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‘How long have you known my mother, incidentally? She seems to have taken quite a shine to you’

‘She has?’

She’d definitely had the notes just before she got in the car

‘Yes And you wouldn’t be the first person to want to be friends with enerous mother’

What was he talking about? Did he think that she wanted to be his mother’s friend? Did he think she actually wanted to be here, doing this?

‘I’m not here to make friends with anyone I’m here because I was told to be’

And then she stopped, suddenly aware of the dark look that had begun to spread across his face She’d gone too far

‘You were told to be?’ he asked as his brows rose quizzically above those sharp sherry-coloured eyes

‘Someone had to do it’

He sat back now, fra on the arers steepled in front of his chest They were shaded with fine dark hair, and above the pinstriped cuff of his shirt the leam of a luxury watch twinkled and shone

She kept her eyes there, concentrating on the strong bones of his wrists, refusing to look into his face as the jet powered on through the sky

‘And you drew the short straw?’ he said, lifting his water

She caught sight of the solid chunks of burnished silver cufflinks She’d never even known anyone ore cufflinks before, barely knew anyone who bothered to wear a shirt and tie, and she wondered for a ht

‘You’d rather be anywhere other than here?’

His voice curled out softly, quietly, just above the thruines, and with the un her? She flashed a glance up He was The tiniest of smiles lurked at the corner of histo stick her claws into his mother?