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CHAPTER ONE

MIRANDA WOULDN’T HAVE seen hi froreat hiding place or anything, she thought She peeped through the branches of the orna the busy street outside the coffee shop she was sheltering in He didn’t see with rain or that the intersection was clotted with traffic and bustling with pedestrians It was as if a transparent cube was around him He was impervious to the chatter and clatter outside

She would have recognised hial, untouchable air about him that made him stand out in a crowd Even the way he was dressed set him apart—not that there weren’t other suited men in the crowd, but the way he wore the sharply tailored charcoal-grey suit teamed with a snohite shirt and a black-and-silver striped tie sonified

Or nature frown

Had she ever seen him without that frown? Miranda wondered Her older twin brothers, Julius and Jake, had been boarding school buddies with Leandro He had spent occasional weekends or school holidays and even university breaks at the Ravensdale fa a decade younger, she’d spenta little intimidated by Leandro’s taciturn presence He was the epito, silent type—a man of feords and even fewer facial expressions She couldn’t read his expression at the best of ti in disapproval or simply in deep concentration

He came into the coffee shop and Miranda watched as every fee had served hily tall with jet-black hair, olive skin and brown eyes three or four shades darker than hers

But if Leandro are of his in of it It was one of the things she secretly most liked about hiely unaware of how knee-wobblingly gorgeous he looked It was as if it was irrelevant to him Unlike her brother Jake, who kneas considered arm candy and exploited it for all he could

Leandro stood at the counter and ordered a long black coffee to take away fro attendant, and then politely stood back to wait for it, taking out his phone to check his es or emails

Miranda covertly studied his tall, athletic figure with its strongly cordedhours of endurance exercise The broad shoulders, the strong back, the lean hips, taut buttocks and the long legs She had seen hi across the fields of the estate in all sorts of weather, or swi endless laps of the pool in summer

Leandro took to exercise with an intense, single- it for the health benefits or for some other reason known only to himself But, whatever reason it was that motivated him, it clearly worked to his benefit He had the sort of body to stop fe in thehow delicious he would look in a tangle of sheets after marathon sex Did he have a current lover? Miranda hadn’t heard much about his love life lately, but she’d heard his father had died a couple ofa low profile since

The young attendant handed Leandro his coffee and as he turned to leave his eyes y branches of the pot plant She saw the flash of recognition go through his gaze but he didn’t smile in welcome His lips didn’t even twitch upwards But then, she couldn’t re him smile Or, at least, not at her The closest he came to it was a sort of twist of his lips that could easily be mistaken for cynicism rather than amusement

‘Miranda?’ he said

She lifted her hand in a little fingertip wave, trying not to draw toonearby with a snised her ‘Hi’

He came over to her table screened behind the pot plant She had to crane her neck toin front of a giant when she was around him He was an inch shorter than her six-foot-four brothers but for some reason he’d always seemed taller

‘Are the press still hassling you?’ he asked, still frowning

Of course, Leandro had heard about her father’s scandal, Miranda thought It was the topic on everyone’s lips It was splashed over every newsfeed or online blog Could it get any ? Was there anyone in London—the entire world—who didn’t know her father had sired a love child twenty-three years ago? As London theatre royalty, her parents were known for drawing attention to theest andso far Miranda’s mother, Elisabetta Albertini, had cancelled her season on Broadway and was threatening divorce Her father, Richard Ravensdale, was trying to get his love child into the bosom of the family but so far with zero success Apparently Katherine Winwood had failed to be char everything she could to avoid his