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would prove irresistible. But he hadn’t planned on feeling this tender protectiveness at all. In fact, quite the opposite. He’d been absolutely certain that daily doses of her disdain would fuel his natural aversion to women who thought they weretoo good for the average man. Instead she hadn’t been in the apartment twenty-four hours and already his carefully erected wall of preconceptions was cracked at the foundation. It made for a very long night.
    * * *
    Gabrielle did not want to get out of bed. It was Saturday morning. From the brightness of the sun slanting through the window, she judged it to be a beautiful day. But Paul was very likely to be in the next room and she wasn’t sure she was at all prepared to go another round with him.
    Every one of their encounters had disturbed her in some indefinable way that went well beyond irritation. Their latest, in fact, was a dim but decidedly pleasant memory. She recalled the strength of his arms around her, the gentleness of his touch, the oddly haunted look in his eyes when he’d thought she’d been with another man. She wasn’t sure which was likely to be more difficult to face, the impossible man she’d first met or the tender one who’d helped her through the night. Such uncertainty had a tendency to make her cranky.
    Finally she dared a trip to the bathroom.Fortunately Paul didn’t seem to be anywhere in the apartment. In the bathroom, however, she was reminded emphatically of his presence. She found his damp towel laying on the floor, his razor beside a sink dotted with specks of dark hair and his T-shirt on the door handle. The intimacy it suggested sent a little shiver dancing along her spine. That made her mad, though admittedly out of all proportion to the seriousness of his transgression. It also helped her to put that single incident during the night into its proper perspective once and for all. She was rooming with an inconsiderate slob, not some knight in shining armor.
    She cleaned the sink, washed up, dressed, picked up his belongings and tore open the door with every intention of dumping the items in the middle of his bed. She hadn’t counted on practically tripping over him. He was lying in the middle of the kitchen floor, his very bare upper body partially hidden in a cabinet. Unfortunately quite enough was exposed to tease her imagination. She dropped his things on his stomach and heard a muttered exclamation, a thump and then a curse.
    He emerged rubbing his head and peered at her balefully. “What’s the story?”
    â€œThere is one bathroom in this apartment.”
    â€œHow observant of you to notice,” he retorted, responding to her admittedly nasty mood. “What’s the problem?”
    â€œI will not clean up after you.”
    â€œYou don’t have to.”
    â€œWell, we sure as hell don’t have a maid to do it.”
    â€œRight again.”
    â€œI will not live in a pigsty.”
    He carefully removed the assortment of items on his stomach, holding them up for inspection. “I’d hardly call one towel, a razor and my underwear the makings of a pigsty.”
    â€œIt’s a start.”
    â€œCome on, Gaby, loosen up. I’m used to living alone. We’ll have to work out the details as we go along. I’ll buy a medicine chest for the razor. I’ll install a towel rack later. As for my underwear, if that disturbs you…” he began with a leer.
    â€œIt doesn’t disturb me!” She was practically shouting.
    He grinned. “Then why are you shouting?”Paul couldn’t resist chuckling at her furious expression. It was good to see yet another break in that cool, controlled facade of hers. In fact, if it weren’t so dangerous to his own equilibrium, he might make that his immediate goal, seeing to it that Gabrielle Clayton exchanged what had apparently been a rather uptight existence for something a little more carefree.