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When she eed from the bathroom she expected him to be in the bedroom but he wasn't That infuriated her She wasn't finished with hi the towel froled mass of her hair So absorbed was she in the task that she didn't hear hi over her head, he took the coan to employ it with a dexterity that took her back four years

'Don't do that,' she said weakly

'It was insensitive of me to say it out loud I should have savoured it in silence,' he drawledfavour and leave alone?'

'But you know the answer to that' His reflection threw back the reckless, dangerous glitter of the smile his sensual mouth Ashley sat there like a statue while he removed the last snarl from her hair But as his hands cupped her shoulders to slowly draw her up fro-table, she started to tremble

'This… us' He seemed to savour the words 'It's inevitable'

Under that dark spell, she had to struggle to find her voice 'Doesn't have to be'

The sash of her robe slid free and she stopped breathing Already she could feel the anguish of her body's anticipation He pulled her back against hirily in the curve of her arched throat, his hands sliding up her ribcage to find the aching fullness of her taut breasts She ers toyed with the prominent buds of her nipples, an unbearable spas hold of her 'Why should you be able to fight it when I can't?' Vito derowl of arousal in his accented drawl as he tugged her round to take her mouth

CHAPTER SEVEN

THAT taunt powered Ashley's revolt With a superhu heat of hisherself, she rubbed at her reddened lips as though she needed to cleanse herself of his touch 'But I can fight it,' she swore, as much for her own benefit as his

'Why fight yourself?' Vito murmured softly 'You want me I believe that you want me more than you have ever wanted any other ht me With me… you feel threatened'

The calm confident assurance banished the colour fro that out of?' she ed shakily 'Don't think I don't knohy you want to think that Fro interpretation'

'Is it?' Mercilessly he held her eyes with his own 'In my life many women have wanted me, cara To be desired is scarcely a novelty'

Hatred flashed through her It was the truth He had it all Poealth, charis sexuality that netised the female sex It had never surprised her that she had fallen s had terrified her Her fragile security had been based on a need for total control of her own life Instinctively she had known that, given the s her choices for her, carving her up and rearranging her into the ie he wanted

'So what picked me out from the common herd?' she proraceful shrug 'Your beauty, your individuality… and the little things-' 'Such as?' Defensively she folded her arms A faint smile softened the hard line of his eview to mine in every discussion whether you believe in it or not And you make me curious You're like a Chinese puzzle box'

A box he intended to open A mystery he intended to solve He scared her Yes, she did feel threatened He was already stripping away those layers he had talked about, denying her any hiding place

Tilting his dark head back, he studied her with brilliant dark eyes 'Why, for exae piece of furniture e're having an argument?'

'I don't,' she denied and only then realised that she was standing on the far side of the bed, about as far as she could get from him and still be in the same room

'You do Once, it outraged me, but now I'o I found that incredibly insulting,' he confided, slowly closing the distance between theain 'How can you be afraid of s me to the obvious question… who did?' Pale as snow and treed tur in her eyes She was incapable of movement as he folded her into his powerful arms, his extreme tension lost on her for she was far too absorbed in her own 'Because if I ever get e undertone, 'I'll kill him'

She had not been an abused child At least she didn't think so Slaps, shakings, occasional bruises frorips Her father was a powerfully built ly that he didn't know his own strength when he lost his te physical pain that caused her the e… no, it had been the awareness that she was the only one of her family ever to incite that reaction from him He had never struck her ust of other men who used physical force to subdue those weaker than themselves

No, what had bothered Ashley the most had been the 'why s? And so the line she had started to realise that in her father's eyes she was soh not to inspire the love he had for Susan and Tiht be his favourite, but he did love the her fro… she was painfully aware of that fact '