?‘

Colour flooded into her cheeks as she tapped the keyboard, and Cristiano felt a gri time since he‘d actively flirted with anyone, but that at least was so he could still do He just hoped that Kate Edwards would fall for it as easily

Because she was his best hope of recovering those lost hours He‘d slept with her then—would sleeping with her again bring them back?

So that was it

After four years of waiting, hoping, drea, it was finally over

With a shaking hand Kate swept up all the brand-new expensive cosmetics so carefully picked out by Lizzie and shoved the

Most of theht, stifling a sob

But as money compared to four years of her life?

She pulled her cheap suitcase down from the rack by the door and threw it onto the bed She didn‘t intend to waste a second longer on awith her A shallow, cold-hearted playboy, with eyes like black ice and a heart of stone

Straightening up for abreath Her eyes and her throat burned with the tears that she couldn‘t shed yet Not while humiliation and fury and bitterness were still so raw

And the desire

Her stos felt weak and shaky Passing the long ht of her reflection and saw that her eyes were huge and dark-centred, her ed, her lips red and swollen

She stopped, one tre to echo in the muffled silence of the opulent room as her mind replayed the kiss

How could she have been so stupid?

Not just tonight, she thought bitterly, kissing him like that, but for the last fourout into the darkness and wishing for him The loneliness of antenatal appointments, when all the other expectant mothers had had their husbands with the times in hospital, when she‘d watched proud fathers take their newborns in big, aard hands and gaze down at thely—all those times when she‘d silently wished for Cristiano, silently held onto her memory of his kiss, his touch, the way he‘d looked into her eyes that night and the sound of his voice in her head

This isn’t over…Last night was just the beginning Wait for me

Well, she had waited And she‘d hoped and believed that it was the accident that had kept hi of her the way that she‘d been thinking of hi contact

How unutterably, ely stupid that see for a man who didn‘t exist

Well, at least tonight hadn‘t been a complete waste of time and expensive make-up At least she had finally learned that Cristiano Maresca was not the kind of man she wanted as a father for her son She picked up her velvet evening bag from where she had thrown it on the bed and shoved it into the botto a shiver of relief that she hadn‘t handed over the letter

Alexander was better off without him in his life, and Cristiano…

A fat tear wobbled for a second on her eyelashes and then fell, glittering, and sank into the thick blue carpet as she pictured her son Cristiano didn‘t deserve to know Alexander, she thought fiercely Children weren‘t possessions to be passed between rightful owners It took enes and chromosomes It took love Selflessness Dedication