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queen amongst women, Miss Winter. You should be in command of men. I am at your command. Ask anything of me and I will do it.’
    ‘A new plan, Omar? Buy Jayne and you think I’ll follow?’ Dan interposed sardonically. The political need not to offend was erased by a primitive urge to smash Omar’s suit to Jayne. ‘Your father must be pressing you hard. Didn’t you tell him I was no longer available to advise on his mining operations?’
    Dark fury stabbed at Dan. ‘You insult me. And you insult the lady.’
    ‘Offering her diamonds and sapphires and all she desires is not an attempt to buy her?’
    ‘It is a tribute to her beauty.’ He snubbed Dan and turned back to Jayne. ‘As you can see, Mr.Drayton thinks of himself. I think of you, Miss Winter. My private jet is standing by at Beijing. I will fly you to the great fashion houses of Paris. To Amsterdam for the finest and most exquisite jewellery in the world.’
    ‘You are very flattering, Your Excellency,’ Jayne said, sounding somewhat bemused. ‘But I do have responsibilities here.’
    ‘There is nothing that cannot be rearranged,’ Omar assured her.
    Dan seethed with frustration. He’d been sorting Jayne out very neatly before this fly in the ointment had arrived. Jayne would undoubtedly get a swelled head out of these extravagant bribes even if she rejected them.
    Unfortunately Omar El Talik had less of a stomach for rejection than Dan did. He might be an adult physically but he had the mind of a spoilt brat. He wanted Jayne and he was used to getting what he wanted, one way or another. Dan wouldn’t put it past him to kidnap her. He had his two heavies with him. There was only one way Dan could see to spike his ardour.
    ‘I don’t take kindly to your rearranging anything for Jayne. Or me,’ he drawled.
    The implied threat only stirred a haughty arrogance. ‘Miss Winter is far above the menial work of an assistant and she is free to choose. Apart from which, I doubt very much you would do anything to harm her.’ His hot, dark eyes coveted Jayne again. ‘Miss Winter…’
    ‘…happens to be my wife,’ Dan stated categorically. He glared a warning at Jayne. If she said, ‘Ex-wife,’ he would take Baby and walk out right now. If she ended up back in the Middle East, having to submit to purdah for the rest of her life, she only had herself to blame.
    ‘I do not believe you,’ Omar scoffed. ‘Miss Winter does not bear your name.’
    ‘Why should she? She has a perfectly good name of her own,’ Dan argued, repressing his burning resentment that Jayne had chosen to eschew any connection to him. He smiled at Lin Zhiyong. ‘It’s the custom in China for married women to retain their maiden names.’
    ‘It is so,’ the elderly official agreed, nodding affably.
    ‘She would have had the child with her,’ Omar astutely pointed out.
    ‘Jayne was busy doing what she wanted to do and I wanted the pleasure of having Baby with me,’ Dan declared, reaching out to gently ruffle Baby’s curls. ‘I can recommend the joys of fatherhood.’
    Omar bristled with scepticism. He appealed to Jayne. ‘This is a ploy to keep you to himself, is it not?’
    Dan tensed. This was the moment of decision!
    ‘It was I who called him, Your Excellency,’ Jayne replied with an emphasis that subtly drew attention to her own autonomy. ‘His expertise is required here. As my husband, he promised methat I only had to call him and he would supply what I requested.’
    The offer hadn’t been meant for this situation, Dan thought in exasperation, remembering how he had anticipated a change of mind from Jayne after a few weeks’ separation. He simply hadn’t believed she would want to live apart from him for long. To comprehensively disappear for two years had been beyond any conceivable calculations.
    He watched in glowering impotence as she smiled at Lin Zhiyong, exuding all her prodigious female power, then turned her smile on him, her eyes ablaze with