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'Would it?' she persisted.
'No.'
Jessica cleared her throat. 'You mentioned intimacy. . .were you talking about sexual intimacy?' she pursued, tight-lipped and rigid. 'Or was that just your idea of a joke?'
His strong jawline hardened. "There would be nothing remotely humorous about the exercise, that I can assure you. And yes, I was referring to sexual intimacy. The part you would play would not be credible without it.'
Dear heaven, why was she actually standing here listening to this nonsense? Her oval face set with distaste and rejection as her imagination ran absolutely rampant. Was he suggesting that she become some sort of business spy, sleeping with some competitor to gain information? An insane idea, but why else the secrecy? A kind of job that would last no longer than three months which would entail sex. How utterly revolting! A hysterical laugh clogged up her throat though. Her level of sexual experience lifted such a proposition to the heights of a tragicomic black joke., .but then Carlo was not to know that.
Jessica threw back her shoulders. 'Clearly you need
a hooker '
'Madre di Dio... what are you saying to me?' Carlo shot her a black glance of naked hauteur. 'Are you crazy?
I need a woman who can at the very least behave like a
lady '
‘And you don't know any?' Jessica cut in. 'Now why doesn't that surprise me? And how many beds are you expecting this lady to climb into at your request?'
Dark golden eyes narrowed. 'What the hell are you talking about?’
Jessica reddened, suddenly uncertain.
"The only bed you would be expected to warm would be mine,’ Carlo spelt out very drily.
Jessica went white and looked back at him in disbelief. Setting down the untouched champagne, she reached for her coat with an unsteady hand. 'Quite out of the question,' she told him with bitter clarity. 'I have no intention of selling my body to keep my father out of prison! Why the cloak and dagger approach, Carlo? Couldn't you just have asked me to be your mistress? Well, the answer is no... no, no, nol I'd sooner take to the streets!'
Brilliant dark eyes raked over her impassively. 'Go, then... I have nothing more to say to you.'
‘But I'm not finished yet,’ Jessica asserted with venom. 'Six years ago, you came into my life like a dark shadow and you tried to destroy it. There is no human being alive whom I hate more than you! And why did you set out to wreck my life? Out of nothing more than overweening conceit, selfishness and lust. It didn't matter to you that I was engaged to another man or that I loved that man. It didn't matter that you might hurt him as much as you hurt me.'
'You hurt him, not I,' Carlo returned without emotion.
Jessica shuddered with the force of her own teeming
emotions. 'You set out to ruin our relationship '
'If you had truly loved him, I would have been without power. The power I had you gave me...'
Hot pink flushed her slanted cheekbones. 'I did not!1
'With every look, every breath you took in my radius. Your hunger drew me,' Carlo condemned without
conscience.
‘No!’ She stared back at him in stark distress and reproach, her father's plight forgotten as he plunged her back into the past, heaping her with more guilt and an even greater sense of responsibility for all that had gone
wrong.
'Did it give your ego a kick?' Carlo sent her a look of blazing contempt. 'You play with fire, you get burnt,
cara.'
Jessica's knees felt like cotton wool. She was shattered
by Carlo's view of what had happened between them.
