ANEESA was sitting beside Annabelle at one of the round tables where they'd just finished coffees. She didn't need to look around to know that Sebastian hadn't reappeared. She was trying to concentrate on the conversation but was still smarting from his cruel words.

She was also reeling with the knowledge that this beautiful, immaculately turned-out woman had been so horrifically beaten. Annabelle was being very sweet and explaining that her twin brother, Alex, was a racing car driver based in Australia, and couldn't be there.


Aneesa put a hand to her bump, only realising what she'd done when she noticed Annabelle follow the movement. She grimaced. ‘It's still small, but it seems to be getting bigger by the day now.'

Annabelle smiled politely but then looked away with a small frown forming between her grey eyes. ‘Jack should be here too, our elder brother, but I haven't seen him yet. I know Jacob wants to talk to him….'

Annabelle's eyes snagged and widened on something or someone else at the entrance to the room and Aneesa followed her look to see that Sebastian had returned and was in the doorway, with Jacob. Relief flooded her, and her silly heart swelled with love and pride. As she watched, Sebastian put out his hand but instead of shaking it, Jacob drew him into a fierce hug.


Her eyes smarting suspiciously now, and feeling

dangerously emotional, she made a garbled excuse to Annabelle, saying she wanted to get something from the room. The waiters were starting to clear the tables and encourage people to get up so they could rearrange the room for dancing, so she wouldn't be missed. Instinctively she felt the need to give Sebastian some space with his family.


Once in the suite though, fatigue overcame her and she


lay down for a while, unable to resist the lure of a nap when her eyes felt heavy. She woke up when she heard the door open and close and sat up groggily.

Sebastian appeared in the doorway, his jacket off and tie undone, looking rakishly handsome. ‘Where did you get to?'

Aneesa sat up at the side of the bed and pushed her hair back. She felt at a disadvantage. ‘I must have fallen asleep. I lay down just for a minute….'

Sebastian walked over and sat beside her; his distinctive scent made her stomach clench with desire. His eyes glittered an intense blue, all earlier signs of haggardness gone. He took a tendril of hair that had drifted down over her shoulder and let it slip through his fingers. He looked at her. ‘I'm sorry for what I said earlier. I had no right to lash out at you, and you were too generous to give me the benefit of the doubt.'

‘I saw you talking to Jacob.'

Sebastian smiled ruefully. ‘You were right. We won't be fine overnight but I think we're going to be OK. Jacob is home for good. He wants to renovate Wolfe Manor, restore it to its former glory, maybe even sell it. And I also found out that he was involved as a secret design consultant for this hotel, which was my first. So in his own way he has been watching over me from afar….'

Aneesa put a hand to Sebastian's jaw and felt the heady rasp of his stubble. Familiar heat coiled through her and she said huskily, ‘I'm glad, Sebastian. I really hope it does work out for you all….'

Sebastian turned to face her fully, and with a slow intensity that made her toes curl he drew her close and kissed her, his arms trapping her against his chest. When he exerted a slight pressure so that she lay back down on the bed, she couldn't help the tiny moans of acquiescence and anticipation. He put his two hands on either side of her and pulled away, looking down at her. He ran the back of his hand down one hot cheek. ‘If it wasn't for you I'd most likely be staring at the bottom of an empty whisky bottle now and cursing everyone


and everything around me.'

She blushed and bit her lip. ‘I did nothing except tell you what you already knew.'

His face came closer and he pressed a sweet kiss to her mouth. He drew back. ‘It was more than nothing, and thank you.'

Suddenly breathless, she said, ‘You're welcome.'

‘How welcome?' he growled with a dangerous gleam in his eye. Molten heat seeped through Aneesa's veins and she wondered a little desperately if she'd ever not want him so badly. She wrapped her arms around his neck and pulled him over her, relishing the friction of his chest against her breasts.

‘Very welcome.'

Even as he kissed her and ran his hands down her body, Aneesa was conscious of a need to protect herself from the inevitable pain. And yet, when she felt Sebastian's hand travel up her bare leg under her dress, to find where she ached for him with such telling wetness, she couldn't concentrate on anything but his touch.

Pulling off her clothes first and then his own clothes with indecent haste, causing buttons to pop off his shirt and Aneesa to giggle, he came back over her and looked down into her eyes for a long moment. She was breathless, her naked breasts crushed against his chest, his body between her legs. And then without a word, he drew back and took her, with one cataclysmic thrust. So deeply that she could have sworn he touched her heart.

They didn't speak a word, but Sebastian's eyes never left hers, not even when she splintered around him with a small keening cry, her back arched. He just pulled one leg up, bending it back to that he could penetrate even deeper, and the next time she came within the space of minutes, just before he did. Aneesa couldn't stop helpless emotional tears trickling down her cheeks.

Sebastian just kissed them away, and turned them so that she was tucked into his chest with his arms tight around her, their hearts beating unevenly. But she couldn't stop the


silent tears falling because she knew she was indulging in the fantasy that perhaps, just perhaps, this day and evening had marked a real change in their relationship. And she knew she'd be a fool to hope for that.

Aneesa woke at dawn to find herself alone in bed.

Where Sebastian had lain close behind her was still warm, and guiltily she rolled back over and pressed her face into the pillow to breathe his distinctive scent deep.

Just then she heard a noise and looked up to see Sebastian emerge from the bathroom with a towel slung around his lean waist. She flushed guiltily and had a moment of déjà vu to when she'd woken after their night together in Mumbai.

‘Morning.'

‘Good morning.' Ridiculously she felt shy. Sebastian barely glanced at her and Aneesa felt it like a slap in the face, after the intimacies they'd shared last night. She had to repress an inexplicable shiver. She'd stupidly believed that possibly

—She bit her lip and got out of the bed, drawing a hotel robe on, not that Sebastian was even looking at her. He was too preoccupied with something.

Even as she was thinking that, he dropped the towel with an ease that she thought she'd never get used to and started to get dressed, saying over his shoulder, ‘I have some things to attend to this morning. My driver can drop you home whenever you're ready.'

Aneesa bit back the urge to ask him what exactly he could have to attend to on a Sunday morning. Last night and how intensely intimate it had felt trickled back into her awareness. Not to mention the emotional turmoil of the day. An awful suspicion settled into her belly like a cold weight. As it took root and grew, she said faintly, ‘Don't be silly, you obviously need the car. I can take a taxi back to the apartment.'

Sebastian just shrugged and said, ‘Whatever you want. I'll wait for you and we can leave together. I'll be downstairs. I need to check that everything went OK last night.'

Aneesa mumbled something incoherent and got through


her shower in record time. Within a half an hour, hair still damp, she was downstairs wearing stretchy leggings and a tight-fitting long T-shirt under her leather  jacket.  Sebastian was pacing the lobby, looking like a beautiful caged panther, speaking on his mobile. When he saw her with her bag he cut the call short and ushered her out. Hailing her a cab he asked again if she was sure, and with her skin feeling clammy with panic she just said yes.

The awful familiarity of the pattern was all too obvious.

Sebastian had opened up to her, shown her something of himself and now he was retreating behind those fortified brick walls again. She hated to find herself thinking like a suspicious lover but she was. He was so distracted he couldn't even look her in the eye.

He had to be seeking the habitual physical release he craved, except this time she had the awful premonition that it would be with a woman, and not through exercise. He must be hating the fact that she'd seen so much, that he'd been in any way vulnerable with her.

He barely waited till she was in the taxi before his own black tinted-window car was pulling  away.  Feeling  ridiculous but compelled by a force greater than she could resist, she said to the driver, ‘I know this is going to sound a bit silly but could you follow that car?'

The driver winked at her in the mirror and said in a broad cockney accent, ‘I've been waiting forever for someone to ask me that!'

And with a none-too-discreet screech of tyres he executed an illegal U-turn and followed Sebastian's car.

They seemed to drive forever, and Aneesa saw signs for Surrey pass them by. Even the driver was getting concerned, asking her if she had any idea where he might be going.

Aneesa kept an eye on the metre and the money in her purse; as it was, she wouldn't have the return fare into town now and if Sebastian didn't stop soon—Just as she thought that, his car slowed and she begged the driver to keep back. The sleek black car stopped outside a pair of ornate gates and there


was a discreet sign on the wall that said The Grange.