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'Feminist claptrap Dio I've never heard so much rubbish!' Vito raked back at her in a lion's roar of intimidation

Her breasts swelled with anger Jerkily she shrugged You are naturally, entitled to your own opinion – as I am entitled to mine In any case, I'et Why can't we leave personalities out of this? I didn't cos I don't ly

'You apologise with such finesse'

In a passion of frustrated e time since she had voiced the beliefs she had first formed in her early teens For soious fervour of conviction that she had once had But that scarcelythee?

After five months, they had been at each other's throats at least twice a day Near the end, it had been like living on the edge of a precipice when you had a pronounced fear of heights Tears stung her eyes She was the one person who could reason with Vito on Tier he could have had

Tilance at his rock-hard profile, absorbing the innate ruthlessness sta lines of his stark bone-structure No, they could never have parted friends Vito ca line of blue-blooded, iative responses had figured rarely in his experiences Everything he wanted, he got Everything he wished, happened When your name was Cavalieri, the world was your oyster and the pearl at the centre was always yours That Vito had been prepared to marry her in the very teeth of his family's opposition had made her flat refusal all the more heinous a crime in his eyes

'If you could just bring yourself to withdraw the cohtly

'Why would I do that?' Vito fielded drily 'If I think like a tradesain Freeing your brother from the punishment he most assuredly deserves would not fillof benevolence His freedo to me What is it worth to you?'

The casual enquiry struck her as savagely cruel She tre of Tiile uilt which would be hers alone if she could not persuade Vito to change his mind

'Is it worth your own freedom?'

Her delicately pointed profile turned to him 'I don't understand '

Black-lashed golden eyes fla across the fe could not disguise and finally fanning at an outrageously leisurely pace back up to her burning cheeks Only a hot-blooded Italian could have projected that ? Intriguing,' he murmured softly 'If you returned to ht be persuaded to withdraw the complaint'

Her sliether, the heated colour draining from her complexion 'That's not funny, Vito'

'It wasn't intended to be' He sank doith inherent grace on the edge of his immaculately tidy desk 'You come to me on my teroes free'

'That's obscene!' Ashley gasped

'You shared my bed once without love You could surely share it just as happily with hatred,' he drawled

Her hands parted and knotted into balled fists

'Your body language is so uniquely expressive,' Vito reht even be persuaded to buy your delinquent brother a Ferrari of his own'

She shuddered with rage, fought the eue painfully between her teeth How dared he? How dared he send her up like this? For, of course, that hat he was doing He was settling old scores He wanted to humiliate her In the situation she was in, it was inhumanly cruel But that was Vito The dark side of Vito The ruthless, unrelentingly vengeful side of Vito which she had clashed with unforgettably on the day he'd married another woman

He flung his dark head back and laughed soft and deep in his throat He was utterly pagan in his unashamed enjoyment of her mortification 'Allara, cara Once you said to o for it" I a for it'