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An ebony brow had quirked 'You will find tile doubt in the world

And he had been right But between theh tiht No two people could have had less free tihest level, was a very de, Vito could be off to Europe for an unspecified number of days Ashley had had her classes, her course-work to complete and the necessary hours she put in as a waitress to keep the wolf from the door And she had also had male and female friends she didn't intend to drop entirely for his benefit

Although the plan had been that they would start over and get to know each other properly, it hadn't worked out that way The frustration of their conflicting schedules had meant they scarcely saw each other the first three weeks, and when he took her back to his apart, once more fla together He had suggested that she use the apartment when he was abroad to study in peace away from her crowded flat Piece by piece her possessions had drifted over there, and night after night Vito had contrived to ensure that she didn't go home

But no sooner had she begun hanging her clothes in one of his wardrobes than the disagreements they had frequently had had escalated into full-scale rows Now that Vito really knew her schedule, he expected her to drop the commitments that he considered either unnecessary or uni on to her waitressing job had outraged him He had never understood that she could only cope with the vast disparity between their finances by ensuring that she did not live off him like some parasite

Her equal determination to retain her friends and attend occasional student functions had infuriated him as well At the outset he had been irritated, but when one evening he chose to join her and discovered her sitting at a table with a ht jealous, possessive suspicion

When Vito had a relationship with a wohts If he wasn't available, he had expected her to sit at ho by the phone waiting for his call The rows had becoly more passionate and destructive A case of the irresistible force and the iive an inch and Ashley had beco she found it when Vito was angry with her, trapped by the awful truth that she just didn't have the strength to walk away from him More and more the bedroom had become the only place where they were ever in coued with her or even attempted to reason with her, she had started to slahts worrying while he slept like a log One of her tutors had told her plainly that her as no longer up to standard Her concentration was gone All she'd thought about was Vito… Vito… Vito He had tried to help her with her work but when one evening she had bla he had lost his temper and told her that she was out of her elerasp the intricacies involved

He had apologised, but she had known that he was telling her the truth, and bitterly had she resented hearing it from someone as effortlessly brilliant in the financial world as he was It had driven another wedge between theers drawn, he had disappeared off to Italy

one day and taken an entire week to actually phone her

Elena had visited the day before he returned And Vito had returned with an ulti back to Italy His father was ill He had faations that could not be dealt with froetoff to instruct his housekeeper to pack for him

'It's tirew up,' he had said

'I want a fah to enjoy them,' he had said

'I am really bored with this feminist sh… rubbish,' he had said

'You have to accept that my position in the bank and my responsibilities quite naturally take precedence over yours,' he had said

And when it had finally penetrated-and it had taken a long tirab that generously offered golden ring, he had said, absolutely incredulously, 'But you've been sharing my bed for months!'

A blazing fight had ensued Ashley had told him a few home truths, the sort of home truths he had never heard before For soly over-sensitive In a nutshell, he had gone through the roof Everything she had ever done to annoy hi she had ever failed to do to please hier, she had seen that Vito truly believed that her entire world should revolve round him

The iron hand had eeance For fiveher, controlling that cuttingly cruel tongue of his, presulove had cou one-line sentences and make her feel really, really stupid and weak She had seen her mother, head bowed in submissive silence, and she had seen herself reduced by Vito to a similar level… and that vision had petrified her

Shifting on the hard ot up after eight Vito would know that she was gone by now Dully she wondered where she had iined she could run Not only did she have a duty to ensure that Kuht in theawareness that, even had sheSri Lanka with a great bleeding wound where her heart had once been Her heart didn't just beat a little faster when Vito was around It jumped up and down and did acrobatics As her host showed her to a rickety table overlooking the tuain blinking back the tears she so despised

Around dawn it had hit her, the truth she had fought so hard to deny A huge blinding flash of unwelcohtenment There had been so much pain since he came back into her life that she had floundered in bewilderment and a near constant eive him the power to hurt her this ht now, she didn't know She was too devastated to think of anything beyond the fact that loving him, the way he felt about her noas a death sentence

A faint soundShe froze Vito was standing on the bleached boards of the sagging veranda He was unnaturally still, his pallor pronounced One brown hand was fiercely clenched in the cream jacket he had discarded A white shirt was carelessly open at his throat, his thick black hair damp and tousled, and a most uncharacteristic black shadow of stubble marked his tense jaw line Slowly he sed, incredibly intent dark eyes clinging to her startled face 'I thought you were dead,' he breathed roughly