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      CHAPTER ONE

      ‘TICKETS, PLEASE.’

      Having just dropped down into her seat after a mad dash to catch the train, flustered and hot, Natalie Carr delved into her voluminous red leather bag and unzipped an inside compartment to retrieve her ticket. The discovery that it was nowhere to be seen was akin to the jolting shock of tumbling down an entire flight of stairs. With her heartbeat hammering in her chest, she raised her head to proffer an apologetic smile to the guard.

      ‘Sorry … I know it’s here somewhere …’

      But it wasn’t. Desperately trying to recall her lastminute trip to the ladies’ before running onto the platform to catch the train, she had a horrible feeling that after checking her seat number she’d left the ticket, in its official first-class sleeve, on the glass shelf beneath the mirror, when she’d paused to retouch her lipstick.

      Feeling slightly queasy as a further search through her bag failed to yield it, she exhaled a frustrated sigh. ‘I’m afraid it looks like I’ve lost my ticket. I stopped off at the ladies’ just before boarding the train and I think I might have accidentally left it in there. If the train weren’t already moving I’d go back and look for it.’

      ‘I’m sorry, miss, but I’m afraid that unless you pay for another ticket you’ll have to get off at the next stop. You’ll also have to pay for the fare there.’

      The officious tone used by the florid and grey-haired train guard conveyed unequivocally that he wouldn’t be open to any pleas for understanding. Natalie wished that she’d had the presence of mind to bring some extra cash with her, but she hadn’t. Her father had sent her the ticket out of the blue, along with an unsettling note that had practically begged her not to ‘desert him’ in his ‘hour of need’, and it had sent her into a spin. Consequently, she’d absent-mindedly grabbed a purse that contained only some loose change instead of the wallet that housed her credit card.

      ‘But I can’t get off at the next stop. It’s very important that I get to London today. Could you take my name and address and let me send you the money for the ticket when I get back home?’

      ‘I’m afraid it’s company policy that—’

      ‘I’ll pay for the lady’s ticket. Was it a return?’

      For the first time she noticed the only other passenger in the compartment. He was sitting in a seat at a table on the opposite side of the aisle. Even though she’d flown into a panic at losing her ticket, she couldn’t believe she hadn’t noticed him straight away. If the arresting scent of his expensive cologne didn’t immediately distinguish him as a man of substantial means and impeccable good taste, the flawless dark grey pinstriped suit that looked as if it came straight out of an Armani showroom certainly did.

      Even without those compelling assets, his appearance was striking. Along with blond hair that had a fetching kink in it, skin that was sun-kissed and golden, and light sapphire eyes that could surely corner the market in sizzling intensity, a dimple in his chin set a provocative seal on the man’s undoubted sex appeal. Staring back into that sculpted visage was like having a private viewing of the most sublime portrait by one of the great masters.

      A wave of heat that felt shockingly and disturbingly intimate made Natalie clench every muscle in her body. If she hadn’t already been on her guard, she certainly was now. She didn’t know this man from Adam, or his motive for offering to pay for her ticket, and she quickly reminded herself that the newspapers were full of stomach-churning stories about gullible women being duped by supposedly ‘respectable’ men.

      ‘That’s a very kind offer but I couldn’t possibly accept it … I don’t even know you.’

      In a cultured voice, with a trace of an accent she couldn’t quite place, the stranger replied, ‘Let me get the matter of a replacement ticket out of the way. Then I will introduce myself.’

      ‘But I can’t let you pay for my ticket … I really can’t.’

      ‘You have already stated that it is very important you get to London today. Is it wise to refuse help when it is offered?’

      There was no doubt she was in a fix and the handsome stranger knew it. But Natalie still resisted. ‘Yes, I do need to get to London. But you don’t know me and I don’t know you.’

      ‘You are wary of trusting me, perhaps?’

      His somewhat amused smile made her feel even more gauche than she felt already.

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