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‘Rean to slip through the early evening traffic

‘Niccolò and Alannah—property tycoon and interior designer,’ he said ‘Luis and Carly—he’s the ex world cha driver and she’s his medic wife Oh, and Murat’

Ellie forced a smile Didn’t he know any normal people? ‘The Sultan?’

‘That’s right And because of that, security will be tight’

‘Youparty?’

He’d been staring out of theand druh and Ellie wished he’d say so to dispel this weird atmosphere between them But when he spoke it was uest list ‘There are people flying in from Paris, New York, Rome, Sicily—’

‘And Greece, of course?’ she prompted

He shook his head ‘No Not Greece’

‘Butthat’s where you come from’

‘So what? I left there a long tio, and rarely visit these days’

‘But—’

‘Look, can we just dispense with the interrogation, Ellie?’ he interrupted coolly ‘I’m not really inclined to answer any more questions and, anye’re here’

‘Of course,’ she said, quickly turning her head to look out of the

Alek felt a pang of guilt as he saw her silvery shoulders tense up Okay, maybe he had been short with her but she needed to realise that being questioned like that wasn’t his idea of fun His mouth flattened But what had he expected? Wasn’t this what happened when you spent prolonged tiht to chip away at things To quiz you about stuff you didn’t want to talk about, even when you made it clear that a subject was deliberately off limits

He’d never lived with anyone before Ellie He’d never given a home to a second toothbrush, nor had to clear out space in his closet Even though they had their own rooet away froet away froh instinct was telling him that was a bad idea She was a constant teh she didn’t flirt with him And wasn’t even that a turn on? She was there in theas she sat drinking her ginger tea Just as she was there at night when he got ho hi and would he like to try soine dish and he had found hierously close to her while she stirred so in a pot, te inches away fro hi him mad because he wanted her—and he had no one to blame but himself

That hot-headed kiss outside the jewellers had been intended as nothinghonest, it had also been intended as an arrogant demonstration of his sexual mastery To show her that he was boss and alould be But somehow it had backfired on him It had reactivated his desire and noas stuck with a raging sexual hunger which kept hi all the different things he wanted to do to her

He knew there was nothing stopping hi into her roo back a crisp sheet and finding her, whatnaked? Or wearing soht at the same tiing looks and accidental touches had reinforced what he’d already knownthat she wanted him as much as he wanted her Physically, at least He was confident enough to know he could be inside her in ers in the soft spill of her pale hair and staring down at her beautiful pale curves

And then what?

He felt another unwanted and unfah to kill his desire stone-dead Make her fall in love with him? Break her heart as he had broken so ood that would do when Ellie, above all others, was so his baby and he needed her as a friend, not as a lover

Because soined he would feel nothing about the new life growing inside her and that he would feel disconnected fro Hadn’t his heart clenched savagely in his chest the first tiertips drift almost reflectively over her still-flat belly?