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He wasn’t to know that last night, for the first tiain A spark A glimmer of hope

It was as if the cloud that had settled on her shoulders had finally started to lift It was as if a streah

Before, she’d always felt guilty Guilty she was on a date Guilty she was out again It had never felt quite right She had never felt quite ready

So why did now have to be the tiles down her spine and kissed her as she’d never been kissed before have to be her boss?

Matteo had lit a fla

Last night had felt so right Why was he acting as if it were so wrong?

Maybe she was crazy—a whole world of crazy How could she possibly even consider putting her heart out there again? It had been broken in the worst kind of way There was no way she could consider letting herself be hurt like that again

She dumped the bedclothes in the corner of one of the rooms She didn’t care how messy they were They could stay like that until the washer was finally plumbed in

She pressed her lips together and put her hands on her hips Right now she was so mad it was easy to push the other stuff out of her head The Rome stuff She would find an excuse A reason not to be able to go

He would still pay her for her work here That would surely be enough to put a dent in the bill for hershe wanted to do was spend any uy who could kiss her, then treat her as if she’d never existed

She looked around and lifted her chin He wanted this house dressed?

Then, boy, he could have it

“Mr Bianchi?” Constance, his new, efficient, but very nervous PA was hovering by the door She had a habit of shifting froht the stilettos that she favored were either too high, or too uncomfortable But he’d quickly realized it was just a nervous habit

He barely looked up “Yes?”

There was silence So he did look up—just in time to see her bite her bottom lip