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‘Look, I’ve wasted enough tiet on with your work,’ she said reluctantly, though she noticed that he hadn’t produced a tapeto write with!

Xaviero studied her Thein the world would be to come clean—to disclose his real identity and tell her that he wasn’t so in the least bit sensible In truth, he was feeling reckless andwhich had only been intensified by recent events on his island

His mouth hardened Except that it was not his island any more, was it? It lay firmly under the rule of his elder brother noas his domain The moment the crown had been placed on Casier had any real role there

The year of official ely hollow and empty—and wasn’t that one of the reasons he was here? To swap his bustling New York existence andone of the -cherished drea school?

He stared down into the face of the blonde, mesmerised by her pale beauty She was so tiny, so delicate and light that he thought he ht be able to pick her up with one hand, and hold her—like a sainst her pale fragility Could a woe as him?

He felt the recklessness transmute into desire—and the sheer and potent power of desire after so long an absence took hiaze drifted over her lips and their rose-pink softness only increased his sudden yearning Lips as luscious as rain-swollen petals and slightly parted as she gazed up at hi to be kissed Would she let him? No woman had ever resisted him—because there wasn’t a woman alive ould refuse the advances of a prince But he had never kissed a wouise of anonymity before…

Hoould he fare as an artisan? Did sirls let painter and decorators take ih their veins? He saw her eyes darken Saw the sweet, almost ay she stared up at him It seemed that they did

‘No,’ he said suddenly ‘Don’t leave’

Cathy’s eyes widened For a ht that she had misheard him ‘I’m sorry?’

‘I don’t want you to go anywhere,’ he said unevenly, and his smile was complicit ‘Any more than you do’

There was a split second before the fantasy she’d been nurturing ever since he’d walked in began to coan to move towards her Cathy felt she should protest, but no words came—despite the certainty that he was about to kiss her and that it was both inappropriate and unprofessional to kiss a man she had only just met

But Cathy’s ego was bruised—she had been left feeling bitterly hurt by Peter’s rejection The future she had ier an option and she felt ehtened around her fiancé’s letter, hadn’t she iain? And yet, now—out of the blue—came this

‘You don’t want to go anywhere, do you?’ he persisted, on a murmur

‘I’m…I’m not sure’

‘Oh, I think you are, cara Just as sure as I am’

Leaning forward, he brushed histremble of her lips

‘You like that?’ he questioned unsteadily

‘Yes,’ she whispered back as the lips caered—and Cathy knew she was lost as he pulled her into his aran to kiss her in earnest Because it felt as if her life had been on hold until thatand worthless Yet all her fears and insecurities—all that hurt and rejection—iped away by the sheer, si kiss

Xaviero felt her instant capitulation—she gasped when he deepened the kiss still further He felt the instant and glorious response of his own body, and hisbefore his security bleeped him? Time to lock these doors and push her to her knees and have her pleasure him with those incredible lips of hers? She was too easy, he thought despairingly as desire now beca the double standards of many uiding her hand to the hardness at his groin