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‘You’re right,’ he said coolly ‘I’d be miserable instead But I have to ask Were you in love with that artist you ran off to Ibiza hen you should have been sitting your A-levels?’

He could see the question had shocked her but he needed a reminder of the kind of wo to him

‘I know the papers said I went there with the artist, but I didn’t I went there for an artist’

He shook his head as if that distinction was hardly worth noting ‘I hope he orth it’

‘It wasn’t like that,’ she said, a dull flush of colour highlighting her nificent cheekbones ‘I didn’t know him personally I went to Ibiza to see his work because he was truly inspirational and he was dying That exhibition was his last one and at the tiht it was more important than a maths exam’

Seriously unsettled by his lack of control over his libido Aidan didn’t want to hear her excuses ‘Well, now you know better’

‘Yes Now I know that noaround like a bad sive you for it’ She placed her cup carefully on the bench ‘I know you live your life completely s wrong occasionally But the other thing that I know is that if everyone in the world forgave others for their inadequacies and theirthey find acceptable, the world would be a happier place It’s people who let pain turn into resente’

She looked slightly embarrassed by her outburst and her lower lip quivered and o to bed, Cara’

Outrage shone out of her eyes and for asuch a judgood-night before walking off with her nose in the air

Aidan released a long breath It had been a long ti at a woman

And now he realised that as well as trying to stop her tears and help her out earlier in the day by bringing her to Fiji, he’d also had an ulterior ht her here with the possibility of finishing what he had started at the casino the other night

Her diehard belief in love and happy-ever-afters meant that his conscience was unlikely to let hi to offer her