'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'.

Sharon looked at him with disgust. He's really got guts. Coming to drag her down for breakfast but she did not doubt that he would do it too. His arrogance was becoming intolerable.

'Get your foot out of my door!'

'Are you trying to get me to lose my temper? Bryan ground out between his teeth.

'What happens if you do?' she asked. ' Ate you going to turn into a monster and tear us into pieces?'

He wasn't amused, a dark colour went round his face as he said coldly, 'Very funny'.

On an impulse, she said, ' You were wrong about Gerhard you know. He was a gentleman all through the evening unlike some people I know'.

Bryan laughed without humour. 'But that was because I got you out of there before the evening ended'. His gaze slid from her face to her neck, her shoulders and her breasts.

His eyes flared with rage, 'If you had come back here with him in a taxi late at night, looking like that, he wouldn't have just seen you off to your door and said goodnight. That dress is an invitation to do more than dance and he would have expected to be asked to spend the night'.

His insulting stare had made her turn red, hating him. 'I ought to slap you', she said furiously.

'Try it's, his teeth showing in a mocking smile. 'And by the way', he continued, 'I asked around and found out that Gerhard is from an old German family and the next in line for the Bundesbank but he does not have much money, not as David has. I should go on hoping that David would eventually propose, if I were you. The other guy is closer to your age but hasn't got much to offer'.

That was the final straw. Sharon was tired. It had been a long day. She shot her hand up to slap his face, Bryan was quicker and caught her wrist, dragged her hand down and Sharon fell forward. She found her face buried in his shirt inhaling his scent and went into a mindless state of panic, making muffling sounds of gear as she fought to get away.

Bryan held her shoulders, she struggled, there was a tearing sound and she felt the black chiffon over her shoulders tripping and she cried wordlessly as one part of her dress tumble down leaving a part of her breast open.

Along the corridor, a door opened perhaps because of the noise Sharon was making and Bryan quickly Shut the door with his foot and gently pushed the both of them away from the door.

'Get out!' she said hoarsely, holding her torn dress up to cover her naked body.

'Sharon....? he began but she did not want to listen.

'If you do not get out of here, right now, I'll start screaming!'

'You are over reacting', he said and Sharon opened her mouth to scream but Bryan quickly held a hand over her mouth and he was pushing her backwards. She had not yet put on the light, she couldn't see him and fought him wildly like a trapped animal.

Her foot caught the leg of a chair, suddenly and she stumbled and fell, unable to save herself. Bryan we t with her, on the carpet, knocking all the breath out of her.

Sharon's auburn hair had fallen down and had tumbled around her face, long silky strands, blinding her. She was gasping,shaking, and fiercely away of Bryan's weight holding her down, of the power of that male body as it lay on her.

There was a thick silence. She looked through her hair and saw his face dimly, his black eyes staring down at her, glittering in the dark like torch light, setting her on fire.

He made a rough sound in his throat, then his head came down and his mouth was on hers, ruthlessly forcing her lips apart and invading between them, his hands on her face, holding her head so that she wouldn't escape the probing intimacy of the kiss.

Sharon struggled helplessly, briefly, half fainting, feeling he would suffocate her at any moment.

Her pulse was hammering at her neck, wrist and breasts, she closed her eyes as a little moan escaped her as she stopped fighting.

Ever since the day they got to Rome, she had been fighting an erotic awareness of him. She didn't understand it but she couldn't silence it, this beating sensation whenever Bryan came near her.

Everytime she saw him, she caught herself staring, she was hot one minute, cold the next, locked in feverish response to him.

I don't like him, why do I fell like this? I don't trust him, I don't understand him and now neither do I understand myself as well. She told herself.

And then as his mouth skid hotly to her throat, making her shudder with aroused excitement, 'Oh God, but I want him.

He pushed aside the torn fragments of her bodice and she groaned as he kissed her naked breast. Her hand went up to clasp the back of his head and she twisted restlessly under him.

Bryan lifted his head, breathing raggedly, his fingers sprayed warmly on her body.

'If you don't want this, say so now, while I can still stop', he whispered in a voice so husky that she could barely make put what he had said.

At the same time,his hand was softly moving up her thigh, the intimate brush of his skin against hers making her quiver in hungry response.

Say something' he murmured, his voice being even more husky as she kept her eyes closed, groaning.

He made a sound like breathless laughter, Don't say that I didn't give you a chance to say no', he said as his hand slipped underneath her.

'No', she said getting up, stumbling across the room away from him. 'I must have been out of my mind... I can't....'