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CHAPTER ONE

THEO was in thea financial report when he heard the crash The sound catapulted through the e intensity Any other person would have reacted in shock, and probably fear After all, it was late, and even with security guards there was no building in London that could be termed fully safe from someone deter to arm himself with the prerequisite heavy object, dark brows knitted into an i interrupted, he strode out of his plush designer office, activating the switch that flooded the darkness outside with brilliant fluorescent light

Theo Miquel was not a , least of all a would-be intruder as clu

It didn’t take long for hiin of the interruption, for sprawled in the corridor was a trolley, the contents of which were scattered across thefluids, broo the tiles towards the carpeted offices on either side

As his eyes took in the chaotic sight he heard the clauard was there, out of breath and bristling with apologies They converged at the scene of the crih it was Theo as the first to kneel next to the inert body of the girl who had collapsed on the floor

‘So sorry, sir,’ Sid sta as Theo felt for a pulse ‘I came as fast as I could—as soon as I heard the noise I can take over from here, sir’

‘Get this stuff cleared away’

‘Of course, sir I’m very sorry…She looked a little pale when she ca, but I had no idea…’

‘Stop babbling and tidy this mess up,’ Theo commanded sharply

He barely registered the flustered guard squeezing dry theup the spilt water before it could intrude into the expensive offices and wreak yet more havoc

At least the girl hadn’t been inconsiderate enough to die on his preht be as pale as hell but she was breathing She had fainted—probably pregnant A sy his irritation, he scooped her up, oblivious to the frantic worry pasted on the security guard’s face He was dimly aware that his employees, whatever their rank, treated him with a certain amount of subservience He was unaware that this subservience teetered precariously on the brink of downright fear, so he was vastly exasperated when he glanced across to find Sid virtually wringing his hands

‘I can take care of her, sir…No need for you to get involved…Not a problem…’

‘Just make sure this place is cleaned up and then you can return to duty If I need you, I’ll call’

This was an interruption he could well have done without It was Friday It was after nine in the night and there was still half a report to get through if he was to e-mail the corrected copy to his counterpart on the other side of the world before their high-levelMonday

He kicked open the door to his office and deposited the now stirring body on the long burgundy sofa which occupied one entire wall of the large roo the décor of his office If he had, he would probably have chosen the barest of furnishings—after all, an office was a place to work and not a cosy sitting room in which to luxuriate—but he had found over the years, and to his surprise, that the grand, heavy opulence of the rooely conducive to concentration The oak-panelled walls would have been entle warm about them, filled as they ith books on finance, econo ee inherited wealth His desk, fashioned in a time before computers, lacked the convenient set-up to accoes of twenty-first-century living, but it was pleasing to look at and did its job The ere floor to ceiling, and lacked the slass effect of the taller,In the crazy rush of the city his offices, housed in a grand Victorian house, were a touch of old-world sanity

It was irl, whose eyelids were beginning to flutter as consciousness crawled back

She was solidly built beneath the blue and white striped overalls which covered a choice of clothing Theo would have found offensive on any woan of some indiscriminate brown colour and jeans that were frayed at the he that they partially concealed heavy-duty shoes that would have beensite than a woman

He waited, standing over her, ar her in no uncertain terht have rescued her, he wasn’t about to allow the act of charity to overstay its limited welcome

And while he waited, i in the short, straight nose, the wide ly defined and at odds with the pale curly hair that had escaped its restraints