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'My suitcase Could you please let go of it? I can handle it myself' She reached for it and he jerked it away

'I'entle it on board for you'

Strapping?

Elizabeth felt a star-burst of anger h at his subtly provocative insult Hewith muscles and threats to male dominance

'Carrying it? Oh, is that what you're doing? I got the i it to ransom,' she said tartly 'Your boat doesn’t fly the skull and crossbones, by any chance, does it?'

'You think I look like a pirate?' He tipped his head, s, probably flattered by the odious comparison

'No,' she lied crushingly 'But you're certainly be­having like one'

'I'm told that's my principal charm,' he murmured

'How depressing for you'

'You think so?' The smile became thinner, less pro­vocative, and Elizabeth knew that she had finally got under that thick skin

'Pirates are notoriously cold-blooded, violent and aularly unat­tractive if those are the ones that people associate you with'

For an instant sorey eyes and Elizabeth inadvertently took a few steps back Her mouth went dry when he matched her, pace for pace

'Why all the hostility, Miss Lamb? You have resented me from the first moment we met on the plane Why?' He spoke very quietly, and was all thefor it

'I—I'm sorry, I shouldn’t have said that,' she said aardly, knowing it was true She had no right to judge him when she only had one side of the evidence

She took off her sunglasses and looked at hih, so that he could see she was perfectly sincere She had never deliberately set out to hurt anybody in her life—until this wretched man had crossed her path