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‘I don’t knon in Wellington, I suppose, where he belongs,’ he said gruffly ‘I own a big chunk of Sarron through a loan Ime his name…’

Her brain was still processing infor to talk business—’

Hisfor you Meanti-overdue business!’ The hand that had been tending her brow moved to plant itself flat on the cushion beside her face as he leaned close enough to snap her back into full awareness

Her eyes flared with alarlossed lips ‘I—could I have a drink of water?’ she asked huskily

But he had seen her eyes dart towards the lift His jaw clenched ‘No’

She noticed her open jacket, revealing her smooth camisole, and reached for her buttons, but he brushed her hands away

‘No distractions, or evasions You’re not budging fro me some answers…about why you wouldn’t take my calls, for a start! And why you didn’t wait for ht, let alone the next day as well, but I had a situation onas soon as I could’

His eyes narrowed into fierce slits, his hand fisting on the back of the couch ‘But then, it seeive everyone but ht that we’d established some rapport, that if you didn’t trust me as a man, at least you respected who I was and you certainly see with ht the desire to roar, and she could practically see his tail lashing back and forth ‘God, Veronica—you really thought that I was sleeping with you while trying to hide fro knocked up my adulterous lover! And on what evidence—’

‘The evidence of my own eyes and ears!’ she protested defensively She kneeak She had loved hie, or the self-confidence, to fight for him In her darkest moments, she had even wondered if the reason he hadn’t rushed to return the engage it for that woman…his first love, mother of his child—only, of course, she wasn’t…

‘But from whom? Not me You didn’t happen to notice that it was Elise as doing all the talking and not hts acidly ‘I didn’t have a chance to get a word in edgeways She was hysterical, and working herself up into even ht hurt the baby if she kept it up—and by that I mean, Foster’s baby, by the way,’ he stressed with an incendiary glare, ‘and she wasn’t in any condition to drive back to Avignon by herself, let alone confront that arrogant son-of-a-bitch as already roaring drunk e finally ran hiround—’

She was stricken with shame, with no excuse but blind, stupid jealousy ‘I didn’t know—’

‘No, of course you didn’t! Melanie finally h to , but I went to the station but by that time the train had left—’

He had gone to the station! And she had let hi there!

‘I got there early and changed ratefully, and then spent the whole six-and-a-half-hour journey in an agony ofhurt had faded she had begun to realise that she should have listened to Melanie’s insistence that they had all got the wrong end of the stick, but then she had convinced herself that it was too late, he would never forgive her for her betrayal, not after all he’d been through

‘You really were desperate to get away fro her with his burning accusation ‘You left things in an uproar Melanie and Miles thought I must have really hurt you to make you run away fro them think that of me—’