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‘I too a if I aht job At university I had plans, drea a writer, but in Gerood job My parents—ave a s and Poppy another smile

‘But it is boring of me to talk of myself I wish to learn more about you’

‘There isn’t very much to learn,’ Poppy confessed, whilst her conscience prodded her, reood deal o, even if it was not exactly the kind of knowledge she could ever envisage herself passing on to anyone—sharing with anyone

It was fortunate that the Japanese business had their own interpreter with thehtly to see the way that James had watched the diminutive and very attractive Japanese woman and listened to her as she’d translated his coues

He patently had a good deal more respect for her and her professional skills than he did for her own, Poppy reflected, and that knowledge rankled

‘You are looking angry,’ Gunther told her ‘Have I?’

‘I was thinking about so else—someone else,’ Poppy admitted

‘It is a pity that there has been so anisation over the conference,’ he commented

‘Mh I doubt that ould have had much time to enjoy the hotel’s facilities even if they had been finished’

‘This is true,’ said Gunther, and then added hesitantly, ‘I had thought of hiring a car and exploring a little of the region to if you would care to join me?’

Poppy was sorely te away from James, but, despite what James seemed to think, she did take her work seriously and she knew that if she had been here with Chris or, indeed, with any other members of the co Gunther as a ently refusing his invitation

‘Re ion,’ Gunther told her later in the evening when they had finished their dinner, ‘you only have to say’

‘You’re very kind,’ Poppy told him truthfully

They had lingered in the dining rooer than most of the other diners, but Poppy was nervously aware that she couldn’t put off saying goodnight to Gunther and returning to her rooer

His roo from hers and when they parted in the foyer Poppy felt her heart start to thud in anxious dread Would James be in the room already? And if he was?

By the ti so much that she could hardly insert the pass-card into the lock, but to her relief, when the door swung open and she stepped inside the roon of James

She undressed and showered quickly, unable to bring herself to look properly at her body, so that she didn’t have to see those s tell-tale marks

Once dried and wrapped in her robe she stood for severalat the pristine s so heavily and painfully that she auto her

She couldn’t sleep in that bed again, she acknowledged, licking her dry lips She simply couldn’t

Her legs trelance drawn repeatedly to the door as she pulled frantically at the heavy duvet, dragging it off the bed and onto the floor, her body drenched in nervous perspiration as she prayed that James wouldn’t come in before she had finished

Even doubled over underneath her, the quilt wasn’t thick enough to mask fully the hardness of theunequivocally and loudly to Ja remarks, she had no desire to endure a repetition of the previous night’s events

But as she lay tensely in the darkness Poppy knew that not all of his cruel taunts could be rejected She had begged him to make love to her, she had responded to him, wanted himshe had been the one to insist, to deht to its ultimate conclusion

‘Because I wanted him to be Chris,’ she whispered painfully to herself ‘I needed him to be Chris’

But she had known that he wasn’t She had known that he was Ja needing aching