CHAPTER ONE

      IT WAS that girl again.

      David’s mouth turned disapprovingly down at the corners. He watched her hesitate, checking the seat number on her boarding card. She was tall and slender, with a swing of ash-blonde hair and an air of assurance that made her oblivious to the fact that she was blocking the aisle with that ridiculous bag of hers. He had thought her silly and superficial before, but now something about the way she stood there, holding up a patient queue, grated on David’s nerves. There was an arrogance about her that reminded him all too bitterly of Alix.

      She was pretty enough, David allowed grudgingly, if you liked that smart, superior look. Personally, he preferred girls with sweeter expressions and a more feminine wardrobe. This one was dressed with undeniable elegance in neutral colours—cool trousers, a silk top and a loose, unstructured jacket with the sleeves pushed casually up her arms. She would have looked much softer in a pretty dress, David thought, although, if she was anything like Alix, soft was the last word anyone should use to describe her.

      Her eyes were moving slowly along the overhead lockers, studying the illuminated numbers, and David glanced at the empty seat beside him with a sudden sense of foreboding. He looked up just as her gaze dropped, and their eyes met with a jarring sense of recognition. With grim amusement, he saw that she was no more pleased to discover who she was to be sitting next to than he was.

      Claudia was more than not pleased. She was dismayed. A frantic morning finishing off at work, a chaotic trip to the airport, a seven-hour flight from London and now she not only had to entrust her life to a plane that looked as if it was held together with sticky tape and bits of string, but she had to find herself sitting next to that supercilious, sarcastic man who had made her feel such a fool at Heathrow!

      For one wild moment, Claudia considered asking the stewardess if she could change seats, but the rows behind looked pretty full, and there was an uncomfortably acute look in those cold grey eyes. She had a nasty feeling that he knew exactly what number was printed on her boarding card. If she made a fuss and insisted on moving, he would think that she was embarrassed to sit next to him, and Claudia had no intention of giving him the satisfaction of knowing that he had put her out of countenance.

      Anyway, why should she let herself be intimidated by him? He was just some businessman, and a pretty charmless, humourless one at that. She would simply ignore him, she decided.

      Hoisting her bag more firmly over her shoulder, Claudia stalked down the gangway. Sure enough, 12B was the empty seat beside him, but just as she prepared to settle down in haughty silence the man pulled out a report and ostentatiously buried his head in it. He could hardly have made it clearer that he didn’t want to talk and was intent on ignoring her!

      Claudia’s lips thinned. There was something about this man that got under her skin. She had been the one who wanted to do the ignoring, but there was no point if he was just going to be grateful for her silence! No, it would be much more satisfying to see how far she could irritate him, and Claudia had only to look at the implacable set of his jaw to know that the best way to do that would be to make it impossible for him to ignore her as he was so intent on doing. After two and a half hours of conversation as inane and frivolous as she could make it, he would be regretting that he had ever opened his mouth at Heathrow!

      The prospect was enough to curve Claudia’s mouth into a satisfied smile. Perhaps she would enjoy this flight after all!

      ‘Hello again!’ she said brightly, and plumped herself down beside him.

      Intensely suspicious of her smile, David gave a brusque nod and grunted some sort of greeting before pointedly turning his attention back to his report. Surely even she could take a hint like that?

      Apparently not. ‘It’s quite a coincidence bumping into each other like this, isn’t it?’ she went on in the same chirpy voice, and David sighed inwardly. ‘I didn’t realise you were going to Telama’an as well.’

      She bent forward to push her bag under the seat in front of her, and David was conscious of a subtle breath of fragrance as the blonde hair swung and shimmered distractingly at the edge of his vision.

      ‘Why should you?’ he said, trying to keep his eyes on the report and hoping that his repressive tone would be enough to