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‘I hated it,’ she had uiltily, appalled that he had picked up on that unsavoury rumour ‘But everyone else had done stuff like that and I wanted to fit in I wanted them to like me’

After that affair, Raffaele had begun vetting her friends as well, recognising that his sister was too vulnerable to be left at the ullible nature to entertain themselves at her expense

‘Presumably you have already discussed this idea with Vivi,’ Raffaele remarked curtly ‘And she, of course, will be keen’

‘Keen?’ Sta out loud ‘Vivi hates you and she definitely doesn’t want toVivi to the altar is your personal challenge’

‘You’re seriously expecting me to believe that she isn’t involved in this proposition?’ Raffaele incised in disbelief

‘Of course, she isn’t involved Vivi doesn’t work off logic, she works off eestion that she h achiever of your calibre will know exactly how to transforhtening his snapping dark eyes ‘If you want that dossier to stay private, you have to get Vivi to the church’

‘That’s to be ritted teeth

‘If you like to think of it in those ter but you keep your hands off her,’ Stam Fotakis warned him bluntly ‘I want her back as untouched and unharmed as she is now Is that understood?’

Dark colour edged the s his taut bone structure He could not credit the warning he was being given ‘I have never touched an unwilling woman in my life,’ he countered with icy hauteur

‘Well, you will find ,’ Stam forecast with satisfaction ‘I dare say you’re accustoh you didn’t rise to the bait ofyou a come-on in the lift’

‘That was a set-up?’ Raffaele breathed in thundering disbelief, momentarily betrayed into speech

‘I like to know the nature of the men I deal with and you passed the test You’re not a womaniser,’ Stam retorted crisply ‘I am very protective of Vivi’

It was on the tip of Raffaele’s tongue to say that on the one occasion he had had Vivi in his ar, but he sed back that unwise adrateful that there were, after all, sorandfather did not know

And now, Raffaele reflected as he travelled back to his London town house in the comfort of his limo, he had to decide what to do next It was ironic that he had always had the co very, very rich protected you, he conceded, stunned into shock and an unfamiliar sense of powerlessness by the situation he found himself in But wealth hadn’t, after all, protected Arianna from her misfortunes from conception, nor was it sufficient to hold at bay an old man determined to claim restitution for a sin that Raffaele had not actually committed

He had not called Vivi a prostitute For a start, she had been an escort rather than a prostitute and he knew the difference, having met women of both persuasions in even the most exclusive circles and learned how to detect and avoid theuard still infuriated hination, however, had beenheadline

Unfortunately, that truth would not reerous dossier on his sister froeful hands

An upsetting h Vivi’s mind as she put on her make-up for her date with her boyfriend, Jude She had had a blazing roith her grandfather during his birthday party at her sister and brother-in-law’s ho her sisters about it because she had known it would upset them when they preferred to play happy families