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'And what a relief it is to be with a woman who believes she can treat sex as casually as a man, who expects none of the traditional touches of courtship and ro that I do soly conventional as wait until after the wedding,' Vito continued smoothly

So perilously close to naked panic assailed her in the wake of that ?' Lustrous dark eyes were tracking her every change of expression with the efficiency of a scanner tuning in to easily read airwaves

An awful lot of soether at once Without the s confronted with all the false io, when it had see an adave immense power to the loved one Her father had wielded that power over her e Ashley had been determined that Vito would never receive that weapon from her

It's chee, it's infatuation, she had told herself then I do not love him, I do not need him, I will not look for him when he is not there That had been her ly, refusing verbally to grant hi the double standards which made sexual experimentation acceptable for a man but not for a woman

Certainly she had not behaved that ithout some justification And from the outset Vito had had that exclusive commitment whether he had chosen to believe it or not But Vito had acted as though he owned her She had played her role with the nervous defiance of soht corner by an overpoweringlyto do with occupied territories and absolutely nothing to do with the fe at Vito now, so cool and so caluments and the ferocious jealousy and possessiveness he had demonstrated when she dared to show hiht to dictate her every move

'Vito… I…' It occurred to her that all those proud pretences of hers had truly come home to roost with her now Vito had an utterly mistaken impression of her true character Vito had always had awhat she said, especially when she flung things she didn't mean in a temper And now, not unnaturally, Vito expected her to practise what she had once so loudly preached

"'If you feel like it, go for i

t,''' Vito challenged in an accented drawl as smooth as black velvet 'And you can't say that you don't feel likelove because I already know that you do'

'I wish you'd stop throwing every s-stupid thing I ever said back at er skiered just above her waistband

'So you admit that some of it was stupid,' Vito probedsooner than share this bed with ht now?'

In despair she turned her head aondering dully if sharing his bed noas Vito's callous ree to orline of heartless huned to reduce her pride to rubble Dear God, if her brother's freedoe on this, as she to do? If Vito made that demand now, she felt that she would walk out of this apartment and under the nearest bus, because she would never be able to look either hiain

'I've never been prorie would have revived her, but she did not see it Nor did it occur to her that Vito was being astoundingly patient for ahis lust

And, without warning, what she was to do was taken care of in the ht hours of frantic worry, powered by insufficient sleep and food, abruptly took their toll Ashley burst into floods of tears, shocking herself asneed then was for privacy but Vito caught her back before she could reel off the bed

'Let go!' she sobbed

'How can I’ He tugged her into his arms

'I can't take any ush of tears, sobs wrenched at her throat 'I''

'No, you have entirely the wrong attitude and far tooher to weep all over his shirt-front while he smoothed her tousled hair back from her brow

'I c-can't cope with you right now and you know it!' In a surge of mortified frustration, she struck weakly at his solidity with a loosely coiled fist 'I n-never cry! I despise omen who do this!'

He s in Italian She cried even harder because, God help her, she liked it The scent of warly fa as the rock-steady beat of his heart She couldn't remember when anyone had last put their ar akin to despair engulfed her, adding to her bitter burden of defeat