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Which was probably what her father had intended from the beginning, she thought angrily. And again she wondered if he had more than a nodding acquaintance with Cameron Thorpe. He couldn’t have picked a better adversary for her if he’d spent his life searching. Then she realized she was on the wrong track. Her father would have been in search of a soul mate for her, not an adversary.
    She walked back into her bedroom, sleek and elegant in her nudity, her high breasts in perfect proportion to a body that was sensuous and graceful and unconscious of its own power. And as she walked into the bedroom, Cameron Thorpe walked in the door.
    Her eyes widened. So did his. They went over her like dark fingers, tracing every soft curve, every long line, with an intensity that froze her into position like a nymph caught bathing.
    “Damn you!” she whispered as sanity returned. She dived for the silky blue coverlet, and jerked it around her. Her face went blood red. No man had ever seen her without her clothes, not even that jackass she’d been engaged to. There had been very little more than kissing between them, in fact, which was one thing that had led to her suspicion that her money was the attraction for Adam, not her body. Or her heart.
    “How interesting,” Cameron murmured, watching her reaction as she shrank against the post of the canopy over her wide bed. He closed the door behind him with a hard thud and went toward her.
    She vaulted across the bed, and got behind the elegant blue wing chair, glaring at him over it. “What are you doing in here?” she demanded.
    “You sound quite hysterical, Miss Forrest,” he commented. He rammed his hands in his pockets and smiled slowly. The smile changed him, made him wildly sensual. The big muscles in his arms were outlined by the short-sleeved knit shirt he was wearing, and so was the muscular breadth of his chest. His slacks were close fitting, emphasizing the powerful muscles of his long legs, the slender lines of his hips and stomach. He was devastating, physically at least. And she hated herself for noticing that.
    “I’m not hysterical.”
    “You said you were just going to freshen up. I assumed you’d had time for that by now.”
    He sounded reasonable, but she didn’t feel reasonable. She wanted to throw things. Her fingers trembled where they held the coverlet against her breasts.
    “Whatever you wanted, can’t it wait until I get my clothes on?” she asked in a high-pitched tone.
    “What I had in mind would work better with them off,” he replied, moving toward her again.
    “No hitting, if you please,” she said, shoving the chair at him. “My insurance doesn’t have a clause for assault and battery.”
    “I wouldn’t hit you,” he said. “I just want your full attention.” He nudged the chair aside with his hip and kept coming. “Nervous,
Jane?
” he asked with a cold smile. “Isn’t that what your friends call you?”
    “Yes, but you don’t fall into that category. I’m warning you, Mr. Thorpe, I have acquaintances who just adore suing people on my behalf!”
    “So have I. Pay attention, Miss Forrest, because I don’t intend to repeat this. I don’t know what kind of half-baked boys you’re used to, but in this house I’m the master, and what I say goes.”
    “Do you wear a crown, sir, and have little crests sewn on your underwear?’’ she asked. She backed behind the night table, using it like a shield. Part of her was nervous, but another part was wildly excited by that glitter in his eyes, the movement of his powerful body. She’d never tried to enrage a man before, but there was something about Cameron’s dark, somber masculinity that intrigued her. She couldn’t help but wonder what was under the mask.
    He stood looking at her, his eyes narrow and intent, his head slightly cocked to one side. “Hiding?” he asked in a voice soft with menace.
    She laughed again. “Just taking cover. Now, Mr. Thorpe, you knew from the