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CHAPTER ONE

‘YOU KNOW WHY I’m here’

The man’s voice was as deep and dark as his eyes, his hairhis heart, for all Cle and broad and dangerously strong Worryingly so

She didn’t knohat put that sense of danger into his appearance There was nothing in the way he stood, the long body relaxed, his hands pushed deep into the pockets of the orn jeans that clung to narrow hips and powerful legs, that spoke of threat or any sort of ed, did not have the type of features that made her think of black shadowy novels about serial killers or va from the dead

Not that serial killers conforly as well And this ly He was all hunk, if the truth was told Those deep brown eyes were coh cheekbones, surprisingly bronze-toned skin He was a man for whom the word ‘sexy’ had been created Athat was fe her shiver But once the ierous—had settled into her brain there was no way she could shake it loose

It was so about that cold, direct, unflinching stare Dead-eyed and unyielding She couldn’t understand it And because she couldn’t find a reason for it, it h she forced herself not to show it and instead pasted a s on to her face

‘I beg your pardon?’

If he caught the note of rejection and disn of it registered in that eniged or even concerned but flashed her another of those cold-eyed glances and repeated, with obvious emphasis, ‘You knohy I’m here’

‘I think not’

She was expecting so his arrival for days—weeks Ever since the time had approached when she would celebrate her twenty-third birthday If ‘celebrated’ was the right word forthe day that would mean the end of her old life, and the start of the new The start of the life she had knoas co but had tried to put out of her ht of what her future was to be hung over her like a dark stor each day that crept nearer to the ed

But she had prayed he wouldn’t come so soon That she would have at least a few more days—just a month would be perfect—before the fate that her father had planned for her when she had been too young to understand, let alone object, closed in around her and locked her into a very different existence

The person she had been expecting—dreading—was very different fro male He was much older for a start And would never have appeared so casually dressed, so carelessly indifferent to the demands of protocol and security

Which was just as well because the sudden and unexpected ring at the doorbell had caught her unawares She hadn’t even brushed her hair properly after washing it and letting it dry naturally, so that it hung in wild disorder around her face Her h she’d decided that the lipstick she’d been trying on was really too bright and garish, she hadn’t had time to take any of it off, or in any way lessen the impact of the vivid colour

‘I have no idea who you are or what you’re doing here If you’re selling so, I’ll not be voting for your party’

‘I’’

No, she’d expected that His clothes, while too obviously casual for a salesht

‘Then in that case’

She’d had enough of this If he wasn’t going to explain just why he was here then she had no intention of wasting her tih before the autocratic and i around any longer she was going to be late for Harry’s party and he would never forgive her