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‘There’s every point,’ he said.
‘I don’t feel comfortable when the Document of Intent is so close to being signed.’
‘It might be weeks. I’m in my father’s good books for once. Bizarrely, thanks to you. The dancing and the lack of apology...’
‘The trip around the islands,’ Beatrice said. ‘That was your suggestion. And from everything I heard at the festival you’re rather popular. As well as that—’
‘A week on a desert island, Beatrice,’ he cut in, refusing to be diverted. ‘The sand is red. I saw it the morning after we...’ He stopped. ‘We can get it all out of our systems and hopefully we’ll be desperate to escape each other by the end of the week...’
Oh, Beatrice wouldn’t be—that much she knew.
‘So you’re offering me a week of sex?’
He looked at her.
‘But no getting closer? No pillow talk...? Of all the rules your parents have put on you, that is the cruellest.’
‘Hey!’
Beatrice would not be silenced. ‘No, I’m going to say this—’
‘You hardly walk around baring your soul.’
‘Ichoosenot to,’ Beatrice said. ‘There’s a big difference between being private and being forbidden from having friends. Even all these years on, I still think of Alicia, talk to her—’ She halted.
‘You still speak to her?’ he asked. ‘In your head?’
‘A bit.’
‘What would your friend tell you to do?’
She frowned. ‘I wouldnotbe taking advice from Alicia on this,’ Beatrice said. ‘Her childhood crush was Dante Schininà, and believe me, he was feral. They used to swim in the river together,’ she said, ‘and then sneak into the cemetery. His mother ran the local brothel—’
‘Whoa!’ He halted her and then said sulkily, ‘Why didn’t I get the bad twin?’
Beatrice was saved from answering by the sound of footsteps approaching.
‘Think about it,’ he said. Then he looked over as the door was pushed open.
It was Jordan.
‘There you are,’ Jordan said.
Beatrice was simply relieved that Jordan hadn’t found them locked in a clinch, or seen her looking dishevelled and mortified.
She would have if Julius hadn’t been so restrained. Beatrice was the one without restraint where they were concerned.
‘I assume you’ve heard about the puppies?’ Julius said.
‘Sir, I don’t know what happened with the diary...’
‘Beatrice has already apologised,’ Julius said. ‘I think we can leave it now. Beatrice thinks I possibly might have said I’d do the photoshoot, though I think she might not be remembering very well.’
‘Well, Arabella has heard about the puppies...’
‘I promised her one if she stopped getting her nanny to do her homework,’ Julius explained to Beatrice, and politely he didn’t look as she stood up as gracefully as she could.
Beatrice was too discreet to flash her knickers. She stood there, all neat, dusting away sawdust and straw, and hoped she looked suitably chastised for bringing puppies to his precious stables.
