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his teeth grazing her lip, his
    tongue gliding against hers like heated silk.
    Her response was immediate. Her mouth moved against his, sweetly, greedily. She lifted
    the hands which clasped hers, and placed them on her breasts.
    She thought, exultantly, He's mine. His leg parted her thighs, pressing the satin of her
    gown against the moist satin of her body in a deliberate, tantalising friction which forced
    a tormented moan from her throat.
    She wanted him so fiercely that it hurt. She needed to feel him sheathed inside her—to be
    taken, there and then, against the wall, or on the floor. She wanted to see his cool, ironic
    control shattered in tiny pieces. To possess him, to know that he was as driven and
    desperate as she was herself.
    Even when he stepped back, his breathing hurried and harsh, she thought she'd won.
    She hooked her fingers under the straps of her gown, and pulled them down, letting the
    folds of satin slide down her body, and cascade around her bare feet. She waited, her
    nakedness a challenge, her body heated and ready for his invasion.
    And saw him smile at her.
    'Goodbye, darling,' he said softly. 'Don't ever think I wasn't tempted.'
    He turned, and walked away from her towards the main door.
    For a second, she was too shocked to move or speak. Then sheer outrage rescued her.
    'Bastard,' she hurled after him, chokingly. 'Don't you dare walk out on me.'
    But Ryan's only response was to blow her one mocking kiss as he left.
    Kate closed down her computer, and switched off the power, sitting for a moment and
    staring at the blank screen. She could only hope that what she'd stored over the past hour
    made some kind of sense, but she guaranteed nothing.
    For once, her mind had not been on the job in hand.
    Instead, she'd found herself going over and over again the events of the past twenty-four
    hours, as if she were trapped on some weary treadmill.
    And the inescapable and unpalatable fact facing her was that, leaving aside whether or
    not Ryan was actually having an affair, her own relationship with him seemed to have
    reached some kind of watershed.
    Even now, she still could not quite believe the coolness of his rejection. Burned to think
    how he'd watched her offer herself, then walked away. How he'd left her standing there,
    naked, and ridiculous.
    He'd spoken of temptation, but he'd found her attempted seduction all too easy to resist,
    she thought bitterly.
    It was also clear he'd had not the slightest intention of taking her to Whitmead, even if
    she'd declared herself available.
    Of course, I did say that hell would freeze over before I set foot in the place again, Kate
    remembered uneasily. But it was said in the heat of the moment. We were having a row
    for God's sake. He must know I didn't mean it.
    Her mother-in-law's kindly probing about their intention to start a family must really have
    caught her on the raw, she thought, frowning. Because she'd had some unkind things to
    say about refusing to turn into a bloody baby farm like Sally, too.
    Yet she liked her sister-in-law, and was fond of four-year-old Holly and eighteen-month-
    old Tom. But Sally, like her husband, had been a successful corporate accountant before
    she became a full-time mother, and Kate could only think, what a waste of a good brain,
    each time she saw her coping patiently with her lively toddlers.
    Not that Sally had ever indicted by word or gesture that she wasn't totally happy with her
    new life. On the contrary.
    And Ryan's right, Kate thought, grimacing. It was the life we had planned when we got
    married. The baby, the house in the country, the dogs—the whole bit.
    Only our plan had to change, when Ryan risked everything by changing his career. I
    simply had to work to give us some security, in case his gamble didn't pay off.
    And now that my business is working well too I can't afford to pull out for family
    reasons. For one thing, it wouldn't be fair to Louie.
    She paused. This was the moment when she usually