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      ‘Can’t sleep?’

      The Italian’s silky voice penetrated her spinning thoughts and Keira could tell from the shifting weight on the mattress that Matteo Valenti had turned his head to talk to her. She swallowed. Should she pretend to be asleep? But what would be the point of that? She suspected he would see through her ruse immediately—and wasn’t it a bit of a relief not to have to keep still any more?

      ‘No,’ she admitted. ‘Can’t you?’

      He gave a short laugh. ‘I wasn’t expecting to.’

      ‘Why not?’

      His voice dipped. ‘I suspect you know exactly why not. It’s a somewhat unusual situation to be sharing a bed with an attractive woman and having to behave in such a chaste manner.’

      Keira was glad of the darkness which hid her sudden flush of pleasure. Had the gorgeous and arrogant Matteo Valenti actually called her attractive? And was he really implying that he was having difficulty keeping his hands off her? Of course he might only be saying it to be polite—but he hadn’t exactly been a model of politeness up until now, had he?

      ‘I thought you said you didn’t find me attractive?’

      ‘That’s what I was trying to convince myself.’

      In the darkness, she gave a smile of pleasure. ‘I could go downstairs and see if I could get us some more tea.’

      ‘Please.’ He groaned. ‘No more tea.’

      ‘Then I guess we’ll have to resign ourselves to a sleepless night.’ She plumped up her pillow and sighed as she collapsed back against it. ‘Unless you’ve got a better suggestion?’