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the confrontation that was definitely imminent would not be tonight. Briana knew she was only putting off the inevitable, but somehow she was feeling far too vulnerable to get into another painful argument with Pascual now—with both of them aiming accusations at each other like lethal missiles and scoring devastating hits. A good night’s sleep might help strengthen her besieged resources, so she could face him tomorrow instead.
    They were standing at the foot of the impressive Tudor staircase, and she tentatively touched the carved oak handrail, as if to signify her intention to retire. But Pascual’s glance was thoughtfully brooding, and it confirmed to her that she would not be allowed to dismiss him or say goodnight as easily as that.
    ‘When I set out from Buenos Aires I had a feeling that something disturbing was going to happen,’ he remarked, low-voiced.
    As if feeling a chill, Briana rubbed her hands up and down her arms in the thin silk sleeves of her blouse. ‘I don’t want to ruin your trip, Pascual…honestly, I don’t. I know the hurt and resentment you must feel towards me probably still runs deep, but—’
    ‘You are right about that!’ His dark eyes flashed, as though his emotions were simmering fire contained behind a mere thin veil. Any moment now the heated sparks would flare into an inferno and incinerate the veil to nothing.
    ‘Look,’ she went on, praying he would hear her out and agree, ‘tomorrow, after the polo match that’s been lined up for you to go to, there’ll be time to please yourself what you do next. I’ll be here overseeing the arrangements for dinner if you want to come back and talk to me then. I promise I’ll give you as long as you like and I won’t cut our meeting short. Please, Pascual…It’s been a long day and I’m tired tonight.’
    ‘You always did manage to get your own way whenever you looked at me like that.’
    ‘Like what?’
    ‘Like a sad, lost little girl.’ His lips were twisting wryly, but perhaps with a hint of bitterness in them too, Pascual reached out and touched his fingertips to Briana’s soft cheek. ‘You could wrap me round your little finger when we were together, and that is the truth!’
    ‘Is it?’ Hardly daring to breathe, Briana felt the blood thicken and slow in her veins. There was a tight, coiled feeling in her womb.
    ‘More fool you if you did not know it!’ His countenance was unremittingly harsh for a second, but in the next instant it visibly softened and became almost too beguiling for words. Certainly too beguiling for her to resist. ‘I will let you go to bed if you give me a kiss,’ he intoned huskily. ‘For old times’ sake.’
    Briana was not given time to give Pascual an answer, because suddenly his mouth was on hers, his velvet tongue sliding commandingly between her already partially opened soft lips and dancing with hers in hot, erotic foreplay that heated her blood to fire and stole all the strength from her limbs as though her legs had been violently swept away at the knees.
    His hands possessively cupped her hips, impelling them hungrily towards him, and he briefly withdrew his mouth from her lips and suckled the sensitive skin at the side of her neck. When she felt his teeth graze the surface hard enough to sting, Briana gasped out loud. She was drowning in an erotic sea in which she barely had enough strength left with which to swim. If she didn’t stop this intoxicating insanity right now then she had no doubt she would not be spending the night in her room’s stately four-poster bed alone.
    The thought both shocked and terrified her. As far as she was concerned Pascual Dominguez was a force of nature she could never resist—yet how could she contemplate sleeping with him again when he was not even aware that they had a son together? Her sin, if sin it was, would be compounded way beyond repair.
    ‘You must stop!’ Her breathing ragged, she pushed her hands with as much force as she could