Captivated by Her Innocence. KIM LAWRENCE

I am competent,’ she qualified angrily as her fingers itched to slap the contemptuous smile off his hatefully perfect face. ‘Until you arrived, the panel thought I was the right person for the job.’

      His lip curled. ‘On paper you looked an adequate candidate.’

      The comment sent his sister’s interested glance to the file her brother had flung onto the back seat.

      ‘Adequate?’ Anna growled.

      Cesare dragged his gaze up from the full pouting curve of her lush lips, where it kept sliding. ‘I am sure you are accustomed to smiling and getting your own way. Being born beautiful does not grant you special privileges in life, Miss Henderson.’

      Anna blinked. Beautiful? She half expected to see sarcasm in his stare, but she saw only anger and something she struggled to put a name to. The indefinable dark something made her stomach muscles quiver.

      She wasn’t beautiful.

      ‘For a moment I thought you were Rosie.’

      Anna had lost count of the number of times she had heard that comment while she was growing up and she understood it: her older cousin, whom she admired and loved, was beautiful.

      It was a subtle thing, beauty. She was Rosanna, though she much preferred to be called Anna. She had freckles, with a not quite straight nose and a mouth that was too wide. She was okay-looking whereas Rosemary was stunning. Her cousin could have had any man; instead she had fallen for the creep who had very nearly ruined her life.

      ‘If anyone here is privileged...’ She gave a scornful hoot of laughter. ‘You know what I think? I think you like to prove what a big man you are because you’re not—what you are is a bully, a pathetic bully.’ He looked so astonished she almost laughed. ‘What do you do as an encore? Kick puppies?’

      ‘I hardly think the analogy is apt, Miss Henderson.’ Not a puppy, but there was definitely something feline about this sexy red-headed witch.

      She gave a cranky grunt and snarled through clenched teeth, ‘Will you stop calling me that?’

      ‘Would you prefer Rosie?’

      She blinked. It was weird to hear this man call her by her cousin’s diminutive. ‘My name is Rosanna.’ It didn’t really matter what he called her because he’d always manage to make it sound like an insult. ‘My friends.’ She gulped, suddenly feeling very far away from those friends. ‘They call me A-Anna.’

      Was this display of quivering bravery meant to make him feel guilty? ‘Have you ever heard the phrase what goes around comes around, Miss Henderson?’

      ‘If that were true something large would fall from the sky and hit you on your fat, self-important head!’

      The snort of laughter drew Anna’s attention to the beautiful brunette, who rather unexpectedly grinned at her in an encouraging way and gave a thumbs-up sign.

      Cesare flashed his sister a look without having any real expectation of it having any effect, then returned his attention to the slim redhead who, when she wasn’t abusing him, was playing for the sympathy vote.

      ‘Do you mind lowering your voice?’

      She adopted a puzzled expression. ‘Why? It can’t be a secret you’re a cold-hearted bully.’

      His silver-grey eyes narrowed to slits at the jibe. ‘We can trade insults if you wish.’ His smile suggested he thought he’d come off better in this exchange. ‘What do you call a woman who targets married men?’

      Anna’s jaw dropped. ‘What?’

      ‘Paul Dane is a good friend of mine.’

      The name caused the blood to drain out of Anna’s face, leaving her marble pale as the day’s events clicked into place. Suddenly it all made sickening sense. This man thought she was Rosie!

      ‘Suddenly you have less to say.’

      Her eyes blinked wide open. Not, as he anticipated, filled with the shame of discovery, but angry. Sparkling like blue sapphires. His contemptuous smile faded as a furrow formed between his darkly defined brows.

      Of course, this man and Paul Dane were friends. ‘A marriage made in heaven,’ she murmured.

      ‘Paul’s marriage is still strong, despite your efforts to end it.’

      ‘My efforts?’ She shook her head, her chest dramatically lifting as she struggled to control her feelings. ‘Sorry, did I get that right? You think your friend Paul is some sort of a victim?’ Anna began to laugh, her anger growing cold. It had taken her cousin a very long time to recover from the affair with the married man who had broken her heart. Rosie, whose only sin had been that she was too loving and trusting, that she followed her heart.

      And she was brave too. A lesser person would have been destroyed by what had happened, but not Rosie. Anna’s admiration for her gutsy cousin was tinged with worry. Yes, Rosie had found her happy-ever-after scenario, but following her heart could just as easily have led to another heartbreak, another Paul Dane.

      Rosie had taken the risk but even the thought of following her example was enough to send a ripple of horror through Anna. The nightmares of the night she had discovered her cousin semi-conscious beside a half-empty bottle of pills and a bottle of booze were less frequent now, but they still came. If one positive thing had come from that experience it was the knowledge that she would never allow her heart to rule her head.

      Her expression sobered as she angled a scorn-filled look up at his dark lean face. So certain, so superior! She gave a snort of disgust. ‘Stupid question, of course you do.’

      ‘Paul was not without blame,’ he conceded, slinging her an impatient look.

      ‘Big of you to say so.’ She tilted her head back to direct a contemptuous look at his face. ‘This is how I know it to be. A man, a married man who seduces an inexperienced, starry-eyed girl ten years his junior, a man who tells her he loves her and is going to leave his wife for her.’

      Too furious to consider her words, she gave a bitter laugh and added, ‘Yes, the girl knows she is doing wrong.’ An image of Rosie’s tear-stained face as she clutched that bottle of pills flashed into Anna’s head as she relived that awful moment.

      ‘But she does it anyway,’ Anna finished in a voice husky with emotion. ‘She lies to her family and when he dumps her and goes back to his wife she thinks her life is over. I’m not sure what I’d call a man like that but it sure as hell wouldn’t be victim!’

      At least she had stopped short of revealing the whole story. Even so, Anna immediately felt guilty and disloyal. She had promised Rosie never to reveal what she knew to anyone, it was a promise that up to this point she had honoured.

      The only comfort was that this man thought she was the person who had fallen victim to his friend and while she hated being thought of as this naïve victim, it was preferable to having this man sneer at Rosie, judge her.

      Let him think what he liked about her. Anna was more than willing to take one for the team if it meant protecting Rosie from his sneers and accusations.

      Her passion caused the permanent indentation between Cesare’s ebony brows to form into a V of doubt, which quickly smoothed. He resented the fact that this woman had made him even briefly doubt a man who had literally saved his life. He realised that she’d probably told this version of events so often that she believed it. A lot easier to believe a lie than admit you’d targeted a married man and relentlessly pursued him.

      While Cesare didn’t consider himself intolerant of weakness—he had enough of his own—when it came to the subject of fidelity within marriage there were no grey areas. It was simple: you stayed faithful or you didn’t exchange vows you were not able to keep. This was the reason that he did not plan to take the marriage route. Loving the same woman for a lifetime or even a year? Impossible. Lying was a strong word even when the lie in question was directed to yourself. Did people, intelligent people, really