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She flung her head back, silver hair flying back from her exquisite face. 'Even to the ridiculous extent of not telling me who your father is?'
'So the penny finally dropped.' Carlo's expressive mouth curved into a sardonic smile.
'Spiros told me and I'd like to know why you didn't!'
'It's not an announcement I've had to make in recent years. It is of no importance,' he asserted.
And suddenly she understood and she was speared by a sharp pang of pain. 'You didn't trust me, did you?' she condemned shakily. 'You knew I didn't know and you didn't trust me enough to tell me!'
A broad shoulder lifted in a fluid shrug. He met her distressed gaze unflinchingly. 'It did cross my mind that you could sell the information for hundreds of thou-
sands of pounds in the right quarter. His death will create havoc on the international money market. Foreknowledge would give certain speculators the opportunity to make a fortune. And even if you had simply chosen to approach a tabloid, you could still have made more than sufficient money to clear your father's obligations to me.'
Jessica looked at him, incredulous and deeply wounded. 'And you think that I would have done that?'
'Let us say that I saw no reason to take an unnecessary risk.'
Numbly she shook her head. 'Dear God, what sort of woman do you think I am?'
'Tough. Been there, done that,’ he traded with dry mockery. 'Delicate wrapping round a steel backbone.'
'I would never have done something so disgusting!' Jessica told him vehemently. 'I do have some standards.’
Golden eyes glittered over her tautened figure. 'Then where were they six years ago, caraV
Her stomach turned over, every muscle tightening as
though to ward off a punch. 'I made a mistake...a
dreadful, inexcusable mistake '
Carlo vented a sardonic laugh and drained his glass, the hard planes of his dark features chillingly set. 'Are you calling me a mistake... or himV he drawled softly.
Although she was trembling, she
stood her ground. 'What do you think?'
'That I will never forgive you either way,’
Sharply disconcerted, she collided with gleaming gold and it was like ice sliding slowly down her tautened spinal cord, the most frightening chill spreading with sick certainty through her limbs. The colour drained from her face.
'You're telling yourself right now that you don't want or need my forgiveness,' Carlo murmured with shattering accuracy. 'But you will find that you do. You already look for me when I'm not there, don't you, cam’!
How did you sleep the last few nights? Did you expect me to call and wonder why I didn't? And just how did you feel when you first saw me today... elated? Sexually excited? You're halfway to falling in love with me already. I recognise all the symptoms and this is where I normally beat a strategic retreat in an affair... but not with you.'
Throughout she had stood there, entrapped by the wicked allure of his beautiful eyes and the hypnotic mastery of his rich, dark voice. She was transfixed by fascination, had to struggle just to unglue her tongue from the roof of her dry mouth. 'You're out of your mind,' she whispered. 'I could never love you.'
‘I will settle for nothing less,' Carlo told her softly in the steadily thickening atmosphere.
'You belong in a cave, Carlo!' Jessica managed a laugh that sounded oddly forced even to her own ears. 'Do you honestly imagine that I have so little control over my own emotions?'
Carlo dealt her an insolent.smile that made her palms
itch to slap him hard. 'I hate to be crude but you have
very little control over your body ‘
Fury seized hold of her and she snatched up her glass and flicked the contents over him.
