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‘You were skin and bone,’ Luc continued ‘I thought…’

‘That I’d been pining away for you over the years?’

Luc gave her a direct look

‘No I didn’t think that, Belle I’ve gotfrom delusions has never been one of them’

‘Who says it would have been a delusion?’ Belle surprised theruffly ‘There was a time e first parted…’ She paused, and then, her face clouding, told him, ‘Oh, Luc…I was so dreadfully unhappy then, and—’

She stopped abruptly It wasn’t like her to admit to any kind of vulnerability, and she could see that Luc was as surprised by her admission as she herself was

‘If eren’t here…’ he began, and Belle shook her head chidingly But that didn’t stop a tiny thrill of exciteerously down her spine

It had been a shock to open her front door that day and discover that her unwanted visitor was no less than Luc, her ex-husband, to whom she had neither spoken nor seen since their divorce seven years before

The sight of hi there, so tall and darkly handsoly male and mature, had been more than her already overloaded weakened defence system had needed to send it into complete chaos

As she’d clung to the front door she’d been able to literally feel the blood draining down through her body at the sa faintness poured swiftly through it

She had knoas going to happen, known she was going to faint, but at the same tith or the will-power to halt it Her last thought as Luc had masterfully reached out to catch her up in his arood it was to be held so protectively and so safely in his arms

Her faint had only lasted a couple of h for Luc to close her front door and carry her upstairs, through the living room of her small mews house and into her bedroom

She bad co on her bed co her name

Even now, more than three months later, she still couldn’t quite account for the effect, the erotic charge, the sheer inconsistency of the emotions which had allowed her to experience a previously unknown rush of intense fee that she was naked whilst Luc was fully dressed It was so out of character for her, so alien to what she ht have expected to feel, that for several seconds it had robbed her of the ability to make any kind of response to Luc’s presence other than to siolden eyes

Later he had told her that it had been that look of dazed wonderry rejection and bitterness he had expected that had encouraged him to put aside his own protective defences and show her his concern and anxiety

‘Luc…’ had been all she had been able to say, in an unfamiliarly weak and hesitant voice

‘You fainted,’ he told her gently, his fingers stroking her forehead in reassurance

‘I know… I haven’t been well,’ she responded ‘I’ve had so…’

‘Which you no doubt refused to acknowledge and fought off until it really rimly

For a , but the strong core of self-honesty she had developed since the failure of their e refused to let her

‘I had an i to attend,’ she admitted ‘I should really have put it off, but this is such a cut-throat business I felt I couldn’t afford to do so…’

Five years ago Belle had left the firinally worked for and had set up in business on her own Financially the rewards were not perhaps quite so high as they had been, and certainly the dereater, but so was the sense of satisfaction she gained fro her own boss

Just recently, though, she found that she was deliberately ignoring opportunities to further her business and add to her client base, that she was beginning to respond to a previously unacknowledged need to allow things into her life other than her work, beginning to ads she wasout on, certain e met But of course these were admissions she could not o Luc had accused her of putting her career above their e, when Luc had warned her that one day she would find herself lonely and alone

‘You always did make far too many de to concern as she suddenly started to shiver ‘You’re freezing,’ he told her ally

This caused her to flash back at him, her eyes brilliant with a mixture of fever and pride, ‘And whose fault is that? I’m not the one who took off my robe’

Immediately she wished she hadn’t spoken, because now Luc, who before had only been looking at her face, watching her eyes, suddenly switched his gaze to her body

Instinctively Belle tensed her muscles