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in a menacing tone.
    She turned back to her work, trying to ignore him. It wasn’t easy when he loomed over her that way.
    “The reasons I stayed away might shock you, city girl,” he said after a minute.
    “I don’t doubt it for a minute,” she muttered.
    “And that wasn’t what I meant. It might have something to do with you.”
    The careless remark brought her eyes up, and he held them relentlessly for so long that she felt currents singing through her body.
    “I didn’t expect you to start trembling the minute I put my hands on you,” he said in a harsh undertone. “Not after all these years. We’ve been enemies.”
    “We still are,” she said in what she hoped was a convincing tone, while humiliation stuck like bile in her throat.
    “Dead right,” he said coldly. “And it’s going tostay that way. I don’t want complications during this holiday.”
    “Ditto,” she said curtly. “And don’t go around flattering your ego too much, Egan,” she added. “I was half asleep at the time!”
    His darkened eyes searched hers in the stillness that followed, and she was aware of him in a way she’d never been aware of a man before. Of his height and strength, of the devastating effect he had on her senses.
    “Saving your pride, Kati?” he asked quietly.
    She studied her long fingernails. “I like my life as it is,” she said. “I’m on the go too much for relationships of any kind. And what you’d have in mind…!” she began.
    “Now who’s flattering their ego?” he asked shortly, glaring down at her. “My God, I don’t mind experience in my women, but I draw the line at promiscuity!”
    She scrambled to her feet and was ready to swing when the dark look on his face worked some kind of witchcraft and left her standing helplessly with her fists clenched.
    “You slapped me once and got away with it,” he said quietly. “If you do it again now, we’ll wind up in bed together.”
    She felt her body tremble at the words. “No,” she bit off.
    “Yes.” His chest rose and fell heavily, and his eyes cut into hers. “Don’t you realize that the way we reactto each other is like flint and steel? All it would take is a kiss. Just that. And we’d burn each other alive. I’ve known that from the very beginning.”
    She hadn’t, and the thought of Egan as a lover made her face burn. She had to smother a gasp as she turned away with her arms folded protectively around her slender body.
    “Don’t worry. You’re safe, city girl,” he said in a mocking tone. “I’m not that desperate. Just don’t push me too far.”
    She couldn’t even face what he was insinuating. Egan was the enemy. He was going to stay that way too, if she had to bite her tongue in two. She stared blankly out the window.
    “And it’s Ada that’s auditioning for acting jobs,” he commented sarcastically. “Playing innocent?”
    She didn’t have to play, but he’d never believe it. He’d just shocked her to her nylon-clad feet, and she was lost for words. It was a little frightening to be threatened with a man’s bed, just for provoking him. She hadn’t been aware that she
was
provoking him until now. Which automatically led to her asking why she did it, and that was frightening as well.
    “Kati,” he called softly.
    She stiffened. “Will your stockbroker wait?” she asked quietly.
    He frowned at her stiff back. “What the hell’s the matter with you?”
    “You threaten me with sex and then ask me what’swrong?” she burst out, staring at him nervously over one shoulder.
    He blinked, as if she’d shocked him. “It wasn’t a threat.”
    She flushed and walked away.
    “Will you stop doing your Lady Innocent act and look at me?” he growled.
    She walked into her bedroom and slammed the door. On an afterthought, she locked it, too. There was a string of unprintable curses from the vicinity of the living room before the front door slammed violently and the room became quiet.
    It wasn’t going to be