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'Agile,' Vito ile you could be But tell me, if either I or any member of my family had been in the path of that car, do you think your char brother would have stepped on the brakes?'

Bone-white, she flinched 'Why do you want to make what he did even worse than it already is? He ran amok with your car He didn't try to kill somebody! It was done on impulse while he was under the influence of alcohol He didn't knohat he was doing until it was too late!'

Vito ers 'Is that alar assurance intended to soften my heart? Those who break the law should be punished Cushioning your brother from the consequences of his own behaviour would not be in his best interests'

'It was only your blasted car, Vito!' she slashed back at him furiously 'He didn't plan to crash it There's punish up a car and a stupid fountain is what I call over-reaction It will destroy Tim!'

'It's o to prison for a first offence'

'But it's not his first-' In horror, she caught back what re sentence

Black lashes dropped reflectively low on brilliant dark eyes 'My conscience ht tothat his behaviour was quite out of character But if he has broken the law before, heto hi was insufficient to curb his violent tendencies'

A steel band of tension was now throbbing across her brow She had come here to help Tim So far, all she had done was fuel the flae 'Have you ever met Tim?'

'Very briefly,' Vito conceded 'I recognised him at my nephew's party and had a short conversation with

hi and temperament'

'Do you think I have violent tendencies as well?' she demanded bitterly as she realised that Vito, probably quite unwittingly, had been responsible for connecting her brother with her for the benefit of the rest of his faibe 'He has your eyes,' he said very quietly, his sensual'You both possess considerable physical appeal but in his case, as in yours, it is distinctly superficial on closer acquaintance'

Teh 'You do have to concede onefactor, however…’

He sighed, glancing fleetingly at his watch, boredo her even more determined to explode him out of his offensive detachment 'And what is that?'

Ashley fixed huge ely on hio off the rails if the provocation is great enough You once did so yourself, but I gather that I'm not supposed to remember that occasion'

His golden features shuttered, his jaw line clenching hard 'The reminder is both unnecessary and irrelevant I don't suffer from blackouts'

In that split-second she ca control It had cost her dear to re Rape? No, not rape In bitter anger it had begun, and in savage passion it had ended Not an act of love or even of desire A final, hu expression of all-male contempt which had destroyed her pride forher fury noas the hardest thing she had ever done and she onlyon her brother

'I'd plead with you if I thought it would make "any difference,' she admitted starkly