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Harsh lines indented the curve between his nose andthe rawness of his ee of control 'What a shame that she couldn't whisk you out of harm's way this ti favour'

Ashley turned white as though he had struck her, and in a way he ht as well have done, so complete was that bitter force of his rejection She bowed her head, closed her eyes, struggling to absorb the immensity of her pain and conceal it from him

The doctor's arrival was a welcome interruption He walked into an atmosphere that could have been cut with a knife Complete rest and calm and no upsets was his practical prescription Dinner was brought to her on a tray She napped for a while after she had eaten, having given up waiting for Vito to reappear '

Much later she opened her sleepy eyes on la shadow by theHe wore neither tie nor jacket With his black hair tussled and his jaw line darkly shadowed, he failed his usual standards of perfect groolass in his hand

'What time is it?' she muttered

'Midnight…later' With an infinitesihed 'I really don't know' The syllables dragged ever so slightly

That very faint slur betrayed hi, she decided I' him to drink

He cleared his throat 'I've seen Lorena, Pietro's mother She knohat he has done She intends to return to Italy with him She is very close to her late husband's fareater control over his son I am not so optimistic I suspect that Pietro will remain a problem'

Ashley surfaced fro fro satin strap of her diaphanous nightdress 'You've had a busy evening,' she said, coh her vibrant mane of hair so that it fell in a silken mass across her pale shoulders It was so much wasted effort The male ould have been electrified by such a display a lance 'I' much better,' she added

'Good' The tone was strained He stared lass he held 'I see what you hold dear Yet you must accept that I never intended, never planned for it to be that way I thought I had the right… I thought that you owed me this chance-'

Unbearably taut, she whispered, 'I'm not sure I follow'

He threw back his head and laughed with savage amusement Her entire attention was fiercely locked to hi even in that moment of stress to the raw, virile power of his ree of huht that I could make you love me'

A hoarse sound of distress escaped her A shudder of reaction forced a passage through her tense body He confirmed her own suspicions but it had been many weeks since she had dwelt on those suspicions which would have clouded and ruined that final, glorious month in Sri Lanka

'I actually thought that if I pushed all the right buttons, it would happen You would wake up one day and, far fro to stick a knife between my ribs,' he asserted harshly, 'you would think, I cannot live without this guy And you would cling like ivy, cleave like Eve to Adam in the Bible-'

'I think I get the picture, Vito' It took her a full thirty seconds to even ed rusty and flat, unable to r

ise above the tre to hide No wonder he had decided not to get her pregnant He had been far one to a lot of effort… in fact he had gone to the ht buttons' And had she been honest with hiht have been spared all that tedious exertion He had actually got what he wanted far uessed She was so desperately hurt, so horribly humiliated that she wanted to die

He released his breath in a hiss 'I was incredibly conceited-'

'Yes' And with just cause, she conceded wretchedly

She had been a vulnerable target, a willing victim

'To even think that after all that I had done to you, you could even… even begin to care forrather peculiar

Since she hadn't brought herself to look once at him in the last few minutes, she presued jerkily half under her breath

'It was unforgivable'