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without blushing, then so be it.
    You’re attracted to him. The
words echoed through her mind in a voice that sounded suspiciously like Lyra’s.
    “Maybe
I am,” she said aloud. “But I’ll just have to deal with it.”
    Take a step back. It
was Penny’s voice this time. Keep your
distance.
      Yes. She could do that. She could control the
nerves. So long as she didn’t maintain eye contact or get too close, she could
deal with the fact that he made her whole body feel like it was on fire. And if
that matched exactly what he would like to see, it was just an added bonus.
Because by the time he started trying to knock down the defenses she was
putting up, she hoped to be gone. And she wouldn’t have to deal with the
inevitable fallout from their attraction, because, oh boy, would there be fall
out.
    Rachel
knew it instinctively.
    She
took another swig of water, her mind whizzing in a million directions trying to
imagine what would happen if somehow Dominic managed to seduce her before she
got his cash. Nothing good, Rach , she
thought. She lacked the experience to know how to put a halt to a seduction as
thorough as she was sure his would be. She would, in the words of her sisters,
be royally fucked.
      A knock sounded on the wide door that led to
the private corridor she’d walked just an hour earlier and Rachel exhaled the
breath she didn’t realize she was holding. Placing her empty glass on the bar,
Rachel smoothed down her dirty dress and moved forward to answer it. Would it
be Dominic? Her heart pounded at the thought and she had to give herself a
little inward shake. Yep, fallout.
    But
it wasn’t, and Rachel wasn’t sure if she was thankful for that or not. Instead
of the imposing Italian who played haywire with her pulse, two couriers stood
waiting, their hands full of bags. She looked at the two men and then at the
bags, far more than she’d expected. Clearly Lucinda had not taken her halving
of the list into account at all.
    “Where
would you like these, miss?” one of the men asked.
    Rachel
waved at the couches just off from the bar area, stepped back and watched as
the men placed the piles of bags and boxes down. They were very careful. Boxes
were stacked in tiers, bags in rows. Nothing was placed in any way that Rachel
could find fault with, not that she ever would, but likely these men were used
to difficult, spoiled rich girls.
    “Thank
you so much,” she said. “I appreciate this.”
    The
men both nodded. “There is also this.”
    The
second man held out his hand in which a small box with“Blackberry” written across it sat. Rachel gasped and took the
box. “Wow, if this is what I think it is, thank you.”
    “Of
course. Is there anything else we can do for you?” the same man asked.
    Rachel
shook her head, thanked them again, and both men nodded as they left the room,
their manner striking her as a little odd. Only when Rachel shut the door
behind them did she realize why it had felt strange. They were waiting on her.
They had that exact look she herself had perfected over the years. Head down,
eyes on a spot in the distance, polite smile, never forget your place.
    She
frowned and sat down in the midst of the boxes and bags. Though she knew she
was only playing a part, playing the game, it felt…wrong to her. Lucinda had
been brisk and playful, not subservient, but those men? Rachel sighed and
opened the Blackberry box. They reminded her of so many moments in her life and
she did not like it. Did not like them thinking she belonged here, that she was
just another rich girl being waited on. That wasn’t her! She was far more than
that and in no way at all must she forget it.
    A
sudden and unexpected spurt of anger had her kicking one of the bags aside. A
length of pink silk slithered out of the side and Rachel glared at it. Dominic
thought nothing of spending all this money. No, not spending it, she thought as
she lifted the Blackberry from its case, wasting it. Who needed all this