They talked about the conference over the table at first then as the evening wore on, Sharon spoke less and less. She was feeling light headed, dreamy, a heat and excitement running through her veins.

Across the table, Bryan watched her with those hypnotic eyes while they drank their coffee.

'Liqueur?' he suggested as the wine waiter arrived with his rattling trolley of bottles.

She hastily shook her head. 'I have already drunk too much wine. I don't want a headache in the morning', she looked at her watch. 'In fact, I think that I should be on my way to bed now, we have to get up very early and there's a very crowded day ahead of us'.

On their way to the lift, she paused to look out through the main doors at the Rome night.

'It's stopped raining.What I wanted to do this afternoon was take a walk round the city, but I couldn't go out in all that rain'.

'Why not take a short stroll now?' Bryan suggested.

'It's much too late and I haven't got my jacket with me', she said. But she was drawn towards the door, tempted in spite of common sense.

'We needn't walk too far, just look down the Spanish Steps', Bryan said putting an arm around her, pushing the door open.

While she was still thinking about it, she found herself outside the hotel, in the warn autumn night. The torrential rain had washed the sky and the city clean, the air was soft and still, stars shone over the Roman rooftops and a crescent moon sailed above them.

'It's magical', she breathed, staring around her.

With the rain out, everyone had gone out to enjoy the city.

The night was full of people, walking, talking, the lights of Cafe and bars, the sound of guitars, of someone singing Italian with a throb in his throat.

'You don't want to catch a chill. Put my jacket round your shoulders', Bryan said and she looked round in surprise as she dropped his evening jacket around her.

'What about you?' she asked He looked so formidable in his black trousers and waistcoat, he had that atmosphere of arrogance, high courage, disdain. 'Aren't you cold in just her shirt- sleeves and that thin waistcoat?'

He shook his head. 'Forget it. Don't worry about me, I'm tough.Do you want to window shop? If we go down the steps, we shall see so many designer label places we could pick from'.

'Going down the steps would be fine', she said wryly. 'It's coming up again in this dress that could be a problem. The skirt's so tight'.

Bryan's dark eyes wandered slowly over her, lingering on her long smooth legs. 'That dress is dynamite', he murmured huskily and her colour deepened.

She turned away hurriedly and began to walk along the road.She did not quite know how it had happened but in her dreamy mood, her hostility got lost somehow, somewhere. David pushed to the back of her mind. She was too wrapped up in the romance of the Rome night.

Passing a dark shop doorway, she heard a movement, a sound, there was a couple standing in the shadows, a skinny boy on jeans and a girl in a brief tight skirt and pink sweater. They were passionately kissing, bodies pressed so fiercely against each other that it was hard to say where one began and the other ended.

As Sharon paused to stare, the boy's hand began to slide up into the girl's tiny skirt and she gave a little moan.

Sharon spun to walk away and cannoned into Bryan.

He had seen the couple too. He looked down at Sharon who was breathing raggedly, shivering as though she was cold.

'I...we... we'd better go back inside', she stammered, her face darkly flushed.

Bryan followed her as she headed back towards the hotel, bit as they passed another shop, he suddenly grabbed her and pulled her into the doorway.

She gave a cry of protest, looking up angrily and then his mouth was on her own, hard, hot, compelling. It was almost as though he had lit a forgotten fuse inside her, she began to shake, a flame leaping through her veins, her whole body going up in fire, an explosion that left her helpless.

Her lips parted moistly under the invasion of his tongue. She felt her legs give under her and put her arms round his neck and clung to him shuddering in a reaction she couldn't stop or understand.

It was a long time since anyone had made love to her. She had buried desires, needs, hungers that she refused to feel. They had betrayed her once, she wouldn't give them another chance.

Tonight though, the wine must have loosened her inhibitions, allowing her hidden emotions to escape. The couple kissing passionately in the dark doorway had not helped matters. She had realised just what she was missing as she saw them going at it together as though their lives depended on it.

Deep within her, she felt the beat of an erotic drum.

Her fingers clenched in his hair, closed on the firm nape of his neck,moved down his back, passionately aware of the male strength of the warm body under the evening shirt, aching to touch him more intimately, unconsciously moving invitingly against him, her hips pressing closer.

Bryan gave a thick groan, his legs sliding between her thighs, his hands still hanging from her shoulders. She felt him unzip the velvet dress, it parted. Bryan's hand slid inside and caressed her back, followed the curve if her spine downwards to her buttocks, his fingers inserting themselves into the top of her tiny silk briefs.

The dark breathing absorption that they shared was suddenly broken by the sound of running feet, screams and shouting.

They fell apart, very flushed, out of breath. A teenage boy ran past the shop doorway. They saw a woman's handbag clutched in his hand.

Before Bryan and Sharon could move, a whole string of people ran past after the boys reaming angrily in Italian.

A police whistle sounded nearby, the boy dived down the Spanish Steps. The crowd followed him.

The sound of the pursuit died away from the city.

Sharon shakily did up her zip without looking at Bryan,her head averted.

All the excited heat had evaporated and she was suddenly very cold.

Sharon felt cold indeed. What had she been thinking? How could she have allowed this arrogant man touch her the way he had? What a mess. He must think that he had her where he wanted her.

She had always known that he was dangerous to her but she had not really known the extent of the danger.

What weakness could have made her lose herself, her self control and all this way?

She could not look at him, she did not know what she would find in his eyes, mockery? scorn? triumph? condescension? She did not want to know. She just did not want anything to make her feel lower than she was already feeling just then.

'Come to my room, Sharon's, Bryan said with an urgency that made her stiffen.

She turned on him, her face white now. 'I feel sick, do you know that?' she broke out. 'You got me drunk and you knew that I was not used to drinking and you kept pouring wine into me, right the way, through dinner. You had this in mind all the time, didn't you? You set me up and it nearly worked. I almost fell for the oldest trick in the book'.

There was a silence you could have cut with a knife. His eyes turned into glittering black ice.

'You did fall for it', he drawled, admitting her accusations, mocking her. 'I could have had you if that stupid boy hadn't come past this way at the time he did.

After all these years of waiting for David to finally notice that you are a woman, you are so frustrated that you fell into my hands like a ripe peach, and I didn't even have to try very hard'.

She hot out at him, he ducked and she hurt her hand on the edge of the shop window. Gasping in pain, she shed his evening jacket, let it fall to the floor and as he be t to retrieve it,Sharon turned and ran, holding back tears, fighting not to give way to the emotions swamping her. Two minutes later, she was back in the hotel, in the safety of lights and other people.

She didn't know if Bryan followed her or not. The lift was standing open and she ran into it at once, pressed the floor button, the doors closed and she was taken up to her room.

Once she was there,behind closed doors, she could start to cry.

She cried and cried, wishing that she never had to see his arrogant face again.

She kept recalling what he had said about her being so frustrated that she had fallen into his hands like a ripe peach and that he didn't even have to try very hard.

That was exactly how he saw her.

And why not? She had shown him that she could not resist him. Immediately he grabbed her, she had opened up like a flower in spring.

She had not resisted. She had acted as though she had not had a man touch her before which explains why he feels that she was frustrated.

How was she ever going to face him now?

Early next morning, she still had to go to the conference with him and endure his cold mocking eyes. Eyes that would look condescendingly at her like a cheap call girl.

Why had she decided to go for the stroll. If she hadn't, then she probably, no definitely would not have seen the couple making out passionately and be reminded of her loneliness and Bryan would not have taken advantage of her vulnerability.

She guessed she should be thankful that the boy ran past at the time he did because had he not, she shuddered to think what would have happened.

Bryan would most probably have taken her there and then and she would have been unable to do anything except moan like a dog in heat.

Sharon slept fitfully that night.

She kept waking and imagining all that took place that evening and the words that were exchanged. Especially all the rude and degrading words that Bryan had used on her. She clearly deserved it.

Nobody had for Ed her to take too much wine nor to act wantonly with him and she who had always shown hostility towards him.

He would think that it was all a pretence.

What to do? She would just have to act as though nothing happened the previous night. Her countenance would read 'It never took place'. If he thought that he was cold and arrogant and could treat women especially her in a condescending manner, then she was going to show him that two could play the game.

She would make sure that she was as cold as an ice queen and very arrogant as well but she had to see how she could sleep so that she would be fresh both physically and mentally in the morning.

Sharon thought of David, and felt that if she failed to represent the bank well, then she had most definitely failed him and that would be giving the ultimate victory to that arrogant man who thought that he was God's gift to the womenfolk.

She slept again, this time calmer because she realised that she had a duty to perform and the task had to be successfully carried out.

She could not admit defeat. No, that was not Sharon Smith.

She woke feeling very refreshed and far better than yesterday. She got put the cloth she was going to wear. She had to look cooperate, businesslike and stern and not like a seductress.

She knew that she had slept badly but she knew that it was nothing her make up would not fix.

And another thing was that since he kept feeling that she was besotted with David, it would be wise of her to allow him to keep thinking that. That could work in her favour by helping her carry out her ice queen guise effectively.

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?'