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'But I haven't been ht to pry into your past last night and no excuse to taunt you' He surveyed her with grave, ed his sensualthat he didn't find it easy to make that admission 'After all, I'm no celibate myself'

'It was understandable' Suddenly, now that he was giving ground, she found herself pathetically willing to forgive She gritted her teeth on the discovery, re she needed right noas for Vito to guess how she felt about hi she had left was her pride

'I've had a hteen ue and tasted blood Vito released his breath audibly 'I finished it a few o, but do you knohat attracted me to her?'

Nausea stirred in her sto variety She really didn't knohy he was doing this and she desperately wanted him to shut up, because she did not want to be forced to think of hi love to another woman

'She had hair the sa of deep self-contempt 'But she wasn't you'

'No She wouldn't have gone charging off down a ht and crashed your car, I guess,' she htly

'Nobody but you would do that,' he pointed out in an alesture that was curiously clu a cup as he reached for her hand

The heat of his fingers engulfed her smaller ones and she bent her head She wanted to tell him that sh

e had never had another lover She focused instead on the tu brilliance in the bright sunlight Not only did he not require that information from her, he would also very probably refuse to believe her, and every time he refused to believe it hurt just that little bit more deeply

'I'm five days late with this but I still need to say it,' he breathed 'The night of the party you hit me hard hat you called the view from your side of the fence-'

'I don't want to talk about that' It was her turn to interrupt and deny him the opportunity to have her listen The baby… that subject was too painful in the light of his disbelief

'Ashley… '

'No!' she said fiercely, sharply withdrawing her hand from his

'We have to talk about it'

'But I don't want to!' Snatching in oxygen, she rose unsteadily upright, ready to run if he persisted

'Maybe it's too soon,' he conceded with surprising generosity

Perhaps not so surprising, she allohen she thought about it He had been badly shaken by the sight of that crashed car and the conviction that, if she had not been killed she was at the very least severely injured But for how long would this greater gentleness and understanding last?

Ten days later, she stood on the heights of the ramparts of the Daround, and conceded that Vito wasand non-controversial She was beginning to learn that in soo That annoyed her but it was true For a start the charm wasn't switched on, it was entirely natural The tension that had once underscored their every one now that all sources of possible confrontation were banned He was far more conservative than she had ever appreciated The way he had swept her off her feet the night they e of hie of her She could see now that in the past she h one hell of an eone out to well and truly shock him every time he roused her temper-a pattern learned in defiance of her father But that pattern had been highly destructive If Vito had been guilty of a desire to do with provocation It had only inflamed the situation