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And Sienna would never forget the lossy self, with sand-sprinkled skin and iven a little gasp of disbelief and been slightly repulsed by the glinting approval in the eyes of the art director
Even now she could squirm at how naïve she had been And even now the photos still had the power to shock her With treers she shoved the calendar into her briefcase and let herself out of the hotel, taking in great gulps of hot and sticky summer air
She spent a restless night, and the following day there was a constant dull ache at her teh the hotel foyer dressed for dinner she felt as if she was going to her own execution
‘Cheer up!’ said the night porter ‘Itsomewhere special, are you?’
Serena gave a wan suests in the Rainbow Room’
‘Lucky you!’
Sienna gave a hollow laugh ‘Yes, lucky me!’ she echoed wryly ‘Still, at least it’s beautifully air-conditioned up there The temperature outside is claustrophobic’
‘Tell me about it!’ said the porter
Overnight a heatwave seemed to have descended on the capital, with all the force and stifling nature of a heavy fire blanket dropped down to envelop the city The streets outside the cool hotel had been curiously airless, and Sienna’s throat felt as tight as if she were still out in them
As she rode up in the lift she stared at herself in the tinted mirror The cool linen dress she wore still looked fresh, and the apricot hue of the glass gave her face a healthy-looking glohich co inside But she was not going to let that overwhel to let him intimidate her
The nude photos were part of her past She couldn’t change that, and neither could she rewrite her brief and confusing relationship with Hashi the way, and that was the whole point of experience—good or bad
Those had been pivotal events in her life which had made her into the cool and confident professional she was today The change hadn’t been easy, or instant, and she was not going to throw it all away because Hashim wanted to exact some kind of erotic payback for what had happened all those years ago Or rather, what had not happened
He despised her—he had h his body still wanted her And on some level she still wanted him, too But she would not allow herself to be picked up and used like some kind of convenience—to be tossed away at the earliest opportunity And she would not repeat the mistakes of yesterday
If he said things to rile or provoke her she would not rise to them They could not have a scene if she didn’t react to hiive hilacial smile She would remain brisk, crisp and polite—in short, she would be utterly professional, and he would be unable to find fault with her
Surprisingly, he was already at the table She was a little early, and had expected hi the rest of the roonificance At a shadowed corner table sat two of the ever-present bodyguards
Sienna walked towards hie Just those black eyes trained on her like twin barrels of a hunter’s gun
His hard, lean body was completely still, but his stance was tense, the powerful li He seelances of the other diners in the roo the normally celebrity-jaded waiters
Hashim watched her approach, helpless and yet furious with hi unable to suppress the instant leap of lust he felt, for he had trained himself to control his desires To be master of his wants and needs—not servant to theer was all-powerful, for sex made men weak And his control had never failed hiiven Sienna pleasure and then denied hiretted it ever since!
Yet on one level she remained a mystery to him He had knoomen more beautiful than her—so as the secret of her particular allure? The seductive sway of her hips? The too-big eyes which looked like those of a startled deer? Or just the fact that he had never had her when other inity only to have its falseness revealed to hi way of all
He let his eyes rove over the breasts the her most marketable asset beneath that rather unremarkable linen dress His lips curled How he hated linen—surely thematerial a woman could wear, with its coarse feel and its tendency to crumple And surely it was a little late in the day for such unwelcome modesty?