Andrea swore in vicious frustrated Italian.‘You virtually kidnapped me. I didn’t agree to come here,’ she reminded him steadfastly, only the nervous clenching and unclenching of her slim hands by her sides betraying the level of her agitation. ‘Keeping me here against my will is just not on, Andrea.’Lean, powerful face rigid, Andrea studied her with seething intensity. The silence pounded and stretched. And then he dragged in a slow deep breath and said grittily, ‘Nothing happened last night.’Elena studied him fixedly. A flood of relief washed over her and left her dizzy and more hopelessly confused than ever. It was not only her pride and sense of decency that had been offended by his apparent faithlessness, she registered in dismay. She had been downright tormented by the idea that he might have been with someone else. She had been jealous, hurt and furious.Lean, angular features taut, Andrea set his perfect white teeth together. ‘I didn’t touch them … the models … they were com

Andrea tensed. ‘When was that?’‘I was ten when Dad first set up home with Kelsey and her daughters. Unfortunately, Rose and Silvia didn’t take to me and, for the sake of peace, I was sent off to school. I hated it.’‘Why … were you bullied?’‘For waking the other girls up with my nightmares and being a terrible cry-baby.’ Elena winced in remembered shame over her past weakness. ‘I was horribly homesick—’Andrea reached behind him with a long arm and tipped her round and deftly forward into his lap. ‘I was too, but I didn’t have a home to go to any more.’‘You boarded too?’‘My mother was dead and her generous employer paid for my education at an exclusive school. I didn’t fit in. Sardinian mothers spoil their sons. I spoke lousy English, and I was a science geek and very small—’Elena squinted up at his shadowy profile. ‘Small?’ she interrupted in disbelief.Andrea nodded. ‘Tiny … I didn’t shoot up until I was well into my teens.’‘Were you bullied too?’‘Of course not.’But Elena cau

Madly conscious of the warmth of his skin against hers and of the electric sparks of awareness in the atmosphere, Elena glanced up at him. The dark pupils of her blue eyes were dilated. Sensual tension sizzled through her, holding her still. She was on a high and although she tried she could not pull back from that intoxicating sense of energy and power while his smouldering tawny eyes burned over her with masculine appreciation.Andrea bent his arrogant dark head to murmur thickly, ‘How do you do this to me?’Taunting heat pulsed at the heart of her. She felt so wicked she closed her eyes tight, fighting his electrifyingly sexual magnetism. ‘I don’t know what you’re talking about—’‘Di niente. Let me show you.’ Snapping both hands over her wrists, Andrea backed into the room behind him and drew her with him.The instant she registered his intention, Elena went rigid. She knew that hot, intent look on his lean, darkly handsome face. It filled her with an excitement she loathed. All

‘I can’t do anything,’ Elena said again. ‘I don’t have any money either.’Kelsey spoke up for the first time. ‘If you don’t find the means to sort this out discreetly, I assure you that I will divorce your father and then he won’t even have anywhere to live. I’ve had enough. I won’t tolerate any more.’Elena sighed heavily. ‘I can understand how you feel—’‘I don’t think you do. While our lives have been crashing and burning as we struggled to pay our bills, you’ve been swanning down red carpets to film premières!’ Silvia condemned furiously. ‘I see your picture in all the top magazines and your name in the gossip columns. You’re shacked up with a Category-A billionaire!’‘It would have been crude to present Andrea with a shopping list of demands in your very first week,’ Rose opined, ‘but it’s time you stopped being selfish and shared your amazing good fortune with your family.’‘That’s enough, girls,’ their mother, Kelsey, murmured. ‘I’m quite sure that Elena has got the message.’I

The money had been taken from the garden fund around the same time as the money from Andrea's company. In many ways it could be seen as another strand of the same offence, she told herself bracingly.When she appeared for breakfast, Andrea acknowledged her with an inclination of his handsome dark head. He was poised by a desk across the room and talking in rapid Italian, and it was clear to her that he was fully engaged in business. She watched him covertly while she chased some cereal round a bowl, her appetite steadily dwindling at the prospect of the dialogue that lay ahead.Andrea tossed the phone aside and strolled fluidly towards her. In a well-cut suit the colour of rich caramel, a silk shirt and a narrow trendy tie, he was drop-dead beautiful, she acknowledged helplessly.‘Sleep well?’ he enquired casually.‘Yes … thanks.’‘I didn’t.’ Lean, powerful face intent, Andrea lounged back against the table edge. He watched her with a smouldering intensity that spoke louder than any