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CHAPTER ONE SABRINA looked, and then looked again, her heart beating out a guilty beat while she tried to tell herself that her eyes were playing tricks on her. Because he couldn’t possibly be for real. He was standing close to the water, close enough for her to be able to see the carved symmetry of his features. Chiselled cheekbones and a proud, patrician nose. The mouth was luscious—both hard and sensual—a mouth which looked as though it had kissed a lot of women in its time. Only the eyes stopped the face from being too beautiful—they were too icily cold for perfection. Even from this distance, they seemed to glitter with a vital kind of energy and a black, irresistible kind of danger… Oh, Lord, thought Sabrina in despair. What am I thinking of? She was not the kind of woman to be transfixed by complete strangers—especially not when she was alone and vulnerable in a foreign country. And while Venice was the most beautiful place on earth—she was there on her own. On her own. Somethin
CHAPTER ONE
CHAPTER TWO DESPITE telling herself that she was being crazy and unrealistic, Sabrina couldn’t help the decided spring to her step next morning as she set off to return Guy’s money, nor the flush of anticipation which made her cheeks glow. And why had she dressed up for him in an ice-blue sundress which very nearly matched her eyes and peep-toed sandals which made her legs look longer than they really were? Surely she didn’t imagine for a moment that he would take one look at her and decide that she was the woman of his dreams? She put the stack of lire in an envelope. He probably wouldn’t even be there, she reasoned. She would just have to leave the money for him at Reception. The buildings soared up all around her and the water—which was everywhere—seemed to glimmer and glitter with some unspoken promise. As her steps drew her closer to Guy’s hotel, she felt the slow prickle of nerves. She told herself that even if he was there he would probably just take the money with that cool, en
CHAPTER TWO
CHAPTER THREE SABRINA was twenty minutes late. Guy had never had a woman keep him waiting in his life and he couldn’t decide whether to be irritated or intrigued. He glanced down at his watch for the umpteenth time and actually began to wonder whether he’d been stood up. But then he saw her crossing the square, wearing some slinky little silver-grey dress with a filmy silver stole around her pale shoulders, her legs looking deliciously long in spindly, high-heeled shoes. Sabrina spotted his tall, brooding figure straight away, as if he had been programmed to dominate her whole horizon. He was wearing a pale grey unstructured suit which did nothing to disguise the hard, muscular body beneath. And, outwardly at least, he looked completely relaxed, but as she grew closer she could see a coiled kind of tension, which gave him the dark, irresistible shimmer of danger. He looked completely relaxed, but there was no mistaking the watchful quality which made his grey eyes gleam with subdued pr
CHAPTER THREE
CHAPTER FOUR WHEN Sabrina opened her eyes again, the space on the bed beside her was empty. She gazed around the room, listening out for the sounds of activity in the bathroom, but there was only silence. She sat up in bed and yawned, noticing that Guy’s clothes were gone. She ran her fingers back through her tousled hair and wondered where he was. Rubbing her eyes, she picked up her watch. Ten past seven. Very early. So where could he be? She clambered out of bed and went into the bathroom, where she found most things she needed, including a courtesy toothbrush, still wrapped in its Cellophane paper. She wandered back into the bedroom just as the phone started ringing, and she picked it up with a smile on her face. ‘Guy?’ she said, thinking how pampered she sounded. But it wasn’t Guy. The voice was female—a husky voice which was edged with suspicion. ‘Who is this, please?’ Sabrina wondered fleetingly whether she should give her name. No, better not. ‘This is a friend of Guy’s,’ she an
CHAPTER FOUR
CHAPTER FIVE THE old-fashioned bell on the bookshop door clanged loudly as Sabrina stepped in out of the rain. The shop was empty save for a mild-looking man with glasses who glanced up, his face brightening into a smile of welcome. ‘Sabrina!’ he said in delight. ‘Welcome back!’ Sabrina tried to match his smile, and wondered if it looked as lopsided as it felt. ‘Thanks, Paul,’ she said, and slowly began to unbutton her raincoat, brushing off the drops of rain as she did so. ‘It’s great to be back!’ ‘So, how was Venice?’ Sabrina quickly turned to hang the dripping garment on the peg, hoping that he wouldn’t see the sudden defensive set of her shoulders. Or the swift shiver of memory which had her biting her lip in consternation. How could you ache so badly for a man you barely knew? she wondered. A man who had given you his body, but not his honesty? But by the time she turned round again she had managed to compose her face into the kind of dreamy post-holiday smile which Paul would be
CHAPTER FIVE
CHAPTER SIX GUY knew that Sabrina was going to faint even before the great heavy weight of her eyelids flickered to slump over her eyes. The colour blanched right out of her face and she swayed, slender and blonde as a blade of wheat. He caught her just before she slid to the ground, pushing her head down to her knees while with his other hand he reached round to undo the top button of her shirt. He felt her wriggle beneath his fingers. She groaned. ‘Guy—’ ‘Don’t try to say anything.’ His words were controlled and clipped as he rubbed the back of her neck, while inside his mind raced. A dead fiancé. His eyes narrowed. Why the hell hadn’t she told him that right at the beginning? Sabrina felt dizzy, dazedly aware that the other customers must be staring at her and knowing that the last thing she wanted was to attract more attention to herself. She needed to get out of here. And fast. But Guy’s fingers were distracting her so. She tried ineffectually to shrug off the fingertips which mas
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN RING me if you need to talk. Those had been Guy’s last words to her a week or so ago. Sabrina opened her eyes and stared at the blank white space of the ceiling. What woman would want to admit to being needy? And what could she possibly say if she picked the phone up to ring him? Hello, Guy, it’s me, Sabrina. Remember me? I’m the woman you had the one-night stand with in Venice? And then what? No. There was no point in ringing him. No point in anything really, other than trying to get through each day the best way she could. ‘Sabrina?’ Sabrina turned over and yawned as she focussed her eyes on the clock on the locker. Nearly ten o’clock. She loved her Sunday morning lie-ins. ‘Yes, Mum?’ ‘You’ve got—’ there was a rather odd note in her mother’s voice as she called up the stairs, Sabrina thought ‘—a visitor, dear!’ Some sixth sense warned her. Sabrina sat bolt upright in bed, her baggy Minnie Mouse nightshirt almost swamping her. ‘Who is it?’ she demanded hoarsely. ‘It’s Gu
CHAPTER SEVEN
CHAPTER EIGHT SABRINA’S pulse was hammering as she punched out the number, and it hammered even more when the connection was made and a rich, deep voice said, ‘Guy Masters.’ She opened her mouth but no words emerged. The voice sounded impatient now. ‘Guy Masters,’ he repeated irritatedly. ‘Guy. It’s me—Sabrina.’ There was a two-second pause which seemed like an eternity. ‘Sabrina Cooper,’ she rushed on. ‘Remember? We met—’ ‘Yes, of course I remember you, Sabrina. How are you?’ For a moment she was tempted to hang up and forget the whole stupid idea, but she had spent the last few weeks changing her life around. She couldn’t back out now. ‘I’ve managed to get a transfer!’ she said, and then, in case he had completely forgotten his proposal, rushed on, ‘To the London branch of Wells. They’ve said I can work there for six weeks. The bookshop,’ she added, just in case he had forgotten that. ‘Oh.’ There was a pause. ‘Good. So, when are you coming to stay?’ He did remember. Thank God. ‘I can
CHAPTER EIGHT
CHAPTER NINE SABRINA was woken by a banging on the door, and her eyes flickered open for a few dazed moments before reality clicked in from unconsciousness. Her gaze drifted upwards. A high ceiling. A beautiful flat. Guy’s flat. ‘Sabrina!’ Guy’s voice! ‘What is it?’ she answered groggily. ‘Are you awake?’ ‘I am now.’ She yawned and picked up her wristwatch, which was lying on the locker. Six-thirty? What time did he call this? She had never been the best early morning person in the world. Still in the warm haze of sleep, she felt too lazy to be inhibited. ‘Why have you woken me up?’ She yawned again. ‘I wondered why you weren’t up. Did you set your alarm? We don’t want you to be late on your first day, now, do we, Sabrina?’ That teasing little lilt set her senses fizzing. ‘Of course I set my alarm! I don’t have to be at work until nine!’ ‘That late?’ he drawled. ‘I’ll have been at my desk for at least two hours by then.’ ‘I’ll have a medal minted for you, Guy!’ He sounded amused. ‘I’m
CHAPTER NINE
CHAPTER TEN ‘SO HOW has your first week been?’ Guy looked across the sitting room to where Sabrina was curled up like a kitten with a book on her lap—she was always reading, though he noticed that not many pages had been turned in the past hour. Snap, he thought with a grim kind of satisfaction. He hadn’t made many inroads into his own reading. Sabrina met the piercing grey gaze and repressed a guilty kind of longing. How could she possibly concentrate on her book when she had such a distraction sitting just across the room from her? ‘I’ve enjoyed it,’ she told him truthfully. Well, most of it, anyway. It wasn’t easy being around him, being plagued by memories of a time it was clear that both of them wished forgotten—but at least she had done her utmost not to show it. She forced a smile. ‘How do you rate me as a flatmate?’ Guy thought about it. She was certainly less intrusive than he would have imagined. She kept out of his way in the mornings. She didn’t drift around the place in bi
CHAPTER TEN
CHAPTER ELEVEN FOR the next week, Sabrina was in a complete state of nerves. What on earth did you wear if you were going out for dinner with a prince? She rang her mother and explained her predicament. ‘Good heavens,’ said her mother faintly. ‘A prince? You’ll never want to come home to Salisbury at this rate!’ Sabrina winced at how her mother had unerringly hit on the truth. She couldn’t imagine wanting to either, but that had everything to do with Guy and nothing whatsoever to do with a Middle-Eastern potentate. ‘What do I wear, Mum?’ she repeated patiently. ‘You’ve got lots of lovely clothes! Just be yourself,’ said her mother. ‘My goodness—wait until the neighbours hear about this!’ ‘Well, I don’t want you to tell them,’ said Sabrina stubbornly. Because however much she wished otherwise, one day soon she was going to have to go back and live at home, and she would do herself no favours whatsoever if she arrived with Guy Masters’s magic dust still clinging to her skin. She even tri
CHAPTER ELEVEN
CHAPTER TWELVE GUY maintained a simmering silence all the way home, even after they’d left Khalim back at his hotel and the chauffeur had dropped them back at the flat. In fact, he waited until he’d slammed the front door behind them. He didn’t have many neighbours, it was true, but the ones he did have had known him for years. And would probably have gone into extreme shock if they’d heard Guy Masters yelling at a woman, which was exactly what he felt like doing. ‘Are you mad?’ he demanded. ‘And are you lacking in any social graces?’ Sabrina returned hotly. ‘You spent the whole night simpering up to Khalim!’ ‘Only because you could hardly bring yourself to say a civil word to me—and I was not simpering!’ He steadied his breath. Stay calm, he told himself. Stay calm. This wasn’t like him at all. ‘Do you have any idea of that man’s reputation with women?’ Sabrina met his eyes with dignity. ‘He seemed quite the gentleman—’ ‘Quite the gentleman?’ he repeated faintly. ‘Besides, I thought h
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN SABRINA walked into the sitting room to find Guy standing there, as motionless as if he’d been carved from some beautiful dark and golden stone. His eyes were the only animated part of his body, and they swept over her in a glittering and hectic question. ‘Is Khalim with you?’ She shook her head. ‘No. He’s just driven off.’ Guy expelled a quiet breath of relief, but he didn’t move. He had rushed in once before. This time it had to be different. He gestured towards the bottle of claret which stood on the table. ‘Would you like some wine?’ It had been an emotional evening. She had drunk mineral water and jasmine tea, but right then she needed a drink. ‘I’d love one.’ He poured her a glass and put it down on one of the small tables, keeping his voice deliberately casual. ‘So. Good evening, was it?’ Sabrina dropped her shawl over the back of one of the chairs and went to sit down on one of the sofas. It hadn’t been the evening she’d been expecting. But then she hadn’t expe
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN SABRINA opened her eyes to the morning light and closed them again as images of the previous night came flickering back. What had she done? Placed herself in the most precariously vulnerable position in the world—that was what she’d done. Given herself to Guy, heart, body and soul. ‘Good morning, princess,’ came a murmured greeting, and her eyes snapped open to see Guy standing, towering above her, already shaved and dressed for work in another exquisitely cut dark suit, and she felt a great wrench of longing. ‘Hello,’ she whispered, her heart thundering at the sight of him. He smiled. ‘You were sleeping so beautifully that I couldn’t bear to wake you.’ She sat up and saw his eyes darken as her bare breasts were exposed, and some protective instinct made her gather the sheet around her. ‘You’re going already?’ she asked him. ‘Wish I didn’t have to, but I have an early meeting,’ he said softly, and sat down on the bed beside her. Of course he did. Guy the workaholic. Gu
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN SABRINA let herself into the flat with a heavy heart and went to put the shopping in the kitchen. Two more days. Just two. It was inconceivable. Especially as Guy had spent the last few days seemingly hell-bent on showing her just what she would be missing. He didn’t seem satisfied until he had her sobbing out her shuddering pleasure, night after night…but he’d never asked her to stay. She made herself a coffee and then went to stand at the window, where the bright hues of early summer dazzled from the garden in the square. How on earth could she ever go back to being what she had been? Or maybe that was the wrong way to look at it. She could never really go back to being the old Sabrina—there was a new one now, ready and willing to take her place. And rebirth, like birth, was always painful. Why else would she feel this terrible, tearing pain at the thought of never seeing Guy Masters again? Would he miss her? she wondered achingly. Probably, just a little, yes. And ce
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
EPILOGUE
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