Sharon had her breakfast in her room: black coffee,orange juice, a couple of rolls with black cherry jam.She may have slept badly but like she had already decided, it was nothing a careful make up job would be unable to hide.

She made up and her make up hid most of the evidence of her bad night. She put on the clothes she had delibrately picked which was smoothly tailored dark grey suit, short jacket, straight skirt with a crisp white shirt under it, to make herself fade into the crowd, mostly men, in city suits who would be attending the conference.

Even her auburn hair was pulled back austerely from her face but she could do little about her long legs in their sheer black stockings. Men always starred at them.

a car was coming at eight-twenty to take Bryan and herself to the hotel where the conference would be held, so she left her room at eight- fifteen.

Bryan appeared a moment later, elegant and formal in a dark city suit, red and white striped shirt with a stiff white collar and a sombre wine- red silk tie.

Over the suit, he wore a black cashmere overcoat, unbuttoned, thrown open.

She gave him a cool nod

'Good morning ', she said for the benefit of the waiting driver.

Bryan's eyes were frozen wastes and he answered in a tone equally distant. 'Good morning '.

They sat side by side at the back of the car as the driver drove then to the conference venue, each looking out into the crowded noisy streets,neither speaking.

It was a short drive. The city lay around them like a living, breathing being.

The sound of life and living filled her ears everywhere they went. She even saw a flock of priests in black and nuns with rosary beads rattling as they hurried along.

People said all cities looked alike these days but she had to disagree. Rome could not be included. It was unlike any city Sharon had ever seen.

She looked at it from the car, feeling as if her every nerve end had been intensely sensitized, each brief sensation she experienced was sending ripples of response through out her nervous system.

Bryan leaned back in the corner beside her, his body swaying with the movement of the car. She fought not to look at him but ty couldn't stop her eyes from wandering sideways, once, glimpsing his dark clad, muscled thigh, one leg crossed over the other, his arm resting on his knee, his hands splayed, long powerful fingers at ease.

Heat rose in her throat, she was remembering last night, that hand sliding intimately down inside her dress.

Swallowing, she looked away, her skin burning. The mere memory was enough to make her stomach churn. How could she have let him do that to her?

How could she have wanted it because she had to admit that she had, she had been going crazy while he touched her, she couldn't deny it anymore.

It was the wine, she told herself hurriedly. That was what had made her crazy, the wine. She wasn't used to drinking and she was certainly not going to touch the stuff ever again.

It was a relief to get to the hotel. They had to go through security first, hand over their identifications and documents, be given an electronic pass with their name and country of origin and the name of their bank digitally recorded on the tape on the surface.

'You must wear your pass at all times during the session', they were informed. 'Or you will not be allowed into the conference hall'.

The proceedings began promptly at nine. After the coffee break, many people left for discussions in smaller groups in smaller rooms.

Sharon stayed with the general session, Bryan left to stay with the group who were discussing interest rates.

Lunch was a buffet affair.

You lined up to choose from a variety of cold and hot foods and sat wherever you found a place.

Carrying her plate of very attractively dressed salad, to a table which still had some empty seats, Sharon found herself sitting next to someone she knew - Gerhard, an attractive man in his early thirties, an observer at the conference for the German bank.

'Lovely to see you darling', he said as he kissed her.

His English was perfect for a German.' Is David here too?'

'No, he had planned to be here but he went down with the flu', Sharon said.

'Oh, too bad, poor David'.

They had met in London, a year earlier and Sharon had gone out on a date twice with him. Once to see a movie and the other time was to go skating. Though Sharon had been hopeless at it, Gerhard had been an expert at it and had invited her to come visit him in Germany some day where he could coach her because there were lots of frozen rivers and lakes near his he where he had practiced as a child.

David knew all about him, he had told her that Gerhard was a rich young man from an old German family.

Gerhard was fair, faintly cold and very clever.

Theirs had been a brief relationship. They had only known each other for a week. It had been an interlude, hardly a friendship, let alone a romance. But she was pleased to see him.

'We must try to sit together over dinner', he said.

'We have been allocated seats', she pointed out but Gerhard shrugged.

'Oh, I'm sure we can change our seats if we ask. I am bored with the people I am with. Frightful people always talking about money. Who are you seating with, do you know?'

She had been seated next to Bryan. 'A colleague's, she said offhandedly. 'I'd rather sit with you if it's possible'.

'Anything is possible', Gerhard said with the faint arrogance of his upbringing and class and smiled at him with a charm that was entirely his own.

'Now tell me all about you, is there a man in your life?'

'So is there any man in your life', Gerhard asked again as Sharon looked at him saying nothing but smiling.

She shook her head.'Not at the moment. Have you met the girl of your dreams yet?'

He laughed. 'I keep hoping, but so far not luck'.

'Maybe you are too difficult to please!'

'I have been brought up to expect the best', he agreed with wry amusement. 'No doubt you are right but never mind, I enjoy my life. I'm free, single and love to mingle as they say'.

'You still watch that program on TV?'

'All the time. When I work at home, I have the TV on the music program blaring, it helps me think and keeps with awake during long nights'.

'I wonder how people managed before recorded music!'Sharon said thoughtfully.

Gerhard told her how his parents had their own personal chamber orchestra.

Sharon ate her salad slowly as she listened to him. She had just finished her salad when the delegates started moving away towards the conference hall. The conference was starting again in fifteen minutes

'Time to get back. See you later'.

She got up to go and Gerhard rose too. He bent and kissed her lightly on the mouth.

'Meet me for drinks before dinner in the bar, okay? Seven o'clock?'

She nodded. 'Seven, okay'.

As she turned to go, she saw Bryan at the next table, watching her with the cold eyes of an enemy.

Sharon felt a leap of shock. The blood left her face. Pulling herself together, she walked away fast.

They were both in the main hall that afternoon, seated next to each other because the seats had been numbered in advance and one had to seat on the seat allotted to them.

Sharon tried to concentrate on the meeting, to try and ignore the fact that Bryan was sitting close to her but try as she could, she could not shut out her awareness of him.

Everytime he shifted in his chair, or turned his conference programme or even moved his head, she was always conscious of it. She even found herself listening to his heartbeat.

She could not understand why this was happening to her. She had been working with him for months in London. She disliked, distrusted and suspected Bryan Ferdinand, so why should she have suddenly become so intensely aware of him that she found it hard to think of anything else?

She was relieved when the business of the day was over and everyone began to go back to their rooms.

'Our car will be waiting', Bryan said offhandedly, and she nodded.

Bryan spoke casually of the last discussion and Sharon wondered when she would tell him that she would be sitting with Gerhard for dinner.

Then they reached their own hotel and took the lift. As they approached her room because they were on the same floor, their rooms adjoining, Sharon blurted out, 'By the way,I've been asked to join a friend for dinner tonight'.

Bryan halted outside her door. His face stiffening.

'The 'friend', I saw you having lunch with?'

'Yes', she said with defiance in her green eyes.

'You make friends very quickly', he said with cold derision.

'I've known Gerhard for ages', she said. 'David introduced him to me last year in London'.

Bryan's smile was sarcastic. 'Well, if he's a friend of David, you have to be nice to him of course'.

She resented his emphasis. 'David would definitely want me to be friendly to him. Gerhard is with the German bank'.

'Would he expect you to sleep with him too?' he asked.

Sharon went dumb after turning a deep shade of red and then going pale because his words cut like a knife.

She got out her key and turned to unlock the door but Bryan was not through speaking yet.

'Because judging by the way he kept looking you over', he threw at her back, 'that was what was in his mind as an after dinner entertainment. From where I sat, I could see him practically undressing you with his eyes'.

'You've got a one - track mind', she said angrily trying to get the key into the lock with her trembling hands.

'It's a track most men follow especially with someone who looks like you'.

At last, she managed to open the door and now she could escape both his presence and his unwanted remarks.

'All men aren't like you, thank goodness', she threw back at him over her shoulders.

'Well, don't say that I didn't warn you', he grated , turned and walked away to his room.

She slammed the door shut and rested on it with rage and agitation.

She had a long bath to unwind and got herself ready to enjoy the evening.

She had intended to we're her dark green velvet dress which she had worn the previous evening but somehow she could not stand to were that dress again and she knew that even in the future, anytime she wore the dress, she would be reminded of those moments in the dark doorway, of Bryan's mouth and hands, of the wild desire he had awakened in her.

She took out from the wardrobe a filmy black chiffon with a skirt that floated round her legs as she walked.

The chiffon made her breast and throat take on a glimmering pallor, her dark auburn hair glowed with the colour of leaves in the autumn. She clasped a necklace of pearls round her throat, brushed glittery green shadow along her lids, painted her lips a deep russet red and then she stood back and contemplated her reflection in the mirror.

The dress was as sophisticated as the green velvet but somehow... she thought frowning, biting her lip. It was somehow sexier, she admitted uneasily. All that skin showing through the black gauzy material... maybe she should wear the green velvet?

No! She couldn't bear to. She turned away. She had to leave or she would be late. She didn't wait for Bryan, she took a taxi back to the conference hotel and found Gerhard waiting in the bar when she walked in, dead on seven.

His blue eyes skated over her as she walked towards him and she recalled Bryan's accusation. He practically undressed you with his eyes, Bryan had said and Gerhard was certainly staring, but Sharon didn't find the way he looked at her offensive.

Gerhard stood up as she got to him, kissed her on both cheeks gravely.

'Thank you for joining me. All the men are going to envy me tonight, having you for a partner. That dress is very sexy and you look breathtaking in it'.

'Thank you, Gerhard', she said sitting down, brushing down her filmy skirts as they hissed silkily around her legs.

'Ehat would you have to drink?' he asked summoning the waiter.

Remembering what happened with Bryan the previous evening, Sharon ordered a mixture of orange juice and mineral water and stayed off wine all evening.

The meal was superb and Gerhard kept her continuously amused and it would have been a wonderful evening had she been unable to see Bryan's face from where she was sitting.

By some stroke of bad luck, however, he was seated facing her, on the next table. She had to avoid letting her eyes wander that way or she found herself all too often looking straight at him.

Everytime it happened, she felt a strange dizzying lurch, as though her sense of balance had just abandoned her and that at any moment, she might fall over.

It was very disconcerting and disturbing. She became more and more afraid of the sensation because she had expected it to lessen after a while but the more she kept seeing Bryan, the stronger the sensation and the linger it lasted.

She would catch a glimpse of him and feel the clutch of vertigo, her pulses hammering, her mouth dry, her head spinning.

Hurriedly, She would look away but that strange sensation went on and on, making it almost impossible to keep up a polite conversation with Gerhard or at least keep up a polite pretense of interest in what Gerhard was saying.

She kept feeling the need to hold something solid, anything, be a chair or a table to give her some firm of stability, stop this whirling if the senses.

She was relieved when the meal was over and they all drifted out to the bar again.

Gerhard found a table and they had some more drinks and then the delegates from the biggest bank in Germany joined them and they started discussing banking, forgetting that Sharon was even there. She did not mind because she just did not want to talk about that boring topic. Not that night anyways.

Most if the time, they spoke German and Sharon was glad to go to the background because though she knew a little German, she did not know enough to follow their rapid speech.

At half past eleven, Bryan appeared beside their table. Sharon stiffened when she saw him. The delegates looked round, breaking into smiles and began chattering away to him in German in a way that made it clear that they knew him.

Sharon picked up some phrase she interpreted as a question they posed to him asking him why he left the Swizz bank for London and whatever response he gave them in German, made them all laugh.

He glanced coolly across their heads at her. 'Our car's here, ready?'

Gerhard stirred, 'Darling, I can see you home in a taxi later, you don't want to leave yet, do you?'

Before she could say anything, Bryan answered, 'We all have to be up early, tomorrow is going to be a demanding day. Hurry up Sharon,we don't want to keep our driver waiting'.

She stumbled on her feet, very flushed, murmured something apologetic to Gerhard who made a face but bent to kiss her.

'Your spoilsport friend is right. We do have a busy day ahead of us tomorrow. I'll be seeing you at lunch, perhaps, if we are both free?'

She followed Bryan out of the hotel, into the waiting car, secretly relieved to be leaving because she had been bored with all the banking talk, especially in a language she found hard to follow and yet at the same time irritated because Bryan was ordering her a out, making decisions for her, answering for her.

As they drove through the warm Rome night, she muttered to him, 'Will you stop giving me orders as if I were your secretary? I'm David's personal assistant, not yours. He never pushes me around, he treats me with respect and I'd like you to do the same, please'.

'If I hadn't interrupted your little party, you would have been there all night and then you wouldn't have been in any fit shape to take part in the conference tomorrow', he said coldly. 'I am delivering David's speech at ten, remember? You ought to be there in case there are questions. I might have to consult you on what David's views might be on some issues. I am simply his mouth piece as far as the speech is concerned and I may not know all the answers to all the questions I am asked,whereas I imagine you will. You make it your business to know everything there is to know about David and his opinions'.

'Don't use that sarcastic tone tp me', Sharon said, her body tense and her face flushed.

'I am merely staying the facts', he drawled. 'If you don't like them, it's because you prefer not to face up to the truth'.

The car stopped in front of their hotel and she walked into the lifts.

Bryan caught up with her there but she ignored him, turning her head away.

The lift took them straight to their floor and they walked to their rooms, with Sharon walking ahead and Bryan following behind.

She got to her room and opened the door but before she could shut it, Bryan's foot jammed it open.

Tensing, Sharon swung round to face him. 'What....?

'We need to talk. I suggest we have breakfast together downstairs at a quarter to right'.

'I prefer to breakfast my room!'

His eyes glittered angrily. 'A quarter to eight, downstairs', he said. 'be there or I'll come and drag you down if I have to'.